Review: Batgirl #1 (2011)

So let’s briefly talk about Barbara Gordon.  Like with Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown I have a lot to say about this character and her story, but it really deserves a post of its own so I’ll be as brief as I can.  

Barbara is the second Batgirl but the first serious attempt of giving Batman a competent female ally who wears the symbol of the Bat (The previous Bat-Girl, and her aunt the first Bat-Woman, was little more than bumbling sidekick).  Barbara, on top of being the daughter of Batman’s longtime police contact Jim Gordon, was not a teenage sidekick but rather a full grown woman, with a PhD. in library science (I think.  Feel free to correct me in her degree was in) and a skilled fighter who operated without Batman’s permission or training; she didn’t need either, mainly because she’s goddamned awesome.  She even retired as Batgirl after years of service to use her abilities for other, more practical pursuit (Yes that happened).  However in the 1988 comic The Killing Joke she is shot in the stomach by the Joker and permanently paralyzed from the waist down.  But because, as we established, Miss Gordon is a badass she soon becomes Oracle, an information broker and world class hacker who aides various superheroes in the war on crime (And eventually establishing a network between them) and begins employing agents to fight the forces of evil on a global scale, the most famous of whom were the Birds of Prey (Including her best friends Black Canary, The Huntress, and Lady Blackhawk).  Over the years she has become not only one of the very few disabled superheroes in comics but frankly she was more effective, and invaluable, in this role than she ever was as Batgirl.  Unfortunately, for reasons seemingly due to low sales of Stephanie Brown’s Batgirl title and the idea that they wanted to bring familiarity for casual readers back to the book in the Great DC Reboot the powers that be in DC Comics decided to return Barbara to her classic role as Batgirl, restoring her legs in the process, in Batgirl #1.

The trade-off is that it’s being written by Gail Simone who is one of the best working writers in comic books today, having written Secret Six and being most famous for runs on Birds of Prey.  There is also art by Adrian Syaf (Pencils) and Vicente Cifuentes (Inks).  This issue is titled "Shattered".

Like with my Spider-Man: One More Day review this is a pretty controversial comic but I want to focus on whether this is a good comic on its own merits rather than because of my personal feelings on who is or who isn’t Batgirl.  Still I do want to very quickly state my opinion on the matter before we get into the review: Yes, I agree that Barbara Gordon has no business returning to the role of Batgirl.  While I’m not happy they decided to restore the use of her legs I can live with that aspect but de-aging her (Which they have done) and putting her back in that identity feels like a straight up demotion.  You likely wouldn’t see Dick Grayson return as Robin or Wally West return as (Ugh) Kid Flash (At least freaking I hope not. Has Wally been accounted for yet?).  Barbara graduated from being Batgirl a long time ago and moved on to bigger, better, and more important things as Oracle and I find it a bit ridiculous that I’m being expected to take her seriously here.  She used to wage cyber-warfare on global threats and use her genius to regularly help save whole nations and even the world.  Now she’s gone back to fighting muggers and gangbangers on the streets of one city? Please.

Oracle reacts to Batgirl #1

 Actual review after the jump.

Review: Static Shock #1 (2011)

Let’s try to keep this review shorter than yesterday.

Created by the late Dwayne McDuffie and John Paul Leon in 1993 Static was one of several heroes developed by Milestone Comics, an imprint of DC whose mission statement was to address and possibly help balance the severe lack of minority superheroes.  In 2000 a cartoon based on the character called Static Shock was broadcasted giving Static a significant boost in mainstream exposure (Putting him heads and shoulders above his fellow Milestone characters).  In 2008, noticeably several years after the cartoon had ended, DC finally decided to bring Static into the DC Universe proper (They did the same with other characters from the Milestone continuity but Static was clearly the bigger deal) where he was mainly associated with the Teen Titans.   Throughout his return to comic book DC had been saying that a new ongoing title, something Static hadn’t had in years, was in the works for a 2011 release.  However Static Shock #1, as it was titled, was canceled earlier this year before it had a chance to see print but we now know that was likely done in order to save the title for the DC Reboot this month.

This issue, titled “Recharged”, was written by Scott McDaniel and John Rozum with pencils from McDaniel and inks by Jonathan Glapion and LeBeau Underwood.  There has always been a serious lack of black superheroes with ongoing titles and this is one of three new solo books staring an African American crime fighter in DC’s Reboot.  Was it worth the wait?

Full review after the jump.

Review: Justice League International #1 (2011)

I shall now begin my review series on the Great DC Reboot of 2011.  Because of lack of money and also interest I won’t be reviewing all 52 titles but rather I’ll picking the ones I had something of an interest in.  If you need a refresher of which ones those were click here and here.  As the DC reboot began with Justice League #1 it’s only fitting that I begin my coverage there...but since I don’t give a crap about anything going on in that book let’s take a look at Justice League International #1 instead.

 JLI isn’t a new concept.   Since its debut in the 60s the Justice League of America always seemed to get rebooted every few years, getting major changes in the roster and setting.  Following a blundered re-launch fans have nicknamed “Justice League Detroit” DC gave the reigns of the book to Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis who, after being told they couldn’t use most of the company’s biggest names (Ironically due to a companywide reboot following Crisis on Infinite Earths) they decided to use several lesser known characters and take the book into a more comedic route.  The title was dubbed, of course, Justice League International.  While this would severally damage several characters over the next twenty years by typecasting them as comedy characters who kept getting their character development reset to match their portrayal into that book it did create a very strong cult following for several of the team’s more prominent members to this day.  Those members included (But not necessarily limited to) Booster Gold, Blue Beetle II (Ted Kord), Fire, Ice, and Guy Gardner and his bowl cut.  They’re have been a lot of call backs and reunions featuring the majority of these characters over the years, most of them not taking itself terribly serious (Such as the Giffer/DeMatteis created Formerly Known as the Justice League miniseries).  But finally in 2005 following the awesome yet terribly infuriating death of Ted Kord in Countdown to Infinite Crisis this started to change as DC attempted to move Booster Gold away from his comedic “sellout” persona once and for all which they did successfully in 52 and Booster’s follow-up solo title where he became basically the most badass character in the DC Universe.  Following the trend in the pages of Justice League: Generation Lost Booster, Fire, Ice, Captain Atom, Blue Beetle III aka Jaime Reyes and eventually a new Rocket Red teamed up to accidentally form a new, more insanely awesome version of the JLI.  While I never got to finish that book what I did read of it was some of the best superhero comic writing I’ve ever read and cemented my status of a fan of the various characters that appeared.  This book was supposed to lead into a new ongoing series featuring this new revamped team where Batman and Booster teamed up to start the team in earnest.  That didn’t happen, presumably because it would have been too much awesome for our space time continuum to handle.

The JLI we deserve, but not the one we need right now?

The comic I'm looking at today was written by Dan Jurgens with art by Aaron Lopresti (Pencils) and Matt Ryan (Ink) and is titled “The Signal Masters Part 1”.  So if this isn’t a follow-up to Justice League: Generation Lost then what the hell is it?  And what’s the point? 

Click below for the full review…and answers! 

Review: X-Men - Schism #3

I’m perfectly willing to admit that I may have jumped the gun about Cyclops being killed at the beginning of the last Schism review, but in my defense I did mention that it wasn’t even close to being confirmed and that I might, in fact, be jumping the gun.  Plus if you read superhero comics you should know by now that Marvel and DC are practically biting at the chops to murder your favorite character and focus more comics on Wolverine and Batman.  Anyway we now know for sure that Cyclops will survive Schism because Marvel has fully released the promos for the Regenesis branding of post-Schism comics.  It also appears I was slightly wrong when I said that the team was splitting into two books, Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine and the X-Men; it seems that there will be eight books, four working with Cyclops, four for Wolverine.  For Ole “One-Eye” it’ll be Uncanny, as well as [Non-Adjective] X-Men (Made up of almost all women), New Mutants, and Generation Hope.  Wolverine has his semi-self titled book, X-Men: Legacy, Uncanny X-Force, and X-Factor.  The promos seem to confirm which X-Man is going where but since in theory it’s all spoilers for the current storyline (Gee, thanks Marvel) I’ll avoid listing it all here.  However I will say two things about this: 1) Eight X-Men comics is likely about four too many.  2) The Uncanny squad seems to include Cyclops, three former villains, and an X-Man who is clearly under the influence of an artifact of limitless evil power.  So what, it’s like an X-Men version of the Suicide Squad or something?  A “Task Force X” so to speak (Hey-yo!).

Fanboy Rage: AVERTED

X-Men: Schism #3 was again written by Jason Aaron with art this time by Daniel Acuña.  So by now we can tell that they are bringing in a bunch of different artists for this series, and I’m guessing each artist will also being doing one of the comics in the new direction [UPDATE: This doesn’t seem to be the case].  Obviously if you haven’t been keeping up with this review series you’ll need to check my reviews of Issue #1 and Issue #2.   I’ll wait.

When you’re done click below for the full review.

[WARNING: Decent amont of spoilers in this review.  Be aware!]

SMCS Companion Piece #19: Sailor Moon

Yes, this is really late.  I wanted to have this up by midday this past Saturday but unfortunately real life things kept me from working on it and I HAD to upload the Rise of the Planet of the Apes review first because I’m now working on the mantra of “Don’t Watch a New Film in Theaters Until I’ve Reviewed the Last Film I Saw”.  Thus this post is super late.

Anyway this past weekend of the Saturday Morning Cartoon Show we “watched” none other than Sailor Moon.  Now obviously I talk a lot about anime on this blog so it goes without saying that I have stuff to say about this show.  I did indeed watch this series as a kid, along with Dragon Ball Z which in a lot of historically relevant ways can be seen as the sister series to this show as far as American Television is concerned (Though weirdly it’s in the fanficiton world it is extremely associated with Ranma ½ which is odd as they don’t have much in common other than both taking place in Tokyo).  This was my least favorite of the two, which is actually kind of saying something, but hell if I didn’t watch every single episode during its runs of syndication and Cartoon Network.   In any event this is a particularly long and complex property so be prepared for a rant-like post.

It is originally known as Bishoujo Sailor Moon in Japan (Officially translated as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon outside of it) and based on a manga of the same name beginning publication in 1992 by Naoko Takeuchi.  It actually is the sequel, more or less, to a slighty earlier manga called Sailor V (Sailor Moon apparently was a modified version of that comic when Sailor V began being propositioned for an anime).  An anime adaptation of the comic began soon afterwards.  The franchise was a huge hit and even to this day it’s a high money maker for Toei Animation.  The cartoon is split into five series: Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R, Sailor Moon S, Sailor Moon SuperS, and Sailor Moon Sailor Stars.  It was released internationally throughout the 90s and came to North America in 1995 by way of DiC Entertainment.   Actually before DiC nabbed the rights to the show they competed in a bidding war with Toon Makers which they obviously ended up winning.  Now before I trash the shit out of DiC’s version of Sailor Moon, and I will, I want to take a second to state that as bad as things were they could have been a lot worse as Toon Makers actually did some proof of concept work on the show before they ultimately failed getting the rights.  Check it out:

Holy crap!  That kind of puts the “Sailor Moon Says” segments into perspective, I’d say.

More horrifying American Sailor Moon stuff after the jump.

Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Who hasn’t ever heard of Planet of the Apes?  It’s one of the most famous, and most parodied and referenced, films of all time.   Even if you haven’t seen it yourself you certainly know the final reveal scene (“YOU MANIACS!!!”).   The film was so successful that it spawned four sequels, with varying levels of quality (Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, and Battle for the Planet of the Apes), as well as two TV shows.  Knowing that Hollywood loves stealing and reusing ideas it should be no surprise that a remake would eventually be made.   And 20th Century Fox did just that in 2001 with a Tim Burton directed, Marky Mark Mark Wahlberg starring movie that was supposed to be the first in a new series of films.   Except that it was awful, had a bizarre ending (Though it’s been stated the ending would have been addressed in the aborted sequel) and pretty much universally panned.  Fox quickly decided to sweep the franchise under rug following its release.

But bad ideas, such as remaking a beloved movie franchise, never truly die so it was just a matter of time before Fox tried again. Hoping that ten years would have been enough time for Americans to forget the previous failed attempt (Spoiler: It wasn’t) they green lit another remake.  Actually in per-production it started as being a prequel to the original film, but seeing as the films work on a Stable Time Travel Loop it’s actually impossible for a true prequel to exist within the original continuity without it being a remake of “Escape from...” and “Conquest of…”. Instead the studio decided to change it into a reimagining (Sort of) of those two films to act as the first in a new series of movies….or at least I assume they did.  Understand this: this cannot be a true prequel to the original film!   It has to be its own continuity because it can’t fit into established cannon.  Okay?

Originally titled “Caesar” (Likely changed because the studio feared no one would go see a Planet of the Apes movie that didn’t have “Planet of the Apes” in the title) Rise of the Planet of the Apes was directed by Rupert Wyatt, and as far as I can tell his only other film was The Escapist which I’ve never heard of let alone seen.   Still the fact that this isn’t a straight remake greatly helps the possibility of this movie not being a disaster.   All remakes of classic films are bad ideas in principle but reimaging of classic films are only mostly all bad ideas in principle.  It’s a clear step up!

Full review after the jump.

Beta Vs. DC Reboot: Part Two

Batman: Back to the Well #1

The New DC Universe starts today.  Regardless of mine or anyone’s feelings this is happening and it will affect the state of DC Comics for the foreseeable future possibly for the better, possibly for the worse.   I’m sure by the end of the year we’ll know have a better idea which way things are leaning.  Yesterday I ran through about half of the upcoming DC titles.  Today we’ll look at the other half.

I will mention one thing before I get into it.  It has been announced (Via Twitter? Groan) that Stephanie Brown will be appearing in the New DCU as The Spoiler.  We already knew her tenure of Batgirl is over but I assumed she was going on the shelf along several other characters DC can’t seem to decide where they fit into all of this.  I’m torn on this. As you may recall I love The Spoiler but I was warming up to Steph as Batgirl. I think I’ll be happy that she’ll be around but I’d be lot happier if she was starring in an ongoing feature.  How about a Black Bat/Spoiler team up book?  I’d buy the hell out of that.

Still no answers about whether she was ever Robin or even Batgirl in this new universe.  Oh well, we’ll see soon enough.

More Reboot Titles after the jump.

Beta Vs. DC Reboot: Part One

Because fans have been demanding a low-powered, t-shirt wearing Supeman for years

So back in June I first brought up the 2011 DC Reboot.  It had only recently been announced, there were a lot of questions and a lot of hot emotions flying around that had to be reined in due to the risk of making knee jerk reactions.   But it’s been a few months now and I know a lot more about what DC has in store for us and a lot of questions have been answered.  Right now I feel I have a much better grasp of everything and that I can give a more thought out opinion on the matter. *Ahem*

Goddamn it all to hell!

Look, there are a lot of positives about the reboot.  And it is indeed a reboot.  We now know that this is a new universe with a new continuity where superheroes have only existed five years at most (That’s not one of the good things).  Titles in general will indeed be more accessible for “new readers”; this being a new universe, albeit one that shares similarities to the one that it’s replacement, that is basically starting from scratch could in theory bring in a whole new generation of readers.   Characters that didn’t have ongoing titles will be receiving them shortly and several of them are black which is damn cool.  I’ve also changed my tune about WildStorm being incorporated into the universe.  The way I see it (Now) a lot of story possibilities are opened up if these characters are part of this new universe, and there’s something kind of neat about books like WildC.A.T.s or Gen¹³ being a part of the DCU proper.  Plus if comic book characters like Captain Atom, Plastic Man, The Question, Static and, of course, Captain Marvel can be incorporated into DC’s main continuity then why not Jenny Quantum?

Despite all this I still feel like the cons outweigh the pros.  With this change I still feel like DC is telling me “We don’t really care about your business, so stay if you like but we won’t miss you if you leave.”  Still it’s impossible to really say too much about all this because even if a lot of the ideas on paper look incredibly stupid and insulting in practice DC may come out with a lot of winners writing wise.  After all they do have a lot of talented guys (And mostly guys, sadly) working on these books so there could be great stories being written and technically that’s the most important thing.

In a possible futile gesture to give DC a chance to keep me from turning my back on them and becoming Marvel exclusive I’ve decided to check out a number of these books.  And since I have a blog where I review stuff I figure I might as well write up what I thought about them.  Starting this week DC will release Justice League #1 and as I understand it will take place in the past, unlike most of the other comics coming out.  As I look at the list of comics I know for sure I’m not going to buy them all as most of them I’m not all that interested in.  Some of those I won’t be reading for political reasons.  But there are a few that I am super interested in buying, possibly thousands of times over.  So let’s take look at where I stand with these individual books.

More after the jump.