Review: Mother Panic Gotham A.D. #1

DC Comics
Review: Mother Panic Gotham A.D. #1
By Philip Schweier
March 28, 2018 - 05:08

DC Comics
Writer(s): Jody Houser
Artist(s): Ibrahim Moustafa
Colourist(s): Jordan Boyd, Marissa Louise
Letterer(s): John Workman
Cover Artist(s): Tommy Lee Edwards; Ibrahim Moustafa

Violet Paige is in a whole new world – an alternate reality that clearly diverges from the mainstream DCU. And why not? When you have Batgirl and Batwoman, does the mainstream DCU need Mother Panic? I didn’t think so.

So Mother Panic is setting up shop in her new home, running criminals to ground with the help of a homicidal sidekick. Like any alternate reality, there are things that are different and things that are the same. It had a Batman, but he’s MIA at the moment. And it clearly has its Joker, whose only slightly less demented than we’re accustomed to (only slightly). But he may not be the most dangerous variant this reality has to offer.

The last three pages of the book offer some insight to this strange new world. Gotham City is in the process of rising from the crime-ridden cesspool it’s become under Batman’s watch. There’s no indication if this is one of the 52 established realities, or something completely new. But I applaud Young Animal for taking things in a different direction, and taking advantage of the Multiverse concept to make it happen. It’s new but familiar. Anything more extreme would be like admitting that the previous issues were a complete mistake.

Moustafa’s artwork is more appealing than previous artists. I think they tried very hard to be extremely different in their rendering, perhaps in an effort to set the book apart. That may have worked under different circumstances, but when the book is so derivative of established properties, wandering too far afield seems inconsistent to me. Moustafa’s artwork is more traditional.

Rating: 7/10