You will need to read the previous issue to fully understand what’s going on here. That much is for sure. In case you’re not familiar with Ame-Comi Girls, it’s a digital-first series that takes place outside of the New 52 continuity like Legends of the Dark Knight only it goes much, much farther with creating its own unique world. Whereas Legends of the Dark Knight is a steak and potatoes Batman story each month, Ame-Comi Girls takes just about everything regarding the DC universe and turns it on its head. Many of the characters you know and love either don’t exist or they have been re-imagined as female. The art style of the last issue was very cartoony and the writing was upbeat and fun. I enjoyed it thoroughly, but this installment that focuses on Duela Dent, the Ame-Comi Joker, took itself quite a bit more seriously in both art and script. I wouldn’t recommend it.
The main attraction of issue #2, the Batgirl issue, was how fun it was but this wasn’t fun at all. Sure, Harley makes a few wise cracks and there’s some slapstick between her and Catwoman, but the rest of the material devoted to Duela’s backstory and the ongoing battle against female Brainiac was rather boring to me. Duela is the daughter of Jack the Joker Dent, a man who shot and paralyzed Jim Gordon. She hates bats because a bunch of them got stuck in her hair and chewed her cheeks to give her that trademark grin. She loves chaos because her father’s dying words asked that she cause as much chaos as possible. I found it all kind of stupid and rather joyless. And as for the Brainiac plot…I just can’t get into it. It’s too much too soon. And why would a being who was able to create a planet billions of years ago need to destroy our planet today to harness our collective knowledge? Shouldn’t she be pretty far beyond what we have amassed at this point? We’ve only been capable of flight for a little over a hundred years now. We only made a biodegradable potato chip bag that doesn’t crinkle too loudly a couple of years ago. I’m just saying, Brainiac, maybe your’e taking this planet out of the oven a bit prematurely. At least wait for Google Fiber to cross 3 state lines.
I’m just getting acquainted with a handful of the characters and each issue throws even more my way. This time we get a female Flash as well. And with the artwork losing its anime edge and the writing coming up short on laughs and overall frivolity I’ve totally lost interest in keeping up with this one. Maybe if it was a $2.99 book I’d give it more of a chance, but there are more than enough bat-books out there already and $3.99 is asking too much for this title. I won’t be reviewing it anymore until it comes out in trade paperback.
SCORE: 4/10
