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2.0
The artstyle in and of itself is quite good, though it's let down by the incredibly stiff poses the characters are drawn in, the backgrounds suddenly vanishing entirely at points, and some odd expressions in certain panels that make it look laughable.
As for the writing, it's quite poor with a lack of resolution for several plot points, some rather odd scripting choices that prevent any real tension from being built, and overall being a poorly executed critique of a series that certainly had its issues, but the criticisms that are made feel poorly researched, and not really landing due to relying on faulty information.
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1.0
So disapointed since the first issue, writing is a real nonsense and the art is lazy !
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1.0
This definitely didn't deserve the Dark Crisis in its title. Like seriously. It had no impact or like any real involvement in that whole story. Why wasn't this just some random comic instead? Not that these characters deserve the treatment they got. I think I've walked away from this comic liking all of them less. These aren't villains. Aren't we supposed to feel good about our heroes? They felt pointless. This whole story felt pointless. I wish they had actually had something relevant to do with the whole Dark Crisis thing but all Fitzmartin did was have them argue with one another until for some reason the boys end up apologizing for bad behavior. I feel like we deserve an apology for all the bad writing that happened here. I guess I wish I had seen these characters showing themselves better instead of being told they were all stupid and petty and privileged(?)and written in a time Fitzmartin clearly hates. Like yeah stuff doesn't always age well. I get wanting characters to show they are mature and learn from things but this felt like a weird time to address this. I mean the whole world is going to hell or something. They didn't even seem to care about that part much. The apologizing felt more needed than saving the world. Unless I'm supposed to not care about these characters again because that seems to be the only point really made here. I dunno. Seems like Fitzmartin shot for the stars and landed five feet away on her face instead with this one. This was so disappointing but at least it's over.
Except for Tim. I guess he still has to suffer. Sorry Tim. Maybe they'll get you a better writer too. more
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1.0
I'd like to say I feel some level of relief that this series has now met its end, but in all honesty, I'm still left baffled by how such a story was ever allowed to proceed on the course that it did. I was hoping we would get some sort of explanation into why this was worth putting the Dark Crisis title on it, but the fact of that matter remains that this series has absolutely nothing to do with the current Dark Crisis plot. It has offered us nothing of value on that front. There is no reason this should have been put into this lineup. At best, this could have been a one-shot standalone that someone decided to throw out into the universe, but to say this brings anything to the overarching story we're getting with Dark Crisis would be a flat-out lie.
Mickey's explanation for how he came to play in this is incredibly weak and reads as if they needed something to legitimize placing Dark Crisis on the covers at the last minute. You very well could have left out that bit of dialogue from him, and it wouldn't have made a damn difference to the YJ story or the main Dark Crisis one. Honestly, if Fitzmartin's aim was to show us just how unnecessary and easily discarded the YJ group is, this comic proved that point. Rather than making us feel how needed and vital this group could be, she ended up showing us the exact opposite. The whole main Dark Crisis storyline proceeded without them, and them being gone played no major role in what was happening outside of their own mini-series. And if that was, in fact, the whole point of this, then what a sad and shallow way to go about it. Fans were looking forward to this comic, to seeing this group get something fun again, to show us their relevance after having been forgotten for so long, and instead, were shown how they truly have no real place in this current DC universe. Fitzmartin proves that her story is exactly everything Mickey was complaining about, and yet it offered us no viable alternative, only the continued hammering home of how easily cast aside these characters continue to be.
It's honestly impressive. In an attempt to defy and rage against the worst of the comic world (which in reality is a small but admittedly vocal part of the fandom) and rail against a time and issues that not only the characters themselves progressed past in other stories and most readers have as well, this story has only managed to uphold those very same values it decries.
Again, the writing suffers from continuity issues, of being incredibly disjointed. At times, it seems to finally get its act together, best noted in the first 2-3 pages, but then quickly loses itself again to the same problems suffered in the previous issues. This time we get it mostly in this weirdly put stop-and-go format of the boys apologizing to Cassie. These moments felt oddly out of place, especially given the supposedly pressing nature of their fight not only against Mickey but also the fight happening in the main storyline, which they are now aware of. Like most of Fitzmartin's writing, instead of showing us why these boys should feel the remorse they did (because honestly, a lot of the previous work she is referencing doesn't support the degree to which their guilt weighs), we are simply told it. It comes off as disingenuine, as something said for the sake of someone else and not because it was needed at that moment in the comic. Tim's was by far the worst, in my opinion, as it was a weird aside when they were rushing to get back to the main fight, and it offered nothing of any real value other than to open the doors on his potential feelings for Conner (I'll circle back to this).
I want to love all these characters, and instead, I feel like I've gotten a series in which apologies are being made by characters who aren't the ones who should be issuing them, where we've lost the voices of characters in favor of making blanket statements and poorly directed commentary, where characters have been forced to deprive themselves of their own inherent greatness just to prop up another character (because where did we see anyone other than Cassie as the target of all of this?). And I get that's maybe the issue, a character getting overshadowed by those around them, but instead of showing us how amazing this team is, we were shown how amazing one character is (seriously, Tim Drake who?) only to ultimately be shown how completely irrelevant they really are to the main plot.
Kon, perhaps, had the most legitimate reason to apologize personally to Cassie. Though they also had previous progression beyond what seemed to be his main hangup here, and the way Cassie brushes off his apology seems to show it was probably unnecessary in the first place. If anything, it likely serves as a foil to what came with Tim, where the implication seems to be that he had feelings for Conner, and that was the only real reason he had gotten together with Cassie in the first place. Again, I think this suffered from being put at the wrong time and place and having too little build-up (again, a continued flaw with Fitzmartin's writing). In some respects, it can lend weight to Tim's bisexuality, and while this could be an understandable development, shoehorning it into a couple of panels in the last few pages of the last comic of a miniseries while we next see Tim six months later in a marina with Bernard was not the best way to approach this topic at all. It would have been better served as a conversation between Tim and Conner at a point when sufficient time could have been given to a conversation of that nature. But the fact that Tim and Conner don't even seem to interact in this particular issue only makes this a matter of 'things we don't really talk about' or 'these are things we talk around,' and it completely undermines what could have been a very powerful moment between two supposedly close friends. I honestly love Tim and Conner's friendship, and this could have been such a fantastic thing to see between them and a way to explore Tim's own confusion over his sexuality when he was younger and show us how we ended up with him where he is today. Instead, we got a half-assed apology that didn't even need to happen, an apology that was just as easily dismissed by Cassie. (Also, with him being bisexual, it would've been perfectly okay for him just to have some sort of attraction to Cassie and leave it at that.)
And I don't even know why Bart felt the need to apologize. Especially when everything that was said in that particular conversation was a rehashed conversation from earlier in the series with him. Again, it just strips all the genuineness out of the things being said between these characters, and it makes me wonder how someone who claims to love these characters so much can get them so very wrong.
At the end of it all, this series honestly leaves me feeling incredibly sad. Sad for the characters who didn't get the development and appreciation they should have, sad for the comic fans who genuinely love this group and DC comics, sad for the state of comic writing because I know there are better writers than Fitzmartin who could tell these stories. There was a lot of potential here, even in the idea of commenting on the current state of comics and the fandom, but it was so grossly mishandled that I'm left wondering why anyone would want to see this group of characters again, at least as written and handled by this creative team. There was a story here. It's not a new one, but it was one that could have been told, but all its effectiveness was shot and buried by poor writing, poor pacing, and characterization that seemed more intent on proving the writer's points than showing us character understanding, progression, and strength. You can make these points without losing your characters and your audience, but unfortunately, Fitzmartin shows herself incapable of managing this yet again.
But, I sincerely hope we do get to see these characters again for who they truly are and everything they bring to the table as superheroes because they are so much better than what we got in this series. more
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1.0
At this point this is not only badly written, but totally disrespectful. There wasn't much respect before this issue, but this one seals the deal on impertinence. There should be negative rating for this awful writer and terrible excuse for a human being. Oh, and the editor needs to pack his stuff and go as far away from comics as possible.
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1.0
(This should be considered a review of the entire mini-series)
I see you writing this crap with the team I love
And I'm like, "Forget you" (ooh, ooh, ooh)
You tried to blame homophobes and misogyny
I'm like, "Forget you and DC, too"
Tried to give you credit, you're still new at it
Ha, what is this shh?
(What is this shh?)
And although there's pain in my chest
I still wish you the best
With a "Forget you" (ooh, ooh, ooh)
Where do I start
The way you write Tim, Kon, & Bart
It's clear you didn't do any research
Made Cassie a pain, you write Tim not Bi but Gay
And Cissie's a "See You Next Tuesday"
I pity the fool that falls that thinks this book is good
(But hey, Braga's still good yeah)
Well (maybe give her some more work yeah)
Ooh, I've got some news for you
Yeah, no one likes what you were doing here
I see you writing this crap with the team I love
And I'm like, "Forget you" (ooh, ooh, ooh)
You tried to blame homophobes and misogyny
I'm like, "Forget you and DC, too"
Tried to give you credit, you're still new at it
Ha, what is this shh?
(What is this shh?)
And although there's pain in my chest
I still wish you the best
With a "Forget you" (ooh, ooh, ooh)
Then you put Empress, with the bad guys
Why didn't you use Bedlam?
Well your argument, falls apart
Cause You’re guilty what you accuse Mickey of
I pity the fool that falls that thinks this book is good
(But hey, Braga's still good yeah)
Well (maybe give her some more work yeah)
Ooh, I've got some news for you
I think I'd rather read A.S.B.A.R.
I see you writing this crap with the team I love
And I'm like, "Forget you" (ooh, ooh, ooh)
You tried to blame homophobes and misogyny
I'm like, "Forget you and DC, too"
Tried to give you credit, you're still new at it
Ha, what is this shh?
(What is this shh?)
And although there's pain in my chest
I still wish you the best
With a "Forget you" (ooh, ooh, ooh)
Now baby, baby, baby, why's the, why's the, why's the writing so bad?
(So bad, so bad, so bad)
I thought this really had some potential but
This is just making me sad
(So Sad, So Sad, So Sad)
Yes, it is
And I was like, uh
Why? (Uh) Why? (Uh) Why, DC?
Oh, I love you
Oh, I still love you, oh
I see you writing this crap with the team I love
And I'm like, "Forget you" (ooh, ooh, ooh)
You tried to blame homophobes and misogyny
I'm like, "Forget you and DC, too"
Tried to give you credit, you're still new at it
Ha, what is this shh?
(What is this shh?)
And although there's pain in my chest
I still wish you the best
With a "Forget you" (ooh, ooh, ooh)
Seriously, this mini sucked!
more
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10
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7.5
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5.0
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3.0
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2.5
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2.0
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1.0
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1.0
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1.0
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1.0
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1.0
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