Batgirl #7: Simone has really done an excellent job of peeling back the layers of the mysteries at the core of this series at just the right speed to keep you interested and not frustrated (***cough***Bendis***cough***). For example, Barbara's mother reveals that she left the family because of James, Jr. It's a pretty clear sign that James, Jr. is still the sociopath he was in Snyder's run on "Detective Comics" in the DCU, but Simone still hasn't shown us proof that he is. Did he do something in particular that creeped out Barbara, Sr. enough to leave, or was it just her intuition that he would? Simone advances the plot by more or less confirming that James, Jr. is who he was, but leaves open enough questions to keep us reading. Similarly, she isn't papering over Barbara suddenly being able to walk. I thought Simone did great work with Barbara's conversation with Black Canary here, because I think it's understandable that Barbara is going through all the moping she wouldn't allow herself to do when she had no choice but to live with her paralysis. Moreover, the cliffhanger really brings the issue to a head. Simone also has other pots on the fire, opening up the question of how Barbara got her equipment (I had assumed from Batman) and who Grotesque really is. All in all, it's like reading a Peter David story, where you're getting a lot of plot development on various levels at the same time. (I can't think of higher praise than calling something David-esque.)
In addition to the various mysteries, one of the interesting things about this series is that Barbara isn't doing so well. I mean, each arc so far has left a body count that resulted, at least partially, from Babs' inability to take immediate action: she couldn't prevent Mirror from killing Detective McKenna's partner, she couldn't stop the mob boss from killing his sons, and she loses the billionaire here. I like how Simone is using these events to show that Barbara isn't just having some sort of existential crisis about her mental blocks, but that the blocks are actually preventing her from doing her "job." If she were performing flawlessly, saving everyone all the time, it would be hard not to just see her concerns as indulgent. Instead, if she is going to be the superhero she once was, she has to resolve these feelings. The fact that Simone is matching the rhetoric to the action is probably the reason this series feels as emotionally satisfying as it does.
Batman #7: Whoa. I had to re-read parts of this issue, and I'm still not entirely sure I get everything. But, the revelation that Dick was being trained to be a Talon for the Court of Owls BLEW MY MIND. BLEW. MY. MIND. Snyder works it into the story so well you barely notice the impact of it at first. But, in case you missed it, Bruce highlights the importance for you, noting how he now sees Gotham in an entirely different light. He implies that Gotham hasn't had its eyes on him to protect its stalwart guardian, as he once thought, but the Court has had its eyes on him to monitor its lost Talon. Birds v. bats, Robin v. Batman. Snyder creates a story that works on several different levels, pitting Bruce against the Court, against Gotham, against Robin. He strikes at the heart of the mythos of Batman in a way that doesn't feel ret-con-y at all, but almost as if this story was planned from the moment Kane started writing the first Batman story.
Moreover, Snyder uses this revelation to go to the core of the question I had earlier in this arc, namely how Bruce could've missed the presence of the Court in Gotham for so long. Bruce was so insistent that the Court hadn't existed for as long as it implied that it led you to wonder why, particularly when the evidence seemed to show that it had. It felt odd to me, because it seemed to box Snyder into a corner. Either the Court was going to be proven not to have existed as long as it was implying, undermining the impact of the story, or it was going to have existed that long, undermining the believability of the story, since you'd have to believe that Bruce somehow missed it all these years. But, Snyder is too good to write himself into a corner. He actually has Bruce admitting he was wrong, showing that his overconfidence that he understood Gotham was what led him into the blind spot that the Court used to manipulate him in the first place. But, usually, it would be hard to accuse Bruce of overconfidence, since he's so careful. Snyder has Bruce himself note to Dick in "Batman" #4 that he didn't believe in the Court because he had already spent time looking into it. Snyder reveals here that it wasn't a blinding overconfidence that kept him from finding the Court; it was an understandable overconfidence built on the fact that only Court was good enough to elude him. As I said in my review of "Batman" #2, I was worried that I would be disappointed by the reveal that Bruce was wrong, because I couldn't believe anyone could pull the wool over Bruce's eyes, particularly not yet another nefarious shadowy organization that we only just discovered existed. But, Snyder proved me wrong. His work over issues #5 and #6, showing us how calculating and powerful the Court is, made me a believer. Without these issues, I don't know if I would buy it, but, with these issues, I fully believe that Court could've eluded even Bruce's notice.
This issue of Bruce not understanding everything he thought he did brings us to the Robin factor. We learned in issue #2 that the John Doe killed in issue #1 had Dick's DNA under his fingernails because he had grabbed Dick's arm at a public event. As we learn here, he grabbed Dick's arm because he knew Dick was meant to be a Talon, because Doe trained the Talons. I will note that I'm not entirely sure how Doe would've been old enough to have trained Dick's great-grandfather. Snyder doesn't exactly
lay out that sequence, and it's really the only part of the story that I
felt could've used a bit more explanation, particularly because I don't
think we're going to return to it. The only reasons I could devise were that the Court had re-animated Cobb at some point to get him trained by Doe and then put him back into suspended animation or that Doe only just trained Cobb after he was recently re-animated. But, neither of those answers are perfect. If he was re-animated and then re-suspended, why couldn't he be trained in his era? If he was trained only just after recently getting re-animated, why kill the trainer? Even if Cobb was "the star athlete," as Dick says, wouldn't the Court need to keep training all the other potential Talons? Wouldn't that mean that all those Talons that the Court just activated still need to be trained?
The point of the revelation, though, is that it further connects Dick to the Talons (since the trainer knew who he was). It draws the parallel that the DNA under Doe's fingernails might, or might not, have been Dick's DNA, but it was at the very least a Grayson's DNA. (Well, a Cobb's, but you get the point.) It also makes me realize that the whole Saiko business we've been seeing in "Nightwing" might not have been as random as I thought. I loved Dick's final speech to Bruce, cautioning him from seeing the world in black and white and reminding him that they all get to be who they want to be, not who the past tells them to be. Given how rooted this story is in both Bruce's and Dick's pasts, it seems like an important -- and prophetic -- reminder.
I can't wait to see where Snyder goes from here. Remarkably, we still know little about the Court, how it ties into the Wayne family (beyond merely kidnapping Alan), and why it wants Gotham back. It's amazing that Snyder has told such a gripping story, and we still have so much left to learn. Moreover, Snyder still hasn't told us how the Court avoided Bruce's notice. He's simply proven that it did.
I can't wait to discover who really runs the Court, if only because we
haven't really had anyone established as first among equals yet. Even
the guy who sends the Talons into Gotham at the end of this issue seems
to be just one of the masses. Is it Lincoln March? Maybe. Is it some
guy? Maybe. Snyder will let us know in due time.
Batman and Robin #7: Ugh. Seriously, ugh. This issue...just...no. I don't know what was worse, Bruce screaming "You try to murder my son...and expect to live?!" like he's the "Goddamn Batman" or the last scene, with Damian declaring "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned" while he's got his hand implanted in Nobody's forehead. I haven't felt that Bruce feels anything even remotely approaching love for his son. Every comment he's made, every emotion he's felt, seems driven more by the fact that Nobody was using Damian to attack him than it was by the fact that Nobody was attacking Damian in the first place. In this issue, Damian seems little more than a toy at the center of a fight between two squabbling brothers. I get that this series is going to be darker in tone than the other Bat-books, given Damian's participation in it, but Tomasi's Bruce is almost unrecognizable to me. I'll give this series one more arc, but, if I'm still getting this Bruce, I'm canceling it.
Batwoman #7: This issue is hard to follow, starting, as it does, at the end. I had some trouble determining whether or not my confusion over who some of the minor characters were (and what role they played) came from failing to remember them or from never getting to know them in the first place. Sometimes this confusion got in the way of the plot, sometimes it didn't. For example, I didn't know who Abbott was, but WnB manage to use him, regardless of whether you remember him, to inform the reader that Medusa is trying to force other gangs, such as Abbott's Religion of Crime, from Gotham. However, I had no idea what happened once Kate de-hooked Hook. She calls the guy "Rush," clearly knowing who he is, despite the fact that he doesn't seem at all familiar to me. Moreover, he says that she swore she'd protect him, leading me to believe we haven't seen the sequence yet where they meet. WnB are equally hot and cold in presenting some of the developments of the overall plot in this issue. They give us more insight into Medusa, letting us know that it's run by a guy, Falchion, who uses his mystic powers to turn urban legends, such as the Weeping Woman, into real monsters. However, I didn't entirely follow the exchange with Sune and the guys who appeared to be members of the Religion of Crime but may have been Medusa. Why would she cover their escape if they're Religion of Crime? Is she betraying Medusa? Is that why the D.E.O. thinks it can work with her? If she is betraying Medusa, why does she give the escapees a message to pass onto Falchion, given that he's the head of Medusa, not the Religion of Crime? Wouldn't they be running from Falchion not to him? Moreover, if they're actually agents of Medusa, why are they so sick from the events in the room? Is it just squeamishness over Croc eating people? I'm OK with WnB juggling all these characters and plots in the time-jump narrative, but it's only interesting so long as it's not distracting. Unfortunately, at least in this issue, I feel that it is starting to undermine WnB's ability to tell the story that they want to tell. If you're constantly wondering who's who, it's difficult to focus your attention on who's doing what. All that said, the art is great. Reeder does an amazing job slowly revealing the fact that the hook talks and the Bloody Mary sequence is amazing. I'm hoping that next issue refines this story a little so we can start getting a better sense of what Medusa is and what its goal is, beyond shoving out other gangs.
Nightwing #7: As I said in my review of "Batman" #7, this arc makes a lot more sense now that I know Higgins wasn't just ad libbing the mystery. In fact, it seems like he was more or less forced to drag out the mystery a little long than he might've otherwise, simply to make sure the reveal -- that Dick was supposed to be a Talon, but the death of his parents and his adoption by Bruce meant the Court of Owls chose Raymond instead -- was timed to "Batman." It actually gives me a lot more hope for this title, because a lot of my complaining about Higgins' writing had to do with pacing, something I now realize was outside his control. As such, this issue does a good job of wrapping up Raymond's story and preparing us for the "Night of Owls" event. The only downside to this issue, to my mind, is the fact that we've already seen 3.5 pages of the 20 pages in "Batman" #7. Higgins couldn't avoid it, obviously, since the scene in the Batcave is key to both titles. But, it does throw off the rhythm of the issue. Otherwise, though, Higgins does a good job wrapping up the loose ends and propelling us into the next mystery, namely who (yet again, seemingly) is framing Dick for murders he didn't commit.
Red Hood and the Outlaws #7: OMG, I wish Lobdell would just resolve this All-Caste/Untitled business once and for all. I mean, OK, he at least gives us some insight into who the Untitled are and why Ducra wasn't one of them. But, he still doesn't explain why she had to protect humanity from them (other than the fact that they were evil), how exactly she managed to do so, and why one of them decided to break the truce and kill her now. Moreover, I'm not really sure what Lobdell was trying to do with Essence. For example, she tells Jason that he killed the Untitled responsible for slaying Ducra. However, the Untitled that Jason killed in Colorado wasn't the one that killed Ducra; Jason was led to her by the actual killer (presumably) for reasons that still haven't been made clear, but imply a civil war among the Untitled. (To recap issues #2-#5, the Untitled who killed Ducra stole something called the Azar and left a snow globe of Colorado to taunt Jason. Jason went to Colorado, where he encountered another Untitled, who made it clear she didn't kill Ducra. Jason killed said Untitled and plans to kill the rest of them, since he now views it as his mission to avenge the All-Caste.) Why exactly would Essence tell Jason that the Untitled in Colorado was responsible? Lobdell seems to be implying that she killed Ducra and she's trying to throw Jason off her tail with misdirection, sending Jason to Colorado to kill the Untitled who she hopes that he would view as responsible for the deaths. But, does she really believe that Jason wouldn't have known he was being tricked into believing that the Untitled in Colorado killed Ducra? I mean, the snow globe seems a little much. If Essence wasn't the killer, though, I have no idea what her game was, since she never really gets a chance to tell Jason why she's appearing before him before he attacks her. I know that Lobdell is using Jason's quest against the Untitled as a way to move Jason past his problems with the Bat-family; Jason says as much this issue. But, the problem with this approach is that he has to make sure that the new family in Jason's life, the All-Caste, is as compelling as the other one. He's not really doing that here. We're seven issues into this series (and essentially six issues into this arc) and we still have very little idea of where Lobdell is going with it. Moreover, it still feels remarkably different from the stories I think we all assumed we'd get in this title. It was OK for a few issues, but the more we meander in this supernatural alley, the more I'm wondering why I'm getting this title other than the hope that Jason will appear shirtless. But, at this point, he could be naked each and every issue, and I think I'd still be disappointed.
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