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nonesensed 's review for:
Black Orchid
by Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean
Black Orchid is a superhero active in the DC universe. She solves crimes. This is the story of how she dies. Pretty straightforward, huh?
Starting out, I want to make clear that my Batman lore has its holes. My overall DC lore is spotty at best. Comics are hard to keep track of, especially when canon changes at the drop of a hat. There are so many different universes for the same characters now that you'll never be able to catch up to them if you fall behind. "Canon" is very vague.
Maybe this not-perfectly-up-to-date lore was the reason I didn't enjoy this comic. Maybe. Black Orchid is such an obscure DC hero that I thought the comic would introduce her and her powers a little more. Yes, she's shown in a very clever disguise at the start of the comic, but what with the purple skin and super strength, it didn't really come across that disguises were her main shtick (I had to google her to find that out). There were also a high number of other villains and heroes' names thrown around - their "civilian" names that is - which I had to google too, because they were closely entangled with the plot.
But my lack of DC knowledge wasn't the only thing that lessened by enjoyment of this, now that I think about it. Don't know how much was established about Black Orchid's background before this comic was written, but there are some...tiresome clichés about. Abusive ex-husband? Abusive father? Strong hints of manic pixie dream girl? Mostly male associates/nemesises/friends? Male BFF who's had a crush on her forever and would be so much better for her? Yup, the Strong Female Character tropes kept rolling in throughout this story. And Black Orchid's successor - the adult shaped one - also got a strong dose of Born Sexy Yesterday, which squicks the hell out of me.
Making the DC universe grimdark is nothing new. Seeing as this comic isn't new either, I really shouldn't have been surprised that everything was portrayed as Dark and Terrible. But did they really have to state that the staff at Arkham rape their female prisoners? Really? I know the "revolving door" at Arkham has been an in-joke for a long time, but can we at least pretend it's a place where the staff try to rehabilitate people? Don't think the Bat would send people off to a place where they'll get zero rehab and all the extra trauma they don't need (unless we're talking about the Bat's body-double Crazy Steve, who usually shows up instead when people like Frank Miller is writing him. Must be a union thing).
Oh, and speaking of Batman. His cameo? It felt off to me. Yeah, Batman isn't exactly a helicopter parent (well, depending on which version of him you look at), but when amnesia riddled super people come up to him and ask who they are, he'd probably do more than direct them to people they can maybe ask questions. Especially if they're asking to speak to Poison Ivy. Felt a bit like they had to pay per frame for the Bat, so that they tried to use him as little as possible.
Last (and least) thing that bugged me was the constant use of lyrics in the comic. If this had been a short film they music would likely have brought a certain mood to the scenes. In silent comic form tens upon tens of speech bubbles not related to the actual plot or scene were distracting and annoying.
So yeah, reccing this to people who like grimdark!DC and who can stand a hailstorm of clichés regarding female characters. Will not be re-reading it myself.
Starting out, I want to make clear that my Batman lore has its holes. My overall DC lore is spotty at best. Comics are hard to keep track of, especially when canon changes at the drop of a hat. There are so many different universes for the same characters now that you'll never be able to catch up to them if you fall behind. "Canon" is very vague.
Maybe this not-perfectly-up-to-date lore was the reason I didn't enjoy this comic. Maybe. Black Orchid is such an obscure DC hero that I thought the comic would introduce her and her powers a little more. Yes, she's shown in a very clever disguise at the start of the comic, but what with the purple skin and super strength, it didn't really come across that disguises were her main shtick (I had to google her to find that out). There were also a high number of other villains and heroes' names thrown around - their "civilian" names that is - which I had to google too, because they were closely entangled with the plot.
But my lack of DC knowledge wasn't the only thing that lessened by enjoyment of this, now that I think about it. Don't know how much was established about Black Orchid's background before this comic was written, but there are some...tiresome clichés about. Abusive ex-husband? Abusive father? Strong hints of manic pixie dream girl? Mostly male associates/nemesises/friends? Male BFF who's had a crush on her forever and would be so much better for her? Yup, the Strong Female Character tropes kept rolling in throughout this story. And Black Orchid's successor - the adult shaped one - also got a strong dose of Born Sexy Yesterday, which squicks the hell out of me.
Making the DC universe grimdark is nothing new. Seeing as this comic isn't new either, I really shouldn't have been surprised that everything was portrayed as Dark and Terrible. But did they really have to state that the staff at Arkham rape their female prisoners? Really? I know the "revolving door" at Arkham has been an in-joke for a long time, but can we at least pretend it's a place where the staff try to rehabilitate people? Don't think the Bat would send people off to a place where they'll get zero rehab and all the extra trauma they don't need (unless we're talking about the Bat's body-double Crazy Steve, who usually shows up instead when people like Frank Miller is writing him. Must be a union thing).
Oh, and speaking of Batman. His cameo? It felt off to me. Yeah, Batman isn't exactly a helicopter parent (well, depending on which version of him you look at), but when amnesia riddled super people come up to him and ask who they are, he'd probably do more than direct them to people they can maybe ask questions. Especially if they're asking to speak to Poison Ivy. Felt a bit like they had to pay per frame for the Bat, so that they tried to use him as little as possible.
Last (and least) thing that bugged me was the constant use of lyrics in the comic. If this had been a short film they music would likely have brought a certain mood to the scenes. In silent comic form tens upon tens of speech bubbles not related to the actual plot or scene were distracting and annoying.
So yeah, reccing this to people who like grimdark!DC and who can stand a hailstorm of clichés regarding female characters. Will not be re-reading it myself.