The Movement #1

I'm pretty sure next cover, Pouty Face is going to think twice about standing next to Rat Boy.

Everybody on the cover of this comic book just seems utterly disappointed in me. I'm getting flashbacks to my last family Thanksgiving. Rats included.

I'm glad to see another Teen Plus rated comic because that means women will get to have sex in this comic book just like the men get to have sex in the normal Teen rated comic books! Yeah, I'm on to you, DC! The only reason you raise the rating of a comic book is if women are acting like actual women. Bruce Wayne can sleep with any woman that comes along and three people per issue can be decapitated in Batman and Robin, but God forbid Batwoman kisses another woman in a Teen Rated comic book!

I suppose "God forbid" was a pretty apt phrase to use there.

Anyway, I don't really know much about this comic book no matter how much Gail Simone tried to spoil it on her Tumblr feed! I just skip any of her posts when I see mention of The Movement since I try to come to every issue of every comic as fresh and unspoiled as Tina Fey at twenty-three years old.

The first issue begins with Black Canary and Vixen visiting Coral City.

No wait. That can't be right.

The issue actually begins with some corrupt cops giving a couple of youths a hard time in a dirty alley. They pull some drugs off of one but don't arrest them because the cops want to keep the drugs for themselves. But they only offer to let them go if the female "gives them a little peek." But that's when a person in a faceless chrome mask that looks like it might have a webcam in the forehead appears with a recording playing back the cop's words. And this one person is suddenly joined by dozens of others.

I don't know if it was the breeze that suddenly blew up in the backyard where I'm reading this or the comic book itself that gave me the chills. Either way, this is a really nice moment and introduction to The Movement. Or I.C.U. Or whatever. I particularly liked the mixed up and out of order lines constantly repeated back to the officers.

The footage of the attempted sexual assault on the girl by the police is given to a local news channel where the Police Chief sees it and flips the fuck out. The group providing the footage is referred to as Channel M. The "M" probably stands for Monkeyshines. Man, this comic book should have been called Monkeyshines and starred a bunch of young monkeys just trying to do the right thing in a world gone mad!

The police chief tries to throw these douchebags out of his precinct but finds his hands are tied by the union and some crappy city council bylaws. And then he gets a report of another victim of "The Cornea Killer" and has a stroke. Or a heart attack. Maybe both. But he sucks it up because he has a job to do (which he can't actually do due to bureaucracy) and heads out to the scene of the murder.

In the meantime, we are introduced to a kid named Burden. I don't know. Call me cruel, but I think that's a fair name!

And he becomes an unholy dick in church. The name is looking fairer and fairer!

The police receive a call about this maniac in the church and Master Detective Yee does some on the spot Detectivating!

He's better than Batman!

After the cops rush off to beat the crap out of Burden and pin all the recent crimes of Coral City on him, the characters from the cover appear to check out the crime scene and/or stop Burden and/or help Burden! This includes Katharsis as seen in Batgirl, Ratboy as seen in my Blood Bowl team, the Wolftech Warlords (unless his name is Tail. Unless he's just making a comment about his tail being twitchy!), and Tremor who I don't know.

The police break into the church to confront Burden who's all hopped up on Hell power when a rat with a note delivers it to Officer Yee. The note just says, "War." And then I find I might possibly have a new favorite DC super hero!

Anyway, I love his rats. So fucking cute.

Also, he surfs a wave of rats into the church. Oh fuck it. It's too good not to scan as well.

How does Mouse even keep a secret identity? I'm sure he can't get the smell of rat urine off of his body when he's pulling shit like this.

Oh duh. I'm not much of a Master Comic Book Reader today. This young group of heroes may only be halfway interested in the crime scene and Burden. I'm sure they'll eventually investigate the Cornea Killer themselves and they'll probably get Burden to join them so he can help them out with his church issues (how will they activate his powers? Yell Bible quotes at him?), but right now they're mostly interested in finding Officers Whitt and Pena, the bastards from the beginning, for a little street justice.

The Captain also seems to be concerned that they're in a part of the city called the "'tweens". Is that because this is where people fall "in-between the cracks"? Or is it even worse? Like the mall where all the pre-teens hang out? Anyway, the Captain's daughter seems to have some issues with him being there.

Come on! He had to mention he had a sixteen year old daughter earlier for a reason!

While the possible Captain's Daughter confronts the Captain, Katharsis is busy beating the crap out of Officer Whitt. She leaves him in a bloody puddle but that's still a better condition than Virtue (the name of the probable Captain's daughter) leaves the Captain with her ability to "ride emotions" and discover hidden things in a person's life that even they don't know.

I bet that's Virtue's step-mother that she's selling out!

Virtue and the rest of The Movement lay down the law of the 'tweens: no cops. The people of the 'tweens don't need them and their bullshit and their bias and their need for control and power and their constant fear of regular people. And when the Captain tries to get the church pastor to help him with his agenda, he finds the pastor and all the parishioners of the church wearing the Channel M Webcam Masks.

Who paid for all these webcam masks? Who's the billionaire backer at the roots of this Movement?!

The Movement #1 Rating: I'll start The Movement at Rank #11 since that spot is currently open and this comic is absolutely as enjoyable as the others in the range of Worlds' Finest to Nightwing. The main concern I had before reading it was how much Gail Simone would rely on the use of Narration Boxes like in Batgirl and she didn't use any. She's telling this story how I like my stories to be told, simply with word balloons and pictures. I know that's subjective but since all of my Rankings are subjective, I get to pick the reasons for the subjection! I like the characters and I like the situation and, surprisingly to me, I liked Freddie Williams II's art on this. He draws a cute rat.