Batman Beyond Unlimited #18 – Review

By: Scott Peterson (writer), Annie Wu (artist), Andrew Elder (colorist) 

Back-up by: Adam Beechen, IV (writer), Adam Archer (artist), Andrew Elder (colorist)

The Stories: It’s a two-for-one deal on Batgirls and Terry teams up with the Metal Men.

The Review: Though it’s the last issue of the series, you’d never know it. This month’s installment of Batman Beyond Unlimited is all about what’s to come.

The big news for most people is the introduction of the new Batgirl, a concept that’s been played around with numerous times, as far back as the second season of the show, but never came to fruition. Indeed, the main story is all Batgirl, all the time, with none of that pesky Batman to get in the way.

Some people might complain that their not getting their monthly dose of McGinnis, but he’s in the backup, so worry not and enjoy. Scott Peterson makes the wise choice to ground our tale around a familiar character, Commissioner Barbara Gordon. If you’ve ever loved Barbara, especially her slightly embittered Beyond incarnation, you’ll be in heaven for this issue. This story is thirty pages of pure Gordon badassery. Admittedly, Barbara needs a little help with the heavy lifting, but the woman’s pushing seventy and the issue opens with her jumping off a roof and taking out two roided up gang bangers, so I give her a break. Best of all, the issue hints that she was holding back! I love it!

The new Batgirl is a pretty great character too. The decision to give her a more contemporary looking costume avoids the risk of dating the character and hints at just how tough she is. Terry always had that muscle enhancement batsuit to protect him. This girl follows the long line of bat-ladies to take on the mantle without permission and, presumably, doesn’t have access to schway tech like that. It’s just her, a couple of escrima sticks and your face out there. Throw in a brusque but never obnoxious personality, the skills to back it up, and a beautiful character design and you’ve got the makings of an incredible character.

Zatanna #16 – Review

By: Adam Beechen (writer), Victor Ibáñez (artist), Ego (colorist)

The Story: What’s a girl got to do to get some freakin’ sleep around here?

The Review: I notice there’s been a recent uptick in the number of reviews where I discuss common story formulas and plot devices, which seem to be on the swell in DC lately.  It makes a fair bit of sense.  With most of the creative energies flowing into the upcoming relaunch (ten days and counting!), and the majority of titles spending their remaining issues on fill-in one-shots, you can’t exactly expect boat-rocking narratives or ideas.

Here we have another old plot structure: a character wants something, and things get in her way.  In Zatanna’s case, all she wants is something most of us working/studying stiffs can identify with: some good ol’ shut-eye—whatever that is.  In a way, the premise highlights a fairly significant logistical question in the world of comics: when do heroes sleep?  They work all day in their secret identities, and most of them operate as vigilantes at night.  That’s no way to live.

But Zee, like many of us, makes a determined attempted to have it all, even in spite of the antics from a certain teal-skinned lad from Limbo Town.  Of course I mean Uriah, smooth-talking peer to the more famous Limbonite, Klarion the Witch Boy.  Aside the absence of a feline familiar, Uriah serves as a pretty close analogue to Klarion: both are young, unnaturally eloquent lads of bratty disposition, who use their formidable magic to get what they want any way they can.

Uriah’s powers also prevents Zee from putting how down too easily as he worms his way into Shadowcrest under false pretenses, then proceeds to punk “one of the seven or eight most important magical items in any universe” from her tremendous library.  Thus ensues a chase across weird worlds, strange lands, and parallel dimensions, offering us a mere glimpse of the extraordinary life Zatanna must live on a daily basis.

Zatanna #14 – Review

By: Adam Beechen (writer), Jamal Igle & Travis Moore (pencillers), Jon Sibal & John Dell (inkers), Richard and Tanya Horie (colorists)

The Story: You wanna dance?  No?  You’re a witch and you’re going to curse my junk?  Okay.  Cool.  Right!

The Review: Zachary Zatara is one of those DC characters who never fails to touch upon me a sense of bewilderment.  Even though Zatanna has a fairly popular following, she doesn’t quite seem iconic enough to merit a spin-off character, especially one as poorly conceived as Zachary.  He’s essentially a douchey, younger version of Zee with a less impressive range of power and who does the stage thing without fishnets—making him infinitely less interesting, in my mind.

You’d think the Zatara family would spawn at least one magical adept who has no interest in show business, but that’s nepotism for you.  Had Beechen taken this issue as an opportunity to differentiate Zach’s stage and magecraft from Zatanna’s, that would’ve been a worthwhile use of the character.  We get instead Zee berating her ne’er-do-well about his unprofessionalism, but only after the show’s finale, so we don’t actually get to see exactly what she’s going on about.

Beechen seems determined to make Zee as crusty as possible, as after her lecture goes unheard, she follows Zach to a club, where she lambasts the music (“It goes ‘Oonce-oonce-oonce-oonce,’ over and over again!  It’s like water torture!”) and the skuzzy patrons (including a pair of knock-off Butabi Brothers).  Her complaints seem particularly out of character considering how she’s been portrayed with a fondness for clubbing in the past.

But then, Beechen doesn’t have the firmest grasp of Zatanna’s character.  At one point she states that, like her cousin, her power doesn’t affect living things, which is a laugh in itself as living things have been involved in some of her most famous feats (and infamous—mind-whacking Dr. Light in Identity Crisis, anyone?).  The only reason Beechen drags that bit of misinformation into this issue is to prevent Zee from de-spelling her cousin too quickly.

Zatanna #9 – Review

By: Paul Dini (writer), Cliff Chiang (artist), John Kalisz (colorist), Adam Beechen (feature writer), Jamal Igle (feature penciller), Robin Riggs (feature inker)

The Story: What better way to treat the puppet that’s going to kill you than invite him to your home?  Also, Zatanna, junior sorceress, learns braces can really get you down.

The Review: Magic is an enormously potent sowing ground for stories.  Because it can do and be pretty much anything, it’s limited only by writer’s ingenuity—and by the writer’s skill.  Too often, especially in superhero comics, it gets used as story fodder for the characters, or a deus ex machina to explain away anything the writer can’t figure out more tangibly.  Because of magic’s elastic nature, writers have to create some physics for how it works in their stories.  When they don’t, magical stories easily become unconvincing, confusing, or just plain random.

Paul Dini may be starting to apply some rules to magic in Zatanna’s world—a good thing, especially for this particular character.  No two writers have ever portrayed her powers the same way, with the possible exception of her backwards-talk, and even that doesn’t get consistent treatment.  Despite all her many appearances throughout the years, you still don’t really have a handle on her abilities, and that’s partially because in the DCU, magic is so elastically defined by all the writers who have tried to use it that there’s no sense of order to it at all.

You can see this disorder every time Zatanna uses her powers in this issue, which always leaves you with a bunch of nagging questions.  For example, with her infamous “pots” spell, does she freeze time around the person?  Are they paralyzed?  If they’re paralyzed, how come the puppet can still talk?  Is it because he’s magicked already?  Can people think in this “deppots” state?  How long do they stay that way?  What are the spell’s limitations?  Sure, you can just accept it for what it is, but you’re sure to be bothered when it pops up again and works a different way.