Thursday, July 22, 2010

Batgirl 12 and Superman 701

Spoilers ahead....
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Batgirl 12
I'd picked up issues 4 to 7 before, but not been hooked in enough to add it to my regular pull list.  I kept thinking I should buy it (because that's what feminist comics fans like me like, right?) but I resisted until issue 12.  Chiefly because while I enjoyed the other issues I jsut didn't feel they were special enough.  So what prompted me to buy #12?
1 - The cover.

Bee-yoo-tiful!  There's so much character in this portrait.
2 - issue # 14 is gonna have Supergirl as a guest star (and vampires!) and I wanted to be set up for that.

So, was this issue any good?
#12 wraps up Steph's first year under the cowl.  I got the distinct impression that up until now she has been finding her feet - learning the ropes if you will.  Now she knows who she is, what she can do and she has nothing to prove anymore.

This issue is also the final installment of a 4 part arc - Calculator has turned Gothamites into drones and captured Oracle.  Steph is out to save her.  Jumping into this arc at the end worked well for me.  I dislike the Calculator, immensely, and I believe he has been overused these past few years.  At the end of this book he is deafeated, and with any luck we won't see him again for a good long while.

In the book, Calculator  has mindlinked himself to Oracle.  In her mind, Babs can walk.  So much for disability pride.  (Not that Babs has disabality pride, so that's probably a stupid thing of me to say.  Acceptance of your situation does not equal pride).

But then, by the end of the book, Wendy has taken a role as Oracle's backup and is calling herself Proxy.  That makes 2 wheelchair using superheros in the DCU now.  Two!

I particularly enjoyed Wendy crashing her plane into the robot that was attacking Steph.  A very over the top and stupid thing to do, but that's the sorta thing I like.

I am glad this book is now on my pull list.

Superman 701
And so begins his long walk across America.

The thing about Superman is that he means a lot of different things to different people.  Sure, wecan agree on the basics - goodness, truthfullness etc, but after that, we get a little muddled.

This issue we see anew type of Clark - short tempered, testy, but also caring and helpful.  I don't quite understand how he's left Lois so soon, but this is a version of Superman that I can get behind and appreciate.

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