Art of the Day: Katana

Artwork: Katana by Oliver Nome

Art of the Day: Katana (Suicide Squad poster)

Artwork: Katana by ehnony

Art of the Day: Poison Ivy and the Birds of Prey (New 52)

Artwork: Birds of Prey issue #11 cover by Stanley 'Artgerm' Lau

30 Days of Geek Chic, Day 20: A Katana Statue

There was not a lot of good things that came out of the New 52 from the poor writing to so many of the characters having undergone severe changes. However, I was pleasantly surprised that like the New 52 Birds of Prey version of Katana. She was one of the best things about that mediocre series which ended up being cancelled.

I really like this statue, isn't it cool? This is something I can definitely see sitting on my bookcase.

DC Collectibles Comics Cover Girls: Katana Statue    Retail Price: $99.99

Book Review: Birds of Prey vol #2 (New 52)

Book: Birds of Prey volume #2: Your Kiss Might Kill (issues #8-12 and 0) by Duane Swierczynski

Illustrations by Jesus Saiz (issue #8), Travel Foreman (issues #9-11), Timothy Green II (issue #11), Cliff Richards (issue #12) and Romano Molenaar (issue #0)

Color by Javier Pina (issue #8), Gabe Eltaeb (issues #9-12) and Chris Sotomayor (issue #0)


Edition: Single Print Issues

Publisher: DC Comics

Description:

Black Canary, Starling, Poison Ivy and Batgirl. Together, as Gotham City's covert ops team, they're taking down the villains other heroes can't touch. They are the Birds of Prey. The Birds face a multitude of threats from outside and in! A dangerous new villains threatens to expose Black Canary's dark secret, and the Court of Owls sets its sight on everyone in Gotham for a "Night of the Owls" tie-in. Plus, the ladies bring a gravely injured POISON IVY to the Amazon hoping to help rejuvenate her, but they're going to need her help more to stay alive!


Rating: 2 stars

Review:

I would have given this higher ratings if the stories in these issues didn't feel as if everything was happening somewhere off page because what was presented wasn't bad it just felt disjointed. However, the writing was flat with stories that were going no where.

Issue #8 focused on Black Canary being sought for the murder of her husband, she along with Batgirl and Katana were being attacked by a mysterious group who were there to bring Dinah in. Meanwhile, Starling was sneaking around trying to find out more information about Dinah but she ended up finding out more than she was looking for after she broke into a secret hideout. This issue raised so many questions for me such as who were these guys that were attacking them? Because I have no idea who they were and the story certainly didn't tell me.

Issue #9 was a tie-in to the Court of Owls storyline, and had the Birds taking on one of the Owls' talons, a trained assassin. There was no real point to this story other than the Birds going from one location to the next fighting the Owls' trained assassin with Poison Ivy setting the focus for the next arc.

Issues #10-12 had the Birds heading to the rainforest to help revive Poison Ivy who sacrificed herself to help put talon in a deep freeze. While heading there, their plane was shot down and they were soon being attacked by these plant creatures. It all turned out to be some kind of trap/insurance of Poison Ivy's to get the team to help her stop several companies from destroying the environment. Some time later in the story after the team was fighting on a burning oil rig the scene then cut to Ivy in some sort of restorative tank. Next, the team was attacking Ivy after refusing to continue to go along with her eco-terrorist plans. This ends with a cliffhanger, was Ivy killed and will her plan continue even if she's dead?

Issue #0 told of how Black Canary first met Starling and Batgirl. She had gone undercover at Penguin's nightclub where Starling was also working to try to track down a bomb seller. However, her plan to stop the sell was nearly ruined when Batgirl showed up. With everything over with, it gave Dinah time to reflect, she was tired of being out there on her own and wanted to form a team. This was the start of that team, the reader also finds out something interesting about Starling and why she really joined the team.

Out of all of these issues the best one was issue #0 it was the only one with a complete story even though the writing was still flat. Similar to the first volume, Katana and Starling are still the only two characters that continue to be interesting. Despite issue #0 showing how the team was created, the Birds of Prey still do not feel like a team. They each have their own agenda and there is no real reason why they are even a part of this team. 

The art stands to be the best thing about this volume despite the multitude of artists. I don't understand why all the humor and fun was taken out of the New 52 comics. Most of the stories are drab and so are most of the characters. Birds of Prey used to be an amazing series but the New 52 version is truly a pale comparison.

Book Review: Birds of Prey vol #1 (New 52)

Book: Birds of Prey volume #1: Trouble in Mind (issues #1-7) by Duane Swierczynski with illustrations by Jesus Saiz (issues #1-5 and 7) and Javier Pina (issues #5 and 6)

Edition: I read the single issues

Rating: 3 stars

Review:

The story has the Birds of Prey (Black Canary, Starling, Katana, Poison Ivy with Batgirl assisting from time to time) trying find the mind control villain Choke who is behind this huge mind control conspiracy.

Even though, I still miss the pre-new 52 Birds of Prey, I thought this was good. Especially the first four issues. Now when it comes to issues #5-7 the writing and the story felt rushed and confusing. It seems like a good portion of the story was happening off page somewhere leaving the reader trying to figure out what was going on.

I thought the story relied too much on the fight scenes and action to carry it along instead of focusing on a good story. There was also a lot of information and details missing such as why are these ladies even a team. They don't really work well together or even like each other. And I still don't understand why Poison Ivy who is a villain was added to the team.

As for the characters, Black Canary (Dinah Lance) has lost all her personality and been replaced by a dull watered down version for the new 52. Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) is another character whose personality seems to be nonexistent. Gone are things that made these two characters wonderful, they're just there. Even Poison Ivy was bland and weak.

Katana and Starling were probably the only two that were okay.  At times Starling felt like a poor substitute for Lady Blackhawk and Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) but at least she had a personality. Although, Katana might have been a little sword happy at times, she still had a personality. 

Why give it three stars? Because I did enjoy reading these issues, there was a lot of drama and suspense as well as action. I just wish the story had more character build up and development because you don't really learn much about these characters besides little snippets that's tossed out there from time to time. I also wish the second half of the story didn't seem so rushed.

The new 52 Birds of Prey is one of the series that I have continued reading since it launched and I plan on posting more of my reviews.

Three Comic Books Being Cancelled: The Fearless Defenders, Vibe and Katana

I had a feeling that DC Comics might eventually cancel Katana and Vibe (low sales) but I had no idea that The Fearless Defenders were on the cutting block over at Marvel. That's a shame because I thought TFD was a great series. I thought Katana and Vibe had good stories but they sort of flew under the radar.

The last book for each series will be published in December.

I don't know why the companies won't give these books a chance to find readers. They also need to promote them. They can not keep relying on us fans to do all the work.

TV Round Up: Beware the Batman

I took some time to catch up on the episodes of Beware the Batman that I had taped. I wanted to get caught up before the 7th episode aired tomorrow. Here is my brief review for episodes #3-6:

Episode #3: "Tests"

Rating: 1 star

This episode wasn't very good. I thought it was very boring. It focused on Batman trying to stop two incompetent lackeys of Anarky as well as trying to stop Anarky before he can carry out his plan to incite chaos by blowing up the monorail. There was also a side story with Tatsu (Katana) that had her unknowingly being tested by Bruce to see if she had what it takes to not only be Bruce's body guard but also Batman's sidekick.

Unfortunately this episode didn't deliver. The story fell flat as well as the villians and Katana's side story was boring. One good thing about this episode, Batman's fighting skills have improved. He was able to hold his own against Anarky without too much difficulty.

Other than the two idiots, the main villain got away. Alfred was in this episode, I didn't like how he continues trying persuade Bruce to give Tatsu the job but I did like that he assisted Batman by driving the Batmobile through a remote to stop those two lackeys.


Episode #4: "Safe"

Rating: 1 star

This was another not so good episode. It was boring. The League of Assassins sent by Lady Shiva (whose voice only appears) were after scientist Jason Burr to obtain his scientific discovery, the Ion Cortex.

The best thing about this episode were the fight scenes because there was no real story other than ninjas were going after the doctor. Katana continues to be a bore and has zero personality and the villains continue to get away. Even though Jason Burr was supposed to be a comic relief, he was so annoying.

With each episode Batman's fighting skills get better but it would be nice if the villains didn't keep getting away. But it looks like they will show up again, mainly Silver Monkey.


Episode #5: "Broken"

Rating: 4 stars

This episode was so much better. It had an intriguing villain and story and also included James and Barbara Gordon.

The story focused on several people being taken and imprisoned in toy soldiers that were rigged with bombs. The people who were taken had a connection to Humphrey Dumpler or Humpty Dumpty. Lieutenant Gordon continues to not want Batman's assistance but he's starting to change his mind at least by the end of the episode.

I wish the Gordons were featured more in this series because this version of Alfred and Tatsu don't really bring anything to the show. Again Tatsu's side story was boring. I wouldn't mind if their screen time was given to the Gordons.

I found this episode to be really interesting and slightly dark and would have been even better without Alfred and Tatsu.


Episode #6: "Toxic"

Rating: 5 stars

This episode was even better than the last. This episode dealt with love and revenge. It focused on a break-in at Simon Stagg's (he appeared in the first episode) corporation that resulted in security guard Rex Mason (who was also dating Simone's daughter Sapphire) being exposed to a chemical that transformed him into a creature (otherwise known as Metamorpho).

The transformation made Rex unstable and had him terrorizing the city. After Batman realized who the creature was he went back to Stagg Industries to investigate. He found out Simon was involved and went about trying to find Rex to see if he could help him. Unfortunately, things didn't work out as planned for helping Rex but at least Batman sent incriminating material to the police to hopefully arrest Stagg. Odds are Rex will appear again.

So far, this has been the best episode. Also, Tatsu was not featured in this episode and Alfred's appearance wasn't too bad either. This episode brought back Doctor Bethany Ravencroft (from the second episode), she sort of pushed her way into a date with Bruce for a charity event however it didn't work out. Bruce did end up meeting her later for dinner but at the end of the episode, it was shown her interest in Bruce was an ulterior motive which will be focused on in the next episode.


Well, I'm looking forward to watching tomorrow's episode, I hope it's as good as episodes #2, 5 and #6 and nothing like the horrible episodes #1, 3 and 4.

Beware the Batman 2nd Episode Review

Episode Title: Secrets

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

I thought the second episode was far better than the first. The show is improving. However, Batman continues to be pathetic when it comes to being out there fighting the criminals. Because in the first few minutes when Batman faced off against Magpie she kicked his butt (which was no surprise). This continued throughout the entire episode until the end when he was finally able to stop her. It's ridiculous how many times Magpie kicked his butt in this episode. It's hard to believe he's supposed to have put Lunkhead in a coma for two months when he can barely hold his own in a fight with Magpie. This is a very disappointing Batman.