Written by Judd Winnick
Illustrated by Ben OliverAfrica, a land of beauty — and of great horror. A land of creation and conflict. It is in desperate need of a defender, and from the ranks of Batman Incorporated comes a soldier to carry on the legacy of The Dark Knight in the most tumultuous region on Earth. Meet Batwing, the Batman of Africa!
If we are to assume that Gotham City is roughly the size of New York City, it would have 22 million residents, give or take a few hundred thousand in an area of approximately 500 square miles. In Gotham City, there are no less than 10 costumed superheroes — Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Batwoman, The Question, and the Birds of Prey, just to name a few.
Africa, on the other hand, has approximately 1 billion residents in an area of approximately 11.7 million square miles. And they have Batwing.
It is this sort of casual racism that has haunted comic books for decades; we are presented Africa as a unified, homogenous motherland, rather than the culturally, religiously and ethnically diverse land that it is. When Africa is mentioned at all, it is mentioned as “Ape Controlled,” or the stereotypes are so broad that Charlie Chan would blush. So how does Batwing, as a title, not a concept, work?
Actually, not as badly as you may think.
Unlike so many books, where the broad strokes work but the details doom it, the concept is the most offensive and poorly played part of the story. Batwing, aka David Zavimbe, is a police officer by day who, through the help of his older manservant, his fellow cop, and his cowled benefactor, is trying to clean up the streets of Tinasha, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. If this sounds familiar, you’re paying attention. Not much of this origin was presented in Batwing’s first appearance in Batman, Inc., so it is hard to tell how much of the origin was pre-planned by Grant Morrison, dictated by editorial, or created by writer Judd Winick.
Winich has a mixed reputation at best as a writer; his recent work on Justice League: Generation Lost received almost universal praise, while much of his other work has been labeled as heavy-handed and inconsistent. And while no one would mistake this writing for subtle, there are lots of nice details in the story; Batman’s advice to Zavimbe to turn himself into a myth and theatrically sell his image is pretty much Batman 101, but it offers a glimpse into what a Batman, Inc. recruit might be told early on. The issue of previous African heroes is also brought up, with a team called “The Kingdom” is mentioned as being the first real African superheroes, which is a nice touch despite the stereotypical name and the fact that Batwing refers to them, aloud, to Batman, as “superheroes.”
Clunky writing and all, the book exceeds my expectations, and most of that has to do with Ben Oliver’s artwork. This is quite possibly the most visually impressive comic of 2011 so far. Each panel is filled with amazing detail, and each page is composed of panels arranged in unique ways. Batman, in his limited appearance, appears to look a lot like he does in Greg Capullo’s upcoming Batman, and one issue in, we have a good visual sense of Batwing, both in and out of his armor. The consistency and elegance of the artwork makes it easy to ignore some of problems in the writing.
Batwing #1 marks the first time I have purchased a digital comic, and was overall very pleased with the panel by panel reading experience. This made me take notice of Oliver’s detail that much more, as my eyes were focused on each panel more so than I might have been if I had the issue in hand. Even the double page spread at the beginning of the issue, something that was intended for the print edition far more than digital, jumps off the screen with a crispness that may not be able to be equaled on paper. I think artwork, which many felt would be lost on the digital platform, will wind up the selling point, at least for me, in future “digital vs. hard copy” decisions.
Winick manages to be as culturally sensitive as I think any non-African writer could be, but I am left wondering why DC didn’t seek out an African writer. That’s not to say that only Africans can write about Africa, or only Canadians about Vancouver; it is simply suggesting that to launch a character, it might be advantageous to present them as culturally accurate as possible. This is not a slam on Winick, who does the best he can, but more of a puzzling question to pose to the DC brass.
The story ends on what should be a great cliffhanger — at first, I was taken aback by the final panel, only to realize that there is no way the situation could possibly be as dire as presented (especially as this story takes place “6 weeks ago” as detailed early in the issue). The book, mainly through its art, has me interested enough to finish out this arc before deciding if I’m going to keep buying the book. Multiversity EIC Matt asked me via email today how Batwing was, to which I replied “The art is exceptional. The story is meh.” Having re-read the issue since then, I would upgrade both parts — the story is a work in progress, and the art is downright fantastic.
Final Verdict: 7.1 — Buy for the artwork, and try not to get frustrated.
