Sirens of Gotham


It’s a busy week for releases and I’m sure there will be plenty of reviews and comments on various Blackest Night and other high profile books.  I thought I would focus on something with a slightly lower profile, that being Gotham City Sirens.  The series revolves around Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy finding themselves living together in the aftermath of the recent changes in the Bat Family of books.  Writer Paul Dini and Harley Quinn together again was all the incentive I needed to pick up the first issue.  The latest issue sees the end of a three part storyline where Gaggy, one of the Joker’s old sidekicks, impersonates the Joker and tries to kill Harley for being the girl that ruined the good times with his old pal the Joker.  Gaggy’s back story ends up being a interesting look at how the Joker went from being the laughing criminal to the sadistic killler that he is now.

The most plesant surpirse of the series has been the artist Guillem March.  Most will probably know him for his covers, as he has been the resident cheescake artist of DC of late, drawing the various ladies of Gotham and Power Girl as well.  Most artists like that tend to be very good at pinups but rather poor storytellers.  Thankfully March is an exception as his interiors are just as good as his covers.  Most surpassingly of all is that he has been reliable, drawing every issue so far.  Coupled with Dini’s entertianing writing it has made for a fun ride that is a great break from the more serious Bat Family books.

Word Balloon

The recent Word Balloon interview with Matt Wagner was interesting.  It is worth listening to just the first few minutes alone where Wagner talks about how he believes Batman and Superman are going to have more and more trouble adapting with the times thanks mostly to the idea of how much harder it would be to keep a secret identity in the present day compared to the past when the characters were first created.  The rest of the interview covers all the things Wagner is current working on from Madam Xanadu to the Green Hornet.