The Movement #9 Review and Thoughts
So I read this one without any prior knowledge to the series. This is the first issue i'm reading and to be 100% honest I decided to take a look at it in order to satisfy my Batgirl needs. YAAAAY BATGIRL!
To the basics. Art by Freddie Williams, written by Gail Simone. I'm not gonna say anything about the plot because I'm a newbie to this series. Just that Batgirl is searching for someone, a young man with “solar powers” in Coral City, but the Movement, a group of young vigilantes have a different opinion about this.
I'm actually going to slowly “backtrack” this series in order to fully enjoy it starting from issue #1.
I like the anti authoritarian approach in this one. There is that sense of radical vigilantism that is absent from Bat titles. William's art is “dirty and gritty” and has a sense of urban decay. Simone manages once more to write realistic characters and dialogue. If you are expecting big explosions, murder and blood everywhere then this is not the comic book for you. In fact you shouldn't read comics at all, go watch some Eli Roth films. Human dialogues, just the right amount of humor and troubled characters.
“If a private citizen shot a gangbanger during a mugging he'd be a hero to some” You see what I mean? What is a “hero”, what makes a “hero” ?
And details. From the homeless man playing the violin to the cosplay-styled costumes the Movement uses, there are small details everywhere that reveal themselves if you take the time and read slowly through this issue. But again, what made me want to add his series to my “pull list” is that “gritty” and realistic feeling. I grew up in a difficult neighborhood and I can feel those people. Under their suits, behind their masks you get this feeling that these are real people, people you know. The awkward teens, the misunderstood, that girl in the wheelchair, the angry alternative girl (the radicals and the anarchists?)
I have a feeling that Barbara will learn some valuable life lessons from this experience.
I don't know if you'll find this review useful to you. Perhaps not. Perhaps I should have started from issue #1. I wish I knew about this book earlier. So do yourself a favor and follow this one. I certainly will. We need more comic books like this. We lost too much time with Forever Boredom and the murderous bunch.
