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| Blood! |
Grim, grimmer and grimmest. No-one smiles in Batwing #13 unless they're cutting the throats of terrified young girls or piloting fighter planes into the centre of cities. To call A Hard Turn joyless would hardly be giving credit to the sheer overwhelming excess of misery to be found there. Though Winick's script is a carelessly written cliche-fest, and despite his characters being woefully one-dimensional and profoundly uninteresting, all involved have at least succeeded in packing the issue with a great clogging, blood-sodden mess of angst. Beyond the deliberate unpleasantness of the violence and the bloke-thrilling miserabilism, there's hardly anything here to note at all. Bad people do predictably terrible things, and then they do it all again, while a tiny number of stolid super-people bravely stand up for the good and true. And that's all that happens, expect for a single mawkish scene in which a policewoman admits to taking bribes and being frightened for her kidnapped niece. Luckily, that big strong Batwing - in his secret identity as a charisma-less copper - is there to comfort her and stiffen her resolve. Everyone serving as a police officer in the Democratic Republic of Congo is on the take, it seems, and nobody there can be relied upon. The sole exception is this one heroic officer, who just happens to be funded in his off-duty do-gooding by a philanthropic, supersuit-providing American billionaire.
It's strange how no-one at DC even now seems to have thought through the consequences of this unfortunate aspect of Batwing's set-up. When the only good man and true in the undeniably corrupt police force of the DRC is a sidekick to an American tycoon, unfortunate implications inevitably suggest themselves.
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| Even more blood! |
It's a considerable cheek that a comic which tells so little story should also be so difficult to make sense of. Clearly, the comic's creators - and the editorial staff who support them - missed that key New 52 meeting when it was decided that stories would no longer be impenetrable to casual readers. For who is the fiendish Father Lost, the supposedly terrifying mastermind behind all this misery? What are his powers and his intentions, and why should we care? Why are his followers rounding up stray innocents and gorily murdering them? Who is Dawn, the superheroine who can create glowing swords from nothing, and what's her mission beyond the generic hunting down of very bad and thereby eminently-slashable madmen? Is the only way to deal with folks who appear to be under Lost's control to stab them? Is everyone - absolutely everyone - in the DRC beyond Batwing corrupt and/or useless, and does that explain why both Dawn and Batwing are working alone? Why is a mind-controlled South African Air Force General attacking the city of Tinasha in a fighter-bomber when there's a thousand miles and more separating the two nations?
Is there any way to get to grips with what's going on here beyond investing in all the relevant back issues or hanging on for the inevitable collected edition, and didn't the regime of Mr Didio promise us that those fleece-the-punter days were over?
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| Corruption! |
But the questions don't stop there, although the next wave of them are much the same as those which were quite legitimately hurled in Batwing's direction when it debuted. Why is it that the comic's set in a take on the DRC when it shows nothing of the nation and its people beyond the most obvious of stereotypes and super-book cliches? Shouldn't there be also something that's worth respecting, and perhaps even - gosh - celebrating, amongst all the poverty, psychopathic cults, and state corruption which drive the plot of A Hard Turn? Can DC Comics really not find anything of value at all to portray in this entire nation beyond a few personality-free, super-powered crime-fighters? Yet there's not even a single visual example of architecture, fauna or pop culture here which suggests that this is a story set in a specific, modern-era African nation. There's certainly little but the slightest hint of an effort to represent life as it's lived in the often incredibly challenging circumstances of the DRC. Even the police uniforms in the art by Marcus To and his many inkers seem ridiculously over-simplified; there's no sense of specificity here, and therefore, no character. Why is this comic set where it is, when so little care seems to be being taken to reflect the DRC in anything but the most perfunctory, stereotype-reinforcing way?
No, the lack of flat-screen computers at Tinasha's police headquarters does not in itself constitute either evidence of research or respect for the detail of everyday life in Batwing's homeland. But that's the closest that this comic gets to the slightest sense of verisimilitude. Neither well-crafted or purposefully fair-minded in anything but the most crass of gestures, what is the point of Batwing?
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| Half-naked, leering, clearly added mad-folks with knives! |
The Best Of Batwing #13
It's a challenging business, to nominate the two best moments in a comic that's so uniformly disappointing, and yet that's something I'd like to start to add to whatever reviews appear here. Still, the following are my personal nominations for the very finest aspects of this issue;
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| 1. For a writer who seems to find it a challenge to avoid the exceptionally obvious in Batwing #13, it ought to be noted that Dawn hasn't been given the all-too-common "THIS ENDS NOW!" as she charges into the Finder's torture chamber. Instead, Winick bravely breaks with convention and has her declare "NO, THIS IS ALL GOING TO END!" instead. |
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| 2. The most promising scene in the comic involves Batwing trying to fool a prisoner in a police-cell by projecting a holographic illusion around him. This, it seems, will disorient him to the degree that he'll answer questions. It's an interesting idea, and one which has the promise to break up the monotony of the art's empty, characterless panels. Yet silly old Batwing hasn't realised that the prisoner might see through the illusion, which is surely a probable outcome. Indeed, he's so silly that he's standing right in front of his opponent, and in his civvies too. How convenient. It means that he's vulnerable to attack, which is a conveniently easy way of furthering the plot. It also means that he's also pretty much given away his secret identity too, though the book doesn't touch on that. |
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Ah,"THIS ENDS NOW" and his poorly cousin "LETS FINISH THIS", how you never fail to utterly break a story for me. They're this generation of lazy writers' "LETS DO THIS" and "SHED A LITTLE LIGHT ON THE SITUATION".
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big Transformers fan, but of late I do enjoy how the franchise seems to have blatantly and willfully embraced its own corniness until even the videogames go out of their way to shoehorn in terrible lines that are callbacks to the original cartoon show - and I mean they really go out of their way to do it, creating lengthy story sequences in supposedly super-grim space-war sagas that lead up to a robot crowning himself the king of evil in a big celebration just so Megatron can quote Transformers: The Movie, even though almost every single line in that film is bloody terrible.
Basically, there are writers going out of their way to put bad lines of dialogue in their scripts, and I think that's what's happened with Batwing. It's deliberate.
Hello Brigonos:- I think you're absolutely right. A prime example of the process is the closing issue of the dreaded AvX, where the cheesiest Claremontisms are presented as if they were sacred litany. And it seems obvious that everyone involved felt that they just HAD to include these clunky lines because ... of what? Homage? Respect? A gentle mockery of the original material? There are some really good writers on AvX, including the likes of the splendid Jason Aaron. How did all that cheese get in there?
DeleteI share your conviction that the likes of LET'S FINISH THIS! and THIS ENDS NOW! are often used without the slightest degree of self-awareness. There's a culture in comics now which sees the restricted emotional and cultural range of the Rump as aspects of a schema which determines HOW TO WRITE COMICS.
With the noble exception of the usual suspects, the super-book has never been so disappointing, so deliberately under-achieving. Well, apart from just every month's worth of imports in the 90s ....
Ah Colin, reading Batwing so we don't have to. I packed in at #2 - it was too stabby and corrupt-tastic for me. Sounds as if it hasn't changed.
ReplyDeleteDon't feel you have to nominate Best Moments - given what you reached for here, you may have to call them the Least Shite Moments.
'Luckily, that big strong Batwing - in his secret identity as a charisma-less copper - is there to comfort her and stiffen her resolve.' Did his resolve stiffen too fnar fnar.
Er, sorry. It's late.
Hello Martin:- Reading Batwing always makes me feel like it's late. Very late. The mind starts to curl up into its equivilant of the fetal position. Africa! Poverty! Horror! Blood! American enablers, American saviours! Gawd help us, it's such miserable stuff. I just went back and bought the O issue from ComiXology and it's just the same there. There's a few more panels with backgrounds which appear to have been lifted from a Google picture search, and a couple of stoic enablers to guide the young David, which makes it seems like a work of journalism in comparison to #13, and yet, of course, it's still the same pap. You'd think all involved would be working overtime to represent the DRC as fairly and accurately as possible, and that they'd be desperate not to slip into gross distortions/over-simplifications/stereotypes.
DeleteBut they just don't give a toss. Or if they do, they don't have the faintest how to turn that concern into fiction.
Least Shite Moments? I was struggling, I really was ....
The sad thing is that once upon a time, Judd Winnick tried hard. Pedro & Me is a comic that can be given to non-comic book readers as a positive example. Barry Ween made me laugh, and even tugged at the heartstrings when appropriate. Exiles was a hoot, a fun celebration of Marvel's history with both a good sense of humor and effective melodrama. For all his work's faults, he strove to fill Green Lantern and Green Arrow stories with emotionally-charged moments and even character development. While neither series was close to perfect, I ended up sticking with GL until the end of his run and sticking with GA for maybe 3 storylines. I haven't read much Winnick since, although his work seems to have fallen out of favor with most readers.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how Batwing would have been written if the Judd Winnick of 2000 had taken a stab at it.
Have you read the most recent Unknown Soldier series, the one that took place in Africa? There's a lot of murder, corruption, etc. in that series but it was a powerful, fully realized comic.
- Mike Loughlin
Hello Mike:- I find myself absolutely baffled by JW's scripts for Batwing. For a man who's shown himself to be sensitive to a range of social issues - as you yourself say - he seems remarkably unconcerned about the content of Batwing. You'd think the book was set in one of the enclaves of the ruling elite of Apokolips from his scripts; it's such an unrelenting and unsympathetic portrayal. Of course the DRC is a nation afflicted by a host of absolutely terrible social problems. But Batwing drains the nation of everything but, as I tried to say in the above, genre conventions which coincide to a worrying degree with stereotypes and super-book traditions. It's rotten work, both as a monthly super-book and as the only super-book representing Africa in today's market. You'd think he and DC would notice what they're saying, and what they're not, but sadly that doesn't appear to be true.
DeleteI have read the first collection of the Vertigo Unknown Soldier. I put aside with mixed feelings which I struggled to make sense of. I intended to go back and as yet I haven't. I appreciate you inadvertently reminding me.
It is, of course, not the presence of murder, corruption, blood etc etc which determines the worth of a story, as you yourself imply. It's how these elements are represented, and what else is done as well. I've been re-reading Tim Butcher's Blood River - about the terrible tragedy that is the history of the DRC - and Chasing The River as my bath-books recently. (I found some 10p copies, so I can bear to ruin them.) No-one could ever say that Butcher avoids the horrors of the DRC. But he also explains why, and places everything in a human perspective.
I probably mention this too much, but I teach English at a Canadian university, and one of spordically-offered courses is on superheroes. I thought about assigning the first Batwing collection, for two reasons: one, child-soldier narrative as superheroic tragic origin has such possibilities; and two, one of my colleagues works on and often teaches child-soldier texts, both fictional and autobiographical.
ReplyDeleteBut I didn't, partly because the nu52 would just confuse the hell out of the students, but mostly because Batwing was coasting on an extremely good idea without really dealing with any of the consequences of that. Soe of those consequences might be good: an opening arc that was about the Kingdom's revolution, with Batwing as our focal point, sympathetic yet compromised by his attachment to an American billionaire? That would have been a story worthy of the idea.
But we got this instead, followed by the character being shoe-horned into the Court of Owls nonsensery. Batwing doesn't make me angry. It makes me sad.
Hello Cory:- I think Batwing would be a text I'd think about teaching in your situation, and I think I'd be worried about doing so for the reasons you say. I'd also, as a bloke who loves his super-books, ashamed to offer up Batwing without having a comparable modern-era book which wasn't so ... wretchedly poor.
DeleteI agree entirely with you about the potential here, both in terms of the set-up itself and in terms of the ideology it appears to express. The first thing I'd want to deal with would be that matter about Batwings relationship with Wayne and his fortune. The idea that the superheroic salvation of the DRC is ultimately all down to Wayne is SO unfortunate. He spots the potential, he designs the identity, he provides the technology and - we must presume - the funding and supplies too.
It doesn't make me angry, as you say, but it does make me feel frustrated to the point of trying to find some hair to pull out.
But then so does the absence of ANYTHING of the many, complex classes/cultures/stratas in the DRC beyond a narrow range of headline - and admittedly terribly serious - social problems.
In the end, it's not just that Batwing is a book that doesn't care. It's not even curious.
Pah and sigh.
Flagelant! The term that comes to mind when you immerse yiurself in this kind of dross. Reading your review and flicking through this pamphlet in the comic shop I can understand the only review things you like mentality. No one should have to read this, even as a public service but its part of the reviewers role to look deeply into the unpalatable as well as the good and the excellent and hold it up to the light so that its failings become obvious to the world. I'm so glad it's not my job. You do the job well and I admire that but thank God its not my job.
ReplyDeleteAnd where's the Winnick who gave us Barry Ween?
Hello Peter:- I do feel that I ought to try to keep up with with what's going on in the super-book. In part, it's because I'm weary of folks who - unlike you, I must say - say that it's not a worthwhile business at all. (As you say, you don't want to read the likes of Batwing. You don't suggest in any way that the sub-genre should be left alone, an example of a form that's implicitly not worthwhile.) I also think that I ought to go back and re-review books which I've reported badly on. Batwing is the kind of property which, if done right, could even be up for discussion at Q. The mixture of politics and genre fiction could make for an invigorating and potentially break-out comicbook.
DeleteWhat a shame that it's such a poor, poor comic. The one consolation; through staring into this particular abyss, I get a much clearer idea of how such a book might be approached in a less ... unappealing fashion.
Barry Ween, I fear, I don't know. Winick's superbooks have always been rather thin - if often well intentioned - stories according to my own taste. Though I've always meant to go and see what he's achieved elsewhere, and have taken folk's recommendations seriously concerning doing so, there's always been something else which seems more worthwhile.
welcome to DC comics.
ReplyDeleteHello Geoffrey:- I feel honour bound to celebrate the DC Comics I do enjoy here, such as Demon Knights, Dial H For Hero and Batgirl.
DeleteBut there is, shall we say, a worrying and considerable tendency towards papdom in the New 52 .....
Ive mentioned this before on Martin's blog, Colin, so maybe it shouldnt be repeated here, but I seriously dislike Judd Winnick and his work. Maybe this isnt the time or place for it, but years ago I saw him in the MTV series 'Real World' and he struck me as deeply unpleasant and manipulative. He conspired with the other housemates to force another out of the apartment they shared, and looked after the girlfriend of another whilst he was away...so much so he ended up marrying her; nice. But for me it was his 'Pedro And Me' tpb which was the most disgraceful. Pedro was HIV positive [from years as a teenage prostitute in his home country] and when he told the other housemates it was Winnick who tried to force him [oh so gently] out of the house, with that ignorant American attitude of 'what if we get Aids from sharing drinking cups/glasses, using the same toilet, etc'. Winnick wanted nothing to do with the poor lad until after the show ended and he tried to capitalized on the MTV show by portraying himself as his 'best friend'.
ReplyDeleteWinnick certainly dosent mind using the homosexual community when it suits him; its a common game on some web- sites to play a game on how long it takes him to introduce a gay character into each of his books [a stereotyped gay character, natch, at least how straight people expect them to behave]. He really does love his 'social issues' does Winnick - gays are only here to be beaten up, and women are only effective when theyr oppressed. and if youre unfortunate to be white and male, then theres nothing down for you; youre either a villain or a wimp. He plays up big-time the 'men are stupid, women are strong' trope to excess, which is becoming a standard theme throghout his work. Only his Power Girl writing has actually reached anything approaching acceptable, and thats saying something.
Having said all that [sorry for the rant, Colin!] I havent read his Batwing work [and sorry, no intention on doing so] but I can well imagine what its like.
Hello Karl:- The matters of which you speak I know nothing about at all. I quite literally can't offer anything to either counter or support what you're saying here. I feel quite awkward about that. I do like to be a welcoming host to the good folks who drop in here.
DeleteI've only read about a third of the Batwing issues. I can offer the entirely subjective POV that there's probably little if anything there which might challenge your opinion of JW's work.
Barry Ween is, unlike mnost of Winnicks work. Ween is a fowl mouthed boy genius and the stories are a somewhat potty mnouthed variant on 50's mysterey books. They're certainly worth a look and both the wife and I found them entertaining. That said they're just languishing on my bookshelf now so if you'd like them email me you're more than welcome tto them.
ReplyDeleteHello Peter:- If you and your splendid wife reckon BW, then I will indeed need to check it out. I can think of no more trustworthy a recommendation. Yet before I have anything further to do with JW's work, I will need to let Batwing fade a touch in my memory. Thank you for your generous offer. It's a kind business that's very much appreciated :)
DeleteInteresting review. Starting with the critique of "grimness" as something in and of itself terrible is something I can't really agree with. Maybe this comic wants to be unpleasant? Some of the greatest works of art are. Maybe grimness suits this story? I know that personally I am taken out of a story more and harder when someone starts cracking buddy movie jokes in a fierce battle for the end of the world than when I read a line like "This ends now". Yeah, Batwing could be more fun. But then it really would have to be about something else than corrupt cops, child soldiers and murderous sects. If you're going to do those, you better write a grim story that suits the grim subjects.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, this is the very first issue in which Father Lost appears. No backstory at all to work through. I am a little surprised that you had problems deciphering this issue. And I honestly don't say this because I've read the whole series and want to come across as a smart-ass. I read #13 with the impression that you could give it to absolutely everyone and that there's no prior knowledge needed. Surely there's more information about the cult to come in #14 and #15...it's a mystery for now, keeps you wondering. You don't have to reveal someone's agenda with their very first appearance, do you?
I share the disappointment of many that Batwing did not become somerthing else entirely. It really could be the most innovative series DC has right now. That being said, I think Winick's ideas are underappreciated. The poor guy can never catch a break with online fans, it seems, but he really works in some neat stuff in his comics.
For example, there was a dictator called Lord Battle who had his own team of superpowered thugs. Nothing special, the name may even be a little silly, sure. Then Batwing discovered that this seemingly unbeatable guy was only powerful as long as he was inside the borders of his state. The problem was: as soon as Batwing took him outside the borders to defeat him, his land dried up, the plants died, everything withered. "You see", the dictator said, "I am this land and this land is me. I love this land, I love the people. You just don't understand. Without me, they will die. You can never remove me." Batwing actually feels his pain and recognizes that this guy who once overthrew the previous government really started out with good intentions and that he is, in more than one sense, one with his land. They agree that he will spend the rest of his existence in chains inside the borders of his land, so he may serve his land and his people but never be tempted by absolute power to be corrupted again...
...and I actually think that's a fairly good way to reference people like Robert Mugabe in the context of a silly superperson book that starrs the Justice League International intervening in some fictional african country. I liked it a lot. Mr. Winick deserves some props here.
Hello there:- Your POV here is so different from mine that I think it would be quite inappropriate for me to challenge what you've said. My beliefs are already in the above, and to repeat them in detail in response to your comment when they've not proven convincing to you would be an unhelpful business. We simply appear to see the same material in a quite different way. I have no problem with stories which are designed to be grim, but I struggle with the same when - by my judgment, though I fully accept not yours - it's a cliched business. Similarly, a tale set in the DRC would almost inevitably have to deal to a lesser or greater degree with the immense social problmens of that nation. My problem is that those problems are - again - represented in a cliched fashion, which means that all the reader gets is the typical stereotype of life in a generic "Africa". The work lacks specificity, nuance and balance.
DeleteThose are pretty fundamental differences which mean that we're doomed to see this work in different ways. But I do welcome your opinion here. It's good to have a contrary stance in these comments. I've no problem with that at all.
Oh, definitely, we're going to see this in different ways no matter what. Starting with the grimness that has an appeal to me while it instantly drives you away. But I wouldn't ever disagree about a lack of nuance in Batwing. Like I said, it's not the comic I thought it could be. I actually dropped it for a few issues because of my disappointment. Then I read about the ridiculous adventures of Batwing tracking down a weapons shipment to Somalian Pirates all the way to...The Penguin in Gotham City, of course. Followed by the aforementioned Lord Battle. And I accepted it for what it was, a fun experience in genre fiction that sometimes kinda slightly touched upon analogies to real life politics.
ReplyDeleteI still feel Winick has done a good job to get in as much as he could - see my example above - and that he's been writing an enjoyable superhero comic all in all. But he's been working within tight boundaries, having to shoehorn in Night Of The Owls, the Justice League International crossover etc. Also, sales on this book seem to stabilise whenever it says "Featuring Nightwing" or something on the cover - and I doubt that was Winick's initial idea as well. I don't know how much of the real DRC anybody could bring into a book where the writer is instructed to tie it as closely to Batman as possible and to feature a guest star every other issue. I get that feeling with a few DC books. While I am enjoying a lot more of them than you are, I sigh every time that Superboy has to pause his main story for some Kryptonian crossover or our friend Batwing has to find a reason to get to Gotham to fight in Night Of The Owls or something. It's one thing when it's done carefully and pulled off as nicely as in Animal Man and Swamp Thing. But, man, I wish writers in general were given more of a free reign to sink or swim according to their very own vision...
Anyway, thanks for the interesting read & have a pleasant day!
And to you :) My thanks for being the loyal opposition here!
DeleteBy the way, is there a mainstream comic that has ever pulled something like an accurate representation of the DRC off? This is not a rhetoric question, I'm genuinely curious. I think what Winick is doing is actually writing a perfectly decent and entertaining superhero action adventure. What he is not doing and what everyone was hoping for from him on this subject matter, is writing an arthouse/indie comic. I'm not trying to make excuses here, just suggesting that maybe this isn't so much about Judd Winick being ignorant or a bad writer but about the limits of the subgenre. If you're required to have superhero fisticuffs...and on top of that, required by editorial to link everything to Batman and Gotham City for sales...what you get is Batwing travelling to China to battle a yakuza guy who is literally a dragon - and who of course makes his weapon deals with Somalian Pirates via The Penguin. Which is totally cool with me, I'm enjoying this stuff. But if you wanted something deeper, of course you're gonna be disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI guess you being much more knowladgeable than me about comics are going to reference some older Green Lantern or Green Arrow run that was very socially conscious. But from the little that I've seen of those, they were also more well intentioned than well done. And even the very best superhero comics have always been more about the psyche of the protagonists, maybe about a moral lesson concerning powers and responsibility. But dealing, as you said, with "immense social problems"? Sure, it can be done in comics, just look at how great DMZ is. But can it be done in anything but broad strokes when you have to have at least one monster battle per issue for your fans?
I mean, look at what Ann Nocenti is doing in the current Green Arrow. Not suggesting it's a perfect series, it can be a little clunky and overly wordy. But she did for example do a whole issue without a superpowered enemy, having Ollie rescue a sucidial woman and talking with people who had themselves altered technically to fit in better with society, visiting "Robots Anonymous" and closing on the rather melancholic note that maybe there is no real happiness for people, even with plastic surgery/neuro enhancement. I thought it was great. But I've yet to see one positive review for that thing on the whole internet. Sales aren't great for the series, Ollie is now in China dealing with copyright theft on behalf of Q Core, another issue that we actually have in our very real world...and I have read this crucial sentence more than once: "This isn't even a superhero book anymore."
Honestly, can this even be done?
Hello there:- I know of no attempt to represent the DRC in any comicbook at all. I could bore you with a list of comics which have, and which haven't, dealt well with the issue of Africa. But in the matter of the DRC itself, I know of no specific examples.
DeleteWhere I do find myself becoming confused is your belief - and you've phrased it in several different ways - that I'm somehow asking for Batwing to be an "arthouse/indie" comic. I find this belief baffling. It seems to be grounded in a belief that the superhero book can only deal with social issues in the way that Batwing does. I just don't accept this. There are many examples of superhero books being popular, enjoyable and politically invigorating. The choice isn't between superhero comics and art. It's between good and ethical superhero books and lazy, stereotype-ridden comics.
As for the idea that I want something "deeper" .... Again, I'm baffled. My two major problems with Batwing is that the story's thin and the book represents little but stereotypes. I'm not asking for superhero books which aren't fun! I'm looking for books which aren't predictable, which take more than two minutes to read, and which at the least don't feed stereotypes. In that sense, I don't grasp why comics can't be smart and enjoyable, political and exciting. It's not some excessive degree of "depth" I'm looking for. I'm objecting to an incredible lack of the same.
I don't believe that the superhero comic is incompatible with social comment. I grew up in a period where it was taken for granted that politics and the superbook would often intersect, and it would've been ridiculous then to believe anything but. Similarly, I don't believe that the superhero comic has to be a read-it-in-120-seconds pamphlet either. The superhero book can be fun, fast-paced and smart too. It can deal with politics and still entertain. We don't have to go back to the late Sixties and Green Arrow/ Green Lantern to see this. Gail Simone's Batgirl has touched upon Occupy issues, Kieron Gillen's X-Men the rise of the New Right in politics and its mechanistic, pseudo-Victorian dogma, Paul Cornell's Demon Knights plays very productively with issues of sex and gender, while Mark Waid's has presented a subtle representation of homosexual couples as being perfectly normative in Daredevil; these are all books from this very year, and in most cases the past few months. And you can go right back through the superhero book's history and find examples of terrific books which are both exciting and ethically thought-provoking too. Politics and the superhero books have always gone together; from certain issues of Lee/Kirby/Ditko's work to that of O'Neil, to Englehart and Gerber, Claremont and Ostrander, Moore and Ostrander and Truman and Chayklin and Miller, and, and .....
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DeleteYou say that I'm very much older than you! I'm getting to the point where I feel very much older than most folks :) But I don't accept this idea that the superhero book can't be anything more than the likes of Batwing. And the reason isn't because I'm full of impossible ideals; it's because I've read Moore and Gibbons Superman Annual, and John Ostrander's Suicide Squad, and Don McGregor's Black Panther, decades worth of X-Men tales, Devin Grayson's Bat-Family, Gardner Fox's Justice League's Man Thy Name Is Brother, Gail Simone's Secret 6, and so on and on. In their own different ways - and in the many different ways in which a host of other creators of contributed too - these folks have shown that the superbook isn't just compatible with politics. It's actually idealy suited to at the very least presenting issues in a deliberately, purposefully ethical manner.
Which is not to say that you should have read those things, or that you should enjoy them when and if you do. But it is to say that I think you're selling the sub-genre short. Or at least, you are from my perspective.
And if a creator doesn't want to discuss politics, then they ought to work hard to make sure that they are ateast not contributing to unhelpful stereotypes. I don't think Batwing does that with nearly enough care. If DC doesn't mean for Batwing to be used to discuss issues in an informed, smart-minded way, then it could at least avoiding a picture of Africa which is very little indeed but death, blood and corruption.
Because nobody can avoid being political with their work. And if you don't control your message as best you can, you end up transmitting meanings that can be ... unfortunate.
You ask me how it can be done? I'd say there's so many examples of how it can be done that a simple, straight-forward is impossible. From the Islamophobia of Frank Miller's Holy Terror to the discussion of what it is to be British in Paul Cornell's Captain Britain & M1-13, from the political radicalism of the very first Superman tales in 1938 to the anti-racism of Marvel's various Sons Of The Serpents tales, the history of the super-book offers a broad range of comics which can help to answer your question.
Hmmm. Winick's Africa is a colossally corrupt continent of cardboard cliches.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of a speech made by a Nigerian writer, who was told her characters weren't African enough by her publisher, because they drove cars and weren't starving. The danger of a single story, the speech was called.
Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
Hello Yamandu:- I can only agree. I set myself the task of not expressing myself with all the disdain and label-throwing that the book provokes. I wanted to see if I could discuss Batwing in a way that touched on the issues without expressing my emotional response to the comic too. But even now, I could start throwing around some particularly ugly words about this rotten comic.
DeleteI'm listening to Chimamanda Adichie's fascinating talk as I type this. It's absolutely fascinating. Thank you for the link :)
You're welcome.
DeleteHi Colin, have some spare time at the immediate moment, so I'm about to tear through some of your entries, starting with this one (can't go through them all, but there are a bunch that've caught my eye)
ReplyDeleteThe thing with Batwing is... well, I buy it to support Marcus To. He's a super nice guy and a local boy, and obviously I love his work. A very clean style. However, the excellent draftsmanship on display in the backgrounds of pre 52 Red Robin is absent on this book. There is a blandness to it, no question.
While I agreed with you in the past about why Wonder Woman should be done in a more "heroic" light, to fulfill her time acquired role as THE representative of super women in comics, I get the sense that you feel Batwing needs to be similarly positive. (The use of "heroic" and "positive"... I may be undercutting my argument by not hitting the right descriptor here. Is there any chance you take my meaning?)
It's just that Batwing obviously hasn't withstood that test of time to be assigned that role by everyone. So what kind of book it is gets to be much more up to the writer. While it is true that this is about the only representative of the DRC on the stands (notice my wishy-washy language? How do I know there isn't some bang up Image book set over there? Well, there probably isn't...)
So without those strictures of illustrating a real world place in the fairest way possible, I also approve of the setting being thoroughly corrupt- because in my mind I've only ever been able to justify those Batman type-unpowered heroes when they've existed in a setting of absolute corruption.
I've gone on too long, and I really do agree with you that there isn't much to enjoy with this book. The second Marcus To is off it, then so am I.
Hello Isaac:- I hope you're well.
DeleteMy problem with the representation of the DRC in the issues of Batwing that I've read is that it doesn't recognise reality. In presenting a culture which is not just corrupt, but almost entirely hopeless and terrifying, it directly reinforces a mass of the popular stereotypes about both the DRC and Africa. Then you get a pernicious dichotemy between the GOOD STRONG GUY - who is inspired by and funded by a millionaire American - and just about everyone else. To my mind, that's a terrible business.
Now, I've no problems with Batwing being heroic. I can't see how he could function otherwise. The problem is that his culture, his fellow citizens, are portrayed so nagatively. The DRC can be a terrible place, no doubt about it. I wouldn't want anything of that PCed out. But he's so fine and they're all so vulnerable, weak, corrupt or evil that it ends up labelling a whole raft of cultures and sub-cultures negatively.
There has to be a serious attempt to highlight the strengths of the peoples involved as well as the problems, and Batwing doesn't do that as a book. It doesn't show where and how people show solidarity and civility, joy and strength. It doesn't accentuate the beauty of Africa as well as its terrors, and it makes it seems as if there is no hope at all.
It's also deeply worryingly that there's been no mention of the West's part in what's happened and is happening. Combine that with Wayne's status as the source of much that's good and it all feels very dodgy to me.
I'm only responding to your point/question about what I'd prefer from Batwing as a character. It's not his heroism that I'm concerned with one way or another so much as the absence of positive as well as negative qualities elsewhere. Batwing could be a book that informs as well as entertains, but instead - from my point of view - it not only does neither, but reinforces negative stereotypes too.
It's an interesting comparison you raise with Diana and the Amazons. They were of created to represent an ideal. But the DRC in Batwing was chosen - it seems - because it's a nation which is all too often doing anything but. In a sense, the DRC has been chosen - or so it seems - to be Gotham, AFrica. I don't mind whether Batwing is heroic or not; he doesn't appear to represent any ideal beyond a superheroic cliche. But I do want something of the truth of the real-world situtaion to be emphasised.
Isaac, it makes my old, thin blood boil, it really does.
Ah, I knew I'd expressed myself poorly, my apologies for the choice of the word "heroic", when I meant something more like "positive representation".
ReplyDeleteI can't really argue with you on much else about the book, it's a thin, unresearched sort (and I should probably allow you to focus on less blood boiling work), however I read the moment where Batwing's civilian partner is revealed to take bribes differently than you did. I actually found it to be quite a sympathetic moment, with her character making a decision to work within the system (such as it is) while illustrating a surprising naivete on Batwing's part. Of course Batwing doesn't take bribes- he has that Wayne money backing him up, and he (I assume)does most of his police work acting as Batwing. He doesn't care about the lack of resources or support from the other officers, but his all-too- down-to-earth partner does!
Hello Isaac:- I hope I never grumpy for one nano-second about you. My grumping was all directed at those who've made such a hash of Bat-Wing. I could understand, if not sympathise, with such a mess if it'd been published in the late 60s. But in 2012?
DeleteI do agree that there's a sympathetic moment with Batwing's partner. And it does reflect that she's a victim of a system. And I've no problem with the scene if it's part of a sequence of scenes which reflect strengths and weaknesses of individuals and groups in that particular nation. But here it's only sign of humanity, and it all goes to mark Bat-Wing out as the man above it all, the man who comforts others, the man who knows and cares and can stand above it all. And that takes us back to the American Millionaire who is the Only Uncompromised Man In The DRC's sponsor and inspiration.
So, in isolation, it was perhaps the most touching moment in all the Bat-Wing issues I've spat and fumed my way through. You're right. In the context of the run as a whole, however, I think it just reinforced the comic's rotten sub-text.
What a grumpy old %!&* I am! But then, I always was ... :)