Batman Comics

Happy Wednesday, Bat-friends and Bat-foes! New comic day once again, and as always there are some great things waiting for me at The Beguiling. There’s been a lot of internet buzz lately about DC’s announcement that someone’s coming out as gay, and I’ve got a post about that coming later this week, but first things first. What are you reading today? Here’s what’s in my pull file:

Batman Incorporated 1 – Grant Morrison returns to the Bat-verse with the continuation of his pre-relaunch Batman Incorporated story. Bruce Wayne has publicly stated that he’s financially supporting Batman, and Batman goes around the world setting up franchises while learning more about the evil organization Leviathan. I’ve loved Morrison’s work with Batman; he understands the character so well, and brings a very special twisted sensibility that works perfectly in this setting. Now that Damian is Robin, I’m excited to see how Morrison writes the little Wayne brat. Chris Burnham’s art was superb on the previous run of this title, so that’s another reason to pick this one up. Plus, nobody forget, issue 3 has Matches Malone on the cover, my little fangirl heart is all aflutter!!

Batman: The Dark Knight 9 – Keeping the Night of the Owls showdown active while we wait for the upcoming conclusion in Batman 10 and 11, Red Robin heads back to Gotham for a showdown with a Talon! This kind of demonstrates exactly why B:TDK is not my favourite comic – what do Red Robin and the Talon have to do with Batman being the Darkest of Knights? That said, I won’t complain about seeing more Red Robin, we all know I love me some Tim Drake, and overall this title has been fun to read.

Teen Titans 9 – Two Tim Drake comics in one day? I may never recover! The Titans and some other dudes continue fighting a bunch of bad guys in a weird hellish arena, and more importantly, some creepy character in a hood is stealing Red Robin’s style. When it comes to feathered capes, there can be only one! Here’s the cover, by Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund, and Andrew Dalhouse, click to enlarge and fully enjoy the wingspan.

Thanks to Dee for the shiny new ‘pull file’ header image, based on Dustin Nguyen’s cover for 2011′s Batman 80 page giant.

Holy regular updates Batman! Is it pull file time again? It sure is, and I have three great comics to read this week. Even better – I can read them tonight instead of waiting days and days like last week!

Batgirl 8 – A new villain poses a challenge for Batgirl, but even more interesting to me, apparently we learn some sort of Gordon family secret that’s never before been revealed! What could it be? The Gordons have already lived through an affair, divorce, insanity, and paralysis… that’s just off the top of my head, there’s definitely a lot going on with this family. I can’t wait to see what they’ll have to deal with this time, but I wonder if it will even register as a problem when viewed against the rest of their history.

Batman and Robin 8 – Everyone knows how much I love this series, and issue 7 was excellent. Batman rescued Robin from Nobody (although really, does Damian Wayne ever need rescuing? Probably as often as his father does) but the ending took a distinct turn for the worse. The theme of this series since the relaunch has been Bruce’s attempt to connect with his son, and to help Damian grow from assassin to life-preserving crime-fighter; it’s a great focus to their developing relationship and for this comic title. So far it feels like Bruce hasn’t managed to truly connect with Damian, but I’m hopeful that we’ll see them sort things out soon.

Batwoman 8 – This issue continues the interwoven story structure that worked so well previously, although it does sort of feel like things are all over the place sometimes. This is the last issue with art by Amy Reeder. I like how she draws Batwoman very much, and wanted to share the cover she did for this issue. The use of colour is so perfect, and I love how the rain just seems to glow in the light of the buildings.

Batman 4 – 6

Writer: Scott Snyder

Artists: Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion

Hello dear readers! Today we continue our look at what we’ve learned about the Court of Owls, moving on to Batman issues 4, 5 and 6. If you missed the first part of this discussion check it out here!

In Batman 4 we get a surprisingly deep look into the dark time in Bruce’s life shortly after his parents’ murder. He became convinced that Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed as part of a larger conspiracy, but despite searching obsessively then and at later times through his life, Bruce never found any evidence of the Court of Owls.

I know I’m supposed to be concentrating on information today, but the artwork here is just so beautiful. There’s a distinct change (as you can see in the picture above) when we enter Bruce’s memory: details get fuzzy, contrast is high. As Bruce finishes telling Dick this story about his past, we learn not only what he discovered but also how it shaped him as a detective.

Batman had been examining Alan Wayne’s bones, and found that Alan was probably stabbed to death in a manner very similar to the unidentified man at the beginning of issue 1. He heads into the sewers searching for the source of a residue he found on the bones, but while he’s there Talon finds him and traps Batman in the Court’s labyrinth!

We know all about the labyrinth from my closer look at Batman 5, but there are a few details I didn’t mention that definitely help us know our enemy, I want to look at two particular things here. The walls covered in photos tell us that the Court of Owls has been around for a very very long time, and have been using their labyrinth to drive people crazy for just as long.

Of course, it’s also possible that they just built the labyrinth recently, and it’s all a very elaborate trick to make it appear old. Then there’s the room full of coffins, which tells us that they’ve either been keeping their Talons after they die, or new Talons are being prepared to fight. Neither one of those options sounds good to me!

Finally, we have Batman 6, where our hero fights back against the maddening effects of the labyrinth. Here’s where we really get the goods. First Batman and Talon fight, and it turns out Talon’s quite the talkative little guy.

Now that’s a lot of information! Who else has been forever entombed in the labyrinth? Will we ever find out? I love Batman’s answer when he’s offered last words. They fight, and when Talon thinks he has the upper hand, he asks the Court what he should do with Batman. We finally get a good look at the Court of Owls in action, and it is chilling.

They’re like ghouls! Or owls, I guess; I may never trust owls again (put them on the list with cats!).  I love how the top and bottom panels spill out over the edges of the frames, it really emphasizes that the Court is outside of the labyrinth they’ve put Batman into and brings out that overpowered feeling. This is probably my favourite page in the book – what is up with that child? She is extremely creepy, I like it.

Batman, of course, is not defeated, although he ends up in quite a tight spot and I’m a bit worried about him. The last page I wanted to share is the second-last page of the issue, and although we don’t get any specific information about the Court, I think it shows something very important.

The person (I hesitate to call her a “lady”) in the wheelchair seems to be in charge. Someone else, possibly the younger woman, is sentimental and wants to give Talon a chance to heal, but he’s “disposed of” in the river that Batman just escaped to, and that’s that. Besides, there are other Talons ready and waiting…

I hope that this look at the Court of Owls and what we’ve learned about them in Batman so far has been helpful, I know it was for me! Now I feel ready to take on the whole Court myself, as long as I’ve got Batman and his family on my side. In the next couple weeks we have wrap-up issues of Detective Comics, Batman and Robin, and other titles, as those story arcs conclude, and then on March 21st Batman 7 comes out. That issue will bring the Court’s first full assault on Gotham city, and apparently many secrets will be revealed – I can’t wait!

As I’ve mentioned before, I really enjoy Elseworlds stories. It’s fun to take the familiar characters we’ve known and loved for so long, put them into different circumstances, and then see what happens! In DC Comics Presents: Elseworlds #1 we get a lot of exciting alternate worlds and characters.

The collection begins with a horror story, “The Reaching Hand” by D Curtis Johnson (writer), Aaron Lopresti (artist), Kurt Hathaway (letterer) and Gloria Vasquez (colorist). I adored this because Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent are both detectives, working as partners for the Gotham City Police Department. Bruce narrates in excessively flowery form, and the style reminds me of old pulp comics, film noir, and early Batman.

The second story in this issue is even more awesome (I know, how can that be possible?) – the heroes we know and love are pop singers, recording albums on Lex Luthor’s record label! Batman here is a Goth idol with a possible drug problem, so basically nothing’s changed.

Sorry about the blurry edges – the book is bound in such a way that it’s hard to scan inner pages, it doesn’t want to lay flat.This rock-tastic segment is by Bronwyn Carlton (writer), Greg Luzniak (pencils), Anibal Rodriguez (inks), Ken Lopez (letters) and Noelle Giddings (colors).

Paul Pope is also represented in this collection, which gives me a nice introduction to his work before I get started on Batman: Year 100. The story is set in Berlin, 1939, where wealthy socialite Baruch Wayne is a cubist painter who admires Picasso and gets a little too much attention from Komissar Garten, while Batman fights the Nazis. Personally I could never buy Jim Gordon as a Nazi, but other than that this was a great story. Not everyone likes how Pope draws Batman, but I really enjoy his overall artistic style, it reminds me of something that I can’t quite place. Anyone know what that might be? In any case, when Batman fights Nazis, I’m happy. Here’s a great fight sequence, with story and art by Pope, colors by Ted McKeever, and letters by Ken Lopez:

My main complaint about DC Comics Presents: Elseworlds #1 is that although the writers and artists are credited, there’s no indication of whether this is all original work, new to this issue, or if some or all of the stories are collected from previous publications. Normally I would take that to mean the work is all new, but I feel like that’s not the case here. For example, here’s a cover image that I love, which I know I’ve seen before:

We have Mark Waid, Ty Templeton, and Dan Raspler to thank for this one. Eventually my Google-fu revealed that this collection was originally published in 1999, but recalled due to controversy over one specific comic in the book (a hapless babysitter put baby Superman in a microwave). I’m also amused to note that the official description on the DC site lists this as being an “80-page giant”, but the cover of the issue tells us it’s a “100-page spectacular”. Either way, my Elseworlds craving was satisfied!

Writer: Peter J Tomasi

Artist: Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray

Date: Dec 2011

This issue really brings the father and son theme to the forefront, opening with Daddy Batman trying to figure out how to raise Damian to be a good, moral person – not an easy task given Damian’s early childhood education.

I love seeing Bruce share his inner thoughts with Alfred, it shows us how important that relationship is to Bruce (and kind of sets up a parallel, reminding us that Alfred never tried to be Bruce’s father). Gleason and Gray capture Batman at his best, I’ve been very into the art in this series so far. Check out the Bat-Ass at the top of the page:

The Dynamic Duo head out and intercept a weapons shipment, in a very exciting fight sequence. Once they’ve subdued the criminals (Damian managing not to kill anyone this time around) we have another Great Moment in Wayne Parenting as Daddy Batman tells Damian “Don’t think I didn’t notice the restraint you just showed, Robin. Refusing to pound these felons with the excessive force you wanted to is commendable.” Alfred thinks Bruce could have done better and tells him so in classic Alfred style:

Damian’s still a troubled little boy, and Bruce has a few other ideas about how to deal with that, including one that I never thought I’d see outside of fanfiction – he buys a dog! With the new canine addition to the Wayne family and the return of the Bat-Pole entrance to the Bat-Cave, the relaunched Batman & Robin clearly connects itself to the earlier incarnations of these characters, even though Robin’s a different person.

There’s also a whole storyline going on that involves Batman Incorporated, in issue 1 we saw the Russian Batman killed and here in issue 2 the killer confronts Batman in the final pages. This works to place Batman & Robin in the larger context of the DCnU, which is helpful given how many Bat books there are and the still-fuzzy details of exactly what’s changed in the relaunch. When we combine that with Daddy Batman and the exciting work to protect Gotham City, we get an excellent series that and an issue that I really enjoyed reading.

Writer: Geoff Johns

Artists: Andy Kubert, Sandra Hope, Jesse Delperdang

Date: Late October 2011

Rating: I LOVED Flashpoint 5. I thought the ending was excellent, and it was a great lead-in to The New 52 and the relaunched DC Universe.

Today I want to make a few Batman-related comments about Flashpoint 5; I’m not going to go through the whole book, which I hope you’ve read by now. Be warned, this will deal with the ending of the story, so if you haven’t read it there will be spoilers!

With Flashpoint, the problem inherent to the story (like most alternate universe stories) is that if Flash is successful in re-aligning the universe and bringing things back to “normal”, then all the events of the series are wiped away. If the war that destroyed Earth never happened, why should we care about it? As he lies dying, Flashpoint Batman (Thomas Wayne) sends Flash on his journey to end that world so a better one can replace it. I can’t tell you how much I loved Thomas Wayne in this moment! (remember, click to embiggen)

But at the same time he sends with Flash a letter for his son Bruce. This letter, and Flash’s memories of the life he never really lived, give the whole miniseries a purpose and an effect that lasts into the new 52. What changes in Batman will we see, if he’s a Batman who got some closure from his murdered father?

Bruce might be less tormented, more whole; will that change how he operates as Batman? I think not much, because this letter arrives several years after he’s taken on the cowl, and many years after his parents are killed – he’s already got years of loss and pain built up. But I hope that this message from his father changes how Bruce interacts with his own adopted sons, and that his relationship with his Robins is improved because of it.

One thing I really wonder is if the part we are shown is the whole letter. We see “Dear Son, There’s only one thing that I know about life. I know some things happen by chance.” This is beautiful, but it doesn’t feel like enough. Bruce reads the letter over four panels, and of course he could be re-reading it several times, but I think instead this suggests that the letter is longer. Also, when we see the signature at the end we see the bottom of the words preceding it, and those letters don’t match up with the words “by chance”. My theory is that the letter contained a few other things – first, that it wasn’t chance but choice, Thomas and Martha decided together to give up their lives for Bruce. Then something about being Batman, which now Bruce can share with his father, and then finally something about how his parents always loved him.

When Flash tells Bruce that he can still remember growing up with his mother (who died years ago in the “real” timeline), Bruce says “It could be a gift, Barry. A gift to make it all a little easier.” I feel like that’s what DC has given Bruce here, with the letter from his own father; some healing, even though it’s been such a long journey to get here, can go a long way.

My husband @VenPixel and I went to Fan Expo Canada this weekend, and we had a really nice time! I’m obviously not a reporter, so I won’t attempt to do an objective review of the event, but I’d like to share some highlights. Be careful, there are some spoilers below for the DCnU!

We started by finding the DC table and I got to meet James Robinson, writer of Justice League of America. I told him I enjoyed his run on JLA, and specifically that he made me interested in non-Bat characters such as Supergirl, who recently had sort of an identity crisis and became a very dark version of herself. He thanked me and and started to talk about women in comics, which has been a real hotbed of conversation lately (there was a lot of discussion about women creators at the San Diego ComicCon DC panel, check out DC Women Kicking Ass for details). Robinson said that there are actually a lot of women in JLA, which I agreed with, and then said that I should come to the DC New 52 Panel (which I’d already planned to attend) because they’d be announcing something and it also involved women characters. I considered saying that I think the larger concern is women on the creative side, since in my opinion women aren’t under-represented within the comics themselves (though how they’re represented is questionable), but instead I just told him I’d see him at the panel and that was that! It was very exciting have met him.

Batman Inc 1 variant cover by Yannick Paquette

Then we went and got seated for the New 52 panel. Remember, if you want real reporting it’s not here, these are just the bits I cared enough about to write down.

Dan DiDio asked who likes Justice League, then picked a kid out of the audience and let him read the new Justice League 1 and Flashpoint 5, which as we know won’t be released until Wednesday. I was so jealous! We can only hope that the kid understood the huge significance of the moment

Tony Daniel talked about how Dick Grayson is a totally different Batman than Bruce Wayne, and how excited he is to be writing Bruce (now that he’ll be working on Detective Comics instead of on Batman). That book is high on my list in the DCnU. Daniel said that Detective Comics will be very focused on Batman and his solo detective work, we might see Jim and Alfred but not much. Batman will have a love interest, and it’s not Catwoman! That’s exciting, I can enjoy the Bats/Cats relationship but it’s nice to give Bruce some variety. Daniel also told us that we’ll see short plot arcs but big concepts, and it leads into something big next year. Francis Manapul said that the ending of Detective Comics 1 is a cliffhanger that will “blow our faces away”. Can’t wait to find out what he means by that!

Captain America special Fan Expo cover

On the topic of characters in the relaunched DC universe, Eddie Berganza (the editor) said that they’re being cautious about how they reintroduce characters, and they don’t want to do it all at once. It has to feel fresh and new, and they’re waiting to have the right tone and people involved in each comic. He was asked specifically about Wally West and Donna Troy, and said “just wait”. What about the events of Hush, does Catwoman still know who Batman really is? Eddie said Catwoman 1 will have a scene about identities that answers those questions, I’m looking forward to seeing where they go with that since it will have a pretty big effect on how the different characters interact.

Finally, we have news about Stephanie Brown!! She was Batgirl, but as we know Barbara Gordon will be returning to that cape, and everyone’s been wondering what Steph will be doing in the DCnU. So, we don’t have to wonder anymore. Spoiler alert! Dan DiDio said that Steph will return to costumed crimefighting as ‘Spoiler’, her original alter-identity. That’s amazing! I am so glad to know that she’ll be getting action in the comics, and really look forward to reading about her adventures.

After the New 52 panel I got to say hi to Brian Azzarello and Yanick Paquette. I told Brian how much I loved the Flashpoint Batman mini-series, his take on Thomas and Martha Wayne was amazing, and his Joker comic was super cool. I thanked Yanick for the Batman Inc art, and told him that specifically in issue 2 I loved how he drew Bruce and Selina together, they looked exactly like themselves. He seemed pleased with that, and it was really exciting to get to meet them!

Batman 247 - Special Holiday issue!

We went to the Drawing Batman panel, where Marcus To and Tony Daniel both took turns drawing, and it was projected for us to watch. I’m still amazed at their skill and talent, being able to draw like that would be so great – I can do all sorts of handiwork but drawing is definitely beyond me. While they drew they answered questions about their work, comics, etc. I asked them to talk about drawing Joker, and their answers were very interesting! Daniel said that when he was working with Grant Morrison, their Joker was influenced by David Bowie and Iggy Pop, but modern and cool. To said that his Joker was inspired by Batman: The Animated Series, and the dark eye makeup was very important. He also liked Jim Lee and Frank Quitely’s takes on Joker, which I definitely agree with. That panel was great, they’re both such excellent but different artists. I hoped to get one of the drawings they did but wasn’t so lucky.  After the panel I introduced myself to Marcus To, he’s been nice enough to answer me on Twitter so it was cool to connect in real life.

We walked around on the main floor, I bought Batman 247 which is on my list of Matches Malone issues but discovered when I got home that Matches isn’t actually in the comic! So it seems that I do have all his Batman and Detective Comics appearances! The rest will be harder to find, they’re less common and some are worth less so they’ll be in 50 cent bins, which means they’re not as well organized.

I also bought a beautiful print of the Batman Inc 1 variant cover by Yanick Paquette (which you can see above), and he signed it for me! I’ll get it framed, such an excellent piece of artwork.

And then we were done with Fan Expo! There were people in all sorts of amazing outfits, I was so impressed with how creative and high-quality some were! We had a good time, and it definitely helped convince me that going to San Diego ComicCon next year is a good idea. Now it’s time to start planning my costumes! If you went to Fan Expo I’d love to hear about your experiences and see photos, so leave a comment!

Writer: Grant Morrison

Artist: Scott Clark, Dave Beatty

Date: October 2011

My Rating: Fun, exciting, beautiful to look at – everything a comicbook should be!

I vastly enjoyed Batman Inc 8, it was an engaging and satisfying read. Wayne Tech has developed “Internet 3.0″, an immersive virtual reality environment that both recreates and enhances our own world. On top of all that, it looks like Tron!! Malware attacks during the demonstration to a group of investors, and Mr. Wayne reveals something very interesting about Internet 3.0:

I can’t get over how publicly Bruce is connecting Wayne Industries with Batman! And it seems like he’s selling Batman’s services, right? I’m not sure how I feel about all that, but we’ll see what happens. The title page of this issue is beautiful, Oracle is amazing on her lightcycle.

Batman and Oracle determine that one of the investors was a Trojan horse, bringing the malware in with him. They fight it out as though it’s a video game, I love the writing (“Boss Level!”) and the aesthetic.

Oracle isolates the virus and Batman realizes Tanaka was aided by Leviathan, so this all fits into that larger overall story. I think the Leviathan thing will be carried into the DCnU, but we’ll have to wait for the next run of Batman Inc. to find out what happens, and that waiting’s going to be hard.

I also just wanted to note that the artist’s name is spelled Dave Beatty on the cover, but Dave Beaty on the title page. Holy editing error, Batman! So amusing. Check it out, this is is the top of the cover:

Good evening Gotham! I know, Wednesday was more than a couple days ago, but better late than never, right? Here’s what I picked up last week, this time with bonus actual opinion because I’ve read them already!

Batman: Arkham City 2 of 5 (L. Jul 2011) – Part of Gotham City will be sealed off and turned into a giant insane asylum! Joker is amazing, as is Harley Quinn – she totally kicks ass and shows why she’s smart and crazy enough to run with the Joker. I’m really enjoying Paul Dini’s writing, and I adore how Bruce Wayne is drawn by Carlos D’Anda:

Birds of Prey 13 (Aug ’11) – I liked the fight scenes in this book, and the villain is extremely creepy (in the best possible way). Babs is fierce as Oracle, and knowing that she’ll be returning to Batgirl in the near future makes me all the more interested in how she handles things in the next few issues. I’ve been into The Question (Renee Montoya) and she has some great moments in this book – I hope after the reboot she’s still in action!

Red Robin 24 (Aug ’11) – Tim is being hunted by some sort of evil underground society! His search for information takes him to Viktor Mikalek, a super-rich Russian businessman who was also looking into the secret tournament and was shot as a result. Turns out the mask Promise is the one who shot him, and tracking her down lands Tim in a very different kind of trouble than he’s used to. I love how Marcus To draws Tim, so self-contained.

Batman & Robin 24 (Aug ’11)  -So Jason Todd was on his way to prison when his transport was attacked by The Menagerie: a lion-man, a cheetah-woman, and a T-Rex. Yes, a T-Rex, and seeing Damian kick his butt is awesome. It’s drawn by Greg Toccini, and although I actually like his style I don’t feel that it’s quite right for Batman. The big question of how Bruce will deal with Jason’s willingness to murder is very much out in the open here, and I think Dick’s choices show that he still believes in Jason’s essential goodness.

Writer: Adam Beechen

Artists: Eduardo Pansica, Eber Ferreira

Date: June 2011

My Rating: Engaging and with solid artwork, but somehow not my favourite.

This issue is narrated by Max (Maxine) Gibson, as she thinks about what it means to be Batman’s best friend. Of course, in this future world, the Batman she refers to is Terry McGinnis, not Bruce Wayne.

The conflict in this story is based around Dick Grayson – some ex-detective (are we supposed to recognize him? I don’t) is threatening to expose his former secret identity Nightwing to the world. Terry decides to throw them off the trail by posing as an aging Nightwing in public view while Dick is also out and about. That doesn’t go as planned, since Dick “comes out” as Nightwing and claims to be one of the earliest employees of Batman Inc, saying he never actually met Batman himself. One thing I found really fascinating about how this was drawn is that we never see Dick’s face full-on, he’s always in profile, upside-down, or at some other weird angle.

And when did he lose an eye? I’ve seen a few episodes of the Batman Beyond tv series as well, and can’t remember ever having seen Dick in this future world. Bruce seems to feel betrayed or otherwise upset, and I’m curious about what’s happened to his relationship with Dick over the past several decades.

Meanwhile, Max is being tempted to betray Batman by “Undercloud” (with a name like that, who can take this villain seriously?) who offers information and power if she works with them, and threatens her friends and family if she doesn’t. It’s a cliffhanger ending and we don’t know Max enough to know which way she’ll go… We’ll find out in the next issue!