Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title: Loss of Signal
Written by: Greg “THE” Rucka
Art by: Jesus Saiz, Cliff Richards, and Bob Wiacek
Colored by: HiFi Design
Lettered by: Phil Balsman
Editor: Joan Hilty
Publisher: DC Comics
It seems that it is a bit too early to ask Batman to turn in his “superhero-ing” license. Even more of a pleasant surprise is that, lo and behold, the heroes of the DCU can still throw in together and cooperate for the greater good. It is just too bad it took them six issues and the death of Fastball (have no fear, John Malone, you will not go unmourned) to do it, eh?
The Rucka proves in the opening narration that he still has a talent for writing Batman’s internal dialogue and making the character come across as more three dimensional than the insufferable jerk lesser writers often paint the Bat as, especially of late. Also, although Booster Gold exists at the other end of my interest scale (I don’t dislike him, I just never really got into him), I also tip my hat to Rucka’s work there. Everything I’ve read until OMAC made Boost seem like something of an empty headed good time guy and it’s nice to see that that initial impression of mine was probably misplaced.
Sadly, I can’t say the same for Rucka’s work with Sasha’s narration. Since she made the transition to cyberwoman, her personality has more or less drained away. I am willing to grant that this may very well be a decision on Rucka’s part. However, it is still a shame to take an interesting, vibrant female character and remove that voice, purposeful move or not.
Also in the negative column is the art. I really like Jesus Saiz’s work and feel that, for the most part, his OMAC art has been strong. I was hoping for the superhero v. OMAC brawl to go on longer given the strength of the double page spread that Saiz starts it off with. However, the other collaborators, Richards and Wiacek just don’t achieve the same level of skill. They are close, but, in some ways, that only makes it clearer that they were trying to ape Saiz and failed. When you are trading almost every other page with one another, two-thirds of your team not keeping the pace is a problem.
Not to criticize and run, but Sasha’s new look is just…ugly. I gave it three issues, but it hasn’t grown on me and I think it is unlikely to. It’s distracting, especially with her one OMAC-esque eye and one blank eye (or as I call it, the Batman special), and fails to properly capture the merger of woman and robot that I think they were going for.
Finally, to close on a positive, this mini offers an ending that nicely ties together the elements of this story while providing a tantalizing tease for how it will go on to effect events in Infinite Crisis. Unlike Day of Vengeance, this book nicely balances its dual nature as one part finite story, one part setup for a massive crossover.
