Art By: Irene Koh, Hi-Fi, Sean Chen, Mark Morales, Romuld Fajardo Jr., Stjepan Seijec
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: February 25, 2015
I Know The Secret!
Hey Everyone! Do you know what time it is? It's time for a super late review! Yeah, that's right I'm so behind and I'm still trying to play catch up but really this is a title that I don't mind being behind on because for the most part it just rehashes things that we already know and we feel cheated after reading and not finding out the secret that DC promised us. Hopefully though, that isn't the case here as we dive into the secret origins of Batgirl, Firestorm and Poison Ivy.............. Yeah, I'm not a fan of the title but maybe we'll all learn something and for once this title won't disappoint....... Optimism! Let's check it out.
Explain It!:
Our issue begins with the Batgirl section where we all look back in Barbara's history and see the things that made her who she is........... Well, that's not exactly true. You see Barbara has always considered herself Batgirl. Even before there was a bat, there was her will to do great things and we see her story from the Zero Year tie-in, to when she first became Batgirl to when her life changed from The Killing Joke........... I guess it was okay to have it here. So the story continues and we see how Barbara is going to take part in a experimental surgery that requires her to have a brain scan and then be implanted with a special algorithm that would allow her brain to speak to the rest of her body, giving her the ability to walk again. The only problem here is even though it kind of alludes to Barbara's time as Oracle by her creating an algorithm that could predict crime and then having an information broker dispatch people to where the crime is going down...... It doesn't show Barbara in what I feel is one of her most important roles in DC Comics. When I was growing up Batgirl had just been shot and I spent my entire youth and my twenties knowing Barbara to be Oracle and man was she an impressive hero. Besides for that though, this story does add a little bit of info to the main story arc going on in Batgirl right now by showing us that the brainscan that Barbara had combined with the algorithm has kind of copied her mind and now the Barbara before the brainscan lives inside of......... the interwebs I guess and after going through all the files of what Batgirl has done since her recovery, the Barbara of old wants her life back.......... Why does this make me want to watch Lawnmower Man again?
Our next story is all about how Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch's friend Tonya Lu is telling the complete story of how Firestorm was created and the adventures he's gone on........... What the hell is that? Tonya is supposed to be a friend to Ronnie and Jason and here she is pretty much pulling an Alfred from the first four Batman movies and letting everyone in the damn Batcave. Yeah, she believes that people should eventually find out the story of all these two teenagers have gone through in order to do the right thing and become a hero but her recording shit on her laptop doesn't seem like the most secure place in the world to be keeping origin stories and secret identities............. The Cloud Can't Be Trusted! Anyway, this whole section is just a recap story to the entire Fury of Firestorm run that was cancelled right after it started becoming good and this section to Secret Origins really just makes me depressed that we don't have a Firestorm ongoing anymore. If you aren't familiar with the New 52 run of this character though you should definitely get on this so you too can know the awesomeness that is Firestorm without having to go out and find yourself all the back issues......... It also has the best art of this book so that doesn't hurt either.
In the end, we delve into the the exploits of Poison Ivy right after she was fired from Wayne Enterprises for her artificial pheromones. It seems that Pamela Isley has become a bit of defender for social justice when she finds out that a local farmer has been bullied by a big corporation that is doing it's best to shut her down with their experimental crops and pesticides and........ suing....... corporate stuff! Don't worry though because Poison Ivy makes them pay for their actions and I like that we got to see the next chapter of Poison Ivy's life after her origin story in Villain's Month.
That's it for this issue of Secret Origins and while it's not for me, it might be good for people to jump in and learn about characters who's titles they were on the fence about picking up........ and I guess that's a good thing but in the age of the internet finding these things out is easier than running to your comic book shop and getting the latest issue of Secret Origins to get an eye full of superhero back stories. This issue's installments were good though and the best parts of it were the the bridge between Batgirl's origin and the current story that's going on in the series and definitely the art in the Firestorm section. Poison Ivy wasn't bad but since we already had her origin in Villain's month, this was more of "Secret back story" and it felt like an odd inclusion.
Bits and Pieces:
While I haven't been a fan of the current take on Batgirl, this was a interesting way to give the readers a little background in what's going on in her title. Besides for that though and seeing what happened to Poison Ivy after her Villain's Month issue, this title is still very strange to me. I can say that this issue does add actual "secret" things that elevates this issue over it's previous installments but not enough to really keep me interested.
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment