Wide Load Coming Through

Batman: The Widening Gyre #4

I haven't posted anything lately.  I guess I really haven't read anything really noteworthy to discuss.  I did read Kevin Smith's Batman: The Widening Gyre mini-series in its "entirety" about a month ago, though, so I'll write about that.  (You'll see why I put "entirety" in quotes later.)

First, I'll start with the title.  The title is taken from a poem called "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats.  The poem was written in 1919 in the aftermath of the WWI. While the various manuscript revisions of the poem refer to the Renaissance, French Revolutions, the Irish rebellion, and those of Germany and of Russia, others suggest the text refers to the Russian Revolution of 1917.  The poem uses Christian imagery regarding the Apocalypse and second coming as allegory to describe the atmosphere in post-war Europe. 

The poem begins:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

If you're interested, you can find the rest of the poem here.

With that imagery in mind, "the widening gyre" in Batman's case is the appearance of many of his villains all at once.  He's bombarded with different villains in each issue.  Meanwhile, there are subplots of Bruce Wayne/Batman's romance with Silver St. Cloud (that comes with a lot of jealousy from a famous feline lady), as well as the appearance of a new vigilante in town sporting a goat mask by the name of Baphomet.  (You can read about the origins of that name here.)  

"The Widening Gyre" was supposed to be released monthly.  However, like Kevin Smith's Spider-Man and the Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do, there were delays.  The six issues were released in October 2009, November 2009, December 2009 (so far so good), and then February 2010, April 2010, and lastly, September 2010.  Ouch.  Nearly a year for a six-issue mini-series.  (Note to Kevin: if you're not going to write them in timely manner, please don't take or ask for the assignments; there are many, MANY other comic writers out there who would LOVE to have the opportunity to write a mini-series.  Note to DC and Marvel Comics: don't start printing/releasing Kevin's comics until he's completed all issues of a mini-series.)  

Bruce and Silver frolic in the water.

Luckily, I didn't start reading the issues until I had them all, so it was fairly cohesive for me.   I enjoyed Batman facing off against his most popular foes, one after the other.  It reminded me somewhat of "The Gauntlet" storyline that just ran through The Amazing Spider-Man series last year.  Best of all, though, was the romance developments between Bruce Wayne/Batman and Silver St. Cloud.  She's the only non-superhero who could handle being partnered with Bruce Wayne, knowing what he does in his spare time.  She's mature, yet fun.  Attached, yet not clingy.  And she certainly doesn't need the Wayne fortune.  It left me wondering, though, if this series was a dream, took place in the distant past, was an Elseworlds story, was a "what if?" type scenario, etc., because this could seriously change Bruce/Batman emotionally, not to mention his relationship with Catwoman.

Kevin Smith

As I finished reading the sixth/final issue, it ended with a cliffhanger (I won't reveal what) and said to look for Volume Two.  WTF?  When?  2026?  This was supposed to be a six-issue mini-series and now there's more?   I want to know what happens, but I don't want to know on Kevin Smith's time schedule.  Imagine if Dallas had decided to take a three-year break to reveal Who Shot J.R.?  I enjoy Kevin Smith's writing and the stories he comes up with for such superheroes as Batman, Green Arrow, and Spider-Man, but I'm more than a bit frustrated with his lack of dedication, as well as DC and Marvel's acceptance of his flagrant disregard for deadlines.  He's not exactly winning over fans.  Perhaps the "widening gyre" refers to the gap in time between comic releases?

 

Grim Hunt

It's been a challenge trying to keep up with the Amazing Spider-Man since his comic is published thrice monthly, but I just finished reading the four-part "Grim Hunt" storyline that ran in issues 634-637.  (Side note:  at this rate, ASM is going to bypass Superman's and Batman's monumental 700th issues which, to me, is kind of cheating.)

"Grim Hunt" featured the return of Kraven the Hunter (whom I didn't realize -- or remember -- was dead).  Thankfully, Marvel Comics published a free companion comic that came out for Free Comic Book Day that gave a detailed history of Kraven.  This proved immensely helpful before I read "Grim Hunt."  It gave me the background of his suicidal death, as well as insight into his family members, including his half-brother the Chameleon, the many women he's bedded, numerous kids, pets, etc. 

Over the past year or so, the Kravinoff family has been secretly running Spider-Man through a "gauntlet," bringing back his most dangerous villains in order to weaken our Friendly Neighborhood hero before they brought Kraven back to life.  The stories haven't had much depth to me, and that's probably because of how many times a month the series is published.  You can't have quality and consistency when you have to have a variety of writers and artists to keep up with the hectic publishing schedule.  They're not all going to write or draw the same.  In fact, some of the writing and art has been horrendous and jarring.  Still, I held on to the series. 

In the process of this "gauntlet," Marvel also updated all of the "old" villains, making them more dangerous than ever before.  For example, the Vulture is now somebody else who wears a red costume (instead of green) and has new deadly powers.  Oh, and he eats people.   The Sandman and Rhino storylines in "The Gauntlet" had the potential to be very good because of their emotional impact...but in the end, they both fell apart.  The only well-written story I read was kind of a "filler" issue featuring the vampire Morbius.  It was a self-contained single-issue story that was cleverly written. 

Anyway, back to "Grim Hunt."  The Kravinoff family is after the entire Spider family:  Spider-Man, Madame Web, Spider-Girl, Arache, Spider-Woman, Arana, Spider-Man clones, etc.  Basically, anyone with a spider emblem on their chest, a spider-theme to their name, or Peter Parker's DNA in their body.  It's all kind of silly, really.  Clones?  Seriously? 

The Kravinoff family resurrects Kraven from the dead by sacrificing Spider-Man over his grave.  (I won't spoil it for you.)   Fights ensue, unimportant people die, and Spider-Man saves the day.  (What?  You really thought he was dead?  His name is on the cover.  How could he be dead?  Again, I won't spoil it for you with the whos, hows, and whys.)  In the process, Spider-Man almost kills Sasha, the mother of Kraven's daughter, Ana, by doing something painful to her face, but I couldn't quite tell what.  I had to go back and re-read it several times because it was so out of character for Spidey.  He also tries to kill Kraven, also out of character. 

So, this is what "The Gauntlet" was all leading up to?  It was a pretty disappointing finale from a disappointing lead-in, although I did gain some respect for Kraven that I didn't have before, now that I know him a little better.  Gone are the days when Kraven wore his leopard pants, fur jacket, and ballet slippers.  Thankfully, now the only place that you'll find someone sporting that combination is at your local Walmart. 

Besides the "Grim Hunt" storyline, Marvel Comics justified jacking up the price of each issue to $3.99 by running a second storyline which featured an "untold" tale of Kraven and Kaine, the long-haired Jesus-looking Spider-Man clone.  It sort of ties into "Grim Hunt," but really it's just filler.  Even the artist couldn't even be bothered to do a great job.  He made Kraven look like Gru from the animated movie Despicable Me.

Lastly, there was a third storyline going on in the issues of ASM.  These were two-page "stories" written by Stan Lee that were a combination of the original 1960s Spider-Man stories...and Pinky and the Brain.  Yeah, you heard me. 

What do I think of Spider-Man?  Meh.  I wish Marvel Comics would get Spider-Man back on track with some good storylines, good writers, and good artists.  Not one, but two, Spider-Man clones?  Spider-Man loses a portion of his life, so he's single again and no longer married to Mary Jane?  Aunt May acting all rude and freaky with a storyline that's going nowhere?  Whatever happened to Spidey's heyday with the black costume saga and Todd McFarlane's art?  Can't somebody come up with something equally entertaining but not silly?  For $3.99 a pop three times a month, we readers deserve better.  And, frankly, so does Spider-Man.