[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Jody Houser
Art: Ibrahim Moustafa
Colors: Jordan Boyd
Letters: John Workman
Summary
Violet is facing Jason Todd in his newest Bat-Hood Suit. Jason isn’t happy about Violet’s presence, convinced she is just a pretender to Batman’s legacy. Fennec Fox shows up in time to lend a hand, but ends up taking one for the team as Jason is clearly her superior. It isn’t until Violet’s mother shows up and reveals to Jason his own insecurities that Jason backs off.
This allows Violet to go to the Collective’s headquarters and finally come face to face with this world’s incarnation of herself. She realizes that it’s been her brother all along. On this world he put her in a tank to contain her and on her world he sent her to Gather House.
Violet doesn’t kill her brother, but she does relegate him to the same tank her doppelganger was in. Her doppelganger on this world is now dead. This leads to Violet recruiting the versions of the people who had been her friends from her world to help her in this world. She builds a family, including her mother from this world, Fennec Fox and Jason Todd. Violet ends the issue with an oath to destroy the Collective.
Positives
At the end of the issue, Violet has found her purpose. She may not see herself as a hero, but she certainly has found her place. With Batman gone, she fills the void, perhaps that was the problem on her world. She had to contend with Batman.
Negatives
This run of Mother Panic: Gotham A.D. has been so different from the 12 issues of Mother Panic. “Milk Wars” gave the creative team the opportunity to go in a different direction. While it gave Violet a place where she could come into her own, it doesn’t for one second feel like it was where she was headed way back in Mother Panic #1. The world left behind holds so many unsolved mysteries in Violet’s life, this ending doesn’t feel complete.
This ending also feels rushed. Everything moves very quickly in this issue in order to set up the new status quo that there’s very little time to breathe. Houser really tries to give Violet a moment to mourn the death of herself on this world, but it all ends too quickly. Nothing about what happened on this world is resolved. What did happen to Batman? Six more issues may have given the team enough time to answer this question as well as get Violet back to her own reality with a clue to find the answers to the questions she needs.
Verdict
The wrap up seems a little forced as there are still many unanswered questions in both of Violet’s realities. About the best we can do is hope for another series with Mother Panic. She’s proved to be more interesting as her own person rather than a fill in for the Dark Knight. Perhaps, she’ll get her due down the road.
