Batgirl #1 (of 6)

One-sentence summary: Pick this issue up if, for some reason, you're simultaneously dying for new Batgirl adventures and have absolutely no idea of her origin.

I, to some degree, read comic books for mild escapism. Not all of them, sure, but I go into the ones I'm initially neutral about (like this one) with a relative tabla rasa of opinion and am usually willing to overlook little things like awkward story-telling, which is why I rarely complain about those details. However, this was such a heavy exposition issue it almost physically hurt. It was like reading a wikipedia entry on Batgirl's history for a few pages as Nightwing droned on and on about it.

There's a couple major problems with a solution like that. For one, it's an incredibly inelegant solution to the problem of explaining what a reader needs to know about a character. There should be about a dozen alternative solutions you could just come up with off the fly (gradual introduction? Writing the story so you don't need to know all the background? Making portions of the background into elements in the story so the explanation of them is fluid?) which take care of this issue without brazenly drawing the reader's attention to what you're doing. The other problem is, like many comic characters, her history is ridiculous when you sit there and just spell it out like that. There's a certain suspension of disbelief when you read comics, sure, but there's only so much it can handle.

The story itself seems fine so far. It doesn't seem like it required all that background, but whatever. Unless you're a Batgirl fan, this seems like a pretty throwaway title to me so far, and a bizarrely plotted one at that. Escapism is far less enjoyable if you're made aware of it.

Countdown #29

One-sentence summary: While, technically, things happened in this issue, nothing of any importance did, which is a bit irritating.

I've probably given Countdown more patience than the average comic book reader. However, between the three Countdown tie-in titles a week (Captain Carrot? Really now?) that serve no purpose (looking at you, Search for Ray Palmer), and issues like this, which I'll rant about more next paragraph, well, they wear a reader out.

This seemed like some sort of bizarro issue, where the main title did nothing but support the tie-in titles' existences, and even then fairly thinly. It reminds me of watching the Turtles (of the Teenage Mutant Ninja kind) as a kid and them having their annual hour-long special which, I would realize later, served no purpose except to introduce characters which had already been made as a action figures, or had molds in process. That seemed to be the logic behind this issue. We had the exhilirating conclusion to the Jokester's plotline in that, well, he died. We introduced Lord Havokk or whatever his name is in order to to sell that 8 issue mini-series starting next month.

However, it's not all bad. I do like how ridiculously evil Mary Marvel has become so instantly. The Amazon storyline still doesn't interest me, which is pretty impressive considering how easily interested I am. The Karate Kid storyline, however, is pretty great, even if they only gave it a page this week. I'm definitely looking forward to see how badly Batman has managed to eff the world up again through Brother Eye. I'm not particularly interested in this DC-wide subplot of metahumans being captured and stored (I guess Marvel has ripped off of DC enough that turnabout's fair play), although I could have my opinions quickly turned if they actually did something with it (as is, the Suicide Squad series is still pretty unfocused).

The art's improved in this issue, I'd say. I'm sure there are some who'd say otherwise, but from my quick read nothing stood out too badly, and that's a good thing for a weekly title.

All in all, not too bad, really, but DC is doing some marketing things that are done tactlessly enough that they're distracting, and that gets to me.

Teen Titans #49

One-sentence summary: Oh good, more Amazons Attack tie-ins.

There's nothing I have to say about this that I haven't said about other Amazons Attack tie-ins. It's an overly forced thing that forces the characters involved to act rather out of character. Here there's so much frantic side-switching that nothing makes sense by the end of the issue.

Blugh. I'm just so tired of these stupide tie-ins, particularly ones for series I dislike. I'll say that this has more plot to it than, say, Incredible Hulk #108, but it still is a dumb tie-in. I have more or less nothing good to say about the Amazons Attack story.

Countdown #40

One-sentence summary: More storylines barely progress, but, in total, a fair amount of plot occurs.

See, this is what happens every time I read an issue of Countdown: I get to the last page and my brain thinks "Surely this can't be the last page already!" It's not even that there's not enough going on; it's just that every individual storyline only progresses a teeny bit each issue, but the actual progression is decent.

Anywho, this issue. Nothing particularly bugged me in it, and I was glad to see the newcomer to the Rogues story. Also, the fight scene with Donna and Jason was fun, and it was nice to see some solid action in this. Zatanna was a nice surprise -- I like her, so I hope she's around for a couple more issues, hah. Also, it was nice to finally see Apokolips, since it's supposed to be the focal point of all this.

Pretty decent issue, really. Things are starting to fall into place well.

Robin #164

One-sentence summary: An interesting lead into what looks to be a rather large-scale story for Robin.

It seems a fair number of folks really dislike the book Robin; while I don't share that, I can see where they're coming from. And I can see why they might dislike this upcoming story, with the collection of pretty horrible villains (Tapeworm?) trying to go Bart Allen all over Robin. Somehow, though, I want to see it. I don't have a great explanation why -- maybe I just have a penchant for heroes facing long odds, particularly when those odds include a pair of villains named Micro and Macro. It's just so comic book-y, something young in me loves it. And maybe that's what we should realize with Robin -- is this a book being picked up by folks wanting to see the '80s era giant dick-Batman come back, or is it being picked up by tweens who are going a couple steps farther after watching the Teen Titans cartoon? If it's the latter, then not only does this book make sense, but it succeeds wonderfully. It's not a PG book, don't get me wrong -- Dodge took off, moderately graphically, a guy's hand in this issue. But maybe it has that sense of fun, that art style that just occasionally borders on the cartoonish/animeish, that opens it up to that audience without being a separate brand of comic from those on the shelf around it.

I'll keep reading Robin. I'll look forward to the next issue, not because I really am worried about what will happen (I'll assume Robin will win), but because I'm wanting to see it happen. I want to see how it happens, because I bet it will be fun.

Countdown #41

One-sentence summary: Countdown continues to be a few interesting plots and a few not-so-interesting plots with decent, if inconsistent, art.

It's tough to do a review of Countdown without separating out the plots, at least at this point. I thought the Jimmy Olsen stuff in this one was pretty amusing; even if it didn't advance the story much, I liked it. It's a weekly title, so they get a "Get out of me complaining about slow plot development free" card (I have several overly specific cards). The Trickster and Piper plot is really growing on me. I began the series not really caring about the characters, but I've already grown to enjoy them -- I probably look forward to their plot as much as any other. I also like Mary Marvel, but she's just barely in this issue, so not much to say about her.

With the good, however, is the bad. The search for Ray Palmer is just, well, boring. Jason's dialogue with the Monitor was good, but I'm sort of sad that Ryan Choi has quickly gone from headlining a potentially great series to headlining a potentially canned series that contains little but adulations for Ray Palmer. I've yet to be interested in a single thing having to do with Amazons Attack, and that includes the Holly/Harley plot in Countdown.

If there are any plots I'm missing, well, I'm sort of sorry, but it also means they're probably boring. I like Countdown, really, and it gives me hope that certain storylines are growing on me; maybe by the end I'll be enjoying this totally. The title is definitely growing on me.