This will probably be the last post I make of this series, so I would like to thank @ds090ddsl for giving me interest enough to read about this character. It was a interesting read, heck it was a journey, but I’m just going to summarize #17 and 18, and be done with it.
#17 was not the best issue. I admire the drama for what it was throughout in I Am Batman but at this point the Fox family should be stronger together than ever. Coming together to save Jace’s biological mom. Watching Jace have a tantrum in front of his family is not the way to do that.
He’s not only judging his parents, his siblings, but he is criticizing his father affair as a abuse of power. What?!
In my head I thought Lucius Fox did have a affair, yes, but with a co-worker in Wayne Enterprises. Perhaps it was far-fetched to assume this but I didn’t imagine it was possible to make Lucius Fox a worse person by saying he took advantage of his power. Lucius Fox one of the noblest person in the Bat-family is now a terrible person. Considering there a few to minimum nuclear African-American families together in comics, I thought Ridley, a liberal writer, would help fix that perception that African-Americans come from broken homes by writing a family unit like the Fox Family but nope. Ruined the few positive African-American families in comics for cheap drama.
For this second to last issue toward the finale. I couldn’t be sure before but I freakin hate Jace here. I thought he was better than this. He was passionate about his beliefs sure, be was more reserved, a man with a strong moral compass who believes in restorative efforts. He was better than this. Watching him blame his family, debate saving his biological mother, and argue he’s losing a fight because he doesn’t believe in it, is completely asinine to read about an adult acting like a brat.
Tiffany was more of a hero than even her older brother. It’s funny how Ridley could write a female hero better than he can write a lead male character.
And here is my biggest complaint here. Towards the part where Jace and Tiffany are losing to probably the most forgettable villains so far. The moral Authority and King. Jace and Tiff are saved by a mysterious person, a hero who I thought it was something cool. I could imagine Renee Montoya Question, a Robin like Tim Drake, Luke Fox finally appearing to save his family. Freaking OG Batman! No. No. No. Nope.
We got Nobody. Literally.
It’s supposed to be Jace’s love interest Hadiyah who is a new Question, but what a lackluster introduction. Damn! This issue made me mad.
It’s somehow possible to kill a interest in a character like this than in one issue. Thanks Ridley!
Issue 18 comes around and I swear even though I was finished with this series, I thought why not finished what I started. Jace Fox has a decent conversation with his biological mother. Making Jace mother be Asian would obviously mean he is biracial and I thought that was interesting, but at the same time, I hate the way it was done.
The cops will work on putting the heroes of New York on a special task force, Jace leaves his family for good to spend more time with his biological one, and Jace and Tiffany are now working together as a new dynamic duo in New York.
It’s a better issue than the last one, but that doesn’t mean much. I cannot excuse the treatment for ruining the Fox Family here. I hate how it goes against what John Ridley was saying about the dynamic of the Fox Family and how it would be different from Bruce’s Bat-family.
Jace is the exact opposite. I have a family, I’m estranged from my family. I had issues with my dad. I’ve held secrets from my mom and my sister. So for me, it was really about not just making it a Batman story. It’s a family story. It’s a family dynamic. It’s the kid who’s pushing away. But at the same time, what you’re pushing away from in some ways, well, if you’re pushing away from your dad, you still got to acknowledge your dad is a big part of your life. If you’re leaving Gotham to be with your mom and your sister, what happens when you have these secrets from your family? So for me, it was really, that was the differentiator. It wasn’t just, Oh, he’s black Batman. He’s Jace Fox.
Far As I can tell John Ridley made a perfect hypocrite. Jace held his secrets from his family, but when one that is not his own confronted to him, he walks out on them instead of working through it and accepting it. The fox family is far more fractured now than anything else, and what’s worse is that this is the finale. Can’t be fixed for some time and we don’t know when that’s going to be.
It’s funny, Luke Fox portrayal in Next Batman: Second Son as somebody who hated his brother for walking out on them in their time of need and warning his family he will do it again was ironically and inevitably right.
Jace honestly walks out on his family again. Lucius gave Jace the equivalent of another chance as Batman, giving him the tools, resources and advice to do vigilante work on the streets, and he still walks out on them. With that context, I’m kinda glad in a way this happened. Now Luke Fox my favorite character could be proven right and his current globetrotting away from the Fox Family in New York is the same as him saying I told you so.
Look, this Batman character desperately needs another writer. John Ridley seemingly killed any interest in him and needs to overhauled with a new vision in mind. I could appreciate John Ridley rewriting of this niche character from the 70s into something complex and modern. I could appreciate this series for giving me extra interest in Luke Fox simply as a alternative. I could appreciate a lot things it did to make a different way of reading DC comics. I can’t appreciate the results by the end.
Thank you again @ds090ddsl for creating such a interesting post and allowing me to vent. Going to look forward to the finale of GCPD: Blue wall. The much better John Ridley book currently out.