Secret Origins #2 – Review

By: Ray Fawkes, Jeff Parker, & Scott Lobdell (writers); Dustin Nguyen, Alvaro Martinez, & Paulo Siqueira (pencilers); Derek Fridolfs, Raul Fernandez, & Paulo Siqueira (inkers); John Kalisz, Rain Beredo, Hi-Fi, & Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: “I watched my parents die in front of me. I’ll never let that happen to anyone again.” – Batman

“Man, I never got to take that fishing trip…” – Aquaman

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear your complaining over my years of slavery and abuse.” – Starfire

The Review: Throughout his seventy-five year history Batman has always been one of DC’s most marketable properties and, especially in recent years, he’s practically demolished his competition. When the New 52 started, the Batman family of titles boasted eleven ongoing books, or over a fifth of the company’s mainline publications, and that number has only just ducked below that with New 52 nine titles announced for August. So yeah, it’s not really a secret that Batman sells comics. Add in two characters who seem to enjoy appearing in various states of shirtlessness and undress and you’ve got a book that looks like gold on paper. So is it?

“We know this story,” a seemingly omniscient narrator tells us on the second page of Ray Fawkes’ Batman story, “Even if we’re new to it, we know it.” It’s a fitting way to start this tale, Batman’s beginning is well known to us, in fact there’s even a movie about it. Perhaps what’s most amazing about Fawkes’ story is that, even knowing that, he doesn’t really try to find a new angle on this classic tale, instead choosing to dive straight in and let the story stand on the strength of his narration. It’s certainly a bold move, and one that bares more fruit than you might expect, but I’m not sure that it’s quite what it takes to sell this comic.

“Man in the Shadow” is a solid retelling of the origin story that largely sticks to the classic framework laid down by “The Legend of the Batman – Who He Is and How He Came To Be” all the way back in 1939. You’ll see Bruce’s parents gunned down, a scene of him mourning them, a scene of him creating the first draft of the mission that will last the rest of his life, a montage of him acquiring the skills he’ll need, and finally the famous night in the study, in that order.

It’s tough to leave your stamp on something that’s been rewritten in that same format so many times, but, to his credit, Fawkes manages to do a decent job of it. The biggest addition is probably the explicit look at how Gotham was changed by the death of the Waynes and the appearance of Batman. The Christopher Nolan films dealt with this theme in their way, as have other stories, but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it so succinctly put. The idea that Gotham, as a community, never fully healed from the loss of its first family is perhaps a bit of a stretch as presented here, but a brief but crucial mention of the unique values and positions that the Waynes held in the city does a bit to back this up. It brings a smile to my face to see Martha’s contribution to Bruce’s character remembered, especially as, going by the descriptions here, she easily could be seen as the greater loss to the city.

Fawkes’ real contribution here is to boil Batman down to what matters most and present it simply and clearly. There will always be arguments about what the true message of Batman is but Fawkes gives as strong an argument as anyone could in the span of a single page when he opts against the classic, but largely dated, concept of a candlelight oath.

R.E.B.E.L.S. #27 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Claude St. Aubin (penciller), Scott Hana (inker), Rich & Tanya Horie (colorists)

The Story: Prepare to be sucker-punched—and by sucker-punch I mean getting a telepathic starfish in your face.

The Review: A big cast can be a handful to write, but their usefulness to fiction is invaluable.  The more well-developed characters you have, the more opportunities you have to mix and match them up to see what kind of reactions you can get out of them in various situations.  If you give them a chance, they can practically build their own stories for you.

So it’s not a shocker that when Bedard gets more of the R.E.B.E.L.S. involved in the plot, the issue instantly feels more active and invested.  The back-and-forth chatter among them has an energy and dynamic that’s largely absent when it’s just Vril Dox condescending to whoever manages to get his attention that moment.  It’s also plain refreshing to see the team acting like—well, a team.

Even so, they still get comparatively little to do, what with half of them beaming back to Rann to counter the Starro invasion, and the other half going off to find Brainiac (a mission which proves virtually worthless as the first team winds up accomplishing both).  Really, it’s Vril’s son and lady-friend who get the most page-time, with Lyrl devising a method to free the Starro-infected, and Blackfire facing off against the Conqueror himself.

Lryl’s use of Tribulus to disinfect the Rannians from the possessing starfish is quite ingenious, although the science behind it doesn’t get explained very well.  It also seems a bit too easy, as the invasion barely feels like it’s started (mostly because Bedard’s focus in past issues has been on Starro the Conqueror and his Lobo clones).  On top of that, the whole plot has been executed predictably; Starro stories rarely go any other way, after all.

R.E.B.E.L.S. #26 – Review

By: Tony Bedard (writer), Daniel HDR & Claude St. Aubin (pencillers), Scott Hana (inker), Rich & Tanya Horie (colorists)

The Story: Place your bets, folks—who’ll destroy the system first: a Starro invasion, or a rampage of Lobo clones?

The Review: By now, you should know the drill: with this title’s cancellation imminent, a step back to see where things went wrong can always be a valuable move.  For R.E.B.E.L.S., its biggest downfall has been it doesn’t live up to the kind of title it claims to be.  It’s a team title that spotlights only a couple characters and sidelines the rest, and it’s a cosmic title that seems less interested in traveling the stars and more interested in establishing a bureaucracy.

The first problem has been present and obvious in every issue since day one, and this one is no different.  Things weren’t so bad when Dox was Bedard’s only pet character, but once he brought Lobo in, the rest of the cast got reduced to nearly cameo roles.  Even with Dox under Starro control and Lobo distracted with fighting Starro’s henchmen, the rest of the team still only gets a couple pages total (cumulatively!) of panel time.

Instead of letting the other R.E.B.E.L.S. take more important parts in the story, Bedard fills the issue by fleshing out Lobo’s origins—and none too well, either.  If you’re at all familiar with the baddest alien in the galaxy, you already knew he caused his own race’s genocide.  It’s not as if Bedard brought much depth to that grim event: Lobo was different; his people outcasted him; he took revenge, somehow (we don’t see how) bypassing their own regenerative resilience.

And this origin story ends up having no effect on the plot, as Starro the Conquerer backhands Smite from feeding it to the Lobo-clones (in hope they’ll avenge their ancestors’ deaths).  It’s unsurprising though that Smite would try for such a desperate choice.  Dox says it best this issue: “Only Lobo can beat Lobo.”  It effectively sums up Lobo’s limitations as a character; he’s incapable of defeat, so you never feel danger when he’s on the job.

Not that there’s much danger to begin with.  With Starro, the plot spells itself out fairly predictably: a bunch of starfish on people’s faces, mass hysteria/paranoia, the heroes find a way to break the connection, celebrations ensue.  That leaves fairly little to look forward to as this arc wraps up, unless Bedard somehow brings a totally mind-blowing new twist at the eleventh hour, and there’s little hope of that—he can hardly keep track of the details he already has.  Blackfire offers her services to Director Sardath in defeating Starro, yet several pages later Sardath has been Starro-ed (we never see how it happens) and she’s nowhere to be seen.