Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes – Review

By: Grant Morrison (writer), Cameron Stewart & Chris Burnham (artists), Nathan Fairbairn (colorist)

The Story: Now that’s a boat ride you’re not bound to forget.

The Review: While it’s unclear where Batman Inc. fits into this refreshed DCU, with everyone still in the youth of their vigilante careers, it’s obvious Morrison’s grand idea for the next step of Bat-policing will stick around for a while (note that the final word of this issue says “to be continued” in 2012, not “to be concluded”).  But to stay on the safe side, it’s probably best to consider most of this story out-of-continuity, lest we run into unexplainable paradoxes later.

In fact, we could very well run into in the first act of this oversized issue (which, at seven bucks a pop, requires a major leap of devotion to take home), as it stars Stephanie Brown as Batgirl.  With Steph’s existence in the new 52 is still up in the air, fans will be glad to see possibly her last appearance under the cowl, especially since Morrison writes a pretty terrific version of her.  She comes with all her liveliness and charm intact (“…kiss my kung fu.”), and by infiltrating a finishing school for privileged girl assassins, she shows almost more competence than in her now-defunct solo title.

By itself, the Steph-as-Batgirl tale is great fun (with some tenderness in the background as Batman shows up as backup, giving her some much-desired praise as only a father figure can), but included as a finished product with the rest of the issue—it feels very disjointed, to say the least.  You have to remember, though, Morrison never intended for his story to be packaged in this way; the DC relaunch made the mash-up an unavoidable necessity.

That doesn’t entirely excuse the thoroughly confusing nature of remaining story, however.  Like with most Morrison tales, the surface of the plot is straightforward: Batman and his many Robins (with Dick Grayson still wearing a bat on his chest) arrives at a Leviathan freighter for a final showdown with Dr. Dedalus and take down his invasive organization for good.  The moment Bruce actually confronts the ex-Nazi mastermind, however, things go off the loopy end but good.

Batwing #4 – Review

By: Judd Winick (writer), Chrisscross (artist), Ryan Winn (inker), Brian Reber (colorist)

The Story: I think we have another candidate for a Horrible Boss: man-slaughterer.

The Review: Back when I was still churning out comedy sketches on a regular basis, I had an idea to write one about those shady old Vietnamese dudes who don’t have jobs and spend all their time hanging out in seedy cafes in Little Saigon.  But I had a strangely hard time writing it.  I couldn’t quite figure out how to render the characters’ voices without being stereotypical, and I wasn’t sure how to make it funny without being one-note, narrow, or, frankly, racist.

That sketch taught me the difficulty of writing about cultures and people you don’t actually live with, so I always find it a little dicey when other writers do it.  That said, I always fall back on the only rule in writing: you can write whatever you want as long as you do it well.

In this case, Winick’s portrayal of David’s boyhood—one where his parents died of AIDS, leaving him and his orphaned twin brother to become child soldiers for a ruthless warlord—feels neither false nor all that complex.  At the very least, he doesn’t fall prey to ugly, oversimplified perceptions of Congolese society or history, though it might seem that way given the general flatness of the plot and characters themselves

Batwing #3 – Review

By: Judd Winick (writer), Ben Oliver (artist), Brian Reber (colorist)

The Story: Obviously, Batwing never saw those anti-fighting after school specials as a kid.

The Review: In this age of the decompressed comic, writers tend to draft stories that work better within the trade format than the typical serial style.  This trend has opened up new avenues of storytelling choices, but mostly it’s resulted in watering down the substance of each monthly helping of any given title.  DC certainly hasn’t helped things by reducing the average page count to 20 pages, turning some titles into mere wisps of story, ending almost right after they begin.

Three issues into this series, and it still feels like we haven’t moved on from the debut.  The status quo, tension, and conflict remains pretty much the same as when they started: Massacre killing off a member of the Kingdom, and Batwing in critical condition.  It would help if Winick filled the space with some entertaining character work, but he continues to keep the supporting cast sparse and largely absent.  This issue, only Matu appears, just once—and as a silhouette.

We do get a couple interesting, new factoids about our protagonist.  Unlike his privileged counterpart from Gotham, David grew up as one of the infamous Congolese boy-soldiers, and a fairly hardcore one at that: “Every armed man in the village met with a quick death…”  An intriguing development, to be sure.  Now you have to wonder how David went from young gunner to upstanding man of the law to sworn member of Batman, Inc.

Keep in mind, however, that David didn’t shoot alone.  The revelation that David had a brother, one as equally fierce a child warrior, can only bode ill for the future.  You’ll notice that anytime a character has a family member who’s mysteriously out of the scene, when they reappear, it’ll usually be in the context of some shocking cliffhanger, most likely the revelation that they’ve been the villain or villainous the whole time (see Professor X’s brother, Cyclops and Havoc’s brother, Batgirl’s brother, and Batwoman’s sister).

Batwing #2 – Review

By: Judd Winick (writer), Ben Oliver (artist), Brian Reber (colorist)

The Story: When someone stabs you in the back like that, it just gets you right in the heart.

The Review: It’s pretty hard to develop a whole new superhero from scratch.  Not only do you have all the usual personality, background, power set bits to weave into place, you also have to build their supporting players, rogues gallery, and surrounding world from the ground up.  To do all this in a serial fiction medium, a writer has to work quickly and with purpose, ensuring each issue offers enough meat to tide the readers over from month to month.

Winick has an unfortunate habit of writing slow, decompressing a story to the point where each issue takes you only half a step further than before.  When you take in his entire run on the now defunct Power Girl, he accomplished almost nothing worthy of note, with the titular star and her mythos virtually unchanged from when he started.  And so it goes here, in Batwing.  Everything you knew from last issue is left nearly untouched, forcing the storyline to stall in place.

Massacre seems hopelessly one-dimensional, a murderer whose only agenda is apparently to behead and decapitate any and every one he sees.  The gruesome…massacre (if any of you groan at this sentence, I’d like to say that in my defense, the villain just has a pretty terrible name) of practically all of David’s police unit comes across pointlessly bloody, an over-the-top reward for their “attempt to investigate me.”

So you have no inclination to take Massacre seriously at all, even though he hints that he has good reason for cutting down the victims he does.  He spatters his confrontation with Thunder Fall, formerly of the Kingdom, with all kinds of resentful barbs: “After all that you were and all that you’ve done…  I know the truth!  I know who you are!  I know what you are!  And it is time for you to finally pay!”  But who cares when they’re spoken by an indistinguishing murderer?

And who cares what happens to the Kingdom when you have only the vaguest idea who they are and what their importance is to the story?  You can appreciate their background as Africa’s first team of superheroes, but with no other information whatsoever, you can’t expect to develop much of an attachment to their fates.  Winick does little to make them relatable, as most of Thunder Fall’s speech runs like this: “I have wisdom!  I have power!  I have God on my side!”