By: Judd Winick (writer), Sami Basri (artist), Jessica Kholinne (colorist)
The Story: She remembers every moment like it was yesterday…if only Batman will, too!
The Review: If you’re a writer, you’ll for sure have a moment where you realize all or part of your piece just doesn’t work. When that happens, ultimately you have to face the option of cutting it. Sometimes the choice is out of your hands. One of the downsides of comics writing is once the idea is out there, you’re committed to it, even if it drags the story issue after issue.
In this issue, the sale of Starrware stands out as a plot thread that clearly should have been dropped a while ago. By now, though, Winick has little choice other than to try to rework it and make it worth its page-time. He brings in a new(?) antagonist in Ophelia Day, acquirer of Starrware, presumably to set up some motivation for Karen to take back what’s hers before it inevitably gets twisted in Day’s strident hands.
Still, it’s very difficult to summon up any interest in these developments. You don’t really know much about what Starrware does, for one thing (tech R&D, yes—but to what end?), and besides Nico and Simon Peters, you’re not really in touch with anybody who works there. Even Nico and Simon serve little more than as expository ciphers, when Winick needs to catch you up to speed on everything that’s not happening directly to PG at that moment.
Speaking as someone who works with legal cap now and again, I find the legalese in this issue slightly more credible than the bunk you usually get in comics. Whether it pays off is more questionable. After all, business/law drama seems like a niche interest even on television, where you get forty minutes to build the tension. Comics just can’t offer that same kind of suspense, so basically the entire scene feels like filler.
In fact, most of the issue retreads old ground: the opening recaps the crossover events in Justice League: Generation Lost (a gimmick I always find distracting from getting to the present story’s goods); three pages of flashback to Power Girl’s last moments with Ted Kord; and some weird, vaguely amusing back-and-forth with Bruce-Batman convincing Dick-Batman of Max Lord’s existence. This is all old material, so Winick really brings nothing new to the table here.
It all boils down to a gripe that is becoming very common for this title: nothing actually advances in the story. This issue literally has no action; the whole thing is dialogue of varying degrees of forced intensity. As a result, the pace suffers incredibly, and you’re just foaming at the mouth for something more animated to happen. It’s not that the writing is necessarily poor, but it’s certainly not outstanding, and there’s little substance to give life to it.
With so little going on, it can’t be helped that all of Basri’s efforts go to naught. You get one page where he basically repeats PG and Ted Kord’s exact same bland expression for three panels, which don’t do much to sell the tension in that scene. But he also sells the opening gags so well, you know he can offer a great comedy title if given the chance. Kholinne’s colors are more washed out than ever, which has officially crossed the line into off-putting.
Conclusion: It finally feels like the big finish for this storyline is near, although this issue sacrifices all sense of movement to set that up. However, this title continues to linger in mediocre territory, and it’s unlikely anything short of a mind-blowing next issue will save it.
Grade: C
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Wonder Girl, Starfire, Nightwing, Speedy, Black Canary, Green Arrow, the Flash, Wildcat, and Dr. Fate—this is a group that take on Darkseid? With the possible exception of Dr. Fate, I’m gonna say no.
– This whole Max-Lord-wiped-his-memory-from-the-whole-planet thing feels dangerously poached from Marvel’s Sentry premise. And like the Sentry story, this feels like it’s leading to nowhere.
Grade
Conclusion