Mother Panic: Gotham A.D. #1
"Different Bat Channel"
Written By: Jody Houser
Interiors and Variant Cover By: Ibrahim Moustafa
Interior Colors By: Jordan Boyd and Marissa Louise
Lettered By: John Workman
Back-Up Drawn By: Paulina Ganucheau
Cover Price: $3.99
On Sale Date: March 28, 2018
Today we're going to discuss the fourth (and final) book from Young Animal's "Season Two". So far, I've been pretty pessimistic about this new take on the old imprint... let's see if our "most improved" book from "Season One" moves my needle back toward the positive!
It's ten years later, and it's an all-new Gotham City... for our same-old Mother Panic. As she acquaints herself with her "new normal", Violet reflects on her... "really effing weird" Milk Wars experience... which, makes her the only book to call attention to that happening at all! It's like she's our own little Young Animal version of the Psycho Pirate!
In the ten years she missed, Gotham has undergone a bit of a change... at least in the vigilante department. There was this guy who dressed like a bat... you might've heard of him... he's gone, and has been gone for a little while now.
Also... Violet is listed among the number of young people who died during the Gather House fire. So, it looks like she was sent sideways-dimensionally as well as forward in time. So too did our new-ish friend, Fennec Fox.
This Gotham has been taken over by the "Collective" working out of the Arkham Institute... which is ruled by Gala. She was that "blood painter" from the first volume. Anyway, she has banned the cape and cowl set... and has gone on to create her own superheroes. Familiar faces, including Pretty... and the Joker also make their presence known in this brave new Gotham.
For a table-setting issue, this was a very good one. The cast is familiar... yet altered. The city? Same thing. There's a measure of comfort in this book that has been missing from certain other Young Animal "season two" books... excessive cursing and all!
With the good comes... well, not the bad, but perhaps the "expected". In moving Violet away from the "real" Gotham City, it allows her to brush up more with the Batman characters. In the first volume, Mother Panic's refusal to really "play ball" with the normal "Gotham gang" and adherence to it's independence was among the books strongest points. I don't really know how I feel about this becoming a "bog-standard" Bat-book... with added "f-word".
Bits and Pieces:
A very strong return to the (new) world of Violet Paige... damn pretty to boot! Could have easily been the "next issue" of the previous volume... but complaining about renumbering is like yelling in the wind. If that's my only kvetch... we've got a pretty good book!
8.0/10
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