Post by Dr. Baghead on Jan 10, 2005 6:12:02 GMT -5
Since no one else is going to review this, I guess I might as well...
Title: Batman/Danger Girl
Sub-Title: Dangerous Connections
Writer: Andy Hartnell
Pencils: Leinil Yu
Inks: Gerry Alanguilan
I love a bizarre crossover, I was really happy when Thundercats and Battle of the Planets came out because they just went crossover crazy! Two where they met each other (BotP/TC being really good, TC/BotP being really bad) and ones where they met establish Western Comicbook heroes! (BotP/Witchblade wasn't soo bad, but I hear if you actually like BotP it's much better because of all the storyline tie-ins. And for sheer oddity you can't miss Superman/Thundercats.)... and I'm honestly very upset Superman/Adam Warren's Dirty Pair was never published.
In addition to liking bizarre crossover, I like Batman, I like Danger Girl, and I like comics written by Andy Hartnell... so this a winning package in theory
IN THEORY
Storyline overview:
The story opens at a fancy party for the rich and famous, and like so many fancy parties for the rich and famous in Gotham it's invaded by clown themed thugs who start roughing everyone up, and like so many other times clown themed thugs star roughing everyone up Batman shows up to kick their butts...
but what, is it Batman?! He's cracking wise while he's cracking heads, hitting on the ladies, posing for pictures, and trips on his own cape! Upon tripping Harley Quinn has time to unmask him for the cameras...
Cut to earlier (that day? that week? I'm not sure) Deuce is breifing the Sydney and Abbey on their mission, one Johnny must sit out because he always messed up, it seems Donovan Conrad (eye patch guy who's place Abbey blows up in the very begining of the first Danger Girl series) isn't dead and is now in Gotham... Batman apparently knew the Danger yatch when he saw it so he had bugged it and hide under it in the Bat-submarine-thing listening (with Alfred for no real reason... does he normally take Alfred on such dangerous scouting jobs? what if the sub had sprung a leak, he'd have to save both of them!) So Batman is now well aware of the girls presence in Gotham.
Joker has gotten some fancy new mind control ray and can't get it to work, Donovan Conrad shows up and offers Joker the pass code to make it work in exchange for co-ownership so he can get revenge on the Danger Girls. Joker has a 'better' plan and chops off Donovan's right hand, he has to get him the passcode or Joker will let his hand rot in an ice chest.
Abbey is eyeing an expensive import car, which of course was purchused just before she arrived by would you believe... BRUCE WAYNE!!! So he hits on her, invites her to a swanky party, and leaves, Sydney is impressed they met THE BRUCE WAYNE.
so yadda yadda Conrad gets the code and A GUN, he kidnaps Harley only to get a mysterious phone call telling him to show up at the swanky party.
Abbey and Sydney have Valerie hack into the Bat Signal so they can summon Batman... a very confusing scene takes place in which Abbey tries to fight Batman, Catwoman shows up for no real reason except so the required 'chick in the leather body suit with a whip fights the chick in the leather body suit with a whip' match, Abbey and Catwoman loose... basically Batman refuses to work with the Danger Girls and leaves. Catwoman one should note disappears from the story at this point, neither she nor Selina are at the swanky party nor does she say anything important after being beaten by Syndey, this confused me.
Johnny and Valerie are near by and it seems he called Conrad and Joker to the swanky party, he might not be allowed to take part in the mission but he's going to save the day, AS BATMAN!!!!
yadda yadda yadda we see a little of the party before the comic basically reaches the point where it started, so Harley has unmasked Johnny, then real Batman springs into action, he and the Danger Girls fight the Joker and his henchmen, all the villians go to jail, Conrad's hand rotted anyway THE END.
......
What we have here is basically a Danger Girl comic that uses Batman movie logic (show the supporting cast, no one cares about Batman) which would be fine if this was a Danger Girl comic where Batman was a guest star, heck replace Joker and Harley with Major Maxim or some other Danger Girl style villian and it would have lost nothing important been nothing more then a sub-par stand along Danger Girl storyline... but since this a crossover Batman/Bruce Wayne should have been more then a incidental character (especially since he was the head liner)
Also Sydney's charactization seemed a bit off, I haven't read the DG stories where they're in Vegas or Hawaii but I don't recall her in the original being so obsessed with posessions and landing a rich husband. I just found it odd she came across so petty here.
A really big issue worth noting as well is the art... a big part (and probably the main part) of Danger Girl's appeal is, well, the girls are hot. Here they are not so much, they're drawn angular with rather basic proportions, and some shots that have them farther away have them draw as hideous little stick figure people, in addition it's rendered with odd scratchy lines over them (I supposed to indicate gradating shade?) which is some shots looks like face wrinkles... I don't mean to sound like some kind of chauvanist pig dwelling on how poorly the girls are drawn, but if you have a subpar story with little to no Batman in it, you really shouldn't skimp out and not get an artist capable of drawing the girls as hot as possible.
But it's not just the girls I have issue with. Joker has an army of clowns with only 3 different designs, so you'll see the same 3 getting knocked out over and over, it's like an old Beat-Em-Up game! Only Haggar's easier on the eyes (note to the colorist: if you need to color an army of 3 clowns, not make them all the same colors, mix it up! and especially don't give a hench clown Joker's color scheme!) The eye candy for the lady's suffers as well, as Deuce looks NOTHING like Sean Connery nor is he all big and proud and larger then life, he's average and just looks like a scruffy old man more suited to playing "Crusty Sailor #3" in a live action segment on Spongebob then "King Arthur" in a grand motion picture and Bruce, while I acknowledge artist have the right to make some changes to designs, look NOTHING like you'd expect Bruce to look like (he looks a bit dumb, not 'playing dumb' like Superman, but like he's geniuely stupid.)
Also, I like when comics have backgrounds, 90% of the pannels have no/minimal background and it's ugly..... although on the plus side, Joker has a Conan O'Brien-esque pompadore, that's my favorite look for him and I'm glad to see.
Final Rating: *1/2
(if it had better art, it could maybe be **, **1/2 tops)
Title: Batman/Danger Girl
Sub-Title: Dangerous Connections
Writer: Andy Hartnell
Pencils: Leinil Yu
Inks: Gerry Alanguilan
I love a bizarre crossover, I was really happy when Thundercats and Battle of the Planets came out because they just went crossover crazy! Two where they met each other (BotP/TC being really good, TC/BotP being really bad) and ones where they met establish Western Comicbook heroes! (BotP/Witchblade wasn't soo bad, but I hear if you actually like BotP it's much better because of all the storyline tie-ins. And for sheer oddity you can't miss Superman/Thundercats.)... and I'm honestly very upset Superman/Adam Warren's Dirty Pair was never published.
In addition to liking bizarre crossover, I like Batman, I like Danger Girl, and I like comics written by Andy Hartnell... so this a winning package in theory
IN THEORY
Storyline overview:
The story opens at a fancy party for the rich and famous, and like so many fancy parties for the rich and famous in Gotham it's invaded by clown themed thugs who start roughing everyone up, and like so many other times clown themed thugs star roughing everyone up Batman shows up to kick their butts...
but what, is it Batman?! He's cracking wise while he's cracking heads, hitting on the ladies, posing for pictures, and trips on his own cape! Upon tripping Harley Quinn has time to unmask him for the cameras...
Cut to earlier (that day? that week? I'm not sure) Deuce is breifing the Sydney and Abbey on their mission, one Johnny must sit out because he always messed up, it seems Donovan Conrad (eye patch guy who's place Abbey blows up in the very begining of the first Danger Girl series) isn't dead and is now in Gotham... Batman apparently knew the Danger yatch when he saw it so he had bugged it and hide under it in the Bat-submarine-thing listening (with Alfred for no real reason... does he normally take Alfred on such dangerous scouting jobs? what if the sub had sprung a leak, he'd have to save both of them!) So Batman is now well aware of the girls presence in Gotham.
Joker has gotten some fancy new mind control ray and can't get it to work, Donovan Conrad shows up and offers Joker the pass code to make it work in exchange for co-ownership so he can get revenge on the Danger Girls. Joker has a 'better' plan and chops off Donovan's right hand, he has to get him the passcode or Joker will let his hand rot in an ice chest.
Abbey is eyeing an expensive import car, which of course was purchused just before she arrived by would you believe... BRUCE WAYNE!!! So he hits on her, invites her to a swanky party, and leaves, Sydney is impressed they met THE BRUCE WAYNE.
so yadda yadda Conrad gets the code and A GUN, he kidnaps Harley only to get a mysterious phone call telling him to show up at the swanky party.
Abbey and Sydney have Valerie hack into the Bat Signal so they can summon Batman... a very confusing scene takes place in which Abbey tries to fight Batman, Catwoman shows up for no real reason except so the required 'chick in the leather body suit with a whip fights the chick in the leather body suit with a whip' match, Abbey and Catwoman loose... basically Batman refuses to work with the Danger Girls and leaves. Catwoman one should note disappears from the story at this point, neither she nor Selina are at the swanky party nor does she say anything important after being beaten by Syndey, this confused me.
Johnny and Valerie are near by and it seems he called Conrad and Joker to the swanky party, he might not be allowed to take part in the mission but he's going to save the day, AS BATMAN!!!!
yadda yadda yadda we see a little of the party before the comic basically reaches the point where it started, so Harley has unmasked Johnny, then real Batman springs into action, he and the Danger Girls fight the Joker and his henchmen, all the villians go to jail, Conrad's hand rotted anyway THE END.
......
What we have here is basically a Danger Girl comic that uses Batman movie logic (show the supporting cast, no one cares about Batman) which would be fine if this was a Danger Girl comic where Batman was a guest star, heck replace Joker and Harley with Major Maxim or some other Danger Girl style villian and it would have lost nothing important been nothing more then a sub-par stand along Danger Girl storyline... but since this a crossover Batman/Bruce Wayne should have been more then a incidental character (especially since he was the head liner)
Also Sydney's charactization seemed a bit off, I haven't read the DG stories where they're in Vegas or Hawaii but I don't recall her in the original being so obsessed with posessions and landing a rich husband. I just found it odd she came across so petty here.
A really big issue worth noting as well is the art... a big part (and probably the main part) of Danger Girl's appeal is, well, the girls are hot. Here they are not so much, they're drawn angular with rather basic proportions, and some shots that have them farther away have them draw as hideous little stick figure people, in addition it's rendered with odd scratchy lines over them (I supposed to indicate gradating shade?) which is some shots looks like face wrinkles... I don't mean to sound like some kind of chauvanist pig dwelling on how poorly the girls are drawn, but if you have a subpar story with little to no Batman in it, you really shouldn't skimp out and not get an artist capable of drawing the girls as hot as possible.
But it's not just the girls I have issue with. Joker has an army of clowns with only 3 different designs, so you'll see the same 3 getting knocked out over and over, it's like an old Beat-Em-Up game! Only Haggar's easier on the eyes (note to the colorist: if you need to color an army of 3 clowns, not make them all the same colors, mix it up! and especially don't give a hench clown Joker's color scheme!) The eye candy for the lady's suffers as well, as Deuce looks NOTHING like Sean Connery nor is he all big and proud and larger then life, he's average and just looks like a scruffy old man more suited to playing "Crusty Sailor #3" in a live action segment on Spongebob then "King Arthur" in a grand motion picture and Bruce, while I acknowledge artist have the right to make some changes to designs, look NOTHING like you'd expect Bruce to look like (he looks a bit dumb, not 'playing dumb' like Superman, but like he's geniuely stupid.)
Also, I like when comics have backgrounds, 90% of the pannels have no/minimal background and it's ugly..... although on the plus side, Joker has a Conan O'Brien-esque pompadore, that's my favorite look for him and I'm glad to see.
Final Rating: *1/2
(if it had better art, it could maybe be **, **1/2 tops)
