as ever comics are both great and terrible
Friday, 20 September 2013 11:16![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
usuallyhats
Finally got round to reading the 2002 Batman Family miniseries the other day! I enjoyed it a lot more than it probably warranted, because all of the Batfamily (ALL OF THEM) hanging out and fighting crime is just exactly what I want from a comic. ♥ The actual plot was a bit eh; I was pretty sad about who the villain was, and overall it just didn't tie up as well as it might have done (the plot thread from the Spoiler issue was just dropped, for example), but I liked the characterisation. There were also some lovely character interactions, particularly between Babs and Dinah (♥), Dick and Tim, and Dick and Cass - I'd seen bits of that last one on tumblr, but I was v. happy to see it in context. The art was pretty good too: not spectacular, but solid and non-skeevy, and Steph in particular looked SUPER CUTE with her short hair. The colouring was a bit iffy, though: one character's race seemed to vary from panel to panel, and Orpheus was whitewashed on the COVER of one issue. /o\ Also Babs was blonde at one point, leading me to believe for one glorious moment that Dick and Steph were hanging out together. ALAS NO. (Sidebar: does this happen anywhere outside of Steph's Batgirl series? I would LOVE to see it if so. Back when I thought the DCnU was a fixable universe, I wanted to see Steph and Cass reintroduced in Nightwing's comic (if they couldn't have their own book), because that would be such a fun and potentially adorable team. ♥)
I was really pleased that the Batfamily-and-associates at this point consisted of: one mixed race woman (Cass), one black man (Orpheus), four white women (Babs, Steph, Helena and Dinah) and only three white men (Bruce, Dick and Tim). But it's pretty sad to think that an equivalent series today would be four white men and one or two white women. :/ I mean, I know Orpheus was long gone by the time the reboot hit, but... if the reboot Batfamily WASN'T going to be pared down to just Bruce, Dick and Babs as it probably should've been, assuming a five year timeline, surely this would be a perfect moment to bring characters like him and Onyx back? To use their highest-profile character as leverage to up the profile of lesser known characters who AREN'T straight white men? Sigh.
At this point I would also like to plug the last three issues of Batman Beyond: #27-29 digitally, not sure what number the print version would be. They feature a new non-white Batgirl, Nissa, and are really great, especially Annie Wu's art. She and Comissioner Barbara Gordon (:D) have a fab dynamic, kind of like what Korra and Lin Bei-Fong might have had if Korra had just been a vigilante instead of the Avatar. If there is more stuff with her in I will definitely buy it. ♥
I was really pleased that the Batfamily-and-associates at this point consisted of: one mixed race woman (Cass), one black man (Orpheus), four white women (Babs, Steph, Helena and Dinah) and only three white men (Bruce, Dick and Tim). But it's pretty sad to think that an equivalent series today would be four white men and one or two white women. :/ I mean, I know Orpheus was long gone by the time the reboot hit, but... if the reboot Batfamily WASN'T going to be pared down to just Bruce, Dick and Babs as it probably should've been, assuming a five year timeline, surely this would be a perfect moment to bring characters like him and Onyx back? To use their highest-profile character as leverage to up the profile of lesser known characters who AREN'T straight white men? Sigh.
At this point I would also like to plug the last three issues of Batman Beyond: #27-29 digitally, not sure what number the print version would be. They feature a new non-white Batgirl, Nissa, and are really great, especially Annie Wu's art. She and Comissioner Barbara Gordon (:D) have a fab dynamic, kind of like what Korra and Lin Bei-Fong might have had if Korra had just been a vigilante instead of the Avatar. If there is more stuff with her in I will definitely buy it. ♥