C2E2 Report: DC Comics – Batman

Saturday was a big day for this year’s C2E2, with a lot of DC and Marvel’s biggest panels taking place. Besides entry in the morning, the longest line I saw all weekend was for this panel. Hundreds of fans filed through the doors of the convention’s largest panel space, and with good reason.

As things got started, John Cunningham, DC’s Marketing VP, introduced us to our panelists: James Tynion IV, former writer of Red Hood and the Outlaws and Talon and an architect of Batman: Eternal; Scott Snyder, writer for Batman, lead writer for Batman: Eternal, and all-around Batman superfan; Jason Fabok and Dustin Nguyen, the two artists for Batman: Eternal; Patrick Gleason and Peter Tomasi, the artist and writer, respectively, on Batman and _____; and Jim Chadwick, an editor with DC’s digital division who works on Batman ‘66, among others.

Cunningham started by reminding us that this year is the 75^th anniversary of Batman and promised a slew of celebration, most clearly embodied in a “Batman Day” sometime this July. He also mentioned the two animated shorts commissioned for the anniversary and, as a thank you, revealed that we’d be screening them before the panel began.

Unfortunately there was some technical trouble, kicking off a friendly rivalry between Cunningham and the people running the projector.

Unable to resolve the problem immediately, we turned to the comics.

The first book mentioned was Grayson, which received a warm reception, but just as quickly as it was brought up, Cunningham informed us that he couldn’t talk about it yet. Instead Scott Snyder took the opportunity to enlist the audience in a campaign to make sure that DC used the slogan that he and the other writers had come to love, “You think you know Nightwing, but you don’t know Dick.” It seemed to take off with the fans. DC had actually published the line in the Grayson #1 solicit a few days earlier, but after this panel I’m sure they were pleased that they went ahead with it.

Next on the docket was Batman and Scott Snyder’s “Zero Year” storyline, which has just entered its final phase, “Savage City”. Snyder, ever eager to share with the fans had thrown in a couple of extra slides into the presentation as a thank you. “You guys are our bosses,” he said, quoting a sentiment that drives he and Greg Capullo’s work on the title.

Batwoman #25 – Review

By: Marc Andreyko (story), Trevor McCarthy, Andrea Mutti, Pat Olliffe, Jim Fern (art), Jay Leisten & Tom Nguyen (inks), Guy Major (colors)

The Story: Forget the wrath of Mother Nature; there are common criminals to worry about!

The Review: DC’s handling of this title has been so erratic that I didn’t even know that #24 was J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman’s final one until I saw the credits on this issue.  I could have sworn they had at least another issue before departing, but I guess DC was eager to tie Batwoman into all the Zero Year craziness, and Williams-Blackman didn’t feel like being good sports about a crossover given the circumstances of why they left in the first place.

That’s all to say that Andreyko couldn’t have started his run on this series under worse circumstances.  Not only is he coming in while tensions over his predecessors’ departure are still simmering, he has to simultaneously deal with the inconclusive arc left in their wake as well as a tie-in to another storyline altogether.  In this situation, Andreyko is kind of like the hapless stepparent who joins a family that just went through a hideous divorce, leaving the household in debt and forcing them to move.  Unhappiness is nearly guaranteed.

Green Lantern Corps #25 – Review

By: Van Jansen (script), Robert Venditti (co-plot), Victor Orujiniu and Ivan Fernandez (main sequence pencils), Juan Castro and Rob Lean (main sequence inks), Allan Jefferson (flashback pencils), Rob Lean (flashback inks), Garry Henderson (colors)

The Story: John Stewart’s knowledge of the Super Bowl halftime show saves the day. No, seriously.

The Review: John Stewart is one of the most interesting figures in DC’s history. Created by Denny O’Neill and Neal Adams, Stewart debuted as an architect and a somewhat justified Angry Black Man, focused on egalitarianism, transparency, and questioning authority. Since then he’s had a number of false starts that generally left him languishing in obscurity until the next reboot of his role came along. That changed in 2001 when he was chosen to represent the Corps in the Justice League animated series, making him the Green Lantern to an entire generation. This John Stewart was a former Marine; stern, straight-laced, and stoic. Before long this was transferred into the comics continuity and this new John returned to the Green Lantern Corps with honor, before beginning his cycle of reinvention once again.

I mention this because John is a character who people really want to succeed but has rarely found a status quo that worked for him. His history is a bit of a mess; for instance, I don’t know that it’s ever been addressed that John is man in his thirties who’s supposedly served as an active Marine and undergone the mandatory five or more years it takes to become an architect before joining the Green Lantern Corps.

Nightwing #25 – Review

By: Kyle Higgins (writer), Will Conrad & Cliff Richards (art), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Dick Grayson sneaks out to the movies, only to find himself in the middle of a thriller of his own.

The Review: At the start of The Black Mirror, Dick Grayson remembered how his father always marked upcoming shows with different colored pins on the calendar to represent how dangerous the tricks needed to be. They were marked red or blue, except for Gotham. A trip to Gotham meant that the audience demanded real danger. For his part in the Zero Year crossover, Kyle Higgins gives us a glimpse at one of those trips. It was properly marked.

That danger comes in two forms. The first is the Riddler’s power outage and the mob mentality that follows. Some of the best pages of the issue are those immediately following the blackout. The slow build towards chaos, the mundanity of it, Higgins hits beats that have been drilled into our collective unconscious over the past decade and a half with resounding clarity.

The other danger is our villain. Though he’s not likely to convince anyone to buy this comic when they otherwise wouldn’t, Amygdala’s appearance makes surprising sense in the context of Zero Year, even if his proximity to the future Robin seems a tad contrived. He also presents a clear danger for Dick, who would probably be capable of getting home. Unfortunately, Amygdala has never been a particularly chatty villain and he doesn’t bring much to the story beyond a sense of menace.

Batgirl #25 – Review

By: Marguerite Bennett (writer), Fernando Pasarin (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), Blond (colors)

The Story: You may:

1. attempt to ford the city
2. caulk batmobile and float it across
3. wait to see if conditions improve
4. get more information

The Review: I’m going to say this up front: I kind of hate a poorly written Barbara Gordon.

Especially without the development she gained as Oracle, Barbara’s talents can run the risk of becoming an informed ability. After all, Tim Drake, Cass Cain, Stephanie Brown, all needed extensive training with Batman before they were good enough to be heroes, but Barbara stepped out of the library ready to go toe to toe with the world’s greatest acrobat. So especially in a story where there aren’t super villains or costumed alter egos, it will be essential for this story to define our young heroine.

Luckily, it seems that Marguerite Bennett knows Barbara Gordon. I don’t say writes a fine Barbara Gordon or shows a firm handle on Barbara’s character; she knows her. While I’m sure she made a conscious process of it, Bennett’s take on the future Batgirl has a depth and flow that’s so natural that one could easily believe that the story wrote itself.

Green Arrow #25 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Andrea Sorrentino (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: We have a knight and archer in the same room.  Now where’s the mage?

The Review: I confess that I have a certain amount of cynicism about crossover events in comics, viewing them usually as schemes to capture readers (and their dollars) who wouldn’t read these books otherwise.  The farther spread the crossover, the more suspicious I get, and Zero Year’s infection reaches far, indeed.  Having just read an Action Comics tie-in that was only marginally related to events in Zero Year proper, I wondered if Green Arrow will fare any better.

Lemire gets a leg-up on Action Comics #25 by actually setting his story in Gotham and allowing Ollie to run into the early Dark Knight himself.  True, it’s a little too fortuitous that Ollie’s return from the island coincides exactly with the chaos erupting in Gotham, but it’s a narrative necessity that mostly pays off, so you don’t take too much issue with it.*  At the very least, you get to see some interesting parallels and contrasts between two of DC’s most prominent non-powered superheroes.

Action Comics #25 – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Aaron Kuder (art), Arif Prianto (colors)

The Story: The perfect man encounters the perfect storm.

The Review: There are a lot of similarities in the way Pak begins his Action Comics run to John Layman’s start on Detective Comics.  Both writers have achieved name-recognition and respect in the industry, but haven’t yet reached the household status that Scott Snyder, Geoff Johns, or Gail Simone have.  Nevertheless, they’ve each been entrusted with one of DC’s longest running anchor titles, starring its biggest icons.

And like Layman, Pak finds himself working with a crossover event early on.  Fortunately for him, circumstances are a little kinder than they were to Layman.*  Although you can’t help raising an eyebrow at Zero Year reaching as far as the Super-family of titles, it does give Pak an excuse to start out in Clark’s formative years, which he already has some experience doing.  The only downside is his first issue won’t necessarily set the tone for the rest of his run, given how different the Clark of the T-shirt days is from his fully-outfitted, present-day counterpart.

Detective Comics #25 – Review

By: John Layman (writer), Jason Fabok and Jorge Lucas (art), Tomeu Morey and Dave McCaig (colors)

The Story: Many of his fellow officers considered him the most dangerous man alive – an honest cop.

The Review: To be frank, I was actually considering not buying this issue, as I wasn’t terribly interested in picking up a Gordon-centric tie in. So I hope you’ll forgive me if I take a quick moment to say this: Wow, I forgot how much I love John Layman’s Detective Comics.

While the issue can’t claim a particularly important place in the overall story, what it does deliver is tone. While Layman’s work on Detective has brought an emphasis back to Batman’s forensic tech and deductive prowess, Gordon’s story is simple hardboiled goodness.

While it won’t be replacing any of the classic Lt. Gordon stories that have accumulated over the years, “Whistleblower’s Blues” is a smart take on early Gotham that enjoys a Dashiell Hammett novel from time to time, but isn’t quite as stilted and manly as a Frank Miller story. Layman’s interpretation of Commissioner Loeb, in particular, possesses more grace and care than any I’ve seen. He may only appear for a handful of pages but he has his own little arc, one that says a lot about Gotham, then and now.

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.

Batman #22 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), FCO Plascencia (colors) & Nick Napolitano (letters)

Back-up by: Snyder & James Tynion, IV (writers), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors) and Taylor Esposito (letters)

The Review (with very minor SPOILERS): This issue/storyline still isn’t really grabbing me.  From a technical standpoint, it is 100% good. The dialogue is excellent and the art is crisp and lovely.  But it still doesn’t have me on the edge of my seat…

Why have I LOVED everything else that Scott Snyder has done with Batman, yet this story gives me a lukewarm reaction?  Let’s consider some possibilities:

• It’s still early in the story: If memory serves, Zero Year is supposed to be an eleven-issue story.  We’re only on issue #2 of this story, so perhaps it just hasn’t had time to fully congeal?  However, Snyder has written other lengthy Bat-stories (The Black Mirror, Court of Owls) and those tales got under your skin right away.
• It’s about Bruce and not Batman: You’ve heard the old argument about whether the guy really IS Batman, and Bruce Wayne is just his disguise?  It’s usually framed as a contrast to Superman/Clark Kent where Supes is still mild-natured, midwestern Clark even when he puts on the tights.  I’ve never been as interested in Bruce and his motivations and his family and his relationship with Alfred.  So much of Bruce is wrapped up in the lack of a family and that’s something I was never able to identify with…  I was fortunate to always have my father around and I’ve always been around for my family as well.  I suspect that the Bruce/Alfred relationship speaks more to readers who had less of a relationship with their own fathers.
• It isn’t creepy: You’ll hear some commentators complaining that Snyder is a one-trick pony and that he only does horror-themed stories.  Black Mirror, Court of Owls and Death of the Family were all very creepy.  So is American Vampire and so was Severed.  Swamp Thing was kinda creepy.  Zero Year is not even remotely creepy.  It’s a different look for Snyder.
• Maybe expectations are unreasonably high: With the track record of Snyder and Capullo, you just expect an epic masterpiece right away.  I think they probably demand masterpieces from themselves and I admire their work ethic, but you can’t hit a home run every time.

Seriously, the funny thing is that I’m talking about this like it was a bad comic and it isn’t.  It’s a solid “B” which is entirely respectable and my criticism has more to do with the immense respect and admiration I have for the creative team.  I expect them to blow my socks off  every time and they aren’t quite doing it yet.