This morning, Bleeding Cool posted an updated report of what is supposedly happening with DC Comics in September. Not to be a Bleeding Cool echo chamber without any other sources, but Rich asserts that there will be a series of one-shots while every regular book takes a break for the month (unless there is a relevant creative team, of course).
If this is true, then the various posts on DC’s The Source blog entitled “What’s New in the New 52” seem to be relevant to this, showing off Count Vertigo, Dr. Phosphorous, Joker’s Daughter and more. It all kind of adds up, doesn’t it? DC could simply be showing us who will get the spotlight in September as they enter into yet another new year of their big revamp thing. And it’s not like we haven’t had confirmation of Villain’s Month or anything.
But there’s one post in there that I’d like to call attention to, something I hadn’t seen until this morning: the new Bronze Tiger:
Pictured above, that’s our first look at Brett Booth’s design for Bronze Tiger. If I’m understanding correctly, this new version of the character is set to appear in “Red Hood and the Outlaws”, tied to Red Hood’s past as the leader of some kind of martial arts group. But what I want to know, honestly and with no ill-will intended is: has Bronze Tiger gone full-on tiger?
Look, like many of you, I’m a bit weary of arbitrary re-designs of characters that take away from the characters we read about when we were young and in love with DC. And, like many of you, I think John Ostrander’s run of “Suicide Squad” is perhaps one of the best runs at DC Comics ever. One of the reasons this run was great was the variety of characters it had with a rotating team full of diversity, making the Suicide Squad stand-out from a lot of DC teams — both then and now.
So why in the history of the word “why” is Bronze Tiger ostensibly no longer Ben Turner, martial arts badass with a cool tiger mask, but now an actual walking/talking tiger? Did “Flashpoint” suddenly force Turner to go full beast-mode or something? I don’t mean to imply anything (that you aren’t already thinking, probably), but at the very least this was an excellent opportunity to introduce a “new” minority character into the New 52 universe in a major way. We’re talking about one of the few characters to take on the Batman and to stand victorious over him, and considering how much weight DC throws behind Batman as their central selling point, this could’ve honestly made for a big story. How interesting would that have been, to see Snyder and Capullo have Batman face off against Turner? Or even to have Ales Kot and Patrick Zircher incorporate Bronze Tiger into the new “Suicide Squad”? Just the idea of those alone make me excited.
So a “Bronze Tiger” one-shot starring Ben Turner in the New 52? I’d be timid about getting too excited, but I would’ve loved to check that out. But a “Bronze Tiger” one-shot starring an actual tiger, albeit one who is good at martial arts? I’m admittedly less interested already. I have enough comics about tigers in my hardcover collection of “Calvin and Hobbes” to last me a lifetime.
I could be jumping to conclusions. Ben’s mask could simply just make him go full-on tiger, as opposed to actually being a tiger, and I can understand that (I guess — it’s comics, so whatever). Heck, this comic could be grrrrrrEAT! (Heh.) And yes, looking at a New 52 item out of context with a kneejerk reaction leaning towards apathy and annoyance is about as exciting and original as your eighth cup of coffee for the day, but it would make me very sad to see DC take a character as rich as Turner, with such awesome potential thrown away because it was cooler to have a tiger than a human.
Again.
For the umpteen billionth time with the New 52.
Just because.
