Do you watch BreadTube style video essays? I watch a hell of a lot of BreadTube style video essays, especially for someone who basically has no idea what that means. I was simply told recently that I watch a lot of BreadTube style video essays and enjoy them.
If you watch enough of these video essays, you’ll learn that video game companies and their submarkets are operating in a hypercapitalism mode that manipulates their customer bases to an unprecedented degree and displays a general ambivalence toward them. This almost criminally unsustainable business model is so comically evil that it practically begs to be lampooned in a superhero comic.
That’s exactly what we seem to be getting from Gotham City Sirens.
Earlier this month, our (controversial) heroes Harley, Ivy, and Catwoman pulled off a heist. Here in the third issue, which opens with the Sirens locked up in Punchline’s Evil Gaming and Streaming and Energy Drink Compound, we see them embark on what could be defined as the narrative opposite of a heist: a prison break. They make short work of their cell, but to escape the entire compound, they’ll need the cooperation of White Rabbit… in whatever physical form they may find her.
We’ve certainly arrived at a more coherent and detailed vision of the cultural environment this book aims to be set in. In this cute, cartoonish corporate presentation of an explanatory sequence, Williams lays out the main points of the commentary she wants to make with these scripts. Namely, that the companies of these “content houses” and “gaming connections” that try to sell you a complete gaming experience plus necessary product are malicious and manipulative, and that the flaws in these systems that can result in consumers being cheated out of their money are dismissed as the inevitable growing pains of a “breakthrough technology.” By putting this business practice in the hands of a Gotham City villain (and thereby introducing a touch more murder than we usually find in these predatory gaming companies in real life), Leah Williams delivers a sharp, if brief, zeitgeisty social commentary on the lies of the inherent goodness of capitalism when applied to online gaming spaces. It took 3 of the miniseries’ 4 issues to get here, but it’s good stuff.
This week we’re back with Matteo Lolli, who handles the art work. If Lolli had to come back, this reviewer is glad to see that the editorial team decided to do so in this issue, an issue that consists mostly of fast-paced fight scenes in an already pretty fast-paced series. His backgrounds are still pretty sparse, and what details there are at the end can be sloppily executed, but the execution of the fight choreography has enough kinetic energy to keep things interesting and provide the bare minimum to move the story forward.
After this penultimate issue, I’m ready to say that I’ve enjoyed this reboot of the Gotham City Sirens title more than I expected. If you’d suggested this commentary on gaming culture right at the start, I would have said it wasn’t for me, but each of these weeks has pleasantly surprised me. At the very least, I feel ready to revisit this whole BreadTube thing with a little more awareness.
Recommended if …
- You love a good jailbreak fight
- You need to vent your fears about the gaming industry
- You are looking for light-hearted fare with low stakes
Overall: Gotham City Sirens is finally getting its pop culture/social critique message across more coherently. It’s just a little odd that it’s picking up so much steam with only one issue left.
Rating: 7.5/10
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