lyncis

Yoooooo what's up

I'm Lyncis, you can also call me Lyn. I'm genderfluid and use mostly he/him pronouns, but everything else is completely fine too. In my early-ish twenties. I study English and History and I work a job I like to complain about

On this blog you will find:

My political opinions, especially when it comes to scottish independence and UK politics

My writing. I have started doing original fiction in different genres, specifically in thriller, mystery and urban fantasy

Everything about DC and comics in general. Please ask me anything about my DC opinions. Please. Please. I'm begging to talk about it

Let's be honest this blog is just for sharing my dumb little thoughts

my ao3

Barbara Gordon: Breakout #2 -- Review

⭐️⭐️/5

Spoilers

Eh... I'll be honest, I can't tell if this was better than the first issue or worse.

Let's do positives first:

1. I still like the art and the colours. The panelling is a little boring compared to last issue, but it's still good. The visuals of the hallucinations and the prison at night were especially strong!

2. There is some character work for Barbara here that I find interesting. We get this motif of her being followed by death, of her questioning why she's even still alive, which is externalised through hallucinations of the grim reaper and the mysterious attack that happened between the last issue and this one. Someone attacked her and didn't kill her. That obviously mirrors the events of killing joke, starting attempts to explore that trauma of hers. I actually like this direction for her. The "outrunning the reaper" and "running on borrowed time" theme makes sense and really resonates with me. They haven't done anything all that interesting with it yet, but it's a good start.

Okay, let's do negatives.

1. On the first page, I said out lout "I'll stop reading if Dick Grayson shows up." Guess what happened four pages later? At least it was just a (frankly irrelevant) aside, but still. #1 already has so many batfamily members on page. We really don't need to keep doing that. Give Barbara room for her story. I know Dick is important to her, but there was really no reason for his presence. Or for him to take up an entire page. I know some people will be super happy that he's in this, and that's fine. I don't dislike him or their relationship at all! I just think for a character who has been consistently sidelined as hard as her, it sucks to have the character she's usually sidelined FOR in the story this early on.

2. I hate Barbara's narration. Not the thoughts that she has, but genuinely the words in the bubble. Some of it is really... I don't want to say cringe, but I can't find a better word for it.

3. Every detail of Barbara's character that doesn't have to do with trauma, sucks. She's written so incompetently. And the way they introduced Sparrow and then just... didn't let those two have a conversation is weird. At one point, they're both in the yard, implying that they spent the entire day together. What did they talk about? I know Barbara is drugged up to all hell, but she has her moments of lucidity. Obviously they can't talk about anything important with the possibility of being overheard, but you can't tell me Barbara wouldn't try to talk to her to at least subtly figure out her deal instead of just chugging the pills she's given and spent all her time with a stranger. The fact that we don't really get to hear anything from Sparrow that isn't suspicious makes her very alienating as a character. I like that whole plot line in concept because it's genuinely terrifying for Barbara to be in such a vulnerable position, but the way they did it makes her look so naive. That is NOT the Barbara Gordon I know and love. She would never just accept those pills, no matter how many bone fractures he has. She's been through WAY worse!

To be fair, I believe the last few pages imply that she didn't take that final dose of pills, so I'm really hoping for a reveal next issue that she's actually awake now and her being weirdly trusting in this issue was on purpose as a fake out. But maybe not. I genuinely have no idea. And that's honestly making me madder than anything else. I can't even tell anymore if she's pretending to be clueless or if she genuinely is.

Unfortunately, I can't stop reading. I know I should. It's a terrible idea to spend my money on something that's actively pissing me off, and yet I deeply need to know what happens next. Not because I hope it'll get better, but just to see if it gets worse.

On the first page I said out loud "if Dick Grayson shows up now, I'm gonna stop reading". He didn't and I was so relieved

⭐️⭐️/5

To preface this, I am one of the biggest Superboy Prime fans to ever exist (obvs). I am so glad he's getting this much spotlight.

But he would not be this chill over breaking up with Laurie. She's such a big part of his story, literally the personification of his character motivation, and she just gets mentioned like she wasn't important at all. That feels disrespectful to her.

Similarly, Witchfire hasn't been written about in a while, and her first appearance back, she's a prop for a love story. A not very well written one at that. I just don't get why she's in this. Sure, she and Prime have some parallels, but that's really not utilised at all. They have no interesting exchanges, no narration that raises the stakes or the themes. It's all kind of empty attraction. I really like Witchfire, and I feel that, just like Laurie, she wasn't given any actual room. What's her motivation besides "saving metropolis from demons"? Why is she in this story, what does she add thematically? And there might be an answer to that, it's just not on the page at all. Is she supposed to be a more ethical hero to thematically oppose Prime? Is she supposed to be a mirror of him? I really wanna know, but we get nothing of the sort. Not even subtly.

That being said, I did like some of the visual storytelling. The upside down page, Prime being in Dan Mora's illustration program, the spelling mistakes from the earliest pages. It's really solid use of the metaness the comic book medium has to offer. Very cool!

All in all, the first 80% of the story is unnecessary and drags down the rest. I would even argue they're a little... not misogynistic, but... dangerously close to it. Unintentionally, of course. But still. Reminds me of the weird stuff in #36 with Zatanna and co thirsting over Prime for no reason. Idk, I wish Williamson would write women in this arc better.

I really hope the Laurie talk wasn't all that we're going to get about her. She's the most important person in Prime's life and hugely relevant to him as a character. You can't mention her in three panels and explain they just grew apart and then never bring her up again. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

I would say #37 had a lot of great character work, so the fact that #38 misses the mark in that department and just felt like filler kinda sucks. I still have high hopes for the next issue, tho! And as always, anything with Prime in it, I'll read no matter what.

Edit because I'm still a little pissed off: I also think the first 80% of this story felt so incredibly unspecific to Prime. From a writing standpoint, the whole storyline didn't feel tailored to him at all. The only real moments of character we get are the Laurie talk (which borders on character assassination) and the fact he enjoys dismembering the demons. Those aren't even real plotpoints tho. Idk I feel this story wouldn't have been different if the protagonist had been literally anyone else until Manchester Black showed up. Which is such a shame when you have the endless possibilities of Superboy Prime as your main character.

I guess the writing was just really really weak in general, apart from a few jokes that I liked. But the overall story could've been an email. And didn't feel connected to the previous issues, really.