Content

In the Shadow of the Ancients collects issues #7-12 as well as #0 and unlike its predecessor, Volume 2 not only has the ending to The Massacre plot, but it actually tells a complete story of its own with beginning, middle, and end PLUS a couple of side stories. Why so much content? Because following The Lost Kingdom, it was clear that readers were not responding to the Batwing series and it was time to stir things up by adding frequent guest stars, bigger action with magic and aliens, and a crossover issue with Night of the Owls. It’s quite the different book than what we had last time and with so much extra stuff thrown in to try and hook new readers, Batwing himself takes a backseat. There’s quite a lot of Batman, Nightwing, and a few other heroes along the way and it made for a pretty cool finale against Massacre in the book’s opening chapters…but it didn’t mean as much to me because Batman, Robin, and Nightwing were doing all the work. All that buildup over Volume 1 and now we see that Batwing can’t finish his first fight with a super villain solo. As far as it being a thrilling showcase of how awesome Batman and his boys are, it was a success. But as a the conclusion to Batwing’s first ever adventure? Not so much. And with Nightwing and other heroes joining him in each of the following stories (except for #0 and the Court of Owls tie-in), it just made the hero look inept.

The problem with David Zavimbe as Batwing wasn’t his character, he’s a compelling fellow. And it wasn’t because the story took place in Africa, that’s actually what should have set it apart from every other DC title. The problem was that his suit looked stupid (best armor Batman has to offer… but no helmet), his name was “Batwing” which is the name of the damn Batplane and I thought we had all agreed on that ages ago, and the terrific setting wasn’t utilized properly. Volume 1 had terrific, realistic looking people but when the big selling point of your comic is its exotic location, artist Ben Oliver fell short by drawing little to no backgrounds whatsoever. It looked like the characters existed within a vacuum. And instead of the story dealing with the real world problems of a continent as gargantuan and strife ridden as Africa, author Judd Winick gave us a place with problems not so different from any of the other cities with costumed guardians.

What Volume 1 did have going for it was an interesting, haunted main character and a very formidable villain who had an origin tied with that of our protagonist. It was personal. Once the Massacre business is taken care of and Batman exits Volume 2 (briefly) we get into some ridiculous battles that some might find fun, but for me it tossed Batwing further out into rather campy fantasy and that wasn’t what I wanted. If you’re interested in seeing Batwing fight a dragon (with the help of Nightwing, who does all the hard work) or fight a giant with a big hammer and  alien henchmen (with the help of the Justice League International, who do all the hard work) then this could be a fun ride. In my opinion, the very best parts of this book are from issue Zero and the Night of the Owls tie-in.

Besides David’s farewell issue #19, the Night of the Owls crossover was David at his most bad ass. I thoroughly enjoyed the action of that issue and found it to be one of the most fun participants in that month’s event. The Zero issue is also quite good and would have made an equally amazing issue #1 way back when the New 52 first began. These two issues are make for some very entertaining reading, as do the moments with the Batfamily (again, not because Batwing was good, but becasue the Batfamily was written well) during the opening chapters that finished Massacre’s story. I also found Volume 2 to be a better illustrated issue. Marcus To, Ryan Winn, and Dustin Nguyen all did a great job bringing this world to life in a way that the Lost Kingdom illustrators did  not.

Supplemental Material

Bupkis.

Value

$14.99 cover price for 7 issues. That’s a pretty good deal that adds up to quite a bit less than it would’ve cost you to buy this series monthly. And then there’s also Amazon offering it for only $11.77! So if you find yourself still curious about David Zavimbe’s adventures even after taking my own lack of enthusiasm into consideration you’d really not be losing much cash by taking a chance on this graphic novel.

Overall

Those who read volume one and were left hanging last July (yeah, it was seriously that long ago) should feel good about picking this graphic novel up because it’s available at a great price and it actually concludes the story you started all those months ago. Anyone else would absolutely need to buy volume 1 first in order to fully understand what’s happening here since the first couple chapters are the ending that should’ve been included in the previous TPB. Also, if you’re hoping for the same level of emotional gravity or some great heroics from David you will be disappointed. Besides the Night of the Owls tie-in, Batwing always finds himself in over his head and in need of being bailed out by the likes of Batman, Nightwing, or the Justice League International. To me, reading about a superhero who can’t get anything done himself isn’t all that interesting and apparently that was the case with many others now that DC has given up on the character and replaced David Zavimbe as of issue #19. If you want to read some of the last episodes of a hero who couldn’t hack it, be my guest. There are a few fairly entertaining moments collected here, but nothing that I would revisit. Here’s hoping the change in creative team and their new vision of Batwing 2.0 salvages this series.

SCORE: 5.5/10

The post Batwing, Vol.2: In the Shadow of the Ancients review appeared first on Batman News.

Never read an issue of Batwing before in your life? You’ll do fine here. As long as you know what Batman Inc. is and that there is a representative in Africa you’ll be able to follow along. You won’t know exactly why Batwing is beating up certain individuals or blowing up airships SHOW SPOILER ▼

And that’s basically what most of the issue is. It’s a pretty bad ass send off (up to a point) where we see David let go of his civilian life and bring down God’s terrible thunder on every single baddie he had leftover from previous storylines. Why did I put “up to a point” in parenthesis while ago? Because even though the new creative team of Pamiotti and Gray (the writers behind All-Star Western) gave David plenty of heroic moments in this, I found the character’s excuse for leaving to be weak and in the final pages where we get the big reveal of who the new Batwing is, Alfred states that David was actually the second choice for Batwing. What a slap in the face to David Zavimbe fans! And as for why I think his excuse for leaving is weak– you see his reasons on the very first page. David believes that the symbol of Batman and his tactics can’t work in a place as bad as Tinasha. Well, I believe that Gotham, before Batman arrived, was worse than Tinasha so that’s why that doesn’t fly with me. Secondly, the bulk of the issue is Batwing whooping every single enemy that was still standing. His actions in this issue are proof that David can make Batwing work in the DRC. In fact, after watching him bring down all the baddies, SHOW SPOILER ▼

But what can you do? Sales have been falling. Most folks never got on board with the Batman of Africa so the series really needed a shakeup to attract new readers and that’s exactly what we’re getting. This issue unveils a brand new Batwing and a brand new suit.

To keep from spoiling the big reveal I’ll put that and my thoughts on the new Batwing in spoilertags. SHOW SPOILER ▼

Overall it’s a good and very fast paced issue that ties up all the loose ends from the previous arc so we can get into the brand new adventures of Batwing 2.0 next month. I recommend you give it a try, but it’s understandable if  you want to wait until issue #20. That’s when we’ll really see what this new hero’s personality is like and what sort of obstacles he will be facing.

SCORE: 7.5/10

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It’s hard to get invested in Batwing right now because I know that in the next couple months the series is getting new writers, a new artist, and there’s going to be a completely different Batwing with an all new mission in life. I have been enjoying Fabian and Fabrizio’s take on the character but it doesn’t seem like they’ve been given a fair chance. The first issue Fabian put out was solid but since then it’s felt more and more hurried.

Issue #18 in particular feels like it was heavily edited with many scenes only lasting 1-2 pages each as we rush to a finale that can set up the incoming creative team’s bold new direction. Some major things are happening in David’s world but it’s all so truncated that the events aren’t resonating the way that they should. He’s losing allies, his job, changing his armor, and I think he might just be changing his stance on the no-kill rule but it all happening too fast. It makes for a pretty exciting read but it doesn’t stick with me. The quick pace is also causing the artwork to suffer with some images being more crude than they perhaps should have been and a few pages needing a couple extra panels to make transitions between scenes flow better and action scenes to be more easily understood.

It doesn’t feel like I’m being told a story anymore. Instead it’s like I’m getting drastic plot developments lobbed at my head every other page. So really I think that anyone interested in this book should kind of be in a holding pattern at the moment waiting for things to settle down. I know that the incoming creative team has repeated that what’s to come isn’t a reboot… but if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck– it’s a duck. There’s some really interesting things happening in Batwing right now and the story being told should be good. It has all the right ingredients after all, but it’s like we’ve skipped a few steps in the preparation and taken it out of the oven too soon.

So basically, if you’ve been reading Batwing from the beginning you should get this because some important things happen. If you haven’t, then skip it and wait for the new creative team.

SCORE: 6.5/10

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ComicBookResources had quite the exclusive yesterday with their big interview with DC Comics Editor-In-Chief and Bob Harras and Editorial Director Bobbie Chase. In the interview we learned that a few books will be getting scrapped this May and that some of our Bat-titles will be getting annual issues and entirely new creative teams.

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Last issue, new series writer Fabian Nicieza made great use of the world that Judd Winick had established. This issue, he builds on that world by adding a few new villains and we may even see some changes to the Batwing armor if the debut of Channel 52 news is any indicator.

I read this issue and the last with my finger on the button. I was very ready to drop this series from the review rotation but issue #16 was quite captivating and this issue cranks up the intensity even more. David is really getting hit on all sides. When his boss isn’t forcing him behind a desk, his coworkers are trying to gun him down every time his back is turned, Kia won’t support him in his crusade to clean up the department either so he’s all alone out there. As Batwing he still has Matu helping him out but even the Alfred of Africa is in trouble in this issue and Batwing himself is being hunted by a group of mercenaries with far better tech than what Batman Inc. can supply. An impossible situation makes for an interesting and memorable read but most importantly it adds credibility to Batwing as a hero. One of my main criticisms about Winick’s run was that Batwing always needed to be bailed out by the Bat family or Justice League International. Here he’s on his own and seeing him struggle to overcome these obstacles makes me like him all the more.

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The post New 52 – Batwing #17 review appeared first on Batman News.

Batwing, you are reprieved.

I was totally ready to cut this title from the review rotation if this week’s issue wasn’t any good. In fact, I was rather looking forward to finally being done with it and having one less mediocre comic to read. So I had nothing to lose here. If it was good, then great, I’m reading something I enjoy, but if I didn’t like it then it would be the last time I would have to slog through a Batwing adventure. What did we end up with? Well, Fabian Nicieza wrote one of the best issues of Batwing that I can remember! I was interested and entertained the whole time, and now I’m actually looking forward to reading more.

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The post New 52 – Batwing #16 review appeared first on Batman News.

Respect earned. It couldn’t have been easy to clean this mess up, but new writer Fabian Nicieza and fill-in artist Fabrizio Fiorentino pulled it off.

Judd Winick, who was the writer on Batwing from the very beginning, jumped ship before finishing the three part Father Lost arc leaving a new writer to pick up the pieces. To make matters worse, artist Marcus To wasn’t even going to come back and finish drawing the final chapter of this tale! So as you can see the odds were really stacked against this issue. It seems clear to me that the Father Lost story is one that nobody was passionate about telling. The original creative team saw it as a job that needed to be done and that’s that. But that’s not what readers want. Not me anyway. I want to buy a comic that the author and artist are in love with. A book that they would’ve fought to see through to its end. The Father Lost saga didn’t have that and giving a brand new creative team the task of not only wrapping things up but doing it all in a single issue? Wow. My hat is off to Fabian and Fabrizio.

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It may be the end of Judd Winick’s run on Batwing but it’s not the end of the Father Lost arc. Next month we’ll see Fabian Nicieza take over writing duties on this series and I’ll be sticking with it until then just to see how things go with a new creative team, but if it wasn’t for that I would’ve definitely dropped this title by now.

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For the first time in a year of doing these reviews, I forgot to pick up a book. I’ve never had Batwing in my pull list because I honestly think that the moment I tell the comic shop to hold this book for me, DC will cancel it. The series has failed to stand out in my mind. I thought that a Batman of Africa comic might address all the many, many real world problems of that entire CONTINENT, which would be too much for one hero to bear. But that’s not what this series is, he’s often fighting against magic or alien villains (And it’s time I gave up on seeing Batwing confront real world problems because four pages in, I actually muttered aloud “Does she got ****in’ lightsabers?”), he never faces any obstacle alone and relies on the real Batman’s help OR the help of some other hero in almost every issue. Even this comic introduces a new heroine that will fight along side him in future issues. So when I glanced through the shelves of new comics today, I totally missed Batwing and didn’t realize it until I was back at home. Very frustrating.

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Issue zero of Batwing should accomplish its goal of attracting new readers but there’s not much here for fans who have been reading the book since the beginning. Plainly stated, Batwing is a character who really didn’t need a zero issue. The story told here is one that we saw briefly a few months ago, only it wasn’t quite as detailed. You get a glimpse at yet another tragedy in David’s life that led to him becoming a vigilante and you’ll meet a character who was a major influence on his life but one who oddly enough I don’t think was ever mentioned over the past twelve months of this series. The first few pages started off strong but then some meta-human demon gang showed up and it just felt really over-the-top to me. Once David became a vigilante it felt like something I had already read before. There…really isn’t a lot to say truthfully. This is probably going to be the shortest review I’ve ever written–which is a nice change of pace after reviewing those three No Man’s Land TPBs.

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