MattBrady
04-19-2003, 09:06 AM
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/DC/pic_lrgbgyo5cvr.jpg" width="200" height="300" align="right">by Mike Sangiacomo
I think I’m actually gaining respect for Batgirl. No – I’m not talking about the one with no hole in her mask for her mouth, or Oracle, who the first Batgirl, became, but the original, the real deal, Barbara Gordon, back when she wore the spandex and hung around on rooftops with Batman and Robin (Robin, meaning, Dick Grayson, not Tim Drake – sometimes, I feel so old.)
My growing respect is coming from Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty’s Batgirl: Year One miniseries from DC, which to date, has been a solid yarn about Babs’ first few outings as the…well, literal, red-headed stepchild of the Bat-family.
Case in point: Batgirl: Year One #5 - in her brief career as Batgirl, Barbara didn’t have all that many A-list villains. There was a leftover Batman foe named Killer Moth and then there was...hmmmm...
Did I mention the Killer Moth?
Okay, so moths are something you probably think of more for their delicate nature than their reputation as stone killers, but the Moth man always shows up when Batgirl enjoys a retrospective and he gets more interesting each time. The latest retelling, a re-examination actually, of Batgirl’s early career shows a Killer Moth who could do with a couple hundred sessions on a psychiatrist’s couch.
It’s not likely that he will ever strike fear in the hearts of men. But combine his talents with those of another grade-B villain, The Firefly, and you have an interesting, if volatile, duo. Putting aside the obvious moth-to-a-flame references and for some reason, these guys make a pretty good team.
This time around the Firefly is revealed as a typical pyromaniac who just loves to see things burn. He’s not particular about what, just as long as it’s combustible. Hard to tell who’s in charge here, but this is one time that two zeros equal one pretty cool comic.
Elsewhere at DC/Vertigo, Y: The Last Man and Fables continue to redefine the second decade of the imprint. With luck, these books will be the twin pillars of a solid foundation for the future of the imprint, not because they’re science-fiction and fantasy books, but because, despite their exterior trappings, they’re both excellent stories.
Y #10, written by Brian K. Vaughan with art by Pia Guerra, explores the world without men, except for one guy named Yorick and his pet monkey in the town of Marrisville, where all the ladies have a secret. The neat inside references that us Ohioans get that others may have missed is that Marrisville is a thinly disguised Marysville, the site of our state’s biggest women’s prison.
Nice touch.
Vaughan’s work on the title has been impressive. At first the question was how far could he take the concept, but he seems to be doing just fine exploring odd angles and aspects of human behavior.
I still don’t get the need for a monkey yet, but I’m sure the answer is coming.
Anyone who missed Fables has a chance to jump on board with issue #12, the beginning of a two storyline featuring the ultimate damsel in distress, Sleeping Beauty. It’s way cool how Bill Willingham and artist Angel Medina have taken fairy tales and bedtime stories and made them the stuff of nightmares. And there’s no excuse not to pick up the trade paperbacks of both titles.
Hmmm…what else caught my attention this week?
Okay, from my willingness to give a, so far, monkey a free pass in Y, I don’t think that I need to say it, but in case I do, I am an animal lover.
To me, dogs are the greatest, though I would not let my cats hear me say that.
As a reporter, I’ve written many stories about animal abuse and subhuman scumsuckers that torture animals. Of course, I could never call them subhuman scumsuckers. I could also never have written anything as powerful as the Chuck Austen story called “Can They Suffer?” in X-Men Unlimited #44.
What an incredibly insightful story from a guy rapidly becoming my favorite Marvel writer. While he may not write the flashier stories of his sister X-titles, Austen can more often than not, cut right to the emotional heart of a story, giving his characters almost unexpected depth.The art is by Romano Molenaar, who did a very nice job.
It starts off with Sammy, the fish kid, angry because someone deliberately killed some fish in a pond on the grounds of the X-Mansion. He is further outraged when no one seems to care. Then a young pup is found beaten to death. Jean Grey reads the fading imprints of the dog’s brain and relives its death in a painfully sad sequence.
Before the story is over, the animal killers get what’s coming to them and valuable lessons are learned.
“We’re all animals, Cain,” Sammy explains to Juggernaut, a guy who cares nothing about animals. “And anyway, it’s not about what we are -- or what they are -- it’s about empathy. Understanding that they feel the love we give and the pain we cause them.”
Besides being a great animal story, it’s a good X-Men story as well, giving a look into the personalities of some of the characters we have not seen before.
A couple years ago, DC produced a special giveaway Superman comic that told a similar story. As far as I’m concerned, this is a lesson that can’t be repeated enough. I’m personally buying extra copies of this book to send out to humane organizations. It would be great if a reprint deal could be negotiated to allow the comic to be distributed in schools.
It’s a story that people need to see.
Michael Sangiacomo is a statewide news reporter for the Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. His syndicated "Journey Into Comics" weekly column on the state of the comic book business, can be found in newspapers and at the Newsarama website. His monthly comic book column appears the first Saturday of each month in the Plain Dealer Arts page and is syndicated through Newhouse Newspapers. He also writes a twice-monthly audiobooks review column covering crime thrillers and mysteries that can be seen at <a href="http://www.audiobookstoday.com" target="_blank">www.audiobookstoday.com</a>. He currently is developing Nowhere Man for Marvel’s Epic imprint.
I think I’m actually gaining respect for Batgirl. No – I’m not talking about the one with no hole in her mask for her mouth, or Oracle, who the first Batgirl, became, but the original, the real deal, Barbara Gordon, back when she wore the spandex and hung around on rooftops with Batman and Robin (Robin, meaning, Dick Grayson, not Tim Drake – sometimes, I feel so old.)
My growing respect is coming from Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty’s Batgirl: Year One miniseries from DC, which to date, has been a solid yarn about Babs’ first few outings as the…well, literal, red-headed stepchild of the Bat-family.
Case in point: Batgirl: Year One #5 - in her brief career as Batgirl, Barbara didn’t have all that many A-list villains. There was a leftover Batman foe named Killer Moth and then there was...hmmmm...
Did I mention the Killer Moth?
Okay, so moths are something you probably think of more for their delicate nature than their reputation as stone killers, but the Moth man always shows up when Batgirl enjoys a retrospective and he gets more interesting each time. The latest retelling, a re-examination actually, of Batgirl’s early career shows a Killer Moth who could do with a couple hundred sessions on a psychiatrist’s couch.
It’s not likely that he will ever strike fear in the hearts of men. But combine his talents with those of another grade-B villain, The Firefly, and you have an interesting, if volatile, duo. Putting aside the obvious moth-to-a-flame references and for some reason, these guys make a pretty good team.
This time around the Firefly is revealed as a typical pyromaniac who just loves to see things burn. He’s not particular about what, just as long as it’s combustible. Hard to tell who’s in charge here, but this is one time that two zeros equal one pretty cool comic.
Elsewhere at DC/Vertigo, Y: The Last Man and Fables continue to redefine the second decade of the imprint. With luck, these books will be the twin pillars of a solid foundation for the future of the imprint, not because they’re science-fiction and fantasy books, but because, despite their exterior trappings, they’re both excellent stories.
Y #10, written by Brian K. Vaughan with art by Pia Guerra, explores the world without men, except for one guy named Yorick and his pet monkey in the town of Marrisville, where all the ladies have a secret. The neat inside references that us Ohioans get that others may have missed is that Marrisville is a thinly disguised Marysville, the site of our state’s biggest women’s prison.
Nice touch.
Vaughan’s work on the title has been impressive. At first the question was how far could he take the concept, but he seems to be doing just fine exploring odd angles and aspects of human behavior.
I still don’t get the need for a monkey yet, but I’m sure the answer is coming.
Anyone who missed Fables has a chance to jump on board with issue #12, the beginning of a two storyline featuring the ultimate damsel in distress, Sleeping Beauty. It’s way cool how Bill Willingham and artist Angel Medina have taken fairy tales and bedtime stories and made them the stuff of nightmares. And there’s no excuse not to pick up the trade paperbacks of both titles.
Hmmm…what else caught my attention this week?
Okay, from my willingness to give a, so far, monkey a free pass in Y, I don’t think that I need to say it, but in case I do, I am an animal lover.
To me, dogs are the greatest, though I would not let my cats hear me say that.
As a reporter, I’ve written many stories about animal abuse and subhuman scumsuckers that torture animals. Of course, I could never call them subhuman scumsuckers. I could also never have written anything as powerful as the Chuck Austen story called “Can They Suffer?” in X-Men Unlimited #44.
What an incredibly insightful story from a guy rapidly becoming my favorite Marvel writer. While he may not write the flashier stories of his sister X-titles, Austen can more often than not, cut right to the emotional heart of a story, giving his characters almost unexpected depth.The art is by Romano Molenaar, who did a very nice job.
It starts off with Sammy, the fish kid, angry because someone deliberately killed some fish in a pond on the grounds of the X-Mansion. He is further outraged when no one seems to care. Then a young pup is found beaten to death. Jean Grey reads the fading imprints of the dog’s brain and relives its death in a painfully sad sequence.
Before the story is over, the animal killers get what’s coming to them and valuable lessons are learned.
“We’re all animals, Cain,” Sammy explains to Juggernaut, a guy who cares nothing about animals. “And anyway, it’s not about what we are -- or what they are -- it’s about empathy. Understanding that they feel the love we give and the pain we cause them.”
Besides being a great animal story, it’s a good X-Men story as well, giving a look into the personalities of some of the characters we have not seen before.
A couple years ago, DC produced a special giveaway Superman comic that told a similar story. As far as I’m concerned, this is a lesson that can’t be repeated enough. I’m personally buying extra copies of this book to send out to humane organizations. It would be great if a reprint deal could be negotiated to allow the comic to be distributed in schools.
It’s a story that people need to see.
Michael Sangiacomo is a statewide news reporter for the Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. His syndicated "Journey Into Comics" weekly column on the state of the comic book business, can be found in newspapers and at the Newsarama website. His monthly comic book column appears the first Saturday of each month in the Plain Dealer Arts page and is syndicated through Newhouse Newspapers. He also writes a twice-monthly audiobooks review column covering crime thrillers and mysteries that can be seen at <a href="http://www.audiobookstoday.com" target="_blank">www.audiobookstoday.com</a>. He currently is developing Nowhere Man for Marvel’s Epic imprint.