More tales of Gotham City today
BATMAN: Black Mirrors - This book takes place in a different timeline in the Batman universe. Here, Bruce Wayne has gone off to train other vigilantes in other cities, creating Batman, INC. So original Robin, Dick Grayson is now the dark knight. This book follows some of his adventures in his first year as the new Batman. He's a very different Batman, and it's weird to hear Batman having a sense of humor. It's also nice to see a hero who is ready to take the lead but still has to make mistakes. Dick Grayson's Batman is not as good a detective and he gets himself into trouble a number of times. It's a decent enough book, but I miss Bruce Wayne.
6/10
CATWOMAN Vol. 1: The Game - I'm really enjoying what I've read of DC's New 52 so far. I love this version of Catwoman. I was pleasantly surprised at how human and empathetic Catwoman was. She's an antihero who is tough and can certainly take care of herself, but she also makes human mistakes. She's clearly been through a lot in her life, and uses her career as a thief to run away from her problems. That works out as well as you'd expect. What I really like about this portrayal is that we get to see someone who is constantly fighting between be smart, and being impulsive. She knows when she's doing something ill-advised, but she does it anyway, trusting that she's clever enough to figure it out later. Then she has to deal with the self-doubt and loathing that comes from screwing up big time. It would be easy to dismiss Catwoman and a sexist stereotype, but I found there to be a great consistency and logic to the character. You expect a certain amount of issues in a person who dresses as a cat and steals jewels. It also make sense that she and Batman have the occasional fling. It's the one time they can reverse their roles. Batman gets to feel impulsive, and Catwoman gets to feel safe, at least for a little while.
9/10
BATWOMAN: ELEGY - SO on the recommendation of one of my readers I want back and read this volume and boy did it answer a lot of my questions. This is the book where we get to see how Kate Kane got kicked out of the military. This is where you get to see the power of the comic medium. The still image of the moment she realizes that she is about to lose everything she's worked for is haunting. Daniel Choi, one of the Soldiers who helped in the fight to overturn Don't Ask, Don't Tell was one of the people who helped in the crafting of this story. When you have former military officers working with you on the story and Rachel Maddow writes the forward, you know this is more than just a superhero book. Kate Kane's sexual orientation is directly related to her becoming Batwoman. Because she isn't allowed to serve her country the way she wants to, she has to find another way. It helps that her father is a high ranking Colonal and get her some shiny toys. She is a very different sort of hero from Batman. Her methods have more in common with Black Ops training than Batman's detective and martial arts background. While Batman has developed a strict no killing rule, you know that Batwoman has been trained in lethal combat. Honestly, if you ran into either of them in a dark alley, you'd probably want to take your chances with Batman. The book ends with the major revalation that Batwoman's twin sister wasn't murdered by terrorists 20 years ago. It works as a reason to drive a wedge between her and her father, but otherwise I wasn't totally impressed. So far we have character that is far more complex and interesting than the adventures she takes part in, but I'm officially a fan.
8/10
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