In New York City, comic book stores reopened under "Phase 2" in June, so there's been time to slowly catch-up on what was postponed over the last few months.
Months of buying nothing means that what I did buy looks like a batch of books, but had there been no pandemic, I realized I would've only picked out 2 regular-sized comic books a month on average. On one month, I would've purchased 3 regular-sized comic books a month. And the purchases weren't particularly adventurous - it really looks like I'm just keeping tabs on what new adventures Batman and Batgirl are up to.
I was able to flip through the pricey "extravaganza" issues of Catwoman, Robin, The Flash, Joker and Green Lantern - the Green Lantern one was, surprisingly, the one worth buying, while the rest looked superficial with empty calories.
Justice League Dark features on-the-rise new writer Ram V. working the script off of James Tynion's plot and is serviceable, if very middle-of-the-road. It'll be interesting to see new storylines entirely by V in the future and how they fare, because the only distinction that made it worth checking out the next issue is that he has a good grasp of pacing, dialogue and characterization.
Now, on to the new Adventures of Bruce & Babs. It was nice that I was able to get the issue of Batman with the Stanley "Artgerm" Lau cover of Punchline, because there was a lot of hype surrounding it, even though her story reads like weak tea compared to the stories that introduced Harley Quinn in Batman: The Animated Series, although, to be fair, I remember not thinking anything of Harley until after Paul Dini wrote "Harley and Ivy" - that episode was her breakthrough, so it's possible that Punchline will probably have her moment in the future, while her first appearance and "origin" (which, honestly, was really sketchy and lacking meat to feel definitive) are just perfunctory things for posterity right now. Like, for example, if Eiza Gonzalez is cast to play her in a movie, then these early books become hot. Right now, it's empty calories.
Speaking of Batman: The Animated Series, two new comic books were launched to coincide with an expansion to a popular line of toys. Batman: The Adventures Continue and reprints of The Batman Adventures comic book from the early-90s. Ironically, the reprint comic is printed on better-quality paper than either the original issue or the trade paperbacks that reprinted the issue, offered at 79 cents more than the cover price of the original. It's actually a better deal than when it was offered 27 years ago. It's also a good issue that sets the style early. The Batman vs. The Penguin story is told with the same complexity expected of the traditional Batman books, but not the ones sold at the time. With hindsight, the approach in these early issues has more in common with Steve Englehart's 70's Batman comics, but I look back fondly on my memory of reading that 1st issue when it debuted, with the Danny Devito Penguin voiced by Paul Williams.
With Batman: The Adventures Continue, I thought the story was let down by the artwork. Ty Templeton's art style feels pretty basic compared to other artists I've seen work in this "animated" style, which is really just a way of saying it's drawn the way Bruce Timm might draw it, except we've seen him not draw it this way - check out the Mad Love comic book and you'll see his drawing style is more exaggerated, with more influences and a wider frame-of-reference informing what he's doing. If they couldn't get Bruce Timm back, I would've liked to have seen Rick Burchett, Tim Levins or Dario Brizuela try it. Otherwise, the book is a fun, safe bet.
Opinions on Batgirl comics vary wildly. I always rooted for Barbara Gordon to get out of the wheelchair and be Batgirl again, whereas the people who claim to prefer her replacements - Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brow - well, the sales of those books really needed to be there to not make anyone in editorial agree that they were great. Dan Didio's decision (typical of most of the decisions he made to reboot books) to make Barbara Batgirl again was based on sales possibly being better if the character headlining the book wasn't a 2nd/3rd generation character. In the long run, sales turned out relatively the same, but this time the title character is consistent with how she appears on merchandise and television, so you can argue that Barbara wins by seniority and experience, brand-wise. If they replace her again, well, I have one less book to buy, plus I'm still rooting for Lily Collins to play Babs in the movie...
I'm certain Cecil Castellucci's Batgirl scripts have been all about increasing the suspense and threat with bigger villains, but I have half-jokingly suggested on Twitter that her inspiration for story ideas comes from tropes found in folklore & mythology. This makes her stories more interesting than most of the Batgirl storylines we have had in a long time since the "Batgirl of Burnside" arc, five years ago. Castellucci's first arc, "Oracle Rising" has Barbara re-encounter her first villain (Killer Moth), plus The Terrible Trio - villains that appeared in the previous arc by the former writer of the book, Mairghead Scott, but the real villain of the piece is the evil Oracle android, whose origins have no explanation, but we get visual clues that she might be a construct of Superman villains Brainiac & Lex Luthor as part a line-wide crossover, The Year of The Villain, so, essentially, Castellucci is offering us Batgirl vs. Evil Twin, a common trope in mythology. Unfortunately, there's a huge continuity problem: Castellucci seems to be writing this as if "Oracle" was a sophisticated artificial intelligence system that Barbara employed, akin to the TV series, Person of Interest, which is a huge retcon, since Oracle was just an alias Barbara used when she became a computer hacker, offering Intel/communications/tech support to Batman and the Justice League in the 1990's. Was anyone in editorial aware? Cecil's main Batgirl reference is the Bronze Age Batgirl comics, which explains the presence of Jason Bard as a would-be love interest in her book, even though he had previously appeared as a villain in Batman Eternal (and within that story, it was Barbara who was responsible for the crippling injury that damaged his leg; she threw him off a rooftop). Anyway, if you can get over these hurdles, it's good, Stan Lee-style superhero spectacle and the art is fabulous.
So, we've seen her fight old villains, fight an evil twin, slay a dragon...and then, in the short arc that just wrapped, Cecil has Babs fight another new villain, but it's a villain that's a pastiche of a classic archfoe - Auric Goldfinger.
Whether or not my theory is a deliberate approach or a subconscious one on Cecil's part isn't really important, but I found it amusing that it fits well. Her next issue is another trope: an encounter with the Devil:
I'll wait for the trade to check out what Harley Quinn's romance with Booster Gold looks like...same deal with the Batman Beyond comic book..
How will Poison Ivy & Blue Beetle react to this?