Batgirl #3 – Review

By: Gail Simone (writer), Ardian Syaf (penciller), Vicente Cifuentes (inker), Ulises Arreola (colorist)

The Story: Just because they headbutt each other doesn’t mean they’re not in love.

The Review: Of all the major continuity changes the new DCU brought with it, possibly none of them has incited more outcry and upset than the restoration of Barbara Gordon’s legs.  Which, I must say, strikes me as particularly funny, since in almost any real-word circumstance, we’d all consider this a miracle to write home about.

In fact, Simone spends most of this issue trying to convince you of exactly that.  She has Batgirl state flatly, “…he doesn’t think anyone should believe in miracles.  He says miracles are a lie—just a cruel prank.  He’s wrong.  I know he’s wrong.  How do I know?  Because I’m living one.”  Her repetition comes across a little defensive, perhaps because she’s not just reassuring herself, but she’s trying to assure us as well.

It seems Simone even crafted Black Mirror for the sheer purpose of challenging Babs’ hopeful outlook on life, resulting in a weirdly simple-minded villain.  Maybe if it had taken longer to figure out his M.O., the plot would have had more time to stew and we’d take him more seriously.  But discovering his game so early on pretty much lays his whole deal bare, sapping the suspense, and making it simply a matter of waiting for Batgirl to outwit him, sooner or later.

Probably the lease convincing point of the issue is where Babs thinks she’s got the leg up (so to speak) on Mirror by taking hold of who she’s deduced as the villain’s latest target, a man who had narrowly missed death by falling on the subway tracks.  She yells, “I nearly fell that night.  It was a miracle that I didn’t, yeah? …You think I’m supposed to die by falling! …If I’m holding this guy, then you can’t kill him without breaking your vow to your family.  Checkmate, pal.”  The bravado just seems forced and the deductions stretched, so the scene feels rather flat.

Batman: Year One (Film) – Review

By: Tab Murphy (writer), Sam Liu & Lauren Montgomery (directors), Bryan Cranston, Eliza Dushku, Benjamin McKenzie (voice actors)

The Story: Uplifting a depraved city takes more than just putting on some tights, you know.

The Review: No matter how grim cartoons get, we still rarely think of them as truly edgy or dangerous, at least enough to satisfy the adult palette.  Japanese animators have been doing this kind of dramatic work for years, basically, but of all the American producers, only DC has ventured into that territory with commercial success.  With each yearly release of their animated films, they’ve shown a willingness to take bigger risks, yielding more fruitful results each time.

You can see the evolution in the animation.  All-Star Superman showed subtle signs of moving toward an anime standard of production, but in this film, it’s unmistakable, beautiful, and fitting.  By now, DC has grown quite formidable at depicting action, but here they show surprising aptitude for subtle body movements and changes in expression that gives a whole new level of craft to the “acting.”  The animation itself shows emotion, even without the voice actors’ help.

But then, we’re working with a pretty excellent source to begin with.  Anyone who’s flipped through Frank Miller’s original story arc knows what a groundbreaking piece of work it is.  So much of its success derives from what Miller left brilliantly unspoken; as aggressive as it seems, most of its tension feels almost subconscious.  This film is about as faithful an adaptation of all those qualities as it can get, and remains gripping nearly its entire length as a result.

If you want to capture the Miller spirit, you better just go for it, and Murphy, Montgomery, and Liu pull no punches.  Fifteen minutes in, you’ve got violent cops, corruption almost visibly festering in all places, fist-fights with pimps and prostitutes, underage hookers stabbing men in the thigh, even (unless I misheard it) an F-bomb at one point.  Heck, you even get to see a couple stark-naked men, bound up and lying (privates-side down) around.

Flashpoint: Batman – Knight of Vengeance #1 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (writer), Eduardo Risso (artist), Patricia Mulvihill (colorist)

The Story: And you said those mutants in the sewers were just an urban legend.

The Review: These Flashpoint tie-ins serve two purposes: one, they fill in some of the expository blanks that the central storyline neglects or hasn’t the opportunity to cover; and two, they offer us a tantalizing glimpse into a world whose existence will be all too brief and yet within its own continuity has a rich history all its own.

For that reason, you have to appreciate how Azzarello doesn’t play cute with this strange yet vaguely recognizable world he gets to work with.  There are no moments where he directly points out familiar characters and explains their changes with a wink and a nudge, as many writers would.  He simply incorporates them naturally into the story, as if Barbara Gordon has always been Thomas Wayne’s psychiatrist and the Penguin his casino crony.

Even if he wanted to, Azzarello couldn’t give these minor characters such treatment anyway without detracting from the really strong characterization he gives to our favorite anti-hero.  Clearly Thomas is less refined and sophisticated a vigilante than Bruce: he tolerates, even invites criminals to patronize his businesses; he allows Gordon to know his secret identity; he privatizes Gotham’s security; he makes little attempts to soften his public image.

Even in his crime-fighting, he doesn’t come across as superhumanly competent; instead it seems like he grits his way through challenges by drawing on an inhuman tolerance for pain.  We see the source of that tolerance when Azzarello reveals the details of his origins.  By now you know Bruce, not Thomas, died that night; this issue shows that fateful change came not from an alteration in circumstances, but one in Thomas’ character, a subtle one that nevertheless makes him react quite differently to the hold-up, and which leads inadvertently to his own tragedy.

Subtle describes most of the script, as it seems as disinclined to chatter as Thomas.  Only the most minimal, necessary sounds and words make themselves heard in this story, becoming even more chilling when they finally break the largely barren silence of the issue.  The whispered mantra of “Hell…” Batman hears during his sojourn in the sewers creeps into the corners of entirely wordless panels, only to complete itself when he finds their speakers: “Hellp uss…”