Batman, R.I.P....or DOA? Part 2

Before I get rolling, I have to make a correction. The R.I.P. story began in BATMAN 676, not 675 as I alluded to in the last post. Also, the trade ad has it in BATMAN and the OUTSIDERS, but I have not seen it, nor do I really care about it.

It was pointed out to me by Jim that the spin-off books have been not really all that helpful in driving the story forward. I would agree. To me the poorest effort has been in ROBIN. He spends the night looking for someone who took a camera phone picture of Batman to determine if he really has gone nuts. OK, challenge time. Go find the issue (#176) and look at the photo on page 5 ( or maybe 6 if you count ads). Go ahead, I'll wait. Find it? Good. Tell me something. Other than some stubble, how can you tell if he's gone nuts? Wouldn't Batman look like that to any street thug or criminal lowlife? Wouldn't he scowl at them to make them wet their pants? This is the determining factor that Robin us using? I know he found the dossier that Bruce made in his early days, but the photo was the tipping point? And don't get me started on the whole Spoiler thing. I think she brings waaay to much drama into Robin/Tim's life. Should have stayed with Zoanne, but that's for another time. NIGHTWING is just started to get into the R.I.P. story, or at least I think so. In his book, Dick is taking on a task for Two-Face and gets shot by someone. There is very little if any mention of what is going on in BATMAN. Then why do they bother to put the R.I.P. label on the top of the book? Considering that Dick is in Arkham drugged out of his mind over in BATMAN, we have no idea where Nightwing is going to end up.

Onto the main book, BATMAN. Maybe this is a slow burn, I'm not sure or not that smart. There are plot threads which only have 2 more issues to wrap up. How does Jezebel Jet fit into all this and where the heck is she? After showing her the Batcave, is most intimate place in the world, she basically calls him psychotic and implies that the whole "Black Hand" could be in his head. Is Alfred supposed to be the mastermind behind this? One moment it looks that way, the next he's getting the living snot beat out of him in the Batcave. Then out of nowhere, Bat-Mite appears and Bruce spends most of the next issue having a conversation with him. The Black Hand has taken control of the Batcave and the next issue teases the Joker. They sprung him in the first part but haven't seen him since.

I think we'll find out that this "Zur-en-arrh" trigger was planted in Bruce's mind when he was Narda Parabat while he has mediating during the 52 mini series. Someone, maybe Ra's al Guhl did this to him to strike at Bruce's heart and soul. I found something recently and it grabbed my attention. In DC UNIVERSE Zero, basically a primer for all the big series they are going to be doing, there is a conversation between Batman and Joker in Arkham. In it, Joker tell Batman that he is about to get his head handed to him by some "some very, very bad people have decided to hurt you. Because they can, Because they think you deserve it.". Obviously the Joker will play some part in this, because "Robin has been promised to him.".

So, what is the endgame here? Will Bruce give up the mantle of the Bat to someone like Dick or Jason? Unlikely, since Dick is doing well over in NIGHTWING and I don't think that Tim would trust Jason enough to continue on as Batman and Robin. We saw in the opening page of this story that Batman and Robin are still together six months in the future. Will there be some wild card out there who will show up to help? Again, unlikely. Does anyone out there have a clue, outside of Grant Morrison? Because I fail to see where this is going to end. I guess I'm just not that savvy.

Overall, I've enjoyed the story. It does take you out of your comfort zone in reading it, and if done properly, that can be an enjoyable thing. I do know this. Once this wraps up, I'll be breaking out all the issues to see where I missed something and how it will all be tied together nice and neatly.

I hope.

Batman- R.I.P......or DOA?

Hey there gang.

Rather than write a review of an individual book, I was asked for my opinon on the storyline of Batman- R.I.P. (Thanks for the suggestion Jim, I am sorry about the lateness of the post.)

Now, I have to say that while I am not a Grant Morrison fanboy, I have enjoyed most of his work. JLA, X-Men were fun reads more often than not. So far, this has been a disorienting read. Bruce has gone certifably nuts and is talking to not only Bat-Mite, but gargoyles and other objects. The wording and look of his word balloons give the appearence of someone who has come completely unhinged, almost like someone from Arkham. The Black Hand has taken control of the Batcave and have beaten the living crap out of Alfred. Poor Alfred. The Star Trek redshirt of the Batman universe. The guy controlling the Black Hand is "Thomas Wayne". I put quotes around this because we are expected to believe that this is Bruce's long-dead father? If this turns out to be true (and I suspect it won't), Morrison will have committed the ultimate sin in my book. At least when they have brought back Bucky and Jason Todd, they have done it with some conviction and a decent backstory as to why (Bucky's is better than Jason in my book).

Originally I thought that this was going to be self-contained in the two core books (BATMAN and DETECTIVE), but this was spun into both NIGHTWING and ROBIN. This illustrates my point about "event" books. If had stayed with the two, you would have had only input from 2 writers (Paul Dini writes DET.) but now you have to include 2 more (Peter Tomasi writes Nightwing and Fabian Nicieza has just taken up the writing chores for ROBIN right before this started) so now Grant's story becomes even more diluted. Yes, I'm sure that the other writers had a hand in planning this, but this is supposed to be Grant's opus. The spin-off books have been just that. DETECTIVE is working the origin of Hush into this. It turns out that he was introduced to one of Bat's rogues (Scarecrow) at an early age. It looks as if the 2 are working together. My one problem with this is continunity. Not the Scarecrow/Hush angle. That I can live with. It's the fact that in here, Batman is sane and working with Robin and Nightwing and even Catwoman. He hasn't gone 'round the bend yet. There is a mention of the Black Hand in here, but would it be too much to put a box saying "These events occur before Batman 675"?

There is so much to go on about that I am going to break this post up into 2 parts. The next post will address ROBIN, NIGHTWING and BATMAN books and what I think it going to come out of all this.

The Dark (and long) Knight

Hey there all.

I promise that I won't spoil a thing for anyone. Nothing that the ads may or may not have done.

All I'll say is a one word answer to the question "is it worth the hype?"


Well, what do you think?



YES!! OMG YES!!!

I am sure that there will be naysayers out there, that IRON MAN or HULK was better, and I will admit that IRON MAN was VERY GOOD.

But this? This was a tour de force for just about everyone who appeared on screen.

That's all I'm saying for now. Go and judge for yourself.

Comics time!

OK. Message received. I will try and post more often.

I hope to have the sketch that Scott Kurtz did for me up sometime in the next week or so. But before I review some comics, I have a general thought I want to throw out. I observed at the Baltimore Comic-con last weekend some interesting things. What I would like to talk about is the dealers and some of the dealings going on. I don't know if we had a "rape me" sign hanging somewhere on our booth, but for some reason dealers kept coming over asking if there was some "deal" we could work. Now last year, Rusty (the owner) worked a deal with a big group and pretty much sold the booth out on Saturday. That's cool and all, he is the owner and it's his livelihood. But these guys sidling up to me and asking if there is something we can "work out", made me feel kinda oogy. These guys had been there all weekend and had to know that I wasn't the owner. Even said so on my badge: "staff". And there was no way I was going to do anything without Rusty's consent.
Now, to be fair, I did do some deals with people who were either fans or retailers coming for the show. We sold out the manga, which did really well with both. But these guys, who I'm guessing are pros on the convention circuit, were really interested in making deals. As opposed to some of the boothmates we had, who could not look more disinterested and bored to be there. But who can blame them? They had no real business, nothing but really older books, and looked for all the world like they couldn't get out of there fast enough. OK, that's enough on that. FUN TIME!

I want to try and give some quick reviews of the comics I read. I tend to stick to the mainstream stuff, and my budget has been really screwed with.
Countdown- This series started off with some promise but has really fallen apart. I'm not sure if it is the "52" curse or not, but I am finding it hard to stick with it.
Detective Comics- The best Batman book being done out there. This book has managed to reinvent the best rogue's gallery in comics to a new level. Paul Dini has done a terrific job.
Batman- Deserves a mention for Grant Morrison's run. His knack for taking obscure things (the league of Batmen?!?) and making them a viable story has paid off.
Green Lantern- I have always been a GL fan. But the "Sinestro Corps War" has been one of the best things done in the book in a long time. DC really dropped the ball by not promoting this more instead of Countdown.
Amazing Spider-Man- I now have to lump all the Spidey books into one since they are cancelling them to make Amazing the core book. This past week started the "One more day" arc. I am not sure where they are going with this, and really until they get there, I don't care. I will read this with some trepidation because I am expecting a major fake out from Marvel.
World War Hulk and Incredible Hulk- Now THIS has been a great read! The main Hulk title not so much. But WWH? WOW! I have enjoyed every issue so far. Why? Two words: HULK SMASH! No whiny exposition, no hidden agendas, just pure aggression. What any Hulk fan wants.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8- This book has apparently started a trend. A lot of books (Angel, Star Trek) which were TV shows have picked up on the sales trend of Buffy and tried to copy. The newest arc began this week, and I recommend it to both fans and non-fans alike. It's a great jumping on point and it will not disappoint.

Alright, that's enough for now. Maybe there will be more on comics, or something on the sad state that is my life in general. We'll see.