A Woman's Touch
This cover dances so close to greatness, but ultimately falls flat. I can't completely decide why. Is it too crowded? It certainly has A LOT going on, but I think removing the characters at the bottom would make it a bit too simple, not to mention I like the way they're laid out ESPECIALLY the empty floating Wingman helmet since we don't know who the new one is. Maybe it needed an actual background? Because the white background is definitely not doing this cover any favors. Oh well.
Ugh, what happened to 'Leviathan, Part 1' last issue? why is this not part 2? Will the next issue be 'Part 2' since this was mostly a side story? That might work, but it doesn't seem Morrison's style. We'll have to see.
Wow.... Morrison tops Bat-Cow with Ra's Al Ghul recruiting hippies at rock concerts. I mean, it's a flashback of him meeting Talia's mother.... but still. He looks so hilariously out of place, yet his ideals are strikingly in line in some ways. But still.... wow. Weird.
This issue is basically 20 pages of Morrison trying to justify the changes he's made to Talia, pointing out the way the metaphors work so well in ways even he couldn't have planned for, the way he laid all the subtle clues out for us, the way the history can justify it in the right light, the way Damian's upbringing should've clued us into Talia's mental state... But I'm still not sure I like it. Talia rebelled against her father for the man who refused to fall in line for him. Now she's rebelling against both by becoming her father? It just.... and she HATED the way he raised her, but now she's raised Damian the same way? I don't really get her motivations. Oh sure, she's Medusa, a woman scorned, but to be fair, she basically raped Bruce, so he had every right to turn his back on her.
In Conclusion: 4/5
There's a lot of great moments in this issue, extremely iconic of Batman, and it's an interesting telling of Talia's childhood, AND as per usual with Morrison it's just oozing with layer upon layer of metaphors..... but I STILL don't quite buy what he's selling with Talia. The first issue of this volume was fine, it was something established and just 'there' but this time the entire issue is focused on trying to make us accept this, and I still don't so that's where my big complaint is going to come from. Other than that though, it's a fantastically well written issue, and an easy 5/5 for anyone who's okay with what Morrison's been doing with Talia. I'm not trying to say you're completely wrong if you think that, just that I disagree but respect your opinions. But respect my opinion to disagree, I can see why people would be ok with this, so I won't spend tons of time outside of reviews to declare it the worst thing ever like the changes to Amanda Waller and Martian Manhunter (and Batgirl to an extent) are.
