DCAU #340: Perfect Pitch

IN THIS ONE... Shriek escapes from prison and has figured out the frequency that destroys Bat equipment.

CREDITS: Written by Hilary J. Bader; art by Craig Rousseau and Rob Leigh.

REVIEW: The more Shriek stories I experience, the less I like him. The design, which I used to find unusual, now looks stupid to me. The sonics shtick doesn't offer all that much in terms of variety. And he's basically become the long-suffering straight man to a series of comic relief henchmen. Which works well enough for me, it's definitely the kind of humor I "get", but it's nothing new at this point.

The premise of Perfect Pitch is that everything resonates at a certain frequency, so Shriek only needs to find it to blow stuff up. All of Batman's stuff is made out of the same alloy, so batarangs, the batmobile, etc. is vulnerable to the same sonic blast. The suit takes more doing, but eventually succumbs. It makes Shriek more dangerous, and forces Terry to use Bruce's old not-Beyond equipment, and admit old-school doesn't mean useless. Hmm, was that even a conflict between them? The controversy needed a bit more front loading to really, if you'll pardon the term, resonate.

Artwise, Rousseau's a little wonkier than usual, with one particular shot of Dana looking like a kabuki mask standing out as particularly ghastly. The submarine escape isn't as clear as it ought to be, and the henchman gets caught in batarang wires off panel making for confused action beats. Using blank speech bubbles for people the lips of which Shriek can't read is well used in the story though, if sometimes inconsistent.
REREADABILITY: Medium - Shriek is given a little boost, and Batman goes retro, but the fun of it is sapped by muddled story telling and the fact Shriek has probably already been played out.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I keep reading "Shrek" instead of "Shriek," putting some weird crossovers in my head.
Siskoid said…
Don't beat yourself up, I kept WRITING Shrek.