Hello again GEN readers! It’s Jill a.k.a. The Nerdy Bird back with this week’s installment of DoubleDCoverage. I love Batman as much as the next girl (actually, more) but do we really need another book to tell us what happens on the streets of Gotham? Plus everything you’ve always wanted to know about the Ultra-Humanite and one thing you wish you didn’t. Reviews for Batman: Streets of Gotham #1 and Power Girl #2 are ahead, also, check out my star ratings for my other pulls from last Wednesday!

BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM #1

Batman is back. With a vengeance. Well, at least his titles are. I was craving some Batman while he was on hiatus and now we’ve got some new kids on the block. Streets of Gotham is the third new Batman title and while it does feature our new Batman and Robin, it also features their supporters and naysayers. This new title is also the first Batman book to include a second feature. All the Manhunter fans out there can rejoice, Kate Spencer is going to have a lot of fun in Gotham.

Harley Quinn is like, so annoyed. There she is just trying to get herself some pretty jewelry with actual money and the shop owner refuses to help her. So she takes him hostage. Obviously. Commissioner Gordon decides to let her off the hook considering Arkham is destroyed and he’s got bigger problems. Batman (Dick) decides to give her a talking-to anyway but still, she walks free. A man named Abuse saves an adolescent prostitute sent out to work by Clayface from her latest client. Unfortunately, Firefly, under Black Hands thumb, has cooked up a worse fate for her and many other Gothamites as he simply brushes into her in a crowd.

Damian secretly pays a visit to Hush who’s still locked up in the Wayne Foundation’s penthouse. That is definitely trouble in the making. News breaks of Firefly’s scheme – everyone he’s touched has gone up in flames. The city is in chaos and he’s calling Batman out. “I used to wonder why Batman was so scowl-y all the time. Now I get it,” says Kate Spencer aka Manhunter. Gotham’s D.A. has been assassinated and at his funeral Barbara Gordon tries to push Kate into the job. She winds up taking it of course but that means leaving her son Ramsey behind. Does anyone else find that odd? Anyway, during her night job she pushes around an informant to find the name of the D.A.’s killer. He eventually gives it up but it doesn’t help Kate – her name is Jane Doe.

First off, these Second Features are a great idea but they’re gonna kill me when it comes time to review. I dig Manhunter in Gotham I just think it sucks she left her kid behind. Georges Jeanty is a nice choice for art even if Barbara did sorta look like Willow from Buffy here. Dustin Ngyuen is awesome as usual. His “casual Harley” look was fantastic! Look at me talking all girly. I’m not sure how I feel about this book in the scheme of things though. There was a lot going on in this first issue but nothing really popped for me. Even though it’s being written by one of my favorite writers, Paul Dini, if the title doesn’t feel important enough in the overall Batman universe after a few issues it might be the one that gets dropped. I can get my Harley and Dini in Gotham City Sirens after all.

POWER GIRL #2

Can anyone really say that Ultra-Humanite is his or her favorite villain? I know I sure can’t but it’s who Jimmy Palmiotti had to work with for the Power Girl premiere. Luckily for us he’s doing wonderful things with that oversized gorilla. And maybe, just maybe, you’ll actually have a little sympathy for the guy when all is said and done.

UH is doing some “mental reconnaissance” on Power Girl by beating her to a pulp to distract her brain. He wants a new home for his and PG’s body will do quite nicely if he can figure out how to subdue her and cut into it. Meanwhile Manhattan natives are still in a panic due to UH’s robots. At Starrware Industries, the staff is protected by their specially insulated building but outside people are literally killing themselves. The JSA have their hands full and assume PG has her side of things under control.

Now here’s where it gets really interesting. Palmiotti gives us an altered origin of UH albeit through the, “I have you now! Let me tell you a story,” route. A young UH, now given the name Gerard Shugel, is forced into the hospital because of seizures. No one knows what’s wrong but he knows he can’t find a cure for himself if he doesn’t get out of said hospital. With his brain constantly growing, ten years later he’s performing radical tests on animals in college with the help of another student named Satanna. They are shut down before a major breakthrough can be reached but the two continue their work for years in secret in the Congo. It’s there Satanna suggests making the switch to the giant white gorillia and Gerard agrees thinking it will be temporary. After a vicious fight with some rebels in the area, Satanna gets all hot and bothered and has her way with the new beast. In the words of PG, “That…was…so…gross!” Apparently the lovely couple has since parted ways but UH still looks back fondly. Yeah, I can understand why he would.

I think Palmiotti is doing a great job of creating a solid structure for PG to stand on which personally makes me very happy. You have those all-out brawls you expect to see from the character but you’re also getting background, detail and supporting characters to go along with it. Amanda Conner once again does a stellar job. The casual observer may miss the little nuances but having a cat arch it’s back in front of a window where people are falling to their deaths is not an easy balance to make. She does it well.

ACTION COMICS ANNUAL #12 – The new Nightwing and Flamebird are fully explained. Buy this comic NOW. Non rules.

GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #21 – Seeing as how no one can speak or hear, maybe if there had been no dialogue I would have liked it better.

THE OUTSIDERS #19 – I love Deathstroke. Completely forgot about that Poppy girl though. Ra’s Al Ghul and Vandal Savage are going to have tea.

SUPERGIRL #42 – Lois is PISSED, Reactron escapes AGAIN and Kara is headed back to New Krypton.

My pull list for next week:

DETECTIVE COMICS #854
GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #1
GREEN LANTERN #42
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #34
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #28
SUPERMAN #689
TEEN TITANS #72
WONDER WOMAN #33

Which two should I review for DoubleDCoverage #14? Although I already have a pretty good idea which ones I want to do so you might get overruled.

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