Review: Bat-Mite
Quick Summary
Pros: The main storyline here is comedic and carefree in an entertaining fashion. The metacommentary centers around an interesting topic. The style of the artwork suits the series very well.
Cons: Outside of fun comedy, the story doesn’t offer a lot. The metacommentary isn’t executed that well.
Overall: This is a humorous book that also takes some time out for a bit of light commentary about the comic book industry. This combination is successful in creating a lighthearted and entertaining ride with a charming main character. However, emotion and meaning are rather weak in the book and the comic commentary only really ends up going skin deep. This creates a solid book for those looking for Looney Tunes-style humor but isn’t necessarily for those looking for more.
Story
Bat-Mite, by Dan Jurgens, is a lighthearted and decently entertaining journey with a charming main character. The central story here allows the titular character to jump from one humorous situation to the next, while meeting various DC heroes along the way. It also subtly develops a metacommentary about reboots and the current state of the comic book industry. The only problem is that, while all of this is entertaining, none of it is executed as well as one would hope. The pieces of plot outside the comedy end up being lackluster and the criticism on the industry is only briefly interesting. In the end, Bat-Mite offers plenty of solid jokes but does not offer much outside of this.
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Bat-Mite is primarily focused around Looney Tunes-style escapades that bend reality in a comedic fashion. The comedy here involves a bit of slapstick, a decent amount of satire, and a lot of situations that are so ridiculous they end up being funny. The entire volume also benefits from Bat-Mite’s ability to get under his friends’ and enemies’ skin, which makes him an oddly charming lead character.
However, outside of the comedy, Bat-Mite doesn’t have a lot to offer. It attempts to tell a wholesome story about Bat-Mite’s exile and his current attempt to make new friends, yet none of this ends up being that interesting. After putting the book down, I felt like this entire plot line could have been left out altogether and the book would not have suffered at all.
Alongside these carefree adventures, each of the stories told in Bat-Mite include some satirical criticisms of the comic book industry. Most of Bat-Mite’s actions involve his attempts to “fix” heroes in the DC Universe. This typically means making them darker, edgier, or giving them new costumes. Alongside this, is Gridlock’s attempt to preserve the past by returning the status quos that were around when he was a child. The overall failure of Bat-Mite and Gridlock attempts to address the problems that are caused when either of these strategies are employed.
Unfortunately, though this is a solid topic to address, it gets rather stale rather quickly. The same message is addressed multiple times over the course of this book, causing it to lose its effect over time. This is particularly noticeable in the “Inferior Five” chapter, which concludes with the heroes lamenting over Bat-Mite’s “fixes” in a way that is so obvious it looses any sense of nuance or subtlety. This leaves the metacommentary in a place where its presence is appreciated but not in a place where it is worthy of any significant examination.
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Art
The artwork in Bat-Mite is visually pleasing and is a great accompaniment to the antics that take place throughout this comic. Corin Howell depicts an animated array of lightly detailed characters against a variety of mostly plain backgrounds. This allows the over-the-top emotions and chaotic facial expressions from the characters to stand out and take their rightful place at the centerpiece of this book. These depictions are then accompanied by bright colors from Michael Atiyeh, allowing characters to pop even further. There are moments where things don’t necessarily look that nice but even these moments are consistent with the overall style seen here. The end result is a book that looks like a Saturday morning cartoon, which appears to be exactly what the series is going for.
Continuity
Bat-Mite is the only volume in the Bat-Mite New 52 miniseries. Since the New 52 resets the DC Comics continuity, this is a completely fresh take on this character that does not require any prior reading.
The story here does not continue in any specific comic.
This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:
- Bat-Mite’s mention of “The Savage Hawkman” is a reference to Hawkman’s most recent solo series. This series began with The Savage Hawkman Vol. 1: Darkness Rising (Review) and ended with The Savage Hawkman Vol. 2: Wanted (Review).
- Bat-Mite’s pose while saying “The Dark Mite Returns” is a reference to Batman: The Dark Knights Returns.
- The existence of Shark Repellent is a reference to Batman (1966 film).
- Booster Gold mentions recently being a part of the Justice League International (Reading Order). Their adventures began with Justice League International Vol. 1: The Signal Masters (Review) and ended with Justice League International Vol. 2: Breakdown (Review).