BATWING #2
Review by: Cindrollic
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Art and cover by BEN OLIVER
Size: 32 pages
Price: 2.99
This review contains spoilers, click here to read
Following the New 52 last month, I decided to change things up a bit with the first batch of #2’s. Each week, I would read the slew of new DC titles in one sitting, starting with the one’s that peaked my attention the most, like Action Comics, Animal Man, Batwoman, then slog through the titles that just didn’t quite grab me, like Grifter, Red Lanterns, Deathstroke, and (many) more. This time I saved the best for last and rifled through the ‘meh’ pile first.
And Batwing #2 was at the top of the stack this week.
While certainly not the worst of the relaunch, Batwing was a middle of the road book. The slow/decompressed story and lack of explanation on who Batwing is or why he’s Batwing created something of an apathy while reading the first issue, and the artwork by Ben Oliver and colors by Brian Reber just wasn’t doing it for me.
But I want to be as fair as my ever-declining bank account balance will allow. It was, however, just a first issue, and the cliffhanger I didn’t see coming (though the shock value came more from the brutality of the image than concern over whether the character would survive; more on that later) so I decided to give it one more issue to hook me before dropping it.
Thankfully, the pacing has picked up from the snail’s crawl of the last issue. Our protagonist, David Zavimbe—Batwing—has been critically wounded by the villain calling himself Massacre, and has lied unconscious for two weeks as Massacre has continued his hunt for super-powered beings. Though, when you look at the issue as a whole, it’s seems like mostly setup building us toward the fight between Massacre and Batwing at the start of issue #1. But at least it doesn’t drag us along to reach it—it’s quick and gets us to the ‘stand against the enemy’ moment pretty fluidly. I was pleasantly surprised over the improvement from the previous issue.
Though my main complaint from the first issue remains: A lack of investment in the characters. Who are these people? Why are they where they are right now, and what motivated them to that point? Two issues in and I don’t have a guess. Maybe Winick’s sparing us a long internal monologue from the character explaining their background as we saw time and time again last month. The opposite end of that spectrum, however, left me with characters that just seem to be missing something—a breath life to them. The dialogue, the internal narration, the design of the characters, all of these felt very standard, especially after reading 12-13 titles a week, all trying to grab your attention and all in one sitting. Though personally it’s more the lack of distinctive characters whom I can sympathize with or despise, depending on the character, than the art. If someone’s hanging on for dear life on the end of a rope that’s about to snap and they plunge to their death, you’d better damn well make sure it’s a character I can care about, and want to see make it out of the situation alive, otherwise it’ll ring empty. And while it has it’s positives, I’d be lying if I didn’t say something about Batwing (so far, at least) didn’t feel a bit hollow.
The improvement has given me enough incentive to pick up at least the next issue. And I hope that improvement continues and this grows out of it’s character problems and into a title I’d gladly pick up every month, as opposed to being mildly curious to see where they take the story.
Time will only tell.
Story: 4 - Very Good
Art: 3 - Good
Art: 3 - Good
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