The Movement #10

By Gail Simone, Freddie Williams II  & Chris Sotomayor

The Movement is a title that is month after month, exceptional. It started off being billed as one half of the two books that were DC Comics’ spin on the Occupy Movement (The Movement’s sister-title being Green Team, which has finished) but has been fantastic all the way through. Despite the recent news that this title is ending in just two issues, it remains one of the best books on DC’s shelves and it’ll be sad to see it go.

However, Gail Simone is making sure that the last few issues of the book are as every bit as great as they can be, with #9 & #10 dealing with a brief guest appearance from Batgirl. Unlike how you’d normally expect though, things don’t always go to plan and Barbara and the Movement find themselves at odds – with the issue picking up from #9 which saw Batgirl captured by The Movement, and her identity about to be exposed. However, Barbara isn’t going to go down that easy, and the book kicks into gear. Simone really shows how you deal a two-part guest appearance from a fan-favourite character and it really helps that she is writing the current Batgirl series as well, with the writer managing to get her in character with the confrontations between her and The Movement not feeling forced in the same way that many superhero vs. superhero fights appear to be, and the resolution is also satisfactory – something again, that these meetings often seem to fail to do.

Freddie Williams II continues to produce some amazing artwork for the series that really helps capture the grim and gritty outlook of Coral City. The designs of the characters continue to be good, and the colours from Chris Sotomayor really help add to the fantastic atmospheric display here in The Movement.

Each of the characters in the Movement have been developed quickly, each with their own quirks, flaws and personalities. Virtue, Mouse, Tremor, Katharsis and Burden – have all become fully developed and routable characters over the course of this series and it’ll be very interesting to see where Simone takes the readers from here with just two issues left. Whether they’ll be anything left of them afterwards is anybody’s guess, but I’m hoping that they’ll stick around and crop up again in either an ongoing or another title. It’ll be a shame if it’s the last we’ll see of these characters though, because they are just too good not to ignore.

Where things go from here with just two issues left will be interesting to see. This title has really been consistently amazing from month to month and it’s just a shame that not enough people were willing to try something a little different with some new characters in DC’s stable. However, Simone is proving why this series is going to be missed. It’s an exceptional title, and should really be worth reading in trade if you’ve missed out on the individual issues.