Save the Bat-Cow! “Why So Serious?”, Indeed.

Shocking as this may sound, I’m really not reading comics these days. I do this blog, I run a group on Facebook, and I read tons of articles about them, and that’s where my time is being spent. I’ll dive back in assuredly, but the truth is I’m not missing them yet. I’m more into the objectification of the comics experience at the moment. I like hearing what folks have to say about the medium. I like to post things I have read and seen and observe what kinds of responses and perspectives they illicit. If something is new to me, I seek it out online and I usually find a bevy of info in seconds, and there’s also a lot of material from the actual pages to read as well. So, now I belong to a few social media comic groups, and they’re actually a great source of inspiration not only for blogging, but for new posts in my own group. This week, a phenom has hit more than one and captured my imagination like no other: The Bat-Cow.

She kind of hit me like a bolt from the blue. I heard the name a while back and thought it was some kind of one-off Morrison joke, then came the images by Frank Quitely and Ethan Von Sciver of the animal featured in the forthcoming Batman Incorporated special. I actually have read more than a bit of the Morrison Batman, and I quite like it. I’m not going to gush excessively about it, because I think enough people have done so. Before I could even gather my bearings, a couple of my groups blew up about it. Oddly, these folks are rabid anti-New 52 people. They were disgusted to say the least. Horrified, incensed, and offended at the very prospect. Even odder was how they lashed out at the popularity of the beast and blamed it on those New 52 loving stupid-heads. I was driven to research the Bat-Bovine to inform myself, and frankly, I’m kinda in love. I don’t want to draw out the explanation of the character ad nauseum (you can, though), so here’s the thumbnail: Batman and Robin (Damien) rescue a cow from a slaughterhouse who’s blood is tainted with a mind-control agent by Professor Pyg. Damien declares himself a vegetarian after the rescue, takes said cow as a pet then names her “Bat-Cow”. After his death, Batman sees her as a reminder of the childlike qualities of his taken-too-young son and his molecule of innocence. Yes, there’s some outlandishness with Bat-Cow being a tiny bit of a crimefighter. Here’s my question about the assault from the Anti-52ers- why on Earth is this notion bothering you so much? I mean, if you want Superman wearing undies over his pants with a belt, and have such an issue with the darkening of the DCU, why would a charming animal used in a title offend you? For me, this is a breath of fresh air. Totally.

My personal number-one complaint is that the forces behind New 52 seems to think I want some kind of reality in my books I’ve never asked for, and when I do want it, I want it done well and nuanced. I’ll take well-done but hokey over poorly done but realistic any day of the week. If you don’t have suspension of disbelief, you should NOT be buying DC Comics at all. Almost everything about the universe requires us all guzzling hogwash to some degree, and it always has. What I want is flight-of-fancy with METAPHOR. Show me reflections of truth peppered into the absurd. A dad awash with the angst of loss getting a reminder from a pet of what he lost is showing me heart and that’s a commodity that is largely gone in contemporary DC fare. In the ’90s, I had to read about menopause and anorexia in Wonder Woman. I could give a damn. Give me something about the trials and tribulations of women via a creative analogy and you’ve got my ears and eyes. Star Trek used alien cultures once a week to talk about what was happening to us in our spaces, and that my friend is art, pure and simple. If you want real world, then you can just walk out into it.

There have been a lot of opinions about where the newfound anti-fun, dark, and bloody Universe was born. It’s actually been around and coming for a while, in my opinion. The biggest vehicles were Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Identity Crisis, the Brad Metzer mini-series. DKR is a good book, for me anyway. It’s considered a masterpiece by many, and actually brought a new level of interest in it’s titular central figure. The problem is that too many have looked at the wrong elements to figure out what we wanted more of from it. Most of us didn’t love all the violence and abrasion as much as we loved the satire, nuances, and skewed nature of it. I didn’t want a bunch of blood soaked ass-kickings from superdudes, I wanted more books that had maverick visions from different stripes. I wanted art, not some derivation of the artist’s work. The result was a bunch of ugly, un-fun, anti-social, and pretty much generic garbage. As for Identity Crisis, I liked it too. It was an obvious attempt to snare the internal drama and humanization made famous by Marvel to inform and enrich the DC group. It made the JLA a big ol’ analogy for cop-drama (cop’s wife gets killed, other cops freak out, someone is threatening other cops’ families, criminal is kidnapped by rogue cops and dealt with by force, etc… ). Basically, they are officers without badges as far as the central crowd is concerned. Yes, I liked it. No, I didn’t want it to become a movement. This was about a soap opera, and it should’ve stayed as such, but it’s popularity drove it to be otherwise. Other titles got sucked in like wildfire ( Ed Brubaker’s entire amazing Catwoman story, for example, was undone in a single page, when we find out Zatanna had wiped the criminality out of Selina’s head which led to her change of station- anyone who read the defiled run knows that she never ‘went good’, she just went ‘not so bad’). Next came the avalanche of soap material- Infinite Crisis, 52, Countdown, Final Crisis, all the way up to Flashpoint. This is about readers, not executives. You bought it and you voted for it. You want dramatic, strife-filled crossovers where everyone’s crammed into the same universe? Take the DKR fall-out and marry it with this, and you gotcherself a New 52. Happy?

Back to The Battlin’ Bovine. So, here’s a lost aspect of innocence, an ugly word in today’s funny-books, that I’d love to see come back: the Super pet. Krypto, Streaky, Beppo, Comet, Ace, all of the above and more (one of my favorite abandoned concepts was from the other team wherein Lockjaw, the Inhumans’ giant teleporting bulldog decides the boring royal family are not giving him attention and decides he’s rather live with blue-eyed Benji in Dan Slott’s amazing Thing series- amazingly fun and warm). Ludicrous? Well, yes, no, and maybe. “How can we make a dog from another planet named after said planet coming to Earth seem realistic?”. Here’s a thought, since I pay you, why don’t YOU tell ME? Creative laziness is my most hated feature in the updated reality. If you’re too narrow-focused to make something unbelievable relevant and still fun, then why don’t you just pack your damn bags?

Good Dog of Steel, good dog!

Fire everyone. Yes, EVERYONE.

Seriously. I’ve thrown this up more times than I can count, but again it applies- did you READ All-Star Superman? Did you see past the pretty pictures to understand that EVERYTHING in that book was about non-sensical 1950s discarded Super-minutiae recycled into fun and boundless updated coolness? I know I’ve been accused of being a Morrison drone, and I couldn’t care less. This is exactly why I dig him. He doesn’t throw out what’s inconvenient- he works with it. He’s not scared or ashamed of antiquated elements at all. Everyone lately seems so damn terrified of being accused of not being serious enough. Every book doesn’t have to have this sort of whimsy. Other titles can be all about the soap opera and it’s trappings because they don’t all have to be sandwiched up against each other. There’s no reason they should have to jibe to the point that all titles involved  get homogenized or neutered.

Back in the day, the late 80s- early 90s, I pretty much abandoned DC and Marvel for a while. Money got tight and I didn’t want to spend it on the stuff I was seeing anymore. That changed in ’93 when the comic adaptation of the legendary Batman the Animated Series came out. The Batman Adventures was everything I was missing but didn’t know I was. Since it was supposed to be a ‘kids title’, it made no bones about incredulous concepts. There were no explanations about quick costume changes, physics, or any of that stuff. It was bare-bones about it’s world; this is comics, PERIOD. It had metaphor and drama all over it.  Not specific real-world disorders or the like, but mirrors of the human condition, viewed as Bats himself, and more often the villains. The bad-guys were not seen as misunderstood creatures most of the time, but there would always be a moment that gave them humanity and credibility. This was what kept me in the game, the fact that it had it all- great, simple art; done-in-one storytelling; embracing of all stripes of Batman stories- it was in there. It re-calibrated how I saw super-hero comics and their potential. It’s following title, The Superman Adventures, was at times even better. Mark Millar wrote a lot of issues and he managed to take a character so many creators whine about and show the limitless great storytelling angles you can approach this legend from. Same as TBA, the range was spectacular and I never got an issue I didn’t read repeatedly. THAT’S what I call good comics.

Final thoughts? I think ideas like this need to be seriously considered before demonization is unleashed. If you hate all the darkness and woe of the N52, you might want to hold back a sec. Do you hate it because it offends your sensibilities, or are you just mad at all things DC? Is it that you hate the concept, or the architect (in this case Grant Morrison)? Do you really want the old DC back, or do you really just want a different soap to read? I want options, myself. I should be able to have my cake and eat it too. Silly, serious, and sublime. I don’t see any reason to have all of my options under an umbrella of 52 titles; that’s just a number that references the title of a long-over comic and a multiverse that rarely plays into the books. I’m glad there’s at least one case where I can find something sweet, a little silly, and serious between one set of covers. Save Bat-Cow!

ADDENDUM: I could not have written this without the input of Dan Phillips, whom I had a lengthy discussion/argument/healthy conversation with via a FaceBook exchange with the day I wrote this. He and I don’t agree on everything (ESPECIALLY Grant Morrison), but any man who can make such a great statement about The Sex Pistols and Celine Dion when discussing art is ok in my book.

DON’T JUST SIT THERE EATING CUD- DISCUSS/ARGUE/PRAISE/LAMBAST THIS PIECE. I DON’T WANT ANYONE’S OPINIONS PUT OUT TO PASTURE.

Save Cassandra Cain! A Glaring Omission From The DCU and The Failings of Multi-Culti Comics

Before I even start, I want to make something abundantly clear about this piece. I am not in anyway accusing anyone of being the least bit racist at all. To me, that is one SERIOUS word. I consider it an epithet, and if applied it had BETTER be defensible, cited by evidence, and used with total caution. This is about tunnel vision only. Thank you, and read on.

Sometimes, the myopia of comic companies, their overlord entities, and their creative partners are more compelling mysteries than Batman could ever dream of. This is about one of those situations, and the deeper mystique/conundrum concerning the trappings of the situation itself. As you probably already know, especially if the title there made you intrigued, there was this character named Cassandra Cain, and for a while she was Batgirl. She showed up during the epic “No Man’s Land” storyline in the Bat-books where Gotham City is sealed off and abandoned by the whole country as an unsalvageable hell-hole after a massive earthquake. Cassandra arrives, and ends up becoming a Batman approved operative. In a short time she gets her own title. I’m more than a casual Batgirl enthusiast historically. I picked it up at issue one, and stuck with it until the initial creative team split after two years. She was an interesting girl to say the least. Raised by her dad, David Cain, a ruthless world-class assassin in solitude, never spoken to, or heard from, to be the most focused member of her dad’s trade ever. Her mother that she didn’t know was the infamous Lady Shiva, considered to be the world’s deadliest woman and maybe human. She was slowly learning language and the combined Batman and Babs Gordon were trying to overcome her deep-rooted killer indoctrination. She could predict her opponent’s next move and never lost a fight. She had killed before, and was ashamed and trying to make up for it, sometimes to a death-wish degree. She was obviously Asian, a rarity in the DCU and unheard of in the Bat-camp. To be honest, I loved her as a character, just not as Batgirl. Her full-faced mask was a trendy turn-off to me. She was also too dark and complex for that particular identity. She palled around with Stephanie Brown, The Spoiler, and she was my pick for the successor to Babs from her first appearance in the title. She had the spunk and endearing charm I wanted in the role. After she quit the job, due to Batman’s apparent demise in Final Crisis, she gave the name over to Stephanie, and I was more than ok with that. However, I didn’t want the baby thrown out with the bathwater. Cassandra actually becomes a heavy for a bit, a move that enraged throngs of fans, and winds up with a whole new identity as part of the resurrected Bruce Wayne’s Batman, Incorporated. Her new moniker is the Black Bat, based out of Hong Kong, with her old costume no longer brought down with the face covering cowl but a ’60’s TV Catwoman-style mask instead. I rejoiced at the wisdom of this decision. Brilliant, all the way. Next (wait for it…) came the New 52, and *poof!* she’s gone.

There was another character introduced to the Bat-camp in the wake of this new venue. His name is Batwing. His secret ID was David Zavimbe, an African national, who is a member of the ‘Inc.’ crew. As stated, he lives in the Dark Continent, and he gets a series that debuts with the first wave of the New 52, as well as a position on the doomed JLI title. David lasts 19 issues before he’s out of the title. JLI lasts until the release of it’s first annual, well under the other book and Batwing hangs up the name 7 months later. He is replaced by Luke Fox, son of Lucius Fox, Bruce’s business associate for over 25 years. With heavier ties to the Bat-world proper, it’s obvious that the batty fans need an anchored character. His title continues with rocky sales to this day. He’s stationed in the Congo, once more fighting the good fight. Here’s my question: why is this character getting the special treatment and Cassandra is off the map? I appreciate the effort and all, but isn’t the Black Bat a hell of a lot more logical as a title-holder? I mean, first off let me be brutally honest and I hope I don’t hurt anyone’s feelings or sensibilities, but I think Hong Kong is a much more exciting mine of potential than Africa. Just do. It’s a vast city with a dense population that I’ve never seen explored in comics, unlike the African locales, which have existed in sequential art since the 1930s. Also, why take a random pick from BI, when you have a beloved and established character in the mix, whose ties to the central Bat-cast are in place? It just seems like such a no-brainer to me. Plus, look at the critical/fan success of Batgirl and Batwoman- people like a woman in a bat suit, apparently (especially when the art and story are great, obvs…). This is one of those true mysteries I was referring to. Maybe down the line someone in the power seat will figure that one out. Vague comments have been made at ‘Cons about her return, but no details over 2 years into the current vein.

Characters of different cultures, ethnicities, and locales have always been an issue in comics. For one, most writers are either from the US or England. The latter might tend to do a better job because of the international mix (particularly to Londoners), and the lively mixture that is Europe in general. Plus, readers are an issue here as well. Projects involving such are extremely varied in reception, and rarely that successful. Black Panther (I hate that name, BTW- it’s from a time when every character of color was “Black” something AND it denotes a militant political stance. “The Panther” would be fine, and would make him more accessible to multi-media), Mister Terrific, Justice League International, Milestone Comics, Static Shock, and Batgirl herself are all in that umbrella and went under the axe. Most folk want to stay on their home turf so they can identify with the title; it’s their comfort zone, and often, their only point of reference. My first multicultural exposure was in the Super Friends cartoon-to-comic adaptation with the Global Guardians, who wound up going mainstream and giving us Fire and Ice, most notably, as well as a handful of other characters, a lot of whom wound up in the pages of the ingenious JLI title of the ’80s-’90s. I was enchanted with them from the get-go. They were exotic and cool in concept. I was thrilled when they made the jump (Little Mermaid getting her head blown off really freaked me out, though). I didn’t pursue the latter day JLI title because I felt kind of “been there, done that” about it. The Giffen-DeMatteis run pretty much put the period at the end of the sentence for me. I’d just love a well-done series about Fire and Ice, Tasmanian Devil (a gay character, no less), and a whole lot more. There are also lots of other worldly locales I’d like to see in the books. Night and Squire was a great little mini-series about the eccentricities of superhero London. It can be done. Morrison, in particular, has tried to integrate the rest of the world into the DCU proper, and none of it has been seen so far to stick. The Japanese group the Great Ten was a fun ensemble of his making, followed by the Super Young Team, who exited me greatly when the pre-series released notebook of Final Crisis was received. It was a great reflection of Japan’s pop culture, which often takes our domestic concepts, then filters and reworks them into something different, and sometimes magical. Each member is a translation (but not at all literal) of US super-folk. Most Excellent Superbat (Heino) is the team leader. He wears a wild red and yellow uniform influenced by both Superman and Batman. His power, as stated is “being rich”, and he uses an array of gadgets, one of which can generate an energy-based exoskeleton, he also appears to have some training in the martial arts. He is joined by Big Atomic Lantern Boy, Shy Crazy Lolita Canary, Shiny Happy Amazon, Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash, and Sunny Sumo. This pack are a gas, who become big celebrities in their home and suffer for their notoriety. They had a mini-series, and in common with most of the titles presented here, it was not a success. I wish they’d come back, but I have a feeling that’s not going to happen.

I don’t know what the solution is to getting invested readership for these kinds of titles. I realize a majority of comic readers are white (more ethnic minorities do seem to be getting into the act I’ve noticed-that’s a good thing), I know a healthy amount of the followers of this site are all over the world, too. Maybe there’s hope for the concepts, and hopefully they will be done well and stand the test of time. I really hope the Universes can move away from just White America, and get support.

I still think the Black Bat of Hong Kong is undeniably a good and sound idea, and I hope someone figures that out and brings it to fruition. It’s been so long, and a lot of miss our favorite quiet assassin. Save Cassandra Cain!

The first image was from http://jbramx2.deviantart.com/, and the bottom photo was taken by http://s3.photobucket.com/user/dstorres/profile/. Both are Bat-Badassed.

CASSANDRA’S THE QUIET TYPE, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE. LEAVE ME COMMENTS/COMPLAINTS/FEEDBACK. I DIG IT!