Sunday Splash Page #153

 

"You Have No Idea, Tim," in Detective Comics #621, by Alan Grant (writer), Norm Breyfogle (penciler), Steve Mitchell (inker), Adrienne Roy (colorist), Todd Klein (letterer)

As you probably guessed from last week's hint, most of the Detective Comics issues I have are from Norm Breyfogle's run with Alan Grant on the book. At least the parts that are collected in the two Legends of the Dark Knight: Norm Breyfogle hardcovers DC put out a few years back.

Breyfogle and Grant (and John Wagner as co-writer), started at issue #583, and went to issue #594. There's a gap, and then starting with issue #601 and running until the issue shown above, it's the Grant and Breyfogle show.

The stories are a nice mix of done-in-ones, and two to four-part stories, kept within the title, rather than jumping across the various Bat-books. So there might an issue about a First Nations warrior coming to Gotham to retrieve items of cultural significance (and mete out a little justice) from some white guy that paid to have them stolen. Or Catman's pet tiger escapes and Batman ends up tangling with them while Catwoman looks on. 

There's an element of supernatural/psychological threat or horror to the stories. Whether it's Cornelius Stirk terrifying his captives because he needs the chemicals their brains produce in response to fear to keep himself sane, or a desperate man creating a monster from his own anger, fear and hate to protect him from mobsters demanding protecting money. The original Clayface gathers the third and fourth versions to make himself the "ultimate" Clayface, and while he's at it, dopes Batman up and sends him into a hallucinatory nightmare.

I'm not sure what Grant's trying to say about Batman with all that. His version is kind of all over the map. At times cracking one-liners and quips while knocking people out, other times snarling and gritting his teeth like he's severely constipated. His Batman is self-aware enough to recognize when he's out of his depth, and capable of being scared. He's also ridiculous enough that, when Vicki vale breaks things off with Bruce, Bats swings over the city thinking about how Batman needs no soft kiss on the cheek, and "Vicki? Who's that?"

Sure, Batsy.

Either way, it gives Breyfogle a chance to really expand his boundaries as the series goes on. Get a little more creative with some of the page layouts when it's the mind that's under attack. Make Batman appear as more of a looming dark shadow than a person. He seems especially fond of putting Batman's face and limbs either in shadow or hidden under the cape, but having the emblem on his chest clearly visible. I guess to emphasize the idea of Batman as a symbol rather than a person. He can still humanize Batman when he needs to, soften his lines when Batman wants to avoid frightening a child, or is feeling a little cocky. But a lot of the time, Batman looks more like something more than human.

Anarky's probably the biggest character actually created during this run, and the legion of homeless guys he'd later employ in the Grant/Breyfogle mini-series (see Sunday Splash Page #25) are recurring characters throughout. Other than that, I don't know if Stirk got much traction. Kadaver fucked around with the Penguin (shown repeatedly committing actual crimes, instead of pretending to be a nightclub owner or politcian), which didn't end well. Corrosive Man was neutralized (neutralimed?) I guess Ratcatcher pops up in crowd scenes.

People who are allowed to fall through the crack in society are something Grant at least touches on regularly during the run. That and people who suffered hardship or loss like Batman, but decided to be a bit more lethal in how they handled it (see Ratcatcher and also the aforementioned guy who summoned a demon from his mind). Batman tells Tim Drake (who starts showing up right near the end of this stretch, but won't become Robin until Grant and Breyfogle switch over to Batman), to accept the anger, because one day it'll be his friend. I'm not sure that's a great message, but I guess the idea is it's your friend, not your master. Bats tells Stirk something similar, that he lets his fear have its say, then he chooses to listen to it or not.

Overall, it's a solid run. Fun stories that aren't trying to redefine the character for all time (futile as that would be), where Batman is allowed to be caught off-guard, overwhelmed, or just plain out-smarted (temporarily).

You Don't Quit, You're Fired

A couple of weeks back, there was a Teen Titans Annual where Batman confronts Damian Wayne about some crap he's been pulling as Robin. Like keeping supervillains locked up in a secret basement in Titans Tower, and possibly trying to mess with their heads, something like that. Which, as I unfortunately recall because of the existence of Identity Crisis, is not a thing Batman approves of.

They have a fight, Damian accuses Bats of not going far enough, Batman says he won't fight because he loves his son and Damian rips the "R" off his costume, proclaiming he quits.

Yeah, no. If there was ever a time for Batman to actually fire one of his many teen proteges, this would have been the time. Damian shouldn't get to extra-judicially imprison people, then act like he's got the moral high road on someone else.

(And yeah, he's sad 'cause Alfred died. I'm pretty sure the rest of the Bat-family is sad, too, and none of them are going around pulling this shit.)

But this has always been the problem with Damien, the double standard. Benefits of nepotism, I suppose. The first time he suited up as Robin and went out to fight crime in Gotham, he decapitated a guy. Cut his head clean off with a sword. Not even the Joker, or Zzazz, or Kobra. Some Scooby-Doo-looking chump called The Spook.

Did Damien know what he was doing, that he was killing someone? Yes. Did he show contrition? No. Did Batman put his foot down and bar the kid from ever being Robin again? Of course not. Damien got to be Robin, and stay Robin for the next 15 years or however long it's been now since Morrison introduced him.

He took being Robin away from Stephanie because she disobeyed orders once, by trying to help him during a fight he was clearly losing. He tried to take Batgirl away from Cassandra because he thought her commitment was lagging because she showed interest in boys and a life outside crime-fighting in general. Damien can kill a guy, and Batsy just kind of shrugs like Ace piddled on the tires of the Batmobile.

Anyway, I eagerly await Damian challenging Jason Todd for the "lethal Bat-kid" spot. Hopefully each of them kills the other.

Random Back Issues #12 - Batgirl #18

Don't ya hate it when you show up to crash a payoff to an assassin and another hero shows up following the money? I'm not sure whether to be surprised it doesn't happen more often in Gotham (given the 500 vigilantes in town), or that it happens at all (given the amount of crime at any given time).

Batgirl spotted a guy in a convertible with a shoulder holster, who turns out to be the hitman Deadeye. The guy who hired Deadeye, a Mr. Vink, decides to stiff him on the fee and have him killed, but Batgirl and Robin show up independently to ruin the whole thing. Deadeye gets away, but Tim put a tracer on his car and gives the tracker to Cass, then splits abruptly, following Vink's men.

But Deadeye's out for revenge, so both trails converge at Vink's mansion, where the killer kidnaps Vink's daughter and is able to shoot Batgirl (who impressed Tim by dodging bullets earlier in the issue). Batgirl's only mildy surprised and pulls the bullet out shortly after. Turns out Deadeye has a cybernetic implant, so he only has to think of what he wants to shoot and he hits it, rendering Cass' ability to read body language irrelevant.

Deadeye wants his money, but Batgirl's certain he'll kill the girl anyway, as punishment for Vink breaking the rules. So she busts into his place, and right after the exchange below, charges at him and knocks him out. He got a shot off, but I'm assuming Cass was hit and just kept going. She's done it before when she lost her ability to read body language. I assume because there's no sign of a wound in any of the panels. Cass smashes the guy's gun hand, but if the implant does all the work, can't he just shoot left-handed?

In the aftermath, Tim admits he's been awkward around Batgirl because he's not sure how to handle her background as an assassin, especially in contrast to his 'normal' childhood. Sure, his mother died as part of a ransom scheme on the part of some voodoo drug lord guy (I think?) that also put his father in a wheelchair for a while, but sure, normal. If only he knew what was coming down the pike.

[2nd longbox, 80th issue. Batgirl (vol. 1) #18, by Kelley Puckett (writer), Daimon Scott (penciler), Robert Campanella (inker), Jason Wright (colorist), Digital Chameleon (separator), John Costanza (letterer)]

Random Back Issue #6 - Robin #89

Really surprised Alfred would let Tim have such an unhealthy snack on the flight.

This is set during Tim's time attending a private school, where naturally all his classmates ended up in some trouble. Off the top of my head, one guy was there because anger issues jeopardized his sports scholarship, one guy got in trouble for winning too much money off poker websites, and Tim's roomie turned out to be an alcoholic. Plus there was the kid who had a demon trying to kill him. No, not Etrigan.

This go-round, Danny Temple turns out to be potential heir to the throne for Kobra. Danny gets kidnapped by Servitors (which Tim says Bruce has filed under "SSSSSSSSSS"). Plus they lose their deposit on the jet skis. I wonder if the guy they rented from was the same one who made the mistake of renting a jet ski to Frank Castle that one time?

Tim gets Alfred to fly him to the Himalayas to find Danny, while insisting he's just doing recon, he'll totally call for help if he finds anything. Spoiler alert: He does not call for backup. Deadman was probably pretty offended to not get an invite. I mean, he hangs out somewhere in the Himalayas, and he's a ghost. It can't be that long of a trip for him.

There turns out to be a whole power struggle, where Danny doesn't know what the hell is going on. There's a mysterious hooded figure eagerly waiting to see if Danny really is who they think he is, who turns out to be someone Robin knows really well. Tim's also not the only person making tracks for the secret base, as it turns out the previous leader of Kobra isn't quite ready to surrender his throne to anyone.

What was of more interest to me at the time was the subplot Tim mentions in the first panel up there. Batman had one of those brief blips of insight where he decides to train Spoiler, rather than just ineffectually tell her to stop. But when he needs Tim checked up on, he sends her to the school (because of some falling out with Alfred I forget the details of), after revealing Tim's secret identity. This after telling Tim he couldn't tell Spoiler who he was under the mask for a long time (and Bats doesn't reveal his identity to her, naturally). Expert Batdickery, right there. Reveal someone's secret without asking, meddle in their relationship, and be too scared of Alfred to just handle things yourself.

I'd been buying this book regularly about 5 months at this point. Dixon has another year to go as writer before Jon Lewis takes over, but Pete Woods will remain as the primary artist until the end of Lewis' stint around issue #120. I actually prefer Woods' version of Tim to Tom Grummett's, despite being a big Grummett fan if only because Woods doesn't draw him quite as ripped. Tim's just looks like a fairly athletic teenager. Maybe he should look more muscular, but considering he was usually portrayed as nowhere near the athlete Dick Grayson is, it didn't seem too off-base.

[Longbox #9, 7th comic. Robin #89, by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty (writers), Pete Woods (penciler), Andrew Depoy (inker), Noelle Giddings (colorist), Willie Schubert (letterer)]

A Composite Robin

The Robin on the Teen Titans Go! cartoon is supposed to be Dick Grayson. He has the tragic origin at the circus (those rotten circus animals), the acrobatics, we've seen his future self becomes Nightwing, the attraction to Starfire, etc. His costume and the collapsible bo staff owe more to Tim Drake, and there was an episode where he tries to teach the team about how cool hacking. I wondered if that was a reference to Tim being such a super-great computer nerd/hacker back in the '90s*.

There was another episode I saw recently, when Robin gets jinxed by his teammates, who are tired of him lecturing them. He gets frustrated, breaks the jinx yelling at them, and loses his voice (which is collected by the villain Jinx). The Titans (eventually) try to recover it, but are unfocused without their leader, who has no luck communicating through dance or hand signals.

At which point Jinx chides him, remarking it's too bad he only taught them to respond to yelling and violence. Turns out Robin had forgotten about violence, and starts whaling away with his staff until they do what he wants.

So it occurred to me that the Robin on Teen Titans Go! has a lot of personality traits in common with another Robin, Damian Wayne. The arrogance, the violence, the tendency to treat everyone else as inferior morons who would be hopelessly lost without him.

Damian's the Robin in the current DC Rebirth Teen Titans book**; the solicits showed he's even going to boot Kid Flash off the team (cartoon Robin hates Kid Flash). I had wondered - as I did the last time Damian was on the Titans, in the short-lived JT Krul/Nicola Scott run on the book just before Flashpoint - why anyone would want to be on a team where they had to put up with Damian. I still don't know that I have a good answer, beyond thinking they can help him not be a jerk, or having no place else to go. It would be a clever way to try for some synergy between the comics and the TV show. If the kids like that Robin is angry and yells a lot, has the Teen Titans comic got a Robin for them!

* Or it could just be the Robin on the show has a fixation on the '90s, the way Cyborg has one on '80s TV shows.

** Disclaimer: I'm not reading the current Teen Titans book, just going off covers, solicitation text, and what I know of past characterization.

31 Days of Scans - Favorite Origin

I was looking back over these posts and discovered about 10 weeks in, I switched from listing the topic of the day in the title to what day it was. And I didn't remember having made a switch at all. That was a little disconcerting.

Favorite origin. I've thought about this, and I'm not sure I worry too much about origins. I understand how important they can be for the character, defining their motivations, providing a framework to mirror, invert, whatever for villains (Spider-Man as a teenager trying to use his power responsibly, fighting mostly older guys who gained power and immediately used it irresponsibly, for example). But, I don't know, so many of the origins are either tragic, or they're about how the character is some special chosen one type.

I guess I'll say Tim Drake. I'm not sure when exactly I learned his origin. Heck, I didn't even know his initial pitch was to Dick Grayson, for Dick to become Robin again, until I was researching this post. As for the rest, sometime after I'd already seen him in a few comics. He's not initially motivated by any personal tragedy of his own (though he is motivated by Batman's reaction to the death of Jason Todd). You could argue his being able to deduce Batman's identity where so many others can't is kind of a chosen one thing, but in the story it's presented as happening because Tim got really interested in Batman and applied that sort of geeky focus that kids will apply to things they're interested in, whether it's baseball statistics, dinosaurs, astronomy, King Arthur lore, whatever. For Tim it was Batman, which seemed kind of cool.

And it sort of plays up Batman as an inspirational figure to people. Normally comics focus on how he terrifies criminals, and how Bruce Wayne tries to use his fortune to address the causes of crime. But I think it's good to show Batman as someone who, because he stood up to the crime bosses, and the crooked officials and cops, and then continues to face down all the horrors Gotham produces, convinces other people do so as well. They don't all have to put on costumes and fight crime obviously. Gordon works within the system, but in Year One, he was a honest cop looking the other way before Batman. He became the guy who tried hard to clean up the GCPD once he saw there was someone else unafraid to stand up. Tim's another angle on that, someone who believes in what Batman's trying to do and wants to help. I guess that works as well as any.

Tim makes his pitch to Dick in New Titans #60, written by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, penciled by Perez, inked by Bob McLeod, colored by Adrienne Roy, and lettered by John Costanza.

Favorite DC Characters #5 - Tim Drake

Character: Robin (Tim Drake)

Creators: Pat Broderick and Marv Wolfman. I'm not sure who I was expecting, but it wasn't those two.

First appearance: Batman #442.

First encounter: There's a chance it's Batman #481, but I think it's Robin #4. Either way, it would have been in one of those five comic grab bags you could get at the grocery store, or maybe as part of a Christmas gift bunch o' comics. Used to ask for that out of the Sears Christmas catalog every year.

Definitive writer: Chuck Dixon

Definitive artist: I like Tom Grummett's work a lot, and he drew Robin #4, but I gotta go with Pete Woods. He was the regular artist when I started buying the book, and remained in that role for the next 3 years.

Favorite moment or story: Robin #88-92. Tim ventured to the Himalayas over Spring Break to rescue his classmate Danny, who turned out to be a possible heir to control of Kobra, and was going to be used by the Lady Eve and her faction. But the old Naga-Naga wasn't ready to surrender the crown just yet, to say nothing of Tim's old foe, King Snake, now with his eyesight restored by a Lazarus Pit. Tim is alone, in the midst of all that sectarian fighting, complete with giant robots, mini-Yetis, and lots and lots of Kobra disciples, to rescue a friend. And he pulls it off, though Danny figures out Robin is actually Tim Drake. There's also a lovely aftermath where Tim relates all this to Batman, and more than that not only calls the Bat to task for revealing Tim's secret i.d. to Spoiler without Tim's say-so, but also confesses just how much he and Steph care for each other. Really, any time Tim tells off Batman for being a big jerk is a good moment. Bonus points if it actually punctures the Bat's shell of self-righteousness.

Why I like him: I don't think Tim Drake was the first DC character I became a big fan of, but he's probably the second. Robin was definitely the first ongoing from DC I bought monthly. Chris Sims isn't wrong when he says kids want to be Robin, the colorful kid who gets to hang out with Batman. He gets to fight crime like Batman, without being as grim and relentless as Batman. Tim had the added bonus that they gave him a bo staff, and a detachable "R" he could use like a shuriken. That may not sound like much, but at the time, I was really into the Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers. I spent a lot of time in my backyard, pretending sticks were ninja weapons. Tim caught me at a good time. If DC had given him nunchucks, I don't know what might have happened.

One of the other things I like about Tim is the physical stuff is an effort for him. Relatively speaking, anyway. Tim is still an Olympic-level athlete, or near it. But compared to most other non-powered heroes, Tim's not as gifted. He's not Cass Cain, or Dick Grayson. It can be a lot of fun to watch characters do really awesome things with seeming ease, but it can also be fun to watch characters find workarounds to compensate. He can't do the things they do. This requires him to be a little more careful, calculating, he has to find other ways. There's a Zero Hour tie-in where he meets Dick Grayson from Dick's early days as Robin (because time is falling apart, you see). They go after some thieves in a big aquarium and Dick, who at that stage is less experienced than Tim, simply leaps for some scaffolding, swings in a loop around it, plants and launches himself on towards the hoods. Tim's reaction is to hurl a grappling line and swing after Grayson, mulling to himself, if he tried that he'd break his neck. When he fights King Snake in the story I mentioned above, he's largely just trying to stay alive. He's tired, and King Snake is a better fighter than him, faster, stronger. Tim's advantage turns out to be Snake isn't used to having working eyes when he fights and sight is throwing him off. Even so, he busts Tim in the face with a kick that goes right through his staff, because Tim's just not quick enough. It's different to see a non-powered hero who isn't an entirely unstoppable physical specimen.

He has to use his wits, and I dig that, maybe because I fancy myself as being pretty clever, even though my track record with mystery novels indicates I'm no detective. It's fun to watch Tim piece things together, but because he isn't Batman, he still makes some mistakes or false assumptions. Sometimes he can't wait to get all the pieces, and has to go for it. Which means he can wind up in the middle of a mess before he figures out what's really going on, and then has to think fast to get himself out.

A fair amount of what I like about Tim is the Spider-Man formula. Teenager, trying to juggle superheroics with school, romance, friends, parental obligations, that sort of thing. The details are different, though, which makes a difference. Tim's being mentored by an older hero. He not only has civilian friends as Tim Drake, but Robin has lots of costumed friends as well. I know Spidey's a big team player now, but for a lot of the time I've been acquainted with the character he was in that mode where he might team-up with anybody, but they'd probably fight initially, and even afterwards, they weren't really friends. But Robin has a ton of friends, not just within the Bat-family, but also other heroes of his age, like the Young Justice bunch. Heck, he geeked out over getting to meet and work with Ted Kord (which is another reason to like Tim, he recognizes Ted Kord's a cool guy). That he and ted would get along well makes a lot of sense, considering they're both tech geeks, as well as non-powered heroes who don't get to be unstoppable fighting machines.

Another difference is Tim isn't motivated necessarily by the loss of someone close to him. I know his mother was killed sometime prior to his getting his own series, but at least during the time I bought Robin, she rarely came up. The closest might have been in the fact that Tim wasn't entirely comfortable around his step-mother, which is understandable. But I didn't see Tim out there driving himself crazy trying to make sure no one else lost their mother. He became Robin because he thought Batman needed a partner to keep him balanced, and found he enjoyed being Robin. The enjoyment didn't end because he lost someone. Later on, when they started heaping tragedy on top of him might be another story. He seemed to lose his grin, but that Robin isn't the one I particularly like. I didn't drop the book until Beechen's run gave us Crazy Cass Cain, but in retrospect, I should have bailed when Willingham took over.

Tim, for better or worse, has a fair amount of Batman's ruthlessness in him. That ability to look at things coldly and logically, and make ugly decisions. But the part of that I actually enjoy is Tim recognizing this, and recognizing that he doesn't want to become like Batman. He wants to continue fighting crime and protecting people, but he's smart enough to see the utter mess Batman makes of all his interpersonal relationships on a regular basis, and know that's not what he wants his life to be. So we get to watch Tim struggle against that, to hold onto the people close to him, to make sure to make time for his dad, for Stephanie. To just hang out with Superboy, Impulse, and Wonder Girl, or Nightwing. The key was he seemed to be succeeding in his goal, in spite of the general difficulties life presents, not to mention the unwitting damage Batman caused. Like when his Young Justice teammates learned about Batsy's "Kill the Justice League" plans, and started looking askance at Tim. They wondered if he had similar plans, or if he was collecting information on them for Batman (that's silly, that's what Batman built a sentient spy satellite to do. Well, that and kill people with OMACs). Which made a lot of problems for Tim, and helped push him to leave the team for awhile, because it was hard to have friends who didn't trust him. But they were able to patch things up, eventually. It was when Tim started losing that battle, because all the people around him kept dying, that I checked out.

Tim's not the most gifted hero, but he's smart enough to stay within himself and find a way to make things work, brave enough to take a chance when he has to. Cool-headed when he needs to be, but not sealed off from his emotions, still able to care about others, to have a life, and enjoy it.

It's Another Of Those Things I Have To Get Out Of My System

So Smallville Season 11 is going to have Batman and Superman finally meet, and Batman's partner/sidekick is going to be Nightwing. Except in this case, Nightwing turns out to be Stephanie Brown. Now, I'm not buying the comic myself, because I don't particularly care about Smallville, but as someone who likes Stephanie Brown, it's nice to see the character being used. By Bryan Q. Miller no less, someone with a pretty good track record with Steph*. And there are certainly some people excited about it, who will probably buy the comic because of this, and that's good.

Anyway, I did see this tumblr post with the complaint that Steph keeps stealing other character's identities, and when is she gonna create a legacy of her own? I know I should just ignore it, it's people on the Internet shooting their mouths off, but obviously it's too late for that or I wouldn't be typing this.

So, first point. This is Smallville continuity, so we have no idea as of yet about this Batman's history of sidekicks. For all we know, Steph is the first partner he's ever had, maybe just the first to call herself Nightwing. Or maybe not. There may have been one, or three, or seven partners before her, but we don't know. It's entirely possible there's no one in that universe for her to steal that identity from. Unless you're going to argue she's stealing it because there's a preexisting character in a completely separate fictional universe (which she's never seen, again, to our knowledge) that used the name first. In which case, Hal Jordan, Barry Allen, Ray Palmer, cyborg Red Tornado, to name a few, they're all thieves.

Second, this is DC we're talking about. This may have changed with the relaunch, but for what, 10, 15, 20 years prior to the "New 52", DC was pretty into legacies. The Flashes, the Green Lanterns, the Atoms, Superman and the Legion of Superheroes, the Legion of Superheroes and L.E.G.I.O.N.**, Starman, the Arrow family, the Blue Beetles, on and on. You couldn't swing a dead cat (which Roy Harper would mistakenly believe was his deceased daughter) without hitting a legacy hero in the DCU. Wasn't DC One Million about how the heroes had created something that would endure for centuries past their deaths? It wasn't considered stealing someone's thunder, it was honoring what they stood for and adding to it. In the old DCU, Jay Garrick might have been the first Flash, but the name grew beyond just him. It became a title, held by many people across time, each doing their best to uphold what they think it represents, and in the process adding to the cachet the title carries.

While it isn't unusual to see a hero get annoyed initially when someone else co-opts one of their costumed identities, what usually happens is the newcomer proves themselves, and the two form a general acceptance of each other, if not a friendship. It seems like the "stealing" only really applies when a villain does it as a way to tarnish the hero's name.

OK, but maybe the Batfamily is different. Not so much. I mean, if Steph "stole" the Batgirl identity, then so did Cassandra Cain, so did Helena Bertinelli, and pre-Crisis on the Infinite Earths, so did Barbara Gordon (though she was the first to spell it without a hyphen). If Steph "stole" the identity of Robin, then so has that little snot Damien Wayne, and so did Tim Drake and Jason Todd. Heck, if you follow Untold Legend of Batman continuity, even Dick Grayson stole the Robin I.D., because that story says a young Bruce Wayne donned the costume first to disguise himself while he learned from the world's greatest detective, Harvey Harris, who gave him the name "Robin". And "Nightwing" was an identity that either Batman or Superman used when they fought crime together in the bottle city of Kandor (the other was Flamebird, I forget which was which). Tim Drake wasn't the first Red Robin, Jason Todd wasn't the first Red Hood, on and on.

Honestly, the women characters in the Batverse seem better about picking out unique identities. Barbara Gordon was Oracle, obviously. Came up with that on her own, no input from the Bat (I think they may have changed that somewhere along the way, but I prefer to go with the interpretation she took that path all on her own). Cass Cain was Black Bat, which I don't think any other DC heroes have used. There hadn't been a Huntress in post-Crisis on Infinite Earths before Helena Bertinelli, what with Helena Wayne having lived in a different universe that was wiped out/merged with a bunch of other universes.

And, of course, Stephanie Brown was Spoiler. That's the identity she started with, it's the one she stuck with for the first 12 or so years the character existed. It's the one she went back to when Batsy fired her as Robin (under questionable circumstances), and the one she stuck to when she returned to Gotham after she recovered from her torture at the hands of Black Mask. Stephanie was Batgirl for about 2 years (our time), Robin for maybe 6 months, but she was Spoiler for close to 15 years. She's had her own identity, that she came up with on her own, not only independent of the Bat's input, but which she maintained for years in spite of his disapproval.

Seriously, if Stephanie Brown is stealing other people's identities/thunder, then so has practically every other character in the Batverse at some time or another. So have most of the character's in the DCU, period, at some point. Which makes it kind of strange to single her out for it.

* That's actually been my biggest concern since the relaunch with characters I like that I haven't seen. That they'll finally show up, and it'll be a disaster, because they handed Cass Cain to Beechen or Winick or whoever.


** I'm not sure how to count that one. Vril Dox' group came first, but Bedard set it up so the most recent iteration was built upon Vril having access to Brainiac 5's complete files on his Legion, sent from the future. I guess it goes Superman - Legion - L.E.G.I.O.N.?

Playing Off The Idea Of Robin As The Intersection Of Batman And Superman

This first occurred to me after reading Scipio's post from March 26th about Superman being essentially a circus performer, while Batman is more representative of the theater. At the end, he brings up how Dick Grayson, as Robin, represents an intersection of the two This isn't the first time I've read someone discussing that (though it was the first time in the context of theater vs. circus), but it set my mind to thinking about Grayson a bit, and I wound up wondering whether his romantic partners are intentionally following this pattern.

(I should point out, this is going to follow pre-relaunch continuity, at least as far as I understand it, because I don't know what's in play in the New 52.)

From my perspective, it seems like Robin/Nightwing's two primary love interests have been Barbara Gordon (as Oracle), and Princess Koriand'r (Starfire). One is an Earthling with the will to use her brilliant mind as a weapon against crime, as well as to train herself physically to be a more than capable combatant (even without the use of her legs, Oracle was far from helpless). The other is an extraterrestrial with considerable physical power (drawn from stars, no less) from a world that has been destroyed. Admittedly, not when she was a baby, and it was sort of restored by Vril Dox getting Rann Zeta Beamed to its orbit, Maybe it would be better to say Tamaran has been lost to Starfire at times.

Barbara has some of Batman's control issues, though she lightened up from the early days of Birds of Prey. Back then, she knew everything about Black Canary, but Dinah had no idea who this "Oracle" person  getting her to risk her neck was, and Barbara was fairly threatening at times to Ted Kord when they were messaging each other without either really knowing who the other was. I think Barbara tends to be more reserved, where Starfire has historically been open with her emotions. If you're her friend, she tells you. If she loves you, she'll say so. If she hates you, you won't be unclear on that fact. Superman's probably not as open with his emotions as Kori, but he's certainly not as stingy as Bruce. He never made any secret of Jimmy Olsen being his best pal, or that he cared deeply for Lois Lane. It's interesting that his openness with his emotions is apparently a product of his adopted homeworld, while Kori's is from the world of her birth (I think Superman would have been fine expressing emotion if he'd grown up on Silver Age Krypton).

Following Scipio's circus/theater idea, Starfire could certainly fit in the circus. She's a what, 6 foot 6 inch tall woman who is bright orange, in a fairly scant, purple outfit, who has flames/energy trail from her hair when she flies. She's going to be noticed, and her powers are very showy. Flight (with the aforementioned flame trail), super-strength, energy blasts. If she's not the strongwoman at the circus, she's probably the fire-eater or someone to that effect.

I'm tempted to say Oracle is more a director than actor, given her preference to stay off-stage and give orders to others. But she does get on stage occasionally, and it's a big deal when it happens (if Oracle's in the field, or her headquarters is under attack, the reader knows things are serious). She isn't necessarily physically dramatic in the way the Bat is with his swoopy cape and vanishing into shadows, but she's a capable dramatic presence. Her ability to locate people, breach all their defenses, learn everything about them, then use what she's learned in the most effective way possible, all that can have great effect. Imagine you're some villain. You think you've escaped from your latest heist to your quiet hideaway, but when you check your hidden accounts online, they've been drained. Then you hear sirens. Then you realize someone gained control of your security measures, and used your own cameras to see when you got home and sicced the law on you. You can escape, but you have to leave everything behind, run blindly into the night, and the most you might have to go on is that avatar Oracle used. Some computerized image no one has been able to learn anything about, except now you know she can get to you anytime she wants. First she's going to make you squirm. That's pretty theatrical.

(I'm not sure how to square Barbara's time as Batgirl into this. She certainly still has the theatricality, , but like Robin, she's more bright and showy than the Bat. Then again, I'm not clear on whether she and Grayson were together while she was Batgirl prior to the relaunch. My feeling is no, but there was a Nightwing Annual Marc Andreyko wrote that I think suggested otherwise, so I'm confused on that point.)

Given the number of writers and the years involved, I'd be inclined to say coincidence, but I don't know. It lines up so well to me. I'd love to hear your thoughts, because anytime I start trying to draw conclusions from the histories of DC characters, I feel like I must be missing a lot.

The Blind Man Looking For The Bright Side

Dogwatch, Day 3: Starting to hallucinate. Hearing dogs bark while I'm trying to sleep. Still able to distinguish from reality because imaginary dogs only bark once. No real dog here exhibits that much restraint.

If you care, you may have noticed Cass Cain is going to show up in Red Robin in July. There is some concern about what role she's going to play though. Let's look take a look:

'If he's going to avoid a fight against a psycho Super-Villain, end the 7 Days of Death, win the Assassination Tournament and discover ancient knowledge over life and death, red Robin will have to survive a fight against one of the world's deadliest assassins. Her name? Cassandra Cain!'

Well, at least Nicieza's keeping Tim busy. So, it's a little concerning that they're fighting, and she's referred to as an assassin, but we here at Reporting on Marvels and Legends are all about the positivity. So let's spin this positively!

Sure, it refers to her as one of the world's deadliest assassins. But that doesn't necessarily mean she's actively killing people these days. Michael Jordan is one of the greatest baskestball players, even though he hasn't played professionally in a decade. Rembrandt didn't stop getting mentioned as a great artist just because he's dead (or Monet, or Dali, or whoever you prefer). Once you're in, you're in forever.

Also, the solicitation suggests Tim's pretty busy. Well, if he's going to handle all that, he could stand to be the best he can be. What better way to improve his skills than some intense combat training against the premier hand-to-hand fighter in the world? If the training's intense enough, he could cram a lot of progress into a little time*.

Hmm, this is pretty similar to the explanation I came up with for Cass' actions in that One Year Later story, only there I thought she was testing his convictions. We all remember how that worked out. Hopefully this one turns out a little better.

Positivity!

* I was rereading some of the DragonBall manga, when Goku reaches King Kai's planet to begin training, he worries there's no way he can make enough progress before the next threat reaches Earth. King Kai reassures him that even six months of training with him is equivalent to several thousand years on Earth. Course, it still wasn't really enough, since Goku wound up with most of his bone's broken, but he did a lot better than he would have otherwise.

Batman Needed To Give That Plan More Thought

As I understand it, one of the things Tim (Red Robin) is mad at Stephanie about is during Batman R.I.P she hired at least a couple killer-types to attack Tim (back when he was still Robin) and generally make life difficult for him. She did this under orders from Batman. He knew (because he's Batman, I assume) he might go missing while dealing with the Black Glove*, and didn't want Tim focusing on trying to find him, when he should be concentrating on improving his skills or protecting Gotham or something. Tim figures all this out somewhere along the line, and he's understandably peeved at Steph for not only hampering his attempts to find Bruce, but bringing more dangerous criminals into Gotham.

Figures the one time Spoiler actually listened to a more experienced hero was the one time she absolutely shouldn't.

What I can't figure is why Batman thought this was a good plan. He's plotted things far enough ahead to see he might go missing. He knows Tim well enough to know Tim will focus his energies on finding Batman, rather than progressing as a crimefighter. So shouldn't he have realized once word got out The Bat wasn't around, Gotham would go nuts? Doesn't that happen every time Batman goes away for awhile, regardless of how many other heroes are present? He had to realize that, so why tell Spoiler to go out and concoct other ways to make things more difficult? If he wanted Tim to improve, amp up the difficulty on the training simulators, make him spar with Batgirl**, call up the Ghosts of the Dibneys and have them teach Tim what they know about sleuthing***. Or get Tim an internship with the Shadowpact or something, teach him about the supernatural.

A plan which is going to put more innocent people in danger, either because they become targets, or because Tim's so busy dodging attempts on his life he doesn't have time to save others, is villain planning. Maybe that's not what Batman was thinking of when he gave Spoiler that mission, in which case, he should have said so.

* I'm assuming he expected the Black Glove to be the one who would take him out of the picture. I'm not prepared to accept he knew Darkseid's minions, running around inside human shells, would find him after the helicopter explosion and try to create their own Batmen. But maybe he did know that was going to happen. He is Batman, after all. Well, he is Batman in the past right now, but not the present, but likely will be again in the future.

** If you'll recall, Cass Cain was running with the Outsiders by this time.

*** Ralph and Sue had also shown up in Batman and the Outsiders by this point, so it's in play.

I Liked This Page

First order of business: The link at the end of yesterday's post actually takes you where it is supposed to, now that I've spelled "genius" correctly. Hat tip to Matthew.

I'm very tired tonight for some reason, so simple post. Here's one page from Red Robin #10.
I saw a person online critiquing Batgirl's technique, saying a person wouldn't (or shouldn't) use those moves in the order she did. Certainly the kick seems a bit unwieldy for disarming an opponent, but whatever works. I'm impressed her cape vanished for a panel. The kick had such power the shockwave from it blew the cape clean of her shoulders. Which is good, because it means she has one of those easily detachable capes, which helps to avoid embarrassing moments where one gets hung up because of the cape. No getting sucked into turbines because of her cape for Stephanie Brown, nor sirree!

I love Tim's "Holy crap" there at the bottom. Note that, surprised as he is, he still caught the gun. He had an internal monologue on the previous page when Prudence pointed the gun at Stephanie about how there was nothing he could do, Steph was going to die, it was all his fault, he should have worked harder to make her give up crimefighting, but he was thinking with his heart and not his head, and now she's doomed, oh no. Then this page, and well, never mind, she's OK.

It turns out the gun is empty, suggesting Pru wasn't actually going to kill Batgirl, at least not with a gun (or perhaps not with a gun while Tim was around). Why did she bother to point an unloaded gun at Stephanie? Maybe she thought it would scare Steph, and found that funny. I'm guessing she wasn't expecting a beating. She should count herself lucky she wasn't dealing with Cassandra Cain, or she'd have been on the ground before the gun was halfway out of its holster.

That's all I have for tonight. Good night, everybody.

I Generally Prefer Batman As The Antagonist

Somewhere in the misty depths of this blog, I said something to the effect that I couldn't see myself buying a Batman comics. I think it was probably in relation to one of those "do you follow characters or creators?" questions, and I was explaining that no writer was going to get me to buy Batman, or Detective Comics. I feel I should admit that statement wasn't entirely true. I mean, I do have 10 comics from those two titles in my collection. Granted, none of them are from the last decade (I believe Batman 541 is the most recent), and most of them are actually Knightfall related issues I bought in those bags at the grocery store with the random set of 5 comics, so perhaps it's more accurate to say I can't see myself putting a Batman title on my pull list.

Anyway, I'd been thinking about the whys and wherefores of this, because my job does allow my mind the opportunity to wander onto such topics. After all, I can find Batman really cool, whether he's boldly telling off the Spectre, or losing control and repeatedly backhanding the Joker, or getting his back broken by Bane, I mean, beating Bane, and responding to Bane's 'Gotham is in my pocket' with, 'Prepare to be mugged'. Wait, that was Jean Paul Valley, but he was Batman then, and it was still cool*. I think the issue is that a lot of Batman's character seems to revolve around the fact he always seems to be in control. He's taken his grief and loss, and turned it into this driving force in himself to protect people. He always has a plan, and you thinking you're 3 steps ahead is just step 12 in his 47-step plan to stop you.

So I guess I find that frustrating on some level, maybe a little irritating that he somehow plans for every eventuality. And I'm drawn to the stories where he does lose control, whether it's of himself, or the situation. Maybe the thing about that Spectre scene I mentioned is it's pretty clear Batman can't do anything to stop the Spectre, and could be squashed like a bug if the Spectre felt like it, but he tells him off anyway. Batman's clearly not running things here, but he's not going to let Spectre feel as though that shakes him.

The other side to all this is that I enjoy watching things blow up in his face. That thing where Ra's steals his secret "Stop the JLA if they go bad" plans, then uses them to further his own scheme? Hilarious. The most frequent examples of this for me were Batman being kind of a jerk to one of his little group, in that character's title, which I was buying. For example, Robin and Spoiler dated for a while, but only in their costumed identities. Tim knew Spoiler was Stephanie Brown, but she didn't know who he was, and he couldn't tell her, because it would jepordize Batman's secret, and that's a no-go. Fortunately, Spoiler was OK with this**, and so that was how things went for a time. Then, Batman decides "Yeah, time to start training Spoiler" (which was a wise decision), and decides the way to tell Tim is to tell Spoiler Robin is Tim Drake and send her to break the news***, which spazzes Tim out, because he thinks he's screwed up and blown his and Batman's secret. Which isn't the case, as Batman has not seen fit to reveal his identity to Spoiler****.

Anyway, Tim eventually points out to Batman that this is screwed up because Robin and Spoiler have been trying to have a relationship with this huge issue in between them, and Robin hasn't been able to remove it specifically because of his loyalty to Batman, then Bats just up and decides he'll do the telling without consulting the person whose secret he's spilling? Not cool, O Dark Knight. So I get to see Batman screw up (in my estimation, and he admitted it as well, to Spoiler anyway), and as an added bonus, he comes off like an unjust authority figure, which suits my distaste for bossy authority figures*****. It makes Batman a bit like Jonah Jameson (when Jonah isn't commissioning the construction of Spider-Slayers or Scorpion): A sort of extra irritant our hero has to deal with in their costumed experiences, but not one that can have their hash settled by a good thrashing******. It's a different sort of problem for Robin (or Batgirl, or Oracle, or whomever), made worse because they respect Batman and don't really want to call him out. Plus he's intimidating, 'cause you know, he's Batman.

It's not a role I'd want Batman to play constantly (since it would probably derail the book), but every so often seeing his plans go awry can be entertaining.

* Though part of me thinks he should have said something like 'Prepare to have it picked', 'cause Bane described it as being in his pocket. But seeing as he was preparing to lay down a severe beating on Bane, "mugged" probably was the more mood-appropriate verb.

** For a while. She eventually started trying to figure out Robin's secret identity on her own, without success.

*** According to Tim, Bats played it this way because of some falling out he had with Alfred, where Alfred had leave Wayne Manor, and was serving as Tim's butler at the private school Tim was attending. Batman didn't want to risk running into Alfred, so he told Spoiler who Robin was so she could find him and tell him what was going on.

**** And I guess she didn't think it was wise to press the issue, given Batsy's attitude towards her crimefighting in the past.

***** Which is, I'm sure, related to my being more of a Marvel fan, where authority figures are usually evil, or incompetent, or both.

****** Obviously, the reasons why you can't settle Batman and Jonah's hash with a good thrashing aren't the same, but one way or the other, an attempt to deal with frustration by beating up the source won't end well for you either way.

C'mon Now, Batsy!

Back before Bill Willingham, Robin was written by a fellow named Jon Lewis for about a year and a half. His last story arc involved Tim's 16th birthday, and someone delivering a featureless white cube to Tim's home. Tim goes to Batman to help him figure out who sent it, why, and what it is exactly. At one point, the cube opens, and attaches glasses and earphones to Tim's head and he receives a message. From an Alfred from the future. With a metal hand, no less.

Future Alfred tells Tim that things have fallen apart because some time not to long from when Tim sees this message, one of their little family will go too far in trying to protect the innocent, try to establish a police state, the powers that be will strike back, and it all goes to hell from there. Alfred lays it at Robin's feet to find and stop their ally, but gets shot before the message is completed. So it's down to Tim, as he figures he can't trust any of them with this knowledge.

So he proceeds to drive himself halfway round the bend. He sneaks into the cave to try and use some "neuro-ontoscope" Batman whipped up to try and pry secrets from the goon who apparently delivered and built the package (but doesn't remember doing either), only to see the device gets smashed while he tries to subdue the guy (who has gotten free somehow). He comes up with scenarios to explain how any of the others could gotten to the point Alfred describes, even plans out a scenario that he will suggest to each of them, to see if they bite, and give themselves away as the future traitor.

OK, spoilers for the conclusion after this point.

As he gets ready to put it into action, Future Alfred appears before him, fully solid, not a message, not shot. Tim realizes something's off and attacks him and discovers it's actually . . . Present Day Alfred*. Yep. The whole thing was training. Batman built the cube, he and Alfred came up with the message, Bats hired an actor to portray the goon. Batman even built some hunk of junk called a neruo-ontoscope to see if Tim would think to take it apart and verify what it did (he didn't, minus points, Timmy). He does give Tim points for keeping an open mind and questioning the character of his closest friends (yep, not trusting your friends. That's certainly something Batman would consider important).

Cheap shots at Batman's interpersonal skills aside, he does choose one rather curious thing, to criticize Robin for. Batman tells Robin that he should have dismissed the whole thing outright on the grounds that it involved time travel. Let us think about this for a moment. Batman has been on the Justice League with Booster Gold, who is from the 25th Century. Maybe Booster somehow kept that info a secret from Batman. I haven't read much of the JLI "Bwa-Ha-Ha!" issues, so I don't know whether Booster being from the future was common knowledge among his teammates or not. I suppose it's possible Batman knew, but just figured Booster was delusional, though I'd think a mind scan by J'onn could debunk that mighty quickly.

I would think, though, that Tim would struggle to scoff at time travel, when one of his best friends is Bart Allen, who's from the 30th Century, and I really can't believe that Impulse would be able to keep the fact he's from the future a secret from his friends, even if he felt like it. Now, I grant that Future Alfred was only from about a decade or so in the future (2012 I think, but the story is from late '03), but given that there are people who do the Temporal Shuffle around the DCu when the story took place, it doesn't seem preposterous someone might get ahold of their work. Especially if some super-hero decides to take over everything and people start getting desperate.

It's funny. When I read this story originally, I was mostly annoyed by Bats being a jerk, because it really does seem a bit excessive just to teach Tim some stuff about deduction, on the grounds that Robin needs to learn to 'Question everything.' I was right there with Tim as he threw his cape in Batman's face and told him 'Go to Hell!'. Heck, I'm still with Tim on that one, even if he did wind up going back to Batman, but the time travel thing stands out a bit more now that I know more about DC than I did back then (I think Robin and JLA were the only DC titles I was buying at that time).

I guess this is one of those cases where the title exists in a separate universe all to itself, and so things that involve these characters in other books didn't necessarily carry over this one. Still, based on the point Batman was trying to get across, I think the things he brought up were probably sufficient. I wonder how much he had the deck stacked against Robin, though. For example, if Tim had tried fingerprinting the actor pretending to be the goon called Yak Black, would it have revealed the truth, or had Batman rigged the Batcomputer to confirm the fake's identity, to further mess with Robin. Actually, now that I think of it, if Batman wants Robin to 'question everything', then he shouldn't have chastised the kid for accepting time travel. Batman may think it isn't possible, but that doesn't make it so**.

* Alfred then offers Tim a drink from a flask, saying Tim's of age tonight, regardless of his birthdate. Never pictured Alfred for a flask man, or a consumer of liquor, for that matter. Must have been stressful business.

** Since Batman's belief do not control the universe, regardless of what his ego might believe. Unless he stole the Reality Gem from the Marvel Universe recently. Which I wouldn't put past the guy.

The Odd Things I Fixate On

When I was reading the Robin/Spoiler Special. there was something that I noticed. Robin and Spoiler are trying to deal with the kidnappers and are currently in a hole full of waste paper. The villains feel they've got our erstwhile heroes trapped, but the duo tosses some of those Batarangs with rope out and latch onto large stacks of paper, which they pull on top of the baddies, trapping them underneath. Hurrah!

The thing I noticed was that while Robin's position suggested he'd thrown the 'rang like a football, Spoiler's looked like she was practicing her backhand. I figure it's likely that Albuquerque went with those postures to distinguish between the two a bit, but it started me thinking about whether different characters that do similar things do them differently. For an example in our world, there are many different batting stances, and hitters can be equally successful (or successful in different ways) with very different batting stances. Likewise, characters in the DC Universe could throw Batarangs in different fashions, adjusting for their personal size, strength, handedness, etc. Batman probably knows the most efficient method of doing that, since he has the most practice, but the most efficient for him might not necessarily work for Tim Drake, and what works best for Tim might not work as well for Cassandra Cain, and so on. I would think Connor Hawke might practice a different form of archery (are there different forms?) since he probably learned from different people than Ollie or Roy.

Over at Marvel, Colleen Wing and Echo probably wouldn't have the same style of swordfighting, due to differences in where they learned and who they learned from. And so on. I don't know whether those kinds of things get discussed very often in the comics (I recall Batman in Kevin Smith's Green Arrow commenting on the difference in the angle an arrow was shot into the hull of a sub compared to how Connor would have done it, plus the apparent strength of the person firing), and I wouldn't want editors or whomever to be hassled with trying to keep track of how such and such performs this specific action, since editors seem to have enough trouble handling things as it is these days, but it was something I thought was interesting.

One thing, real quick, on the layout of that panel. Normally, I wouldn't be too enamored of a panel where it draws the eye back to the previous panel (Spoiler and Robin are throwing their 'rangs in that direction), especially since it's the last panel on that page, so ideally it'd be pulling your eye to the next page. However, it works well because the previous panel is two of the criminals looking down into the pit at them, and they're throwing the Batarangs over those chumps' heads. So the Batarangs are going towards the hoods in the previous panel, but also towards us, since we're viewing Robin and Spoiler from where the criminals were. It didn't occur to me the first 4 times through, but this last time it caught my eye, and I thought that was worth mentioning.

Giving Credit, As Best I Can

It has been suggested that for as much wailing and gnashing of teeth as followed her death, their hasn't been enough celebrating of Stephanie Brown's return. I don't know whether that's accurate, I haven't really been paying attention, though her fans at Scans Daily certainly seemed ecstatic.

As for me, I'm glad she's back, even though I wasn't one of the folks screaming for her to be brought back, and I didn't care about the "memorial case in the Batcave" mess. It'd be wrong to say I was particularly angry about her death during War Games, seeing as I didn't drop Robin after it happened. Couldn't have been that ticked off, could I? Still, I liked the character, and I thought her being gone took something good away from that title. Now she's back, so that's one less person Tim Drake has lost that was close to him. Of course, he still felt the pain of thinking she was gone, but maybe she can bring a little more light into his life. She seemed good at making him laugh, and at not letting him brood too much, always a plus when dealing with someone in the Batclan.

However, it occurs to me that I never made a big deal over Cassandra Cain going back to the side of angels, which seems rather rude, given the amount of screaming I did on this and other blogs about that One Year Later storyline, which did cause me to drop Robin. I still contend I would have been fine with her as a Punisher type, though hopefully with a bit more compassion, for innocents, at least. The Dragon Lady with Daddy issues and a possible romantic interest in Tim Drake? A bit too much of a shift in character for me, I suppose. For now, she's back working with the Big Bat, showing loyalty to her new teammates, and not taking it personally when Green Arrow starts trying to kill her. Good times. I really ought to be more excited, but I feel somewhat detached. It seems so much easier to express anger than joy, which is frustrating to be sure. Plus, I don't feel as annoyed by that whole One Year Later character turn now as I did when it happened two years ago, so maybe that's dampening my high.

I don't suppose that compared to getting my cash for the title every month, me saying "Thanks" counts for much, but what the heck. Of course, I'm not sure who to thank. Chuck Dixon is writing both Robin and Batman and the Outsiders, so I guess some thanks has to go to him, and lets throw some in Chris Batista and Cam Smith (the artists on this month's Robin) and Javier Lopez and Carlos Rodriguez (the artists on BatO so far). I suppose the "Slade's hypos" thing plays some part in the Cass Cain situation, but I'm not sure which writer to credit for that, so I'll just give handshakes to Geoff Johns and Adam Beechen. I probably owe Beechen some apologies for harsh words I unleashed on the blog or at the comic store, anyway, so maybe this makes up for it, just a little. I know I ripped on Dan Didio, and he has to have been involved at some level in all this, so thank ya kindly sir. Shouldn't ignore Paul Levitz, since he probably had some say in all this. Danke. Can't rule out the possibility there were some Warner Bros. execs having their say about it all. I don't that either character has enough notoriety attract the attention of the mother companies' executives, but why take chances right? So "Cheers" to you folks whose names I don't know as well.

And of course, thanks to anyone else I didn't already thank (editors, inkers, colorists). I'm enjoying Batman and the Outsiders, so, thanks for giving me a reason to start buying it, so I'd find other things to like about it. And bringing Spoiler back was really nice, I appreciate that.

Hardly Seems To Be A Point In Delaying The Inevitable

I was kinda, sorta following the Resurrection of Ra A'Ghul story, through the magic of online reviews, and I was left a bit disappointed that Robin didn't follow through with what looked like a potential heel turn.

It seemed like the pieces were there. Tim has always been at least somewhat calculating, and it only seems to have intensified in the last few years. He's lost a ridiculous number of people close to him in the span of what, two years (their time, not our time). Bats, Alfred and Nightwing may be trying their hardest to help him through it, but they can't replace all the people he's lost. And Tim's already wasted a bunch of time trying to clone his best friend, so I was surprised that he wouldn't at least keep those samples he had briefly taken from the Lazarus Pit, even if he isn't going to actually join Ra. I mean, Tim tried cloning, even though that wasn't likely to recreate Superboy's soul, but he's going to give up on this possible answer because Nightwing talked to him?

Teen Titans has been telling us that it's apparently inevitable that Tim will get his "control the world" freak on at some point in the future, even though he keeps meeting his future self and acting as if he's disgusted by him. So why wait? Start now! Heck maybe if he uses the Pit to bring his friends back now, it'll stave off his metamorphosis into what he's been shown to become. Or maybe successfully using the Pit's chemicals would convince him that he was right to try this, and accelerate his change.

Spoilery Stuff

By which I mean, different thoughts about Spoiler, not spoilers in various comics. Or something. I just had a lot of different thoughts, and the fact that Spoiler popped up in a dream Friday night, is probably my subconscious telling me to post said thoughts.

- As to this Gotham Underworld project, that both Spoiler and Azrael appear on one of the covers for, I think it's going to be a story that shifts between past, present, and future, showing how all this different stuff is interconnected, in one big, nefarious plan, that somehow is related to the return of the Multiverse. So we'll see Spoiler and Azrael in some flashback issue. It'd be nice if Stephanie Brown were somehow back from the dead, but I'm not expecting it. Azrael can come back too. Batman's supposedly nicer these days, so maybe they could chat politely. Or Azrael's return can infuriate Bats. Whichever, I don't care. Annoyed Batman is fine with me.

- And no, I won't be buying Gotham Underworld.

- I think there were a couple of reasons I always liked Spoiler (if I had submitted lists for Comics Should Be Good's Top DC and Marvel Characters list, she'd have been in the Top 5). One reason, I like the outfit. I like purple, and as has been previously established, I like hoods as part of a superhero costume (I cannot believe I forgot Spoiler when I made that post). The other reason I liked Spoiler was, she didn't seem to care what others thought of her prowess. The first time I saw the character, she was talking to Robin, and he was telling her he wasn't thrilled she was doing the vigilante thing again (Robin #4). Batman's told her to stop. The Birds of Prey stopped training her, as far as I can tell, to try and convince her to quit. Which seems like a pretty stupid move, if that is the reason. Stephanie was fighting crime before they started training her, why would not training her make her stop? Besides, who died and left Batman (or Oracle) to decide who gets to be a costumed vigilante? If during Batman's first year (but not necessarily Batman: Year One), Alan Scott descends from the sky and tells Batman to quit, because he's going to get hurt, or get someone else hurt, you think Batman would have listened? I don't.

So she didn't listen. She enjoyed fighting crime, even if she wasn't the best at it. Enthusiasm counts for something with me. It seemed like she kept Tim from dwelling on things too much, from getting too bogged down in the seedy world he spends half his time in. Yes, she tried something a little too big to accomplish alone, and it blew up in her face, and people died. I imagine if she'd been given a chance to survive, she'd have felt terrible about what happened, and tried to make amends, but oh well. Everyone screws up, Batman included. Tower of Babel? Brother Eye? Blowing off Ted Kord in Countdown to Infinite Crisis? OK, everyone except Diana's guilty on that one. It's just that some characters get a chance to atone for their mistakes, and others get killed off. Which is true in real life as well, I suppose.

- I've often heard people say no one wants to hear about someone else's dreams. I disagree. I like to hear about other people's dreams, and share what I dreamt about. I don't know what they mean, but they can be fun to talk about, or to spend time dissecting. Which is a way of letting you know I'm going to talk about a dream. You can jump to the next paragraph if you'd like. The dream involved me (which isn't always the case), back in my old neighborhood, in the dead of night. I found Spoiler in the basement of my odd neighbor's house (Note: he wasn't "odd" in the sense of tying people up in his basement, but he did like to mow his lawn during thunderstorms, which always seemed off to me). Anyway, I helped her out of there, she was pretty confused, a bit like Jason Todd after he dug himself out of his grave, and we started walking (away from my old house, and the home of my friend Alex for some reason). I kept looking back over my shoulder, because I kept feeling like I was being followed/hunted. Probably by Didio. Or Willingham. Or Meltzer (I know, he never did anything negative to Spoiler. Doesn't mean that I'd want him anywhere near the character if she were to return.) There was also a cat.

- I've never chimed in on the "Give Stephanie a case!" issue. There are a lot of people who want a case in the Batcave for her, since she was a Robin and all. Makes more sense than keeping one there for not-dead Jason Todd, who has spent time running around with heads in duffel bags (or did Infinite Crisis wipe that out? Hell if I know.) Devon and Scipio have raised the subject of Orpheus (who I know zilch about) as being more deserving of a case than Spoiler, and Diamondrock just yesterday brought up Azrael's case for, well, a case. I already posted a halfway joking response in the comments there. It's joking in that I'm drawing from a Simpsons Halloween Special, but not joking in the sense that I really don't care who does and doesn't get a case.

What I mean is, I liked the character Stephanie Brown/Spoiler. Whether DC Editorial decides Batman should have a commemorative case for her, or anyone else, doesn't change that. Whether writers have Batman remember Stephanie fondly, or with disgust, or not remember her at all, doesn't change my opinion of Spoiler. Honestly, if Batman didn't like her, that would probably only solidify my opinion of her, since Batman has had the attitude of someone whose opinion wouldn't matter much to me, for roughly the past decade. Yeah, he treats his friends better now, but that doesn't wipe away the disregard he displayed towards them for quite some time prior. Case, no case, whatever.

- However, I do wish Robin didn't have her costume up in his cave under Titans Tower. Why? We've already seen him try and clone his best friend, and if those future Titans are who they appear to be, then at some point he successfully cloned his two best friends (assuming that Batman is Tim, I suppose). How hard would an ordinary human be to clone, compared to a half-Kryptonian? I just really don't want Tim going down the Miles Warren path, and it might be better not to have that reminder around. I'd like for Tim to remember Spoiler, but the presence of the costume makes me nervous.

T-minus 74 Hours

That's about how long it'll be until I'm either a very happy or very sad panda. I'm speaking, of course, of the impending release of Robin #151, which will tell me whether DC has once again decided to kick me squarely in the nuts by ruining a character I like. Right now, the odds that they won't seem to be "slim" and "none" and Slim is on life-support in the hospital after being the victim of a GTA-style drive-by from the notorious Didios. But it's not as bad as it seems.

There's a quote I heard once. It sounds like something Batman would say, but I think it's from the ten minutes of Swordfish I actually watched. It's something like: "There's what you see, and what you think you see." That ties in with a scene from Robin #150. As Tim is breaking into Blackgate, he thinks back to some wisdom imparted on him by Batman, which goes like this: 'Get out in front as quickly as possible. With ordinary crooks, it's relatively simple to learn their plans before they implement them. . . but with extreme criminals, it's not always that easy. And with them, it's critical you get two steps ahead of them as soon as you figure out what they're doing.'

At that point, Tim comments on how all he's done since this began is play catch-up, and how he's ready to turn the tables. And he tries. When he breaks Cain out, he interrogates him, trying to get some idea what's going on. But either Cain doesn't know, or he's not talking, so Tim just has to keep jumping through the hoops set for him. And when you do that, it's fairly easy for someone to make you see what they want. That's true for Tim, and for us. This whole story has been about Beechen (or DC Editorial) throwing stuff at us, and us reacting to it. It started when they showed pages from Beechen's first issue, culminating with Robin standing over a bleeding Batgirl. "Oh no," we cried, "they've killed Batgirl!" To which DC, replies, "Psych!" I don't know about you, but I think they're going back to the well.

The pages from Robin #151, what do they show us? Cassandra trying to make Tim shoot her father, Tim refusing, them fighting, Cassandra shooting her dad, and Tim saying he's dead. But that's what he (and we) think is happening. Remember, when Tim and Cass went to Bludhaven, she demonstrated she could take a bullet without flinching, and play dead, no respiration, no heartbeat. Now, who do you think she learned that from, hmm?

We're being played, I'm absolutely sure of it. I don't know what it is they've got planned, but I know they're fooling with us.

Reflections #21 - Robin #150

Fortress Keeper appears disappointed. Scipio is practically rubbing his hands with glee. Schadenfreude much, Scip? And kalinara is trying to get us all to calm down.

I don't think "calm down" is on my itinerary today, sorry. Nope, I feel like listening to loud, angry music why hitting a tree with PVC pipe until it shatters. OK, so I feel like that at some point most days, so fine, let's try to look for positive things.

What I HOPE Is Going On With Cassandra Cain:

She's testing Tim. She wants to see if his resolve is as strong as it was last year. When she and Tim first went to Bludhaven, they teamed up and went after the Penguin. After a narrow escape, they started arguing about what they should have done. Tim pointed out that even though they saw Oswald consorting with all kinds of criminals, and engaging in who knows what kinds of criminal activities, they had no legal recourse. No warrant, no evidence from the house with them. Cassandra didn't much care. They knew Cobblepot was guilty, and she felt they should have dealt with him themselves, probably with either a beating, or scaring him to the point where he fled the city. She didn't feel the law was necessary when you know someone broke the law. And it went on.

Concerning War Games Tim felt Batman should never have even thought of trying to take control of the gangs. Cassandra thought it was a good idea, and that once he realized what had happened, Batman should have gone ahead and asserted control, so he could use the gangs.

Tim felt that Batman's pursuit of justice was an ideal, something that could never be achieved, but needed to be strived for. Cass felt it was achievable.

I think Cassandra has gone the natural extension of her route. She has taken control of an organization that was used for evil (League of Assassins) and turned it into something that will deal out her brand of justice. After all, if you just kill the criminals, you don't have to worry about collecting evidence or getting warrants or any of that crap, do you? She's targeting people she knows are criminals. Lynx, was a former ganglord. If Cassandra did kill her sister, well, Sis was a killer-for-hire. As for Cain, well the dude's a master assassin, 'nuff said. The destruction of Bludhaven for no reason other than Deathstroke was pissed at Nightwing has convinced Cassandra that this is the way to achieve Batman's ideal of justice, make sure the criminals don't harm anyone again.

Now she wants to see if Robin has stayed true to his path. She's making him shoot Cain, in a situation eerily similar to the one that took place when they broke into the Penguin's place. Penguin made Robin shoot Batgirl to prove he actually beat her, and Tim did. Not a fatal shot, but he still did it. She wants to see what he'll do this time. Is he still convinced that you send criminals to jail no matter what and since Cain was already serving time, execution is wrong? Or has he faltered? I think if he stays strong, she'll let him go, but kill her dad herself. Probably have to knock Tim out for that part. If he falters? I don't know, she'll probably be disappointed in him.

The problem is, I don't know how all this fits in with my belief that the "Nyssa" who got blown up by the car bomb was actually Cassandra faking it to get Nyssa off people's radar screen.

Oh well, now we play the Waiting Game I guess. I hate the Waiting Game.