Birds of Prey, v. 8: Club Kids

Collects: Birds of Prey #109-12, 118 (2007-8)

Released: January 2009 (DC)

Format: 128 pages / color / $17.99 / ISBN: 9781401221751

What is this?: The Birds of Prey adapt to a new writer and developments in the DC universe.

The culprits: Writer Tony Bedard and artists Nicola Scott, Jason Orfalas, and David Cole

I had avoided Birds of Prey, v. 8: Club Kids for quite a while, afraid new writer Tony Bedard would turn the title and its characters into a flavorless waste of time. Happily, I found that was not the case.

Club Kids has little overall plot, as Bedard eschews an overarching story for the beginning of his run. Instead, he favors character pieces that deal with developments outside the title. Bedard deals with Black Canary choosing to marry Green Arrow and an assassin attacking the New Gods in #109 and #112. He also uses past continuity to his advantage in two other stories: the aftermath of Oracle destroying her clocktower base in 2004-5’s War Games crossover facilitates a face-to-face confrontation between Calculator and Oracle in #111, and Misfit’s origins are looked at in #118.

None of these stories are award winners. On the other hand, most of them are solid comics in the old-school mold. Huntress foils mad bombers, who turn out to be less “mad” and more naïve. Black Alice and Misfit are put into a superhero gladiatorial ring, a plot straight out of New Mutants. Lady Blackhawk honors a fallen comrade. Oracle and Calculator scrap over data. Simple stories, and all the characters are true to the personalities previous writer Gail Simone gave them. I would not say Bedard is as good with the characters as Simone was — although they easily coexist with Simone’s conceptions, they lack a certain je ne sais quoi. But Simone had several years to mold the characters; Club Kids contains Bedard’s first five issues on the title.

However, letting other titles dictate stories occasionally robs Birds of Prey‘s stories of their impact. All of #109 is dedicated to either reacting to a development outside the title or adding heat to a subplot running through the DCU. Although Oracle arguing with Black Canary over her boyfriend’s fidelity issues is long overdue, the discussion was engendered by Green Arrow’s marriage proposal in another title (Green Arrow). Developing another title’s dangling plots does no favors to Birds of Prey‘s narrative flow, especially since Black Canary wasn’t a character at this point — she left the title in #100. The issue still might have worked, however, if the assassination of the New Gods story hadn’t been shoehorned into the same issue. Bedard tries to give Knockout a fitting last moment, but her part of the story feels rushed. And the death Lady Blackhawk memorializes in #112, that of a prominent supporting character, seemingly comes from nowhere (the Death of the New Gods miniseries); #112 starts with a half page of her memorial service before getting on with the action. Brevity is laudable, but it feels as if the dead character is being cheated of the respect she is due.

(Although not as cheated as Manhunter is; I know she barely appears in Club Kids, but her head shot in the intro / recap section of the book is actually a picture of Scandal Savage, a villain, from #109.)

Why couldn’t Simone have worked with artists like Bedard gets? Nicola Scott draws #109, 110, and 118 and does an excellent job — action-packed, expressive, exceedingly pretty, with a tight line I admire. She even puts Huntress in a more modest costume than the Jim Lee monstrosity (thank God), although Big Barda’s red bikini costume is awful. (I don’t think Scott designed it, but it’s still awful.) Jason Orfalas does a good job on the quieter #111, and David Cole‘s slightly cartoony, looser style is perfect for the free-spirited Lady Blackhawk’s story.

Club Kids is the perfect book for a title that is coming off a big storyline and a change of writers; Bedard uses the characters respectfully, putting them in appropriate situations, and reacts to what DC editorial sends him. But that’s Club Kids’s shortcoming, as well: it’s reactive, and Birds of Prey loses all its momentum from Simone’s run without establishing any clear new direction. Over the long run, that’s death for a title, but for one collection, it can be enjoyable — and in this case, it is.

Rating: (4 of 5)

The Unwritten, v. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity

Collects: The Unwritten #1-5 (2009)

Released: January 2009 (DC / Vertigo)

Format: 144 pages / color / $9.99 / ISBN: 9781401225650

What is this?: The son of the author of a Harry Potter-like fantasy series gets drawn into a conspiracy about his real parentage and the affect literature has on the real world — and vice versa.

The culprits: Writer Mike Carey and artist Peter Gross

All right — here’s what I know about The Unwritten, v. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity:

1. The central conceit — that of the intersection of fiction and reality, of whether literature comes from some place “real” — is an interesting one, and it hasn’t been done to death.

2. The hero, Tom Taylor, is the son of a man who wrote a series of boy wizard books that was bigger than Harry Potter.

3. There is real magic in our world.

4. There is a real literary conspiracy in our world. The conspiracy has been going on for more than a century, involving Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling.

5. Somehow, geography in books and where books were written is important.

6. There is no #6.

I really wish Tommy Taylor wasn’t bigger than Harry Potter. I really do. It’s not supposed to be a big deal for the reader … but it makes everything harder to swallow. If the Tommy Taylor series were a knockoff of Harry Potter, one moderately successful but not as popular as Rowling’s creation, it would be easier to understand.

But I have a feeling that Tommy’s popularity is going to be a small but essential part of the plot. The conspiracy that has been shaping whose stories have been told and listened to has made Tommy Taylor popular because Wilson Taylor was cooperating with it. The popularity of the Tommy Taylor series is tied to the strength of the conspiracy.

Fantasies set in the real world can have a difficult time sustaining suspension of disbelief, and it can crumble for a myriad of reasons, each depending on the individual reader. When I look back at Unwritten, I don’t think of the positives. The effective weirdnesses built into Tom Taylor’s life drift away from my memory; I don’t think of the endless staircase in the basement of his de facto stepmother or the “reporter” who looks like a grown-up version of Tommy Taylor’s fictional female sidekick or Tom’s mysterious origins. I don’t think of the effective Harry Potter pastiches that writer Mike Carey throws in to give the reader a taste of and a background in the Tommy Taylor series, each of which is nicely drawn by artist Peter Gross. I don’t think of the conspiracy’s enforcer’s creepy powers or his running through a horror writer’s retreat with farm implements. And I don’t think of Tom himself, an aimless young man who subsists on his fame and whose only motivation is another buck on the convention circuit until allegations about his origins cause him to search for the truths.

All those are effective; all those are parts of an excellent story. No, I think of:

• A book series that 40 percent of all literate people have read;

• A character so popular he has inspired a cult;

• A guest of honor at a convention who is so fragile he has security lead away a cosplayer who won’t let go of a niggling plot point;

• Who also spouts snippets of literary geography without point or warning;

• And a fifth issue that is essentially a biography of Rudyard Kipling, told as if the conspiracy had actually existed, completely stopping the book’s momentum as dead as a hammer.

And I don’t believe it. And unlike, say the TV series Castle, I’m not so entertained that my interest can survive that lack of belief. This should work; all the elements are there. I was interested enough after reading Unwritten #1 (which can be seen at http://www.dccomics.com/media/excerpts/13677_1.pdf) that I bought the TPB.

I like the art from Gross. He has a flat, clean style that works well with characters — and a world — that is supposed to have come from a children’s story. The interludes from the Tommy Taylor books look different and right; somehow, they echo what such stories are supposed to look like in my head. The art has to incorporate text and melting things frequently, like a combination of Dali and a typewriter, and Gross’s art does it well. I think this is the first I’ve seen of Gross — although I know I’m well behind the curve on that — but I’m looking forward to seeing more.

I’m not sure it will be on Unwritten, though. I don’t know if I want to buy the next volume of Unwritten. I see the good points and a lot of potential … but it doesn’t interest me. I think, for once, the failure must lie with me. I just can’t recommend this book, but I can’t say my opinion is based on firm enough ground to dissuade others.

Rating: (3.5 of 5)

Marvel's January solicits and Trade Talks schedule

Here are the books I’m thinking of getting from Marvel’s January 2009 solicitations:

Spider-Girl, v. 10: Season of the Serpent: Marvel must have heard my plea for more Spider-Girl volumes and finally decided to release v. 10, more than a year after v. 9. (Of course Marvel was listening to me and rushed this volume into production. No, of course they didn’t have this in development already. That’s crazy talk. What are you, crazy?) I’m not enamored of the new digest price of $9.99, but it’s better than no Spider-Girl reprints at all. Season of the Serpent covers #52-9.

Essential Punisher, v. 3: I have no idea how long I’ll remain interested in the Essential Punishers. Repetition has to set in soon, but the previous volume was surprisingly entertaining, and I’ll keep getting them until they stop being entertaining. Reprints Punisher #21-40 and Annuals #2-3.

Ruins #1: Not a trade paperback, but it does collect Warren Ellis’s Ruins, which is his answer to Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross’s Marvels. Ellis takes Marvels and squeezes it until all the hope is gone, then takes glee in repeatedly injecting its eyeballs with liquid depression. Still, I read #1 almost a decade ago after finding it in a quarter bin, but I hadn’t found #2 (of 2). (Back-issue prices are innnnnsane!) It’ll be nice to finally find out how it ends: I’m holding out for a happy ending.

This week is a digest week; Mini Marvels: Rock, Paper, Scissors was the Tuesday review, and Friday is Spider-Girl Presents The Buzz and Darkdevil. Yes, that should be a crowd pleaser. Next week is, of course, Halloween, and that means ostensibly scary stuff: Batman: Vampire and Essential Marvel Horror, v. 1. After that, I’m not sure, but I’m thinking of changing the format a little, and the books I review will probably be from Carrier Library’s graphic novel collection. That means more DC and more books focusing on women and minorities, because that’s one of the emphases of the collection. Or, I suppose, two emphases.