By Don M. Ventura
Bruce Wayne: The Road Home, Batgirl (One-Shot)
DC
About a month ago I picked up my first issue of
Batgirl and became immediately enamored with the character. Bryan Q. Miller has reintroduced this incarnation of Stephanie Miller (who has previously protected Gotham as Spoiler and briefly as Robin). This is one of the four
Bruce Wayne: The Road Home tie-ins to celebrate the return of the original Batman to the DCU. It sailed past those issues, and everything else I read this week, to be finest book released this Wednesday.
All of the books under the
Road Home banner center around Bruce Wayne’s return to his life (and time). He is back and sizes up the Bat-cast of characters while attempting to prevent a series of assassinations around the globe. The B-story in all four of this week’s releases has been Reporter Vicki Vale’s attempt to write a story on Batman; early on she discovers that Bruce is no longer performing his duties as the Dark Knight and begins fitting the pieces together issue by issue (the other three titles are:
Batman and Robin,
Outsiders, and
Red Robin).
Miller has found a distinctive voice for Stephanie Miller as Batgirl; she’s funny, has a teenage mentality, and she’s smart but by no means the detective that Dick Grayson and Tim Drake have grown into. While looking for a gun stolen from Waynetech she says “How else are we gonna solve the mystery of the thingy stolen by the invisible super-guy.” So charming.
And that’s the thing about this book: it’s uncompromisingly charming. Most of the Bat books do not tend to be as lighthearted or have a protagonist who makes you laugh and think “Did she just say that? Oh yeah, she’s a teenager.” Albeit a teenager who’s grown up in Gotham and wears the iconic bat symbol on her chest.
While tracking down the stolen weapon, Stephanie comes across a gang of thugs. One of them says “Looks like the bears done come home, Goldilocks.” Stephanie retorts “At least a well-read hooligan” before dispensing some serious whoop-ass. This page in particular allows Artist Pere Perez to show off some really fine artwork as all of the action is against a backdrop of Stephanie pulling down a ski mask, getting ready for action.
I appreciate the light tone of this
Batgirl; it is atypical of what readers expect in a Bat-family series and it’s nice to read a book where the character doesn’t take herself so seriously. I think this is why I have embraced the current runs of
Thor: The Mighty Avenger by Roger Langridge and
Power Girl by Judd Winick. That isn’t to say I need everything to be light and cheery in tone, it’s just refreshing every here and there.
Again, Perez did a wonderful job on the artwork (regular artist Lee Garbett is a hard act to follow). This issue serves up a couple of good action set pieces and Perez proves he is skilled for the job, especially when Stephanie takes a swipe at Bruce. Her reaction to this is priceless. Colorist Guy Majors does nice work complimenting Perez’s work. I especially liked a single-panel flashback of Stephanie in her Robin threads. The colors were muted; the back of Batman’s silhouette tells everything the reader needs to know about her success as the fourth Robin.
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5
DC
With this book already running late, we do not get to enjoy thirty-one pages full of Ryan Sook’s wonderful drawings. It seems clear that Artist Pere Perez was brought in to finish the work and prevent any further delays. As it stands, Bruce Wayne is traipsing around the globe in this week’s four
Bruce Wayne: The Road Home titles, but at the end of this he… well, I won’t spoil it here.
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne continues to be a fun and preposterous story that only DC seems able to pull off. Our time-traveling hero has gone from the Cro-Magnon era, swashbuckled, and faced-off with Jonah Hex. This issue has Bruce return to the 20th Century as a Private Dick who follows a case to solve the murder of a certain Martha and Thomas Wayne.
Grant Morrison has written a sprawling Batman epic over the last few years and seems to be tying things up here and in the pages of
Batman and Robin. While at times his work can be confusing, things remain mostly straightforward. Morrison writes Bruce as a gumshoe trying to put the pieces of a murder mystery as well as his own man-out-of-time mystery.
While I have no qualms about Perez’s work (he was excellent on
Bruce Wayne: The Road Home, Batgirl), Sook does something really special with Morrison’s material. Sook uses dramatic angles and effective close-ups. The opening scene has Bruce in a hospital room, being awakened by a mysterious dame, and the scene has a wonderfully noir-ish look. I’m eager to see more of Sook’s work in the future.
Motel Hell #1
IDW
The 70’s and early 80’s served up some spectacularly odd horror films before the genre moved almost exclusively to tales of masked slashers. The original movie
Motel Hell was about good ‘ol Farmer Vincent and his overprotective sister Ida (played by Rory Calhoun and Nancy Parsons respectively) and the unique "critters" they put into Farmer Vincent's fritters.
I was late in discovering this film and did not immediately embrace the corniness of the plot. Nonetheless, I picked up the book and found that the story’s propensity for over the topness is more effective in this medium thanks to a strong script by Matt Nixon. I should have known I was likely to get a kick out of
Motel Hell. As a kid I’d often read horror comics regardless of the inevitable nightmares.
The story revolves around a group of quasi-media celebrities, all known for their lack of character, who are invited to the Motel Hello (the “O” is chronically on the fritz) for a complementary spa weekend. Things start to go to Hell (you were expecting cucumber facials?) and the guests begin to realize Farmer Vincent’s farm isn’t even a nice place to visit.
Chris Moreno’s artwork is well suited for a horror title. Moreno’s take on Vincent and Ida are recognizable caricatures of their cinematic selves and his scenes of violence are as nauseating as they need to be. There is an especially creepy long-shot, then close-up, of Ida wearing a pig’s head and holding a chainsaw as she stares down her next victims. Cover Artist Tim Bradstreet provides a chilling nod to American Gothic with Ida and Vincent looking ready to dispense a little hell.
Knight and Squire #1
DC
Based solely on my love of Paul Cornell’s current Lex Luthor storyline in
Action Comics, I was eagerly awaiting his take on
Knight and Squire. However, I didn’t find myself entirely embracing this book after I put it down.
I stumbled over some of the British slang throughout the book, but not enough to make me yell “Bloody Hell!” and toss the book aside. Cornell wisely includes a small glossary of said British slang titled “What you missed if you’re not a Brit.”
The setting of
Knight and Squire is a pub protected by a magical spell that prevents the evildoers that inhabit it from combating one another. When the spell is lifted, it is up to Knight and Squire to bring control to the hostility that immediately surfaces.
There’s some very funny work in this inaugural issue, but not enough to recommend just yet. After we learn that there’s a crime duo know as Double Entendre we hear them speak: “I swear, if tonight doesn’t get more exciting, I’ll go to the top of Big Ben and toss myself off.” Ridiculous and funny. The artwork by Jimmy Broxton is somewhat reminiscent of Amanda Connor and perfectly fits the tone of the book.
The Invincible Iron Man #31
Marvel
The “Stark Resilient” storyline continues with Tony surviving the explosion of his new Alpha model repulsor-powered car. Military Industrialists Justine and Sasha Hammer have begun to throw everything at Stark to bring him down and they up the ante at the conclusion of this issue.
I was a little shocked, when I began and continued to read this storyline, at the amount of story that involves Tony and how little he flies into action. I find it reminiscent of Bruce Jones’s early work on
The Hulk. I’m not complaining at all because Fraction has presented a really fantastic character piece as Tony begins putting everything all back together after his life was torn apart (see
Civil War through
Dark Reign). This issue deals with the fallout of the crash at Stark Resilient and the team’s attempt to get back on track—literally.
Salvador Larroca’s pencils are quite strong and made more so by the exceptional coloring of Frank A’rmata. There is a spectacular picture of Tony’s suit protecting him from the crash at the opening of the story. I haven’t looked into this yet, but Larroca’s Tony looks very reminiscent of Josh Hollaway (
Lost) and Pepper Potts is a dead-ringer for Nicole Kidman.
Heavy on action, or heavy on character, I’ll continue following this title as long as Fraction is working on it.
The Amazing Spider-Man #645
Marvel
“Origin of the Species” has been an action-packed and fun ride as Spider-Man has done his best to protect Lily Hollister’s baby from just about every villain in Spider-Man’s pantheon of bad guys. I only haven’t seen Rocket Racer.
In the last issue it appeared that the baby did not survive the chase around Manhattan. In this issue, Spider-Man is out for revenge. Spidey calls upon every anger-issue he’s ever had against his menagerie of villains and doesn’t wait to do so one-by-one. This is effective, but we just had a similar issue in the “Grim Hunt” storyline where Spider-Man goes a bit ragey on the Kravinoff family for murdering some Spider-family characters.
This criticism aside, Waid has written another strong issue of
The Amazing Spider-Man. Artists Paul Azaceta and Matthew Southworth have improved upon the work in the previous issues. There are some good splash pages and a number of menacing shots of Spider-Man as he is devoid of humor throughout. To great effect, Waid chooses to not have Spider-Man say (or narrate) anything in this story until the second to the last page.
