This is our 267th edition. Two books this week, as I decided to
skip New Warriors after all, since on a quick flip through I
didn't see anything to make me change my mind. Consider the book
dropped.
This week we have...
Batgirl #1 (of 6) - 3 Stars
Uncanny X-Men #500 - 3.25 Stars
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Batgirl #1 (of 6) - "Redemption Road, Chapter One: Square One"
(Writer: Adam Beechen, Penciller: J. Calafiore,
Inkers: Mark McKenna and Jonathan Glapion,
Colorist: Nathan Eyring)
Batgirl was recently brainwashed by Deathstroke and her father
David Cain, and manipulated into killing. Now, although she's
promised not to kill anymore, she has decided to break that
promise, once she tracks down those two men.
Here's the thing. I enjoy Batgirl, as a character, at least as
she was in her own series. When One Year Later happened, she
was portrayed horribly - not just in terms of having become a
villain, but also because the person who wrote her seemed to be
ignorant of basic facts about the character. That writer was
Adam Beechen. So it does seem a bit of a slap in the face to
fans, to be given a new Batgirl miniseries, but to have Beechen
be the one to write it. If they don't buy the mini, it'll be
read that there's little interest in the character. If they
do, it'll be read as support for Beechen's work.
So, how is his work? Well, to be fair, it's not as bad as it
was before. It's clear that Beechen is at least trying to
redeem himself somewhat. He also makes a few more mistakes
that suggests he still doesn't understand the character (by
suggesting that she had to make a vow to stop killing before
being given her Batgirl life, when in reality she'd decided
never to kill again long before she met any of the Batfolk).
But he's trying. One of the big ways you can see he's
trying is that he crams in a big, long, convoluted story for
everything that happened since before OYL up until this point,
that is supposed to explain all the contradictions, mis-
characterizations, outright mistakes, some of which are
Beechen's and some due to a lack of editorial communication
(so that Beechen's already written some more Evil Cass moments
set to come after she's been supposedly redeemed).
It's clumsy and awkward exposition, and not especially friendly
to new readers, but I do appreciate the sentiment behind it,
the desire to clean up mistakes and straighten out continuity.
Unfortunately, in doing so Beechen commits two big mistakes.
Either of them on their own might have been forgiveable, but
together they make the problem worse.
Firstly, he changes some of the more interesting aspects of the
Cassandra character off-panel, by suggesting that in her year
away, she was taught to read and speak English better, which
supposedly explains her talkativeness in her appearances in
Robin, and her ability to read. Except, her difficulties
communicating, because she speaks with the action of body
language and combat, are a big part of Batgirl. There's been
dialog suggesting that it's not as simple as just "she needs to
learn to read" but that her brain is structured differently so
that it's harder for her to learn than it would be for
anybody else. Her whole concept is based on the (admittedly
dodgy, but acceptable for a comic book) idea that she was screwed
up by being brought up with no language except combat, and so has
difficult communicating in any other way.
Without this part of the character, she's just a trained assassin
who's now a good guy. A problem she has been struggling with
throughout her series, and one of the more defining aspects of
the character, is tossed off to the side, off-panel to help cover
up for his own mistakes. It'd be like a writer covering up a plot
which hinged on Wolverine calmly and cooly fighting someone who'd
just killed all his friends, by saying that he'd been going to
anger management therapy to deal with his berserker rages, and
doesn't get mad anymore.
Compounding this is that it really didn't solve the problems.
Even with Cassandra having learned English in the past year,
we still have the big gaffe of her having lead Robin into a
trap using a Navajo code language that he recognized and said
Batman taught both of them long ago. The explanation doesn't
fix that. The OYL issues also, if I recall correctly,
stated that the rest of the Bat family hadn't heard from her
in months, which makes the idea that Alfred helped teach her
English and reading unlikely. If you're going to retcon and
ignore part of the past, you might as well ignore the parts of
the plot that required her to have mastery not just of English
but of reading as well. Other writers have written Batgirl as
being not-very-talkative once again, as though ignoring the
specifics of Beechen's run entirely, and that might have been
the better approach here.
Aside from this, the issue isn't too bad... it's well drawn,
and there's a decent amount of action. But I don't have any
confidence in Beechen's handling of the character, so I don't
think I want to stick around to see the rest. DC should either
have gotten somebody else to write the mini, or Beechen should
have been willing to ignore most of what he'd written before.
It's a bad sign when "evil clone" is still a better explanation
for inconsistencies than what was offered.
Review: 3 stars
-
Uncanny X-Men #500 - "SFX, Part One" (Writers: Ed Brubaker & Matt
Fraction, Pencilers: Greg Land & Terry Dodson,
Inkers: Jay Leisten & Rachel Dodson, Colorist:
Justin Ponsor)
The X-Men have now based themselves in San Francisco, with the
full support of the mayor. Unfortunately, a shock artist has
organized an exhibit of mutant kitsch involving some decommissioned
Sentinels, and Magneto's decided to crash the party.
I haven't been reading any of the core X-books for quite a while.
Since Decimation my interest has dropped almost to nothing, from
what used to be my whole reason for reading comics. I bought this
because it was a big anniversary issue and a hallmark of a major
new shift, and because I liked a few of the characters they'd
chosen for the book's cast.
I'm still not entirely interested in the X-Men as a whole, and,
although I haven't read any of the setup in the other issues,
I don't really buy into the whole San Francisco thing. It might
be a good idea for a big switch in other times, but in the wake
of Decimation is feels incredibly pointless. San Francisco is
now a mutant sanctuary, and the X-Men have a brand new base
built astonishingly quickly that goes down three miles and links
all over the city (in an era of plentiful mutants one could
explain it easily, but now it could use some more in-depth
justification). But, really, aside from a nice change of
scenery, is it really that different from, say, having the
X-Mansion rebuilt as an embassy to mutantkind and having Mutant
Town still be a sanctuary for mutants? It all feels like just a
new coat of paint, without really doing anything revolutionary.
The plot of the book is interesting enough, although the action
is hurt by the team not thinking to ask an obvious question until
long after I did. The only thing that really makes me want to
continue though is at least a hint that undoing Decimation may be
on the agenda. I have a feeling I'll be disappointed again, but
I'll give it an arc or two. I suppose I should also make this
book my Pick of the Week.
Review: 3.25 stars
-
Well, that's it for this week folks. Next week, according to the
shipping list, there's only one book. That's newuniversal: 1959.
However, unless something else shows up on the shipping list, I'll
probably make it a skip week and pick up the one-shot the next
week.
See you next time...
Peter Dimitriadis
http://www.unreachablestar.net
The Unreachable Star - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinion
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