My NYCC Experience Pt. 3

After a full day of panels I returned to whence I began, Empire Stage, for another big one, this time presented by the distinguished competition.

Gone were the charming advertisements – apparently someone thought better of them – and now we simply waited, glancing occasionally to the silent screen which informed us that we were sitting in DC Comics – Batman.

John Cunningham, a DC marketing VP, took the podium and introduced us to our guests. At the far left of the table was the beloved creative team behind DC’s relaunched Batman, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Beside them was James Tynion IV, who writes Talon and Red Hood and the Outlaws. Next came Marc Andreyko, the controversially incoming writer on Batwoman. Beyond him was Kyle Higgins, who writes Nightwing, and Ann Nocenti, who pens Selina Kyle’s adventures in Catwoman. On the far end were John Layman, the surprisingly mild-mannered-looking man behind the current run of Detective Comics, and Peter Tomasi, writer for Batman and Robin.

As in nearly all things DC, this was largely Snyder’s show. Cunningham gave Snyder every opportunity to discuss last week’s Batman #24 (review here), but Snyder, in classic form, really just wanted to talk about how honored he was.

Snyder opened with a heartfelt thank you to the fans for not only letting him tell his stories, but supporting him in doing so. He waged charming, unassuming war on the notion that he did not respect the power and responsibility given to him in writing Batman’s origin story. Snyder called “Zero Year” his favorite story ever and seemingly could not help but show off some of the tricks that he brought to the table. Though he’s never been shy about it and his writing reeks of love for the character, Snyder put his status as a massive Batman fan on full display for this panel.

Katana #4 – Review

By: Ann Nocenti (story), Alex Sanchez (art), Art Thibert (inks), Matt Yackey (colors)

The Story: No use crying over broken swords, Katana.  Don’t try huddling in a heap, either.

The Review: Have you ever read a comic and halfway through thought to yourself, I can write a better issue than this?  Yeah, me too.  It’s an inherently arrogant sort of thought, we can all agree; after all, we are basically throwing down with writers who are actually getting paid to have their work published—not to mention the fact that we just put down our own good money to purchase this product we’re now disparaging.

I don’t want to overstate my own writing abilities here, but I’m pretty sure if I had Katana on my plate, I could at least deliver a coherent, focused plot.  Nocenti, on the other hand, is all over the place.  There’s really very little excuse for that kind of distraction in this case; it’s not as if she’s obliged to tie in the title to any event or story arc going on elsewhere.  Yet these four issues have given us four rather different conflicts which have only the most tangential connection to each other and which Nocenti barely manages to develop before moving on to the next one.

Katana #3 – Review

By: Ann Nocenti (story), Cliff Richards (pencils), Rebeca Buchman, Juan Castro, Le Beau Underwood, Phyllis Novin (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: The Dagger Clan try to prove that the size of one’s sword really doesn’t matter.

The Review: I always find it a little risky when a creator mentions how he was inspired by this-or-that or so-and-so in his latest project.  Most of the time, he’s referring to some seminal work of the past, which is now held up as a standard for all works to follow.  Not that this is his intention, but why invite that comparison?  It just raises fans’ expectations and skeptics’ eyebrows that much higher, and a story tends to suffer in the process.

In nearly every interview I’ve read of Nocenti talking about Katana, she’s referred to Seven Samurai as a source of inspiration.  I find this rather amusing because not only does the substance of this series bear no resemblance to that legendary film (except, perhaps, for Katana being a samurai—sort of), but nothing in the tone nor the structure of Katana evokes the spirit that made Seven Samurai special.  This title already suffers from its own shortcomings; it can only look even worse when beheld next to a masterpiece.

Catwoman #18 – Review

By: Ann Nocenti (story), Rafa Sandoval (art), Jordi Tarragona (inks), Sonia Oback (colors)

The Story: Catwoman’s getting pretty tired of her lover’s guilt-trips.

The Review: Not to turn this review into a social commentary, but I think beyond just getting more women working on more titles in this business, we need to get more women working on big-name characters.  DC especially needs to work on this.  For example, I still find it amazing that Gail Simone hasn’t been given a crack at Batman just yet, because given her sensibilities, the world of the Dark Knight seems like a good place for her to be.

Still, at the end of the day, the most important thing is not to give writers work based on gender quotas or political correctness, but because the work suits them and they suit the work.  On that basis, I don’t think Nocenti will be handling Batman herself anytime soon either.  While she makes good use out of him in this issue, she shows that she doesn’t have the finest grasp on his voice or motivation, with his every line sounding just a little bit off.  Take his internal seething at Catwoman’s theft of the Gotham Museum paintings: “They weren’t yours.  They belonged [to] us.  To the people of Gotham.  I want them back.”

Katana #2 – Review

By: Ann Nocenti (story), Alex Sanchez (art), Claude St. Aubin (inks), Matt Yackey (colors)

The Story: Katana gets her Alias wig on.

The Review: For better or worse, minority characters always have a challenge developing a following on their own.  This is especially true in the world of comics, which is still mostly a pastime for white people, both on the creative and consumptive sides.  It’s not racism; it’s the simple fact that everyone tends to resonate more with characters that look and feel familiar to them, and in a market largely driven by one demographic, others will just struggle a bit.

Katana will have an even harder time of it because she’s not American by origin, meaning there’s that additional cultural barrier readers may have to deal with.  I had a discussion with commenter M0rg0th about the various remarks on Katana’s womanhood in the first issue.  M0rg0th saw it as misogyny, but I argued that it was misogyny with purpose.  As a Japanese woman, Tatsu does have these cultural expectations of what her place should be; it’s natural that when she goes against those expectations, she’ll suffer rebuke from others and doubt within.

Catwoman #17 – Review

By: Ann Nocenti (story), Rafa Sandoval (art), Jordi Tarragona (inks), Sonia Oback (colors)

The Story: Catwoman can steal a painting in under a minute.  What can you do in a minute?

The Review: Over the weekend, a friend of mine told me she had broken up with her boyfriend of six months.  I can’t say I was surprised.  A couple weeks after they got together, she and I hung out for the first time in nearly half a year, and while we were in the middle of a karaoke rendition of K-Ci and JoJo’s “All My Life,” I was surprised to find her then-new boyfriend’s face glaring at me through the singing room window.  That was an early red flag, if any.

Yet my friend was not only able to look past the utter creepiness of that incident, she apparently did so for a whole host of other danger signals.  The way she described it was, “I’d get this nagging sense that something was wrong, but he was great in other ways, so…”  While reading this issue, it occurred to me that my friend’s explanation for why she stuck with this guy for so long kind of applied to my feelings for Nocenti’s Catwoman, too.*

Katana #1 – Review

By: Ann Nocenti (story), Alex Sanchez (art), Matt Yackey (colors)

The Story: A lady doesn’t need to sharpen her nails if she’s got a sword.

The Review: We all choose to jump aboard a series for various reasons.  Sometimes it’s creator loyalty; you love some writer or artist, so the moment you see their name attached to a project, your money’s already halfway out your pocket/purse.  Sometimes it’s character loyalty; you will buy pretty much anything with Bat, X, or Avengers in the title.  Sometimes it’s concept; the idea of a supervillain playing hero or a superhero in T-shirt and jeans.

And sometimes it’s something else altogether.  For me and Katana, I admit it was mostly a matter of principle.  I like to support female creators and characters and I like to support characters with minority backgrounds.  So having Ann Nocenti writing Katana, a female character who also happens to be Asian, in an ongoing solo sounds like a pretty cool deal.  If nothing else, that just piques my curiosity.

Young Romance #1 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Superhero love is a many-splendored thing…

The Review: Young Romance is one of those titles that a proper reviewer probably should feel a little bit of embarrassment about reading, given its hopelessly gimmicky nature.  Even so, I do kind of like the grab-bag format of these things, and I appreciate that DC has enough of a sense of humor to do something this cheesy.  Besides, with the mix of talent involved, you never know if you might run into a gem of a feature, promising better things from the creators involved.

Catwoman #16 – Review

By: Ann Nocenti (story), Rafa Sandoval (art), Jordi Tarragona (inks), Sonia Oback (colors)

The Story: The only way to get out of a room of black magic: use a haunted tank.

The Review: Last time, I analogized reading this title to a rollercoaster relationship, where just as you’re getting into the groove of the ride, it suddenly takes a 50-foot plunge, giving you a worryingly queasy feeling in your gut.  A part of the problem is that Nocenti has a loose, free-flowing writing style to begin with, but now I think she’s also hampered at many points by tie-in effects for other titles and storylines.

Now, it’s true Nocenti probably volunteered to join in Death of the Family, but those two issues were no less out of place in spite of that.  I’m sure that in a Catwoman-Joker confrontation, Nocenti would have liked to have gotten more closure between the two, but since Joker had to skip out to torture the actual members of the Bat-family, it felt like he swooped in and swooped out leaving very little impact on the title in the process.

Catwoman #15 – Review

By: Ann Nocenti (story), Rafael Sandoval (art), Jordi Tarragona (inks), Sonia Oback (colors)

The Story: The only time you’ll ever see a security guard put in his place by a map maker.

The Review: Have you ever gone on a date with someone—scratch that; I’ve used the romantic entanglement metaphor way too often on these reviews.  So instead, have you ever met anyone and quickly realized that any relationship—friendly, romantic, or otherwise—with them will be a fairly rocky one?  It’s amazing how often we look back on the beginnings of such acquaintances and realize how obvious the red flags were, and how persistently we ignored them.

All the flags are waving that any investment with Nocenti’s Catwoman will be filled with highs and lows.  Each time I read an issue, I see the elements that have made Nocenti respected in the business, but I also see how those same elements have a tendency to lead to erratic, bewildering storytelling.  One moment, things are going great and you think it’ll all work out fine; then, all of a sudden, you have a moment that throws the entire relationship in doubt.

Catwoman #14 – Review

By: Ann Nocenti (story), Rafa Sandoval (art), Jordi Tarragona (inks), Sonia Oback (colors)

The Story: As you’d expect, Joker doesn’t take competition for his soulmate’s affections well.

The Review: The one thing I dread about this Death of the Family crossover, more than anything else, is seeing the myriad portrayals of the Joker.  Now, you can have all kinds of Jokers—that’s just how multidimensional he is—but after years of writers squeezing every bit of personality out of him, you really only have a few sides to him that haven’t been completely wrung dry by now.

Unfortunately, Noncenti goes for not only an old style of Joker, but one of the less appealing ones as well, the one I like to call Motormouth Joker.  This version of the criminal clown spends about thrice the amount of time rambling nonsensically as he does actually doing something, and the vast bulk of what he has to say just floods over you:

Daredevil #500 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Ann Nocenti (second feature writer), Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano, Klaus Janson, Chris Samnee, and Paul Azaceta (art), David Aja (second feature art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

The Story: Battles with the Hand and bad guys aplenty sees Matt Murdock finding himself in a role in which he never imagined himself.

What’s Good: Daredevil #500 succeeds where other landmark, giant-sized issues have failed in that it actually has a thrilling, must-read main feature.

The main feature is a kinetic thriller with electrifying action scenes coming one after another at a breathless pace.  The pages fly by and it is definitely a very, very fun read.  After the blandness found in Captain America #600, I almost feel that Daredevil #500 shouldn’t be allowed to be this exciting.

That’s not to say that it’s mindless, however.  Daredevil’s fight with the Owl in particular is brutal, thanks in part to its emotional savagery and DD’s final act this is definitely not for the faint of heart.

Of course, I can’t go without commending the cliffhanger that Brubaker ends his run on.  It really is a case of leaving the reader dying to know what happens next.  It’s so unexpected, it has Matt making a complete 180. Although Brubaker could be condemned, he nevertheless manages to pull it off through making Matt’s change of heart logical; making him grow out of his self-loathing.  It’s a natural choice and Brubaker successfully injects the sense of tragedy always present in Daredevil.

Ann Nocenti’s back-up story is absolutely, pitch-perfect fantastic. Brooding, cerebral, and at times downright surreal. It’s simply amazing work.  After taking a beating from Bullseye, Daredevil finds himself recovered by a retired boxer, Larry, and a schoolgirl, Gina.  The dynamic here is fascinating and both Larry and Gina are uncomfortably interesting characters.

On the one hand, Larry and Gina reflect different aspects of superhero voyeurism.  Larry’s the backseat driver, full of criticism, while Gina is the bloodhound, in it purely for the violence.  Yet, the genius is that despite this seeming division between DD and these two viewers, in their surreal dialogue, they almost seem to be parts of himself, Gina the off-kilter Id and Larry the curmudgeonly superego.

Aja’s art meanwhile is beautifully realized and thoroughly imaginative.  There are some truly inspiring images here, from DD’s fall through a cloud of balloons, to DD preparing to leave Larry’s bar, pausing at the doorway before breaking out into a run.  It’s very dark, yet oddly beautiful, poetic even, and that’s how DD should be.

What’s Not So Good: For the main feature, with so many fight scenes, some of them were just too quick and as a result, too easy.  Essentially, one side just totally steamrolls the other in a thoroughly non-competitive two page brawl.  Lady Bullseye in particular is far too much of a pushover.

Also, though I loved it for its mood, I at times found Aja’s stylized work to be a little too barren detail-wise.

My only real complaint about Daredevil #500 however is the package itself, which is absolutely brimming with filler.  Along with these two stories, you also get a preview of Diggle’s Dark Reign: the List entry, a pin-up gallery, a reprint of Frank Miller’s Daredevil #191, and a cover gallery.  The galleries offer some cool pictures, but  I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t prefer another story instead.

The Dark Reign: the List preview is even more offensive.  It’s pure advertisement, but it dwells right smack in the middle of the book, not at the end.  What’s worse, Dark Reign and Norman Osborn feel completely out of place in this book, as does Billy Tan’s slick, bright artwork.

Miller’s reprint is, well, a reprint.  A fantastic issue, yes, but also one that I’ve read before and have in a trade.

Conclusion: A very good main feature and an absolutely fantastic back-up in a book that would reach an A, were it not for all the damn filler.

Grade: B+

-Alex Evans