For The Love of Comics

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Before I dive into this one headfirst let me start with this (Click to enlarge):

That my friends [What are you, John McCain? ~D] is the LATEST teaser image released by DC Comics, courtesy of Newsarama, which was attached with a question from Dan Didio: “Can you find all the clues in this image?” I don’t want to ruin the fun by telling you guys what clues I was able to find, but I would like to talk about what has all of us Batman fanboys quaking like crack fiends in between fixes. Who will be The Bat?

Thankfully, Grant Morrison will not be penning this one, which I’m sure puts Dustin’s heart at ease [I think Peter Tomasi should write this and anything having to do with Dick Grayson.  Ever. ~D again]. Tony Daniel will be taking over here in both the writing and art aspects. (Let’s be honest, he can’t do much worse than Morrison did.) So, before Battle for the Cowl officially kicks off in March, let’s take a look at the possible competitors:

Dick Grayson
The Prodigal Son. Dick Grayson has been at the side of the Dark Knight longer than anyone has (Aside from Alfred of course). Following the tragic death of his own parents Dick Grayson was taken in by a sympathetic Bruce Wayneamd soon became the first Robin. [Actually, depending on the continuity, Bruce was the first Robin ~D] After stepping out from beneath the shadow of the Bat, Grayson became Nightwing and set out to become his own man. Over the years Nightwing has really come in to his own.  It would be a shame to see an end come to the Nightwing identity, but can you really see the next Batman being anybody other than Dick Grayson?

Tim Drake
Over the years since Tim Drake put on the red tights he has really come in to his own. When I think of Robin I think of Tim Drake; Drake is the definitive Robin, but is he strong enough to become more than that? In recent months we’ve seen Robin go through hell and have to be Gotham’s only protector in the absence of Batman, battling off gang wars, Jason Todd, Lynx, Anarky, and a fake Red Robin, mostly arranged by Spoiler in an attempt to make Tim “better.” After handling all of this at once and doing pretty good at it, has Tim proven himself capable of being the next Batman?

Jason Todd
Jason Todd has always been the black sheep of the Bat-Family. He was taken in by Batman with the idea of making Todd into something better and channeling his rage for a better cause. Despite Batman’s best efforts, the second Boy Wonder was always a loose cannon. During A Death in the Family, we saw an angst filled Jason Todd searching for his mother only to be captured by the Joker and brutally beaten to death with a crowbar. Later, Jason Todd was brought back to life by Superboy’s reality punch only to fall out of the public eye almost entirely. But is it possible that Jason Todd could surprise us all and win The Battle for the Cowl?

Ted Grant
Even Wildcat has a stake in this fight. As an expert martial artist and master of countless fighting styles, Ted Grant definitely has the moves. Having trained Batman himself, Grant shares the same will and is obviously capable of carrying on the mantle. But will he?

Thomas “Hush” Elliot
Thomas Elliot, in my opinion, is one fucked up dude. Over the short amount of since his introduction into the Batman Universe, he has gone out of his way to tear down Bruce Wayne and destroy everything that he loves. It all started in Hush when Elliot exploited his friendship with Bruce Wayne and the death of Jason Todd to launch a devastating attack on Batman.  Most recently he was the main villain in the Heart of Hush story arc in which he removes Selina Kyle’s heart from her chest while keeping her alive with technology given to him by Mr. Freeze then performs plastic surgery on himself to look exactly like Bruce. Now that he has the mask of Bruce, will he be able to take on the face of Batman?

Harvey Dent

Former District Attorney Harvey Dent has always been a wild card. With all of his actions decided by the flip of a coin, Two-Face is an erratic man of chance. For a time, he was cured of his split-personality disorder, had his face restored by plastic surgery, and stood in for Batman during his year-long journey of self-discovery [See 52 ~ the indomnitable D Man]. Upon Batman’s return, Dent was reunited with his “darker” personality and re-scarred his face himself to again become Two-Face. Now that Batman appears to have left again, will Harvey Dent once again become the protector of Gotham?

Out of this list of competitors who will lay claim to the cowl? The Prodigal Son? The Boy Wonder? Perhaps someone darker? No one know until Battle For the Cowl kicks off in March. Until then we’re all left asking ourselves: Who will be the Batman?

Honorable Mentions:

Damian Wayne
Though Damian is an underdog here there is still a chance -  there are some crazy writers out there, after all. I think it’s fairly safe to  say that Damian WILL have a substantial role in the Battle for the Cowl and that his future is almost certainly as the next Robin.

Katherine “Kate” Kane
Katherine Kane, the current Batwoman, deserves some mentioning here. Though I find it doubtful she will have much of a role in Battle for the Cowl, she has really come into her own. Who knows, maybe she’ll become an official member of the Bat-Family?

Selina Kyle
I really don’t see Catwoman vying for the cowl, but I do see her interfering with Thomas Elliot’s efforts. She could be a huge factor in the story.

Alfred Pennyworth
Former spy in the Queen’s service, expert medical training, mechanic, chef, Father Figure to Bruce, and he does windows!  My money says “Watch Alfred.” I obviously don’t think he will be fighting to become the next Batman but I am interested to see who he throws his support behind.

Harleen Quinzell
I’m honestly not entirely sure why she has been in the current solicitations from DC but she has my attention. What role will she have?

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Hey folks, I think the hiatus is almost over; I just need to get a handle on how I’m going to catch up with my comic book reading backlog and whatnot.  I may have a good guest-post on the way from someone that I really wouldn’t mind having as a regular contributor, as well.

In the meantime, I wanted to share two webcomic issues/strips with you that I really enjoyed.  I’ve shared stuff from Something Positive before, and most people know that I consider R.K. Milholland a genius, but I also recently came across AppleGeeks and they’re really growing on me.  I’ve been going through their archive, which is where I found the issue that I’m sharing with you today.

Click on the images of the strips to see them full-size on the artist’s website.

 

Dead Robin jokes are never not funny, people.

 

Actually, I’m pretty sure that Batman keeps a kryptonite urinal cake in his utility belt for just this type of thing.

Technorati Tags: Something Positive, RK Milholland, AppleGeeks, Mohammad “Hawk” Haque, Ananth Panagariya, webcomics, Robin, Batman, Superman, Kryptonite Plunger, Kryptonite Urinal Cake, Kryptonite

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According to Variety, the CW is planning a new show called The Graysons as either a companion piece or replacement for Smallville. As you might guess from the name and its attachment to Smallville, The Graysons will focus on original Robin Dick Grayson’s life before he lost his parents and met Batman.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Dick Grayson as a character and I’m sure that the CW can wring drama out of just about anything, including an ultimately doomed family of trapeze artists, but since Dick Grayson had no connection to superheroics or crimefighting before he met Batman, wouldn’t a show about the time before he became Robin just be a show about a bunch of carnival folk?

Unless they think they can outdo Carnivale, I’m gonna pass on this one.

You can read Variety’s article about the planned show right here

Technorati Tags: Robin, Dick Grayson, CW, Drama, Lame show ideas

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So Nightwing 142 at once confirmed my suspicions that the al Ghul’s are behind the whole corpse-snatching thing and made me feel like a fool for thinking I was all insightful for picking up on it during the DC Countdown panel at Megacon.

But that’s not my point

My point is that Peter J. Tomasi is doing a wonderful job at getting to the heart of who Nightwing is. Showcasing his relationship with the rest of the superhero community, with Batman, and especially with current Robin Tim Drake.

Check out these two pages.

.This is the relationship that Tim and Dick should have. Bruce and Tim - and Bruce and Dick - would obviously have a pretty close relationship, but Tim is following in Dick’s footsteps in so many ways, as a protege and son of Bruce, as a leader of the Teen Titans, and in the struggle to find his own identity in the face of these challenges. In every real way, Dick is like an older brother to Tim. They get each-other on a level that nobody else - not even Bruce - really can. It’s nice to see that actually depicted for once, since I never have before.

I hope Tomasi stays on this title for a long time; he seems to get Dick Grayson in a way that nobody has in quite a long time.

Technorati Tags: Comics, DC, Nightwing, Robin, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Peter J Tomasi

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I’m still very far behind in my reading stack - almost a month behind in some spots - to the point that I’m seriously considering dropping a few titles and just picking up the trade so that I can keep up with some other titles.

I tell you this to explain why none of the titles in this post came out this week. In fact, I don’t think any of them even came out in the same week as another. I’m trying to do better, I swear.

On to the reviews! As always, there may be minor spoilers. If you have not read the issue and want to come into it without any foreknowledge of plot whatsoever, skip this until you’ve read the comic.

First of all, 52 Aftermath – Crime Bible: 5 Lessons of Blood really needs to shorten their title. I’m already sick of typing it all out, I’m slightly offended as a consumer that they’re trying to manipulate me into buying this based on the 52 name, and I’m offended as a fan of Greg Rucka, The Question, and Renee Montoya that DC thinks they need to manipulate fans to sell this title. It’s a good book with a good main character and they should let it stand on its own merits. I’ve heard a rumor that this is not just called The Question because DC has reservations about having a homosexual main character in a series, and that just offends me as a human being.

Now that I’m done with my soapbox, the lesson of issue #2 is “Lust”. Renee tries to infiltrate a “convent” disguised as a Washington DC brothel and run by Crime Bible adherents. Apparently, the “nuns” try to recruit powerful DC figures into the Crime Bible faith through the lesson of lust. During her investigation, Renee is nearly seduced by one of the women of the cloth, so to speak.

I’m still a fairly big fan of this series, though I can certainly understand some criticisms of not really knowing where Rucka is going with this. This issue seems to help in that regard, several subtle clues given throughout the issue, and one statement made by the monk of stone at the end, make me think that they know exactly who Renee is and what she thinks she’s doing and reinforce my belief that Renee is unknowingly being taught each of the Five Lessons of Blood, in the hopes that she will become an adherent of the Crime Bible.

Rucka does mystery and subtle intrigue quite well, and he is an excellent fit for this book. I hope to see him write more Question stories in the future, even without an exclusive DC contract.

I moved Uncanny X-men #493 to the top of my stack to keep up to date with Messiah Complex (I got it this past Tuesday, I’m not sure why I didn’t wait until the next day and just get this week’s stuff too. That would have made too much sense, I suppose) and because I feel like I shafted y’all a bit in my recap earlier this week. Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on your perspective – I’ve decide to still shaft y’all a bit; I’m not going to do a play-by-play, since I figure there may be some of y’all who are as far behind as I am and would like to read the issue first. I will still give you my impressions, though.

This… was not the strongest chapter of the event. It’s still better than the last New X-Men chapter, but it’s probably weaker than all the others. It just did not do much for me. The art was still gorgeous, there was nothing wrong with the writing per se, but… I don’t know, there wasn’t much to move the plot forward, other than the introduction of the X-Force, “we all gonna cutchoo” team.

I can understand Cyclops reasoning in going after Cable, to a point. I get that if you know nothing, it’s best to plan for the worst, but when has Cable ever played for the other team when it comes to the X-Men and what’s right? He’s not a traitor and I think sending a team to take the baby by any means necessary, including killing Cyclops’s son, is a bit rash. But then, as Cyclops said, these are desperate times and there may not be room for half-ass actions, so it does fit into the story, it just rubs me the wrong way a bit.

Of course, this issue could be absolute crap and I’d still be sticking around, and this issue was NOT crap. Second weakest chapter out of a bunch this strong is still pretty good.

I’ve been waiting for Northlanders for what feels like almost a year, so I was excited to see it finally came out. Now that I’ve read the first issue, I’m…intrigued.

I was a bit iffy on Davide Gianfelice’s art at first, it seemed a bit grainy, but the more I looked at it the more I liked it to the point that I now feel like it fits the feel of this book perfectly. Brian Wood’s writing is strong and – as far as I can tell – historically accurate regarding the Varangians and Norsemen of the era, with the exception of their mode of speech. I was definitely struck by the fact that the characters in this book are almost all unlikable people, but I doubt Vikings were very pleasant people.

It’s always hard to tell how much I’ll enjoy a book just from the first, setup issue, so I have no idea how long I’ll be sticking with this series, but I’m definitely interested enough to pick up issue 2.

Now, for the comic I was fairly certain I would hate, All Star Batman and Robin #8…

My god, I actually loved this issue; it was easily my favorite of the bunch! The Joker was definitely my favorite character, especially with his opening monologue and musings on love (in his own special way) but even Bats was excellent in this issue! There was none of the “Goddamned Batman”, but more of a softening of his character, particularly towards Dick Grayson. There was none of the posturing and puffing of the chest, only some grudging affection towards Grayson and some musing on his assuming a father-figure role.

There were even some amusing moments when Batman’s talking to himself caused him to question his sanity and his disdain for the mental prowess of Green Lantern (who is a bit of a twit in the All Star universe.) We even got to see the debut of Robin’s costume, with a twist on the original origin.

This issue left me with an impression that Frank Miller is painting a picture of Batman slowly evolving from a violent, twisted vigilante, to a humanized crime-fighter who serves as a father figure to a young man who has been through similar circumstances as him, which makes me accept the “Goddamned Batman” as an understandable starting point.

I just might have to reevaluate my opinion of Frank Miller as long past his prime, he could be doing something very excellent with this book. Now if it only came out on time….

Also, I’ve been thinking that my reviews are a bit too much of a lovefest, I only review what I like. I’ve been considering the stuff I haven’t liked as not even worth mentioning, but I’ll try to start posting a bit about those comics and why I don’t like them, to save you the money, if nothing else.

As always, comments, suggestions, criticisms, and concurrences are ALWAYS welcome!

tag: Comics, DC, Marvel, Vertigo, Question, Renee Montoya, Crime Bible, 5 Lessons of Blood, Greg Rucka, X-Men, Messiah Complex, Cyclops, Cable, X-Force, Ed Brubaker, Northlanders, Brian Wood, Davide Gianfelice, All Star Batman and Robin, Batman, Robin, Joker, Dick Grayson, Green Lantern, Frank Miller, Review

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