Batwing #15

Tickle tickle tickle!

What the fuck is going on, DC? I guess it's too much to ask for any kind of consistency in a comic book these days. I understand creative teams change for various reasons (although remember the old days when at least the fucking writer remained on a title for many years?). But we were in the middle of a story line here!

So Judd Winick walks off of Catwoman (leaving that title with the awful Ann Nocenti writing it), refuses to take over Green Arrow after doing the Zero issue (leaving that title with the awful Ann Nocenti writing it), and then walks away from DC altogether. And this happened before Liefeld walked? As you can see, I don't keep up with comic book news until it affects the current title I have in my hands! I like my reality to wash over me, pure and clean!

Now with the news of Gail Simone losing Batgirl (some news gets sent to me by butterforce and other readers), is it finally time to say, "Fucking Rob Liefeld was right"? I don't mean having intercourse with Rob Liefeld is the right intercourse of action. I mean, "Holy fuck. Rob's work may have been a total mess at times but what the fuck is DC's editorial doing?" They take Simone off of Batgirl which just seems like a really fucked decision. They bother Winick enough that he walks off two titles he's been writing well to replace him with Ann Nocenti who I'm pretty sure is just a walrus allowed to roll around on magnetic poetry and whatever sticks to its skin becomes the script for Green Arrow.

And now Fabian Nicieza gets to jump on board Batwing in the middle a story line. Perhaps Fabian wrote some of the previous issues of Batwing as well. Who can fucking tell when cover credits often don't match the inside credits and I don't always pay close enough attention to check them. I hope Fabian takes the Legion Lost story he was writing that DeFalco dumped in the garbage and just begins retelling that story in Batwing. I don't know how the fuck he's going to do that! I just want him to!

The story continues with Dawn dead and Batwing confronting Father Lost. Father Lost immediately possesses Batwing's mind. Again! Oh wait, Judd Winick isn't writing this anymore. I should drop the "again" joke. I should probably drop it anyway since who else remembers him explaining why one of his "Nuts and Bolts" comics was funny simply because of the word "again" way back in The Real World: San Francisco?

Okay, forget The Real World. Forget Judd Winick. Also, let's forget the fact that Dawn gave Batwing a talisman to keep him from being possessed. I mean, that was just last issue and should we really expect the new writer to remember that? Maybe it only had one charge left.

While Batwing is possessed, he's driven deep into his own subconscious. But what does he experience there? Oh, Father Lost's origin, of course!

A ha! I get it! This is an allegory! It's really about how DeFalco fucked Nicieza over and destroyed his Legion Lost story, so now Nicieza is going to do the same thing to Winick's Batwing!

Just like all of the other Cult of Father Lost rituals, this one ends with the Police arriving too late to save most of the victims. Batwing, now possessed by Father Lost, decides he's overlooked the police corruption for the last time. Nicieza also takes this time to showcase his amazing storytelling abilities with this turn of phrase:

Kia Okura is my friend. I want her to be more. I want her to be a bloodsmear!

Luckily someone programmed the Batwing Armor with a switch to lock it up and make David helpless. That was probably Batman's doing. I'm beginning to suspect he has trust issues. The police leave Batwing frozen in place in his armor because it's probably bad luck to unmask a national hero. Then Matu blasts Batwing with thousands of gigawatts of electricity to break the possession. Maybe the electricity is actually to recharge the anti-possession amulet David was given? Whatever the reason, who wants to wear the fucking Batwing armor when some guy with a remote control can put you out of commission if he doesn't like what you're doing?

Matu: "Goddammit, Batwing! You already look fat enough in that armor! Put down those tacos!"
ZZZZZAAAAAAPPPPP!

Yeah, dick.

After Batwing is better, he manages to scoop up Dawn and take her to a hospital where her life is saved because she apparently wasn't dead at all. I guess that's good?

The rest of this story is told clumsily from page to page in short bursts of narration. It reads exactly like someone trying to quickly tie up a story that they had no part in simply to get to their own story. It's not Nicieza's fault at all. But it sure makes for a shitty issue.

The doctors stabilize her. She will live.

I think about what she said all the way to work.

I won't be able to keep my secret from Kia for long. But that's a problem for another time.

I broadcast low frequency signals on the same wavelength that Lost used to subvert my brain activity.

Others controlled by him are drawn to my anger...

Matu programmed a scrambling cycle. It hurts me as much as it does Lost. So it's a good kind of hurt.

However he got his powers--magic or not--he is still nothing more than an insecure little zealot. And the only way to stop someone who needs to feel power over others is to take away their followers.

The grid severs Lost's control over the finders and his flock.

Lost. Utterly lost. All the anger he had "taken" from his flock is back where it belongs. And if Lost falls into the crowd, they will release all of it on him.

Of course Batwing doesn't let Lost fall because Batwing thinks the exact opposite of what Lost said earlier! Batwing believes the point of having endured all his stupid pain and suffering is to try and PREVENT that pain in suffering in others! So this isn't an allegory at all! Nicieza is rising above the stupid shit DeFalco did to Legion Lost! He's promising to respect Winick's story! Except he doesn't respect this Father Lost story very well. But at least he ends it succinctly and coherently if not mundanely and boringly and barely worth my timely.

Batwing #15 Rating: -1 Ranking. This issue was absolutely just filler to finish off Winick's story so Nicieza can get on with his own stuff. Don't read too much into this comparison but it's kind of like reading the first four acts of Othello and then the final act is simply, "Hey man, I loved too greatly and shit went wrong."