Bruce Wayne: Not Super (Family Comic Friday)

I know of a lot of comic book fans that would not enjoy this book because it's not canon: true to the comic books. But I really thought Bruce Wayne: Not Super was a delight. 

In Gotham City, there is a special academy for students with special powers. Called Gotham Preparatory School for the Really, Really Gifted, the student body is composed of heroes and villains. But NO VIGILANTES! And that's a really hard rule for young Bruce Wayne to follow as he's the only student at Gotham Prep without powers and being a vigilante is what the teen put as his career goal. 

Typically, if you do not have powers, you're not allowed to attend Gotham Prep. However, because Bruce's parents basically put up all the money to build the school, the heir to the Wayne family fortune was given an exception. Yet, if you ask me, I really think Stuart Gibbs got it wrong with this plot point. 

Dick Grayson, Oliver Queen, and other regular Joe (non-powered) characters from the DC Universe are students at Gotham Prep. Being an acrobat isn't a super power. Neither is being a crack shot with a bow & arrow. They're skills. Not super powers. So, in my opinion, Bruce Wayne isn't the only pupil who is not 'really, really gifted.' 

Bruce Wayne: Not Super was a fun book with lots of funny moments. Seeing Bruce working with his faithful butler Alfred to design an animal costume that strikes fear in the hearts of villains was very funny. Once Bruce decides to become a Bat-Man, his Wile E. Coyote-like misadventures with his array of bat-themed gadgets was hilarious. And seeing Bruce forge relationships with Dick Grayson, Selina Kyle and other characters was rather heartwarming. I just wish that Stuart Gibbs hadn't made Clark Kent such an unlikable character. 

I guess in high school, as Clark develops his powers, he'd be rather smug about it. He'd want to try and use his abilities to get the upper hand at things, especially sports. But I don't think Clark Kent would ever be a bully. Ma and Pa Kent just won't stand for that!

Okay, I realize that I've pointed out a couple of problems I had with this book. But I like to think that I've overlooked enough to really have enjoyed what I read. Everything is set up for a sequel and I couldn't have been more thrilled with that prospect. 

I think young readers of the recommended age of 8-12 years will not mind at all seeing their favorite heroes and villains as classmates. Parents may not like seeing some future icons of truth and justice acting the opposite of those innate ideals. But I think the real message behind this story is growth. Whether it be in growing more confidence in yourself to seeing your flaws and improving on them; failing at things but learning to get better from those times of disappointment is an important lesson both children and adults seem to have not been taught anymore. 

Life is hard. It can get better. Bruce Wayne learns this through help from his father figure Alfred, good buddy Dick and most importantly, himself!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Saved by the Belle Reve #1

Finally! After several over-sized duds, DC puts out a themed special that focuses on FUN- mostly! The past couple of years, the majority of DC's seasonal specials had shorts that were more political than enjoyable. There's nothing wrong with comic books being educational or topical. But if they're not entertaining then it's more like reading a text book than a comic. 

With it being the start of a new school year, I took a chance on plopping down a ten-spot on this. I know it's not a holiday comic. But it's close enough for me.

There are 8 short stories in this special. Let's take a brief look at them all:

• The Suicide Squad are tasked with protecting the son of a generalissimo who is friendly to American interests. To do this, the Squad must pose as teachers. But as hordes of demon soldiers keep attacking the school on a daily basis, Task Force X must get creative. That means Killer Shark is now teaching English and Weasel is the new lunch lady!
• In a story from the past, Oliver Queen learns an important lesson in parenthood. While Speedy's grades aren't up to snuff, Ollie becomes a tyrant. Now things with Roy Harper are worse than ever before and the Emerald Archer must learn a balance between being an inspiration to an eager sidekick and a caring guardian to a lonely young boy.
• In a surprise return, the students of Gotham Academy return! School is about to return to session but some of the students will not. With Olive Silverlock still missing from something that happened at the end of Sophomore year, Maps is putting her classmates things away in storage. However, when it's discovered that Olive's journal is also missing, Maps and her classmates will go on one last mission to find it.
• Also returning in this issue- the Tiny Titans! Thanks to Art Baltazar and Franco, the pint-sized heroes take a literal wrong turn at Albuquerque and pop up in Belle Reve prison!
• Jonathan Kent and Damian Wayne, the Super Sons, join forces to help the new kid in school deal with a pair of bullies- in their own super ways.
• Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson run afoul of Mister Freeze on the way to their Senior Prom. 
• John Paul Valley is led by his Azrael personality to the very school that trained him to become a trained killer for God. While at the abandoned institution, Valley's memories of the Brotherhood of the Order of St. Dumas come to the surface. 
• Finally, get it straight from the source, Jefferson Pierce, as to just why did Black Lightning decided to become a part of President Lex Luthor's cabinet. The answer itself probably won't surprise you. But it's nice to finally get a concrete answer to one of DC's most enduring mysteries of the past 2 decades.

The Suicide Squad story was the best. It was 100% insane! And I loved it. With the inclusion of Weasel and Peacemaker, you can tell that 2021's The Suicide Squad movie and director James Gunn was a direct influence on this story. Tim Seeley was the writer and the artist was Scott Kolins. I did a quick search online and it doesn't seem that this team is the crew behind the current Suicide Squad title. But if DC was to do a run with the two of them at the helm, I'd subscribe to it at my LCS! (BTW- Seeley and Kolins were behind a King Shark mini so I'll be adding that to my wish list!)

I loved having the Tiny Titans back. I miss their hi-jinks and you can't go wrong with Baltazar and Franco! The classic style Green Arrow story and the return to Gotham Academy were also really good reads. I liked the Azrael story. But the level of abuse that poor kid had to endure and how those supposed 'men of God' turn young Valley into a ruthless killer is just really disturbing. 

I had a little bit of trouble with the Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson story. For one thing, Dick is in high school. Yet, in this story, he's also Nightwing. And Barbara is Batgirl. Now, I think I remember somewhere that they retconned that part for Barbara. But wasn't that part of the New 52? Plus, the end was so ambiguous and I hate ambiguous endings!

The remaining two stories were the least entertaining but at least one of them was inspiring. I had long been wondering why did Jefferson Pierce decide to accept Lex Luthor's appointment to the Secretary of Education. I had also wondered why in the pages of Superman/Batman that Black Lightning went toe-to-toe with the World's Finest when clearly Lex Luthor was going insane with power. Well, I got my first question answered with this special. Having lived through January 6th, I still don't have my answer to that last one.

And then there's the Super Sons story. It starts off as a fun little read in which 2 secretly powered pre-teens help a bullied new classmate to tap into his own special powers. But that last panel got really preachy and I don't think it was necessary to the story. Peter J. Tomasi's (Nightwing) story had written an amazing story about acceptance. But for one brief moment, DC decided it hadn't done enough to anger some fans. The panel didn't anger me. But it did ruin what was an otherwise fine 'Afterschool Special' type story.

I had a Lit professor who talked about some theory. I don't remember the name of the philosophy. But I do remember that he talked about how there are moments in works where things go in a different direction than what has been built up in the mind of the consumer and it ruins the enjoyability of the work. I had just finished up the Suicide Squad story before going on next to the Super Sons tale. With the Suicide Squad being completely off-the-wall, I was expecting the rest of this special to be just as wacky. The Super Sons story started off kinda silly with Damian taking a Sikorsky to his first day of school. So I wasn't expecting things to take such a dramatic turn. But I think if it wasn't for the ending of the Super Sons story, I probably wouldn't have been on guard for that tragic Azrael story.

Oh! I loved the title of this special! What a great throwback pun to a 1990s classic kids show!

Please DC, PLEASE! Put Seeley and Brendan Kolins behind the helm of the Suicide Squad! And bring Tiny Titans back!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The MAD Student Survival Guide for Those Bored of Education

   There was a time when MAD Magazine was considered edgy, controversial, adult. This 2002 collection of school-themed cartoons, published by Scholastic, is proof of how far the mighty have fallen. When I was under the age of 13, I wasn't even allowed to say the word MAD. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration but due to it's (im)mature content, my mother wouldn't let me buy it. That wasn't so much of a problem as my dad regularly bought the publication and he let me read his copies when my mom was at work. (Plus I was more of a Cracked Magazine fan and delighted in the works of John  Severin, Jack Davis, and Sol Brodsky.)

   But I remember that the MAD's of the 70s and 80s tackled issues like Nixon and Watergate, The Sexual Revolution, Women's Lib, Gorbachev and his silly birthmark, the Gary Sex scandal, and Iran-Contra. This was biting stuff that stuck it to the man or whoever else was in charge. It was the print version of the attitude of founder William Gaines (creator of EC classics like Weird Science and The Vault of Horror.) Gaines saw first hand what happened when government got involved in your business from the aftermath of the 1950s comics scare and created MAD as a way to skewer the traditonal (and often flawed) American Way of life. 

   
   The MAD Student Survival Guide is a strange mixture of classic Gaines and the modern DC versions of the title. Dave Berg's 'The Lighter Side Of...' is featured throghout the book as are Drawn Out Dramas, those great tiny cartoons by Sergio Aragones. Classic MAD artists like Al Jaffee and Don Martin are featured too. But the majority of the features in the book is the modern day drivel that MAD is now known for. Though a feature about the types of lunches packed by mom, that featured an up-and-coming Amanda Conner, was a delight.

    The new MAD is like those classic kids magazines from the 70s and 80s: Dynamite and Hot Dog. But those titles, the brain child of future DC EIC Jeanette Kahn, were from day one geared at kids. MAD wasn't! EC Comics were more known for having an adult auidence. But thanks to the coming of the Comics Code, William Gaines had to switch the format from a 4-colored comic to a black and white tabloid style in order to be free from the CCA's censoring body. 

    For almost 40-years, MAD was the authority in satire and biting wit and gave birth to such institutions as National Lampoon, Saturday Night Live, and even a live-action series on FOX called MADTV. But when Gaines died in 1992 the title's spirit of piss and vinegar died with it. The effects of Gaines death was both immediate and lingering. The company was bought out by Time Warner and the publication was looked at as just another title in the conglomerate's vast catalogue. 

    Sales were deemed more important than Gaines' attitude that MAD was a labor of love. Eventually, the title was consumed by another Time Warner property DC Comics and slowly became more of kids publication. MAD is now like like a Doberman pincher with all of it's teeth removed- and kinda sad. Sometimes, things are best left alone... this book being one of them.
   

   Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.