Batwing #17
The Dying Breath
I'm having an incredibly hard time getting my brain to focus right now, so again, I ask for your patience with this review because I am having difficulty thinking due to lack of sleep and illness.
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I'm sad to learn that Fabian Nicieza will be leaving Batwing because I've had high hopes for his work on this series. Last issue was a great intro to his first real arc on Batwing which delved into the political realities of The Democratic Republic of the Congo while still delivering a kick butt superhero story. David arrested and charged a rich man's son for murder, and because of that, David has few allies either on or off the force and it appears he will draw some serious fire for his actions. Does this next chapter continue the positive trend in Batwing writing, or does Batwing fail to deliver?
In this issue, Batwing faces a armored behemoth whose weapons dwarf his own, the rich man tries to uncover Batwing's secret identity, and David loses his last ally on the police force.
Bat Droppings
Yeah, so I'm too tired to organize my thoughts clearly, so I'm just going to throw them out as they come to me.
l. I really enjoyed the visual designs in this issue especially relating to Sky Pirate. His asymmetrical mask especially intrigued me. The concept behind Sky Pirate is pretty cool too. There are modern day pirates, so why not a super villain pirate? Its a somewhat fresh concept which seems to take SHIELD's helicarrier design and combined it with a technologically advanced pirate ship manned with extraordinarily intelligent pirates.
2. The name Sky Pirate is a bit to simplistic for my taste.
3. David had large parts of his suit trashed this issue, and in upcoming solicits, he has a new costume. Could it be that the next time he wears the suit it will be a completely new suit of armor? Speaking of the suit, I'm glad they will finally be giving him facial protection.
4. It was nice to see David show some righteous indignation towards his fellow police officers' corrupt ways, but something is going to have to give in this scenario. Either the police department will have to partially reform, or David will need a new job. Perhaps they could continue this harsh work environment for a time (harsh here meaning your coworkers want you dead) but that would become ridiculous after awhile.
5. (spoiler) The inclusion of Dawn is very confusing. The issue treats this as if it is a big reveal, but she was clearly named early in the issue, and it is not like she has been gone a long time. She was playing a major role just two issues ago, yet in that short timespan, she seems to have completely changed her MO and allegiance. She used to use energy blades. Now she uses some weird...gunish weapons. Her costume is not remotely similar. She was fighting against Father Loss, but in the few weeks since that has happened, she has already sold out all her values? That's a quick change for you.
6. This issue had a lot of action and it ended up feeling a bit short. Luckily, the action is good.
7. There was one major annoyance, the line, “It had to be my childhood friend Rachel Niamo, the mercenary known as Dawn!” I almost dropped the score a nothc just on that line alone. Totally campy and full of unnecessary exposition. If anything, the line only brings up more questions whereas an old reader would know who the character was already and a new reader would be able to guess from the context.
Conclusion 9/10
A campy line or two didn't detract from the genuine rush this issue provided. I'm not ready to say Batwing as a whole is a great or even a good series, but if these last two issues are any indication, it is moving in that direction.
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