A review by captwinghead
Batman: No Man's Land, Vol. 2, by Various, Chuck Dixon, Larry Hama, Greg Rucka
2.0
Less anger inducing than the last volume but some of the same issues: bad art, really really bad art and heroes acting like assh*les.
TW: sexual assault
I think I give more forgiveness to this one because I love Cassandra Cain and this features her introduction. She has a really interesting backstory, I love her relationship with Babs and it was great seeing her intro again. While I don't love the reason Batman gave her the Batgirl costume, I enjoyed Puckett's issues about her.
Batman essentially gives the Batgirl suit to Cass (which by the way... I don't feel he should be the authority on seeing as it was Babs', not his). He gives it to Cass because he hates that Helena won't just follow his orders. Granted, Helena was the second worst person in this entire arc, but Bruce is still being a dick to her the entire time. He holds her to impossible standards while simultaneously telling her she'll never be a good hero. Granted, she hasn't acted like a hero in this entire arc thus far, but Simone's take on her later make me think Helena being the (second) worsssttt is the writing. It's Chuck Dixon and Devin Grayson making her intolerable.
Beatty's issue about the Langstroms features some truly horrific art. Man-Bat's child was really hard to look at and the colors were just awful. Considering the really weird head size on the kids in Young Justice, it was 90s art at it's worst. That issue (Beatty with Dixon) wasn't anything to write home about, either. Love that the girls were left out of it for 99.9% of it. Great.
There are some stories with Batman's usual cast of characters:
- I continue to not understand any woman willingly sleeping with the Penguin. No money is worth that.
- Poison Ivy shows up and, as usual, Batman's determined to stop her, but what she's doing is good? She was taking care of Gotham's orphan children (and if I need a better example of how unheroic and unBatsy Batman's been this entire arc, its that all of these kids only had Ivy to turn to and Bruce wasn't trying to adopt all of them). She's taken by Clay Face (unsure which one this was) and he holds her hostage and uses her for food and rapes her. It's explicitly said that he raped her. She settles on making him suffer and Batman tries to stop that. Honestly, I was rooting for her the entire time.
- There's a Harley Quinn issue that almossttt seemed as though Harley was going to make the right choice and break away from the Joker for good. Instead it ends in a weird way where she accepts his bullshit apology and it seems to say "See, women are crazy, lol". I don't like Harley stories like this. I prefer the ones where she actually sticks up for herself. Anyway, I enjoyed Harley's time with Ivy, however short it was.
- Hama's Batman v. Mr. Freeze story was the best Batman story in this book. Mostly because it didn't involve him bossing around any of the other members of the Batfamily.
- There's a Catwoman story I don't think is important enough to really mention. Save for the annoying art that was just impossible contortions to present as much tits and ass as possible and writing that made me cringe internally. I'm not sure who this book was for? Couldn't be women because I like girls and this art turned me off the story completed.
There's a Devin Grayson story that was half way enjoyable for me. I really loved the parts with Leslie. I loved her POV, her relationship with Bruce and Mikey, the reformed gang member. I really liked her dedication to helping everyone that needed medical help, regardless of if they were villains or not. And then there's Huntress who's the absolute worst. She's making everyone's jobs more difficult, she's bonded with a murderous cop I wish would fall into the river. She tries to fight Cass, who's actually helping people. I honestly question why this character was written the worst way possible? She hasn't been on the right side of an issue since her creation (and she won't be until Gail Simone writes her for Birds of Prey).
TW: sexual assault
I think I give more forgiveness to this one because I love Cassandra Cain and this features her introduction. She has a really interesting backstory, I love her relationship with Babs and it was great seeing her intro again. While I don't love the reason Batman gave her the Batgirl costume, I enjoyed Puckett's issues about her.
Batman essentially gives the Batgirl suit to Cass (which by the way... I don't feel he should be the authority on seeing as it was Babs', not his). He gives it to Cass because he hates that Helena won't just follow his orders. Granted, Helena was the second worst person in this entire arc, but Bruce is still being a dick to her the entire time. He holds her to impossible standards while simultaneously telling her she'll never be a good hero. Granted, she hasn't acted like a hero in this entire arc thus far, but Simone's take on her later make me think Helena being the (second) worsssttt is the writing. It's Chuck Dixon and Devin Grayson making her intolerable.
Beatty's issue about the Langstroms features some truly horrific art. Man-Bat's child was really hard to look at and the colors were just awful. Considering the really weird head size on the kids in Young Justice, it was 90s art at it's worst. That issue (Beatty with Dixon) wasn't anything to write home about, either. Love that the girls were left out of it for 99.9% of it. Great.
There are some stories with Batman's usual cast of characters:
- I continue to not understand any woman willingly sleeping with the Penguin. No money is worth that.
- Poison Ivy shows up and, as usual, Batman's determined to stop her, but what she's doing is good? She was taking care of Gotham's orphan children (and if I need a better example of how unheroic and unBatsy Batman's been this entire arc, its that all of these kids only had Ivy to turn to and Bruce wasn't trying to adopt all of them). She's taken by Clay Face (unsure which one this was) and he holds her hostage and uses her for food and rapes her. It's explicitly said that he raped her. She settles on making him suffer and Batman tries to stop that. Honestly, I was rooting for her the entire time.
- There's a Harley Quinn issue that almossttt seemed as though Harley was going to make the right choice and break away from the Joker for good. Instead it ends in a weird way where she accepts his bullshit apology and it seems to say "See, women are crazy, lol". I don't like Harley stories like this. I prefer the ones where she actually sticks up for herself. Anyway, I enjoyed Harley's time with Ivy, however short it was.
- Hama's Batman v. Mr. Freeze story was the best Batman story in this book. Mostly because it didn't involve him bossing around any of the other members of the Batfamily.
- There's a Catwoman story I don't think is important enough to really mention. Save for the annoying art that was just impossible contortions to present as much tits and ass as possible and writing that made me cringe internally. I'm not sure who this book was for? Couldn't be women because I like girls and this art turned me off the story completed.
There's a Devin Grayson story that was half way enjoyable for me. I really loved the parts with Leslie. I loved her POV, her relationship with Bruce and Mikey, the reformed gang member. I really liked her dedication to helping everyone that needed medical help, regardless of if they were villains or not. And then there's Huntress who's the absolute worst. She's making everyone's jobs more difficult, she's bonded with a murderous cop I wish would fall into the river. She tries to fight Cass, who's actually helping people. I honestly question why this character was written the worst way possible? She hasn't been on the right side of an issue since her creation (and she won't be until Gail Simone writes her for Birds of Prey).