Glunders Reads Comics

So long, Batwing

Judd Winick’s Batwing, the “Batman of Africa” book, is, perhaps three issues too late, no longer welcome on my pull list.

I mean, okay, the book’s always been of somewhat questionable taste, but issue #4’s foray into, uh, AIDS and military use of children (oh jeez, I know) has really solidified how utterly dumb the entire project is.

Worth noting as a point of contrast: Batman Incorporated (the excellent series that spawned Batwing) managed a legitimately interesting, serious take on a group of people about as far removed from the author as possible back in July, when Scottish writer Grant Morrison put two American Indian character s in the spotlight. It seemed a very honest portrayal; it was, at least, a bracing one. Two “superheroes” who look like they might be more at home in a Merrie Melodies production are placed in the middle of a gritty, gang-ravaged reservation. Their challenges are poverty, do-rag-wearing drug dealers, etcetera, etcetera. It’s mainstream “cape comics” filtering impossible real world issues in an appropriate, meaningful way.

Batman Incorporated #7

There isn’t really a whole lot that needs to be said about Batwing. It completely lacks subtlety, nuance, and artistry. It exploits grave political issues for the sake of underwhelming pyrotechnics aimed at 13-year-olds. It’s a Blood Diamond DVD chewed up, digested and excreted by a former Real World star.

It’s possible that there’s something incredibly clever to be said of a reality television personality harvesting CNN B-roll for his comic book about a black Batman brutalizing villains in a fictional city called “Tinasha” — it’s possible, also, that the ridiculousness is completely self-evident.

As David Brothers said, “I can’t pretend like a comic set in the Congo featuring child soldiers and a warlord named Massacre is something adults should take seriously.” I’m seeing now, though, that it’s not even brain dead fun: just brain dead.

Batwing is a really, really bad, possibly offensive piece of entertainment — not because a white writer is attempting to handle touchy, racially-charged material, but because he clearly doesn’t give half a turd about doing it well.

12 December 2011 ·