This week’s DCU titles:
BIRDS OF PREY 68: Black Canary, Huntress, and Oracle try spending some down time together with mixed results. Short tempers manifest as sexual jealousy, and hurt feelings ensue. Writer Gail Simone generally does a terrific job making these women seem like mature people who happen to be sexually active (unlike Judd Winnick, who seems approaches adult relationships with a smirk). She also does yeoman’s work reconciling events in other titles without making it seem like info-dump. While she sometimes skates on the edge of bad taste, there’s a generosity of spirit to her characterization and humor that keep things from becoming crass. Unfortunately, guest artist Joe Bennett didn’t seem to get the memo. Tits ahoy! Ah, well.
GOTHAM CENTRAL 20: Another arc, another Bat-villain in the mix, this time the Mad Hatter. Two, actually, as the Penguin shows up towards the end. While it would be a nice change to have a story that doesn’t include any of Arkham Asylum’s passel of violent freaks, writer Ed Brubaker keeps the focus squarely on the men and women of the Gotham City Police Department. Banter between partners, the aftermath of an officer’s impending death, a tricky interrogation, and the dangerous frustration of a fallen cop all paint richly personal portraits of law enforcement in an extraordinary place. Artwork by Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano is typically stunning, like beautifully gritty cinematography.
JSA 62: You are entering a character reconstruction site. Please don protective headgear. This isn’t so much a story as it is a guy superhero encounter session, to be perfectly honest. As undead criminals lay siege, members of the JSA prop up men folk in crisis, from the Spectre to Flash to Mister Terrific. I think writer Geoff Johns might be a little too fond of his characters at this point. His crush on the golden-age members of the JSA has rendered them utter paragons, and if they have any doubts or fears, a squadron of team-mates circles them to reassert their perfection. He does better with the younger members, though sometimes the dialogue makes me scratch my head. (“I only lead those who need it.” What does that even mean?) The biggest flaw in the book, though, is the nonsensical moral crisis Hal Jordan undergoes. Despite not really being in a position to complain, considering his past behavior, he doesn’t really care for God’s job description for the Spectre. Clearly imagining himself on the receiving end of the Spirit of Vengeance, he tries to take a more rehabilitative approach to the job. That goes about as well as you’d expect, and the effect is to make Jordan look like a self-pitying poser more than a man of conscience. (That ship’s sailed anyways.) And when did the heroes of the DC Universe suddenly start having a problem with the Spectre’s mission statement? Or is it just that they know Jordan well enough to realize how ill-suited he is for the job? Final note: there’s a river of continuity running through this book as thick as lava, both post-Crisis and pre. If you’re a casual reader, you’ll be hopeless lost.
JUSTICE LEAGE: ANOTHER NAIL 2: I almost never say this, but this title seems like it’s going to be a bit shorter than necessary. Writer and artist Alan Davis and inker Mark Farmer are clearly having a glorious time stuffing the book with their favorite silver-age DC icons, and it’s a visual feast, filled with Easter eggs for longtime fans. Unfortunately, the crowd overtakes any kind of clear narrative. Threads from the previous issue are dropped or mentioned only obliquely, the events depicted on the cover are only mentioned after the fact in the book, and new subplots crop up as fast as new faces. And the central story isn’t particularly clear or strong to begin with. Still, as eye candy goes, this is difficult to beat.
OUTSIDERS 13: “Hi! I’m the physical embodiment of Foreshadowing. Keep your eye on the green girl, ‘cause she’s in for it!” Sorry. I hate it when manifestations of literary concepts take over my keyboard. This book is rapidly losing its charm, in my opinion. Despite having a fairly solid plot – the Fearsome Five reunites with one unspecified motive, one new member, and one back-from-the-dead Goth revamp – the entire affair seems more about how edgy and cool the book is than in anything so banal as actually telling a story. The quipping is relentless, and it casts a haze of smugness over everything. And artist Tom Raney gets in on the act, scattering in a number of gratuitous transformations for Shift that will really cause legal problems, should Plastic Man pick up a copy of the book and decide to sue. Someone really should reassure Judd Winnick that he’s already got a seat at the big kid’s table, and he can just relax already.