Originally Posted by
garazza
I liked this issue more than I thought I would. It was overall a net positive, but there were a lot of highs and lows.
Man, I just can't with this art, specifically the coloring. There's just too much light and somehow not enough color. Di Meo wastes so much page real estate and for what? It's just empty space that doesn't inform the story or the plot. It serves no purpose. Worse still is that a lot of the action was not clear and really hard to follow. People talk about decompression writing, but this is decompression art imo.
I hate how this is specifically set during Gotham War, but thankfully it largely has no affect on the plot other than it's just Bruce and Damian (which is great), but my biggest pet peeve is that there are no editor's notes pointing to the specific issues they are referencing. Williamson has a podcast with Sal from ComicPop and I recall him lamenting how there used to be a ton of editor's notes when he was reading comics and how there aren't any now and I'm like, who's fault is that, Josh? You're the one making specific references to continuity and you're the one giving homework to readers to find out what the hell you're talking about instead of just saying in a little box "This happened in x issue! -JW"
A lot of people have already pointed out the "You roll your eyes like your mother" line, but I want to point out Damian's "Gotham accent" line. I'm sure what Williamson was trying to go for was to imply that Gotham has a city accent like Chicago, Boston, or New York, but it came off to me as implying that Damian naturally speaks with a non-Western accent. It could also just be Williamson bringing back one of Damian's forgotten traits, that being his vocal mimicry, like he did with his drawing.
I thought I would hate the whole Single Dad Bruce thing but I liked it overall but I felt it was a little too sappy for my tastes. What I did like is Moody TeenTM Damian shutting his bedroom door in his dad's face.
That brings me to one of the problems I've had in the lead up to this book. That being just how tumultuous everything DC has been publishing prior to this book. They've made a complete mess of things and have not even bothered to clean up after themselves before they've started to try to make positive changes to their line. It feels unearned and unjustified.
I can't muster the strength to be angry that Bruce still lives in the brownstone because it's such an unnecessary and superficial change to the status quo. I liked how it played out, Bruce introducing his son to his new living space, given these circumstances, but I would have rather this not have been under those circumstances.
I've been very vocal about my...dislike for some aspects of Damian's new status quo. I was displeased when I found out Damian was going to be high school instead of middle school, but I've been very slowly coming around on it. He'll be at the absolute most a freshman, and what makes me kind of look forward to this is that he is now the same age as Tim when he was introduced and was going to school while being Robin. He's even going to Tim's old high school. Combined with his black and gray costume being his equivalent to Tim's red and black one, this is now a definitive next step in the history of Damian.
I think my feeling can be boiled down to change is scary and it is, but it's necessary and that's a good thing. I just dislike how we got here to this point.