Exclusive Preview: BATWING #21

@arnoldoaad: why?

I really hope this doesn't get cancelled. Batwing is very different then the other Batcharacters and I reaally like him. And I know Jimmy Palmiotti will do a great job.

@captain13 said:

Batwing and Superboy have some pretty rad costumes

Future team-up?

This should be the new World's Finest.

I see this dazzling preview and the very first thing I wonder is what if DC had put this art & writing team on Batwing from the beginning? How much better would this book be at this stage? Hell, what if they had simply been consistent with this title in the first place?

DC did. They had Judd Winnick and Ben Oliver. Top tier talent. The book was selling well too. I'm guessing they figured that the book had gained enough attention that Judd and Oliver were no longer needed and man were they wrong. Because Judd and Oliver are part of the reason the book sold so well.

Luke is cool, the suit looks really nice (I am actively keeping it and Black Panther separate in my head), I understand how he fits closer to Gotham City, but I still think David was a deeper and more interesting character. I'm happy people dig Luke and are jumping on now, but again, I can't help wondering how good this book would have been if we had this level of writing from the start. But enough belly-aching about things we can't change.

I can see how people think The Black Panther. But I think one particular reason people see the Black Panther is because they think that Luke's base of operation is Africa, when its not. He's international. Batman stationed him in Africa first to finish up what David had started. He looks like Batman Beyond to me.

This exchange does a good job of highlighting Luke's inexperience (even 6 months into the job), but he's still able to hold up against a considerable foe. I'm anxious to see how he makes it out of this. Please lawd, don't let Bruce come to his rescue; let's see Luke work his way out of this. I'm curious as to where his next mission will take him, and I guess I wanna know how they'll tease Lucius finding out about it. We shall see.

Agreed.

And find a way to get David Zavimbe on DC pages (but not Batwing). Let him and Vixen get together and defend the continent of Africa. I'm here for that.

I was thinking that he could take Batman's job as Luke's mentor. But that would be a downgrade for Zavimbe so nah, that's not going to work....I honestly think he'll go straight to comic limbo. Him and Vixen would be interesting though. Although, I want her to appear in Animal Man at some point.

It's funny when DC doesn't even get the point of there own characters

@blkson: Thanks for clarifying that for me. Now that I think about it, those first few issues of Batwing were well done and I enjoyed them, but when the talent started flipping, the earlier good stuff was lost in the later bad stuff (Father Lost... *shudder*).

And I'm with you on Batwing's new assignment. Originally, he was set up as the Batman of Africa (which still irks me a bit; Africa is a continent, not a country) and some people may have missed the new mission. Not to mention, he's fighting in Africa as of right now. S/n: where exactly in Africa is this battle taking place? Are we to assume he's still in the DRC? Lion-Mane mentions his Tsavo lions, but Tsavo is in Kenya. Plus one of his wives' names is Shango, an orisha (a male orisha, at that) of the Ifa faith of Nigeria. So many questions...

OMG! yes! yes! someone who gets it! All of this is why I was so happy that they were making Batwing "international". The original Batwing series was filled with stereotypes and viewed Africa as a monolith. It was so obvious that the writes new absolutely NOTHING about Africa outside of the crap they saw on TV. There was even a character, in the original series, with a damn Samoan name. I would literally roll my eyes at some of the ridiculousness I would read. Honestly, I so desperately wanted to just drop the book after issue #14. But I stuck it out and it got better... Well it's now getting better now :p

In issue #20, Luke fought the Marabunta soldiers in Tinasha, Dr. Congo (Central Africa). After reading that the lions were Tsavo Lions, I simply figured that he had traveled to Kenya (East Africa) to fight Lion-mane. DR. Congo isn't that far from Kenya, so traveling there in his Batmobile made sense to me. But then I read Shango's name and rolled my eyes. Shango is a maleNigerian (West Africa) god of fire, lightning and thunder, yet here he was as a she. -_- That made me scratch my head. Would you make a female character and name her Thor or Hercules?? But I ignored it and came up with a rationalization for that too. Shango is an extremely popular deity in west Africa and all over Latin America sooo someone naming there daughter after the God kinda made sense.

I remembered that Palmiotti & Gray said that Luke would only be in Africa for a few issues, then they were getting him out of there. They wanted him in Africa for a few issues so that the transition from David to Luke would seem connected. Then they were getting him out as quick as possible. I think that one of the reasons Batwing is now "international" because DC doesn't really know much about the Africa. Marvels Black Panther started out the same way but eventually got better and that's only because T'challa is an extremely old hero. So as the character & Marvel aged, so did their knowledge of Africa. Through trial and error, Marvel was able to write a GOOD African hero. He's still not perfect but reading Black Panther is no where near as bad as reading Zavimbe's stint as Batwing. I honestly think that Batwing was made into an African hero (Batwing was African America at first) because DC wanted to promote their "feed the hungry in Africa" campaign that they have going on.

I painfully fear you're right about David Zavimbe; he'll probably just fade away, and that hurts me to no end. He was such a good character. He was actually a new perspective in the Bat family. A guy who wasn't just fighting for justice,he was fighting for redemption, and that's a great idea. They dropped the ball on him.

Agreed

I like this Batwing better then the original, suit and characters. Although he clearly gets his design points from Batman Beyond as opposed to the Back Panther in my book

Bruce Wayne should be wearing the costume with a cape