Plus, we address a Mystery Listener’s concern about Event Fatigue! Does it exist? Do we suffer from it? Can it be solved by a Vitamin B12 supplement? If you have a cure for Event Fatigue or any other helpful advice, call into 347-AUNT-MAY and let us know!

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Batman and Robin #7

The #6 annotations are so late partly because the issue seemed rather sparse to me and partly because Gavok over at 4thletter! just completely demolished the landscape of any of my commentary, so what’s below regarding that issue is heavily indebted to his realization about the nature of the story. Then, below, commentary on today’s #7, which is detailed and byzantine and littered with references and basically my wet dream as an annotator.

Cover: A clear reference to Prince’s classic Purple Rain.

Batman and Robin #6

Page 1: Fanservice for fangirls (and, I guess, pedophiles) of Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne. The phone poll metajoke is even more prominent this issue, and certainly on this page. I have no idea what to make of the way they produced the video - for a while I thought the colorist stuck a panel from an earlier issue in there, but I can’t seem to find it, so I have no idea who’s responsible for 1 8XX XXXX as a phone number, but it’s pretty distractingly amateurish.

Page 6: Jason Todd’s most famous alien-fighting experience was back in Superman Annual #11, the famous Alan Moore (there’s that name again!)/Dave Gibbons “For The Man Who Has Everything” story where he won the day by dropping the Black Mercy plant on Mongul and got a boner from staring at Wonder Woman. He traveled through parallel worlds in the Countdown weekly series/publishing disaster while a member of the never-called-such-in-the-actual-comic Challengers from Beyond alongside Donna Troy and Kyle Rayner. The middle panel with the old couple’s a pretty direct commentary on the bloodthirsty-public mentality that led to Jason’s death and, subsequently, what was really his modern origin story. (Does anyone really care about his time as Robin anymore? Let’s be honest here, Jason’s real origin story/central tic is that he’s the Robin who died under Bruce’s watch.)

Page 7: It seems a bit big on the inside, but the implication of the middle panel seems to be that Red Hood and Scarlet’s hideout was in the back of a huge truck - was that supposed to show that they’re trailer trash, maybe?

Page 9: Jason speaks the truth - he seems to have a real fourth-wall-breaking awareness of the nature of his appeal, so if Morrison chose to have Flamingo actually shoot Jason in the face, there’s really very little chance he’d stay that way for long this time.

Page 13: Three shots, nearly point blank, to the spine - the incident that Gavok references in the above link that neatly aligns with Barbara Gordon’s role in The Killing Joke, much as (as we will soon see) this arc and especially this issue act as a weird revisiting or mirror of that canonical story.

Page 15: The industrial garbage grabbing truck is a pretty strong metaphor for Jason Todd’s entire crimefighting approach - heartless, impersonal, the easy way out that causes a bunch of unexpected damage. Contrast with Batman #655, when Bruce Wayne throws Joker in a dumpster personally - Jason Todd is more than happy to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Page 17: As Gavok’s above link shows, Dick’s offer of help here (and on the next page) are highly reminiscent of Bruce’s offer of help to the Joker at the end of The Killing Joke.

Page 19: Robin only looked shot three times at close range earlier, but that’s a small detail.

Page 21: This whole arc was really heavy on identity and masks, wasn’t it? Which is pretty well-worn, well-trodden ground for a Batman story. With the exception of Scarlet, everyone in this comic is wearing a mask or adopting an identity that used to belong to someone else - Dick as Batman, Damian as Robin, Jason as Red Hood. Everyone was trying to step up into someone else’s shoes, and then Flamingo, the “Eater of Faces”, arrives at the climax to ‘eat away’ at the characters’ roles and faces. The story begins being about Batman and Red Hood, morally incompatible vigilantes in conflict; it basically finishes like a Wayne Family episode of Intervention as Dick offers Jason help and then they drag Jason away screaming about daddy issues. Their entire conflict was a mask in and of itself - it was never about Old vs. New Testament justice, it was about - as Jason put it in the first issue - “the revenge of one crazy man in a mask on another crazy man in a mask.” Flamingo may have tried to eat Scarlet’s face, but the face he REALLY ate upon his arrival in Gotham was that of their conflict.

Page 22: Oh hey, El Penitente is Simon Hurt! I jotted down a bunch of thoughts about that a while ago, and what the “W” scar on his back (and his predilection towards Bat-suits and self-flagellation) might mean. Oberon Sexton’s hotel room is littered with newspapers, the visible one of which is identical to the one at the end of Batman R.I.P. reporting on Talia’s killing of Cardinal Maggi due to his involvement in the Black Glove. It certainly casts Sexton’s red-and-black ensemble in a sinister new light, and brings into question the nature of the killer he’s supposedly following.

Page 24: According to Morrison, this body was (presumably) put back together, thrown into a bat-suit and placed in this secure location after the desecration of Bruce Wayne’s grave back in Blackest Night.

Batman and Robin #7

Page 1: We pick up right from the end of #6 with this direct reference to the final page of Final Crisis #6, with Superman holding the same body that Dick Grayson’s holding here. Cameron’s reference is pretty exact, down to the locations of the holes in the costume and the emaciated skeletal structure. The only thing that’s really different is that here Batman isn’t still smoking.

The issue’s title, “Pearly and Pit,” carries both a literal meaning (since the issue is about the British crime figure the Pearly King and his assistance in finding a Lazarus Pit) and a figurative one (Heaven and Hell - the Pearly Gates and the Eternal Pit). And, of course, pearls themselves always play an important part in the Bat-mythos because of Martha’s pearl necklace. (Get your mind out of the gutter, you back there.)

Page 2: An indeterminate period of time then passes and Batman’s evidently gone to Europe, for reasons we’ll soon discover. The gigantic Ferris wheel he’s saving the girl from is the London Eye, where he then jumps on a boat and heads south.

Page 3: I don’t recognize the building in the top panel; the W1 that Squire is referring to is slang for London’s West End (from its postal code designation). Batman is boat-hopping to Westminster Bridge.

Page 4: Now Batman car-hops while going west on Westminster Bridge, before jumping onto the Route 15 bus, which doesn’t appear to go anywhere near Westminster Bridge, so I should probably stop trying to take this scene so literally with regards to location.

Page 5: “Harridges” is a reference to monstrous London department store Harrods, into which Squire barges in, goes up an escalator and crashes through a window to pick up Batman, who swing off that crane after jumping off the bus on the previous page. (These fight scenes are exceptionally well-choreographed, even if I can’t work out the geographic details - I was gonna do a Google Map of the chase and everything!)

Page 6: St. James’s Park Station is the closest to Westminster Bridge, so that makes sense.

Page 7: Old King Cole is a British nursery rhyme, “Burning Black Heart” might be a reference to the Keane song, and King Coal is a term used to describe the now-dying British coal industry, a concept which comes up later. Smooth Eddie English, the “Pearly Prince”, is all dressed up as a Pearly King, the uniform of a charitable working-class British organization that’s apparently been co-opted by these costumed criminals. In other words, this book is WORKING-CLASS BRITISH AS HELL, going right along with Beryl’s background. The idea of pirate subway trains harkens back to Morrison and Stewart’s last DCU collaboration, Seven Soldiers: Guardian, where “All-Beard” Alan Moore and “No-Beard” Grant Morrison battled for control over the NYC subway system.

Eddie’s reaction to Batman’s appearance makes me wonder if the Pearly gang, like the Coal gang, are also familiar with the Crime Bible and the “Knight of the Beast” prophecy Batwoman references later.

Page 8: The man next to Batman is, despite my earlier statement (thank you, Internet and living documents!), the obscure DC Comics superhero Beefeater. The structure he’s in is royal British prison the Tower of London; all of the supervillains mentioned here are new creations - I imagine Dai Laffyn is a pun on “Die Laughin’”, Don Drummond might be a reference to the reggae trombonist, the Morris Men could refer to Morris dancing, the Highwayman is a pretty straightforward, obvious reference and I have no idea where Metalek the xenoformer comes from, although it certainly resembles Marvel’s Trull the Inhuman. The Pearly King of Crime is presumably the father of the Pearly Prince.

Page 9: It’s interesting that the King already has the dominoes in the map position.

Page 10: This conflict obviously isn’t limited just to London, as Newcastle is practically on the opposite end of the country - so it’s the old British city vs. country thing again, working class versus working class. I expect Pearly playing dominoes is a coincidence regarding the Domino Killer, since Pearly can’t do much in prison; then again, he apparently knew what Batman was looking for before he even arrived, so perhaps there is some sort of connection. I can’t seem to find any references to what “Donna” and “davina” mean, although from context clues I can guess they mean “woman” and “balls.”

Page 11: The comment about the Cauldron of Rebirth - clearly referring to the Lazarus Pit - hearkens not only back to Celtic mythology but also Morrison’s Seven Soldiers, where the original Cauldron had been taken to New York and used as the personal resurrection machine for Don Vincenzo. Also in Seven Soldiers, it’s revealed that the Cauldron of Rebirth was a gift from the New Gods to Aurakles - so, like the Omega Effect Bruce is trapped in, the Lazarus Pit is ultimately based on New God technology and magic.

Pearly’s hand is following a path on the domino-map, allowing him to maintain his vow of silence while also helping Batman for what he did for his son. The song he’s singing is, of course, a working-class folk song. I’m guessing Dick takes a picture or recording of the domino pattern and sends it to Cyril; Shipment X, as later revealed, is Bruce’s body.

Page 12: Well, at least Talia has the courtesy to call him MISTER Pennyworth. The surgery tank very faithfully replicates the one in Batman #665.

Page 13: Talia’s little note as Alfred leaves is probably a reference to pulling the trigger on some sort of kill order, leading to the next arc, “Batman vs. Robin.”

Page 14: Lazarus pits generally lie on ley lines or junctions of them. I’m not sure why midwinter has such a meaning to King Coal’s group, but I’ll trust Beryl (and any commenters who want to chime in) on it. Rendle Colliery seems to be fictional on Morrison’s part; I’ve got no idea if the name is a reference to anything, so, again, British assistance appreciated. The footprints are from the dudes carrying Batwoman’s coffin.

Page 17: Oxford Street is apparently a very busy street in the aforementioned W1. The chanting and twice-daughter are our first hints of what’s coming on the next page; back in 52, Batwoman was referred to the “twice-named daughter of Cain” by the Crime Bible cultists, who it seems the Coal gang are affiliated with. Hammer Films is a British group that made low-budget horror flicks.

Also, just like the Cauldron of Rebirth and Omega Effect are New Gods concepts, so is the Crime Bible that apparently led Batwoman and the Coal guys here.

Page 18: Batwoman, object of desire for Crime Bible cultists, makes her grand appearance.

Page 19: So midwinter is an excuse to use the whole Blackest Night title reference without actually having Black Lanterns around, it seems. The dialogue is accidentally switched around in the middle panel.

Page 21: Insanity has long been a standard side effect of the Lazarus Pit, used to explain the mental states of both Ra’s al Ghul and Jason Todd. The “what the whole world’s just been through” that Batwoman’s mentioning is likely the zombie epic that was Blackest Night.

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Let me know if I missed any announcements that weren’t postings of preview pages.

Catwoman #83 - Fabian Nicieza & Julian Lopez replaced with Tony Bedard, Fabrizio Fiorentino, Ibraim Roberson and Marcos Marz
Batman: Streets of Gotham #8 - writer Paul Dini replaced with Mike Benson
Gotham City Sirens #8 - writer Paul Dini replaced with plot by Guillem March and script by Marc Andreyko
Blackest Night: JSA #2 - Tony Bedard added as co-writer with solicited James Robinson; Marcos Marz added as co-penciller with solicited Eddy Barrows
The Question #37 - Denny O’Neil added as co-writer with solicited Greg Rucka (announced)
R.E.B.E.L.S. #12 - artist Claude St. Aubin replaced with Geraldo Borges
Warlord #10 - artist Mike Grell only does two pages; bulk done by unsolicited Chad Hardin
Justice League: Cry for Justice #6 - artist Mauro Cascioli replaced with Scott Clark
The Web #5 - artist Roger Robinson replaced with Talent Caldwell (announced)
The Brave and the Bold #31 -artist Jesus Saiz replaced by Chad Hardin and Justiniano
Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #2 - Eduardo Pansica added as co-penciller alongside solicited Nicola Scott
The Atom and Hawkman #46 - Fernando Pasarin added as co-artist alongside solicited Ryan Sook
Titans #21 - Chris Batista added as co-artist alongside solicited Angel Unzueta
Superman: World of New Krypton #11 - Ron Randall added as co-artist alongside solicited Pete Woods
The Outsiders #26 - Don Kramer added as co-artist alongside solicited Philip Tan

Edited to add: For the sake of comparison - I don’t mean to turn it into a DC/Marvel shitfight, but it’s worth noting - here’s Marvel’s track record for January 2010 solicited titles. It’s better, but it’s far from perfect, and Previews apparently taking down their Product Changes archive (why would they do this? who does that knowledge hurt?) has made tracking down the announcements a bit more difficult than I expected. As above, let me know if I missed any announcements.

New Avengers #61 - Daniel Acuna added as co-artist alongside solicited Stuart Immonen (announced unofficially on Twitter)
Avengers: The Initiative #32 - artist Rafa Sandoval replaced by Mahmud Asrar (announced)
Amazing Spider-Man #617 - artist Javier Pulido does unsolicited backup (unannounced)
Web of Spider-Man #4 - Eric Canete draws third story originally solicited as “More” (announced)
Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural #4 - Alessandro Vitti added as co-artist alongside solicited Jefte Palo (unannounced)
Iron Man vs. Whiplash #3 - Andrea Mutti added as co-artist alongside solicited Phil Briones (unannounced)
Incredible Hulk #606 - unsolicited Red She-Hulk backup by Harrison Wilcox & Ryan Stegman; solicited for 607 on (unannounced)
Ms. Marvel #49 - Ben Oliver added as co-artist alongside solicited Sana Takeda (announced)
Avengers vs. Atlas #1 - artist Takeshi Miyazawa does unsolicited backup (unannounced)
Punisher #13 - Mike Hawthorne added as co-artist alongside solicited Tony Moore (unannounced)
Thunderbolts #140 - Sergio Arino added as co-artist alongside solicited Miguel Sepulveda (announced)
Realm of Kings: Inhumans #3 - artist Pablo Raimondi replaced by Wellinton Alves (announced)
X-Men Forever #16 - solicited mystery artist is Graham Nolan (unannounced)

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But first, since I don’t think I’ve ever linked them at once like this: here are all of the original annotations/articles I wrote upon the book’s initial release.
Final Crisis #1
Final Crisis #2
Final Crisis #3
Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1
Final Crisis #4
Final Crisis #5
Final Crisis #6
Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #2
Final Crisis: Superman Beyond - On Mandrakk
Final Crisis #7

So: a catalogue of, as far as I can tell, every single change made to Final Crisis from single issue to collected edition. A lot of them are pretty interesting, and clear up stuff that I remember myself or other annotators pointing out. I’ve bolded the ones that are major, or of special interest (the one about the Anthro painting being in Gotham rather than NYC has rather interesting potential repercussions for the Return of Bruce Wayne storyline).

Final Crisis #1
Page 15: The reference to the LaGrange point (which was, I recall people saying, scientifically inaccurate) is replaced with “20,000 miles above sea level.”
Page 16: Empress is now colored dark-skinned, as per her original appearances in Young Justice.
Page 20: J’onn’s death panel (heh) is colored differently - in the original version, you can see a lot more of the colors of his costume, but it’s dominated by red in the hardcover.
Page 26: “New Earth” is now “Universe Designate-Zero.” “Universe 51″ is now “U-Designate-51.”
Page 31: Anthro’s “?” word balloon is moved from the panel where he paints the symbol on his face to the one to the upper-right, his silhouette standing up in surprise. This is presumably in response to people who thought the “?”’s placement in the original issue meant that Anthro was touching a symbol that spontaneously appeared, rather than one he was drawing.

Final Crisis #2
Page 18: In the fourth panel, John Stewart’s missing ring is drawn back on. It messed up the reveal later, when Batman noticed that Stewart punched Kraken from the ring imprint in her palm.
Page 21: In the second panel, after Kraken asks “Why are you LOOKING at me like that?”, Batman has a line of dialogue added, in small font: “That imprint on your palm…”, again presumably to make Batman’s thought process and the ring imprint from John clearer.
Page 23: Dialogue added, third panel, coming from the helicopter: “THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA! STAY WHERE YOU ARE!” I guess to make it clear that Turpin was running from the ‘copter?
Page 24: A new line of dialogue, at the end of Kamandi’s statement in panel four: “Metron gave you a weapon!” is added after “Mister, they’re making slaves!” Also, they didn’t fix the typo where Good says “joylessy” instead of “joylessly.”
Page 29: The first panel has dialogue added: Jay screams “GAGGH!”, while Wally says “Jay, look out!”

Final Crisis #3
Page 4: The font issues with the German-specific characters are resolved, and the words display correctly.
Page 5: “NY Subway Extension” is changed to “Gotham Subway Extension.” This could be a HUGE clue - although it contradicts with what’s going on in Red Robin, if the symbol there is the same one that Anthro draws at the very end of the book, then that means Bruce’s bat-symbol drawing is under the rock just to its right, and that that’s where he came back to life. This would appear to line up with what we know about Return of Bruce Wayne.
Page 15: “Now that I think about it.” is placed in between “Hmmmmm” and Alan Scott’s balloon about Article X on the bottom panel.
Page 17: “Green Arrow and Black Canary ride again.” added after “I’M drafting you, Oliver. UP!”
Page 21: Superbat’s statement that “We’ve done this sort of thing before” (which was untrue) is replaced with “we’re the answer to all your prayers.”

Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1
In general, all 3D effects have been removed from this issue and the next.
Page 21: After “A book with an INFINITE number of pages, all occupying the SAME SPACE”, “THAT’S why no-one can read it” is replaced with “of course no-one can read it.” Also, “We know the Ultima Thule’s onboard computer…” is changed to “According to Captain Adam, the Ultima Thule’s onboard computer…”. And finally, in what I can only presume is another mistake, “…and download instructions for its OWN REPAIR!” became “…and download MANUAL! Its OWN REPAIR.” Maybe they meant manual FOR its own repair?
Page 23: The word balloons on this page are all enlarged, since in the original comic they were smaller than those on any other page. Merryman’s dialogue is modified from “Why can’t I see anything?” to “So why can’t *I* see anything?”
Page 26: The final caption, “in the plague pit…”, is moved to the previous panel and replaced with “An unstoppable COUNTDOWN to COSMIC REVELATION has begun!”
Page 27: Merryman’s line “Seriously, this just doesn’t happen!” is removed, and the “Nobody’s special… nothing happens…” is moved to where that was. Also, words in the trade are bolded that weren’t previously - “NOTHING beyond the VOID, the BLANK, the ZIP, the ZILCH.” Also, “decisions”, “antagonize”, “magic word” and “Captain Marvel” get bolded.

Final Crisis: Submit
Page 25: Dialogue added after “Our entire world, our REALITY…”: “This circuit, this sign began to appear all over the world before all this started.” (referring, of course, to the Metron sigil).

Final Crisis #4
Page 3: “By the time you saw me ARRIVE, I’d already DRAGGED the guy through the shield” becomes the rather clearer “I was moving so fast, I’d already dragged the guy through the shield by the time the light reached your eyes.”
Page 8: “Maybe he’ll favor GRANNY GOODNESS” becomes “Maybe he’ll favor LIBRA, the Anti-Life that walks, maybe GRANNY GOODNESS”
Page 13: The star on Wonder Woman’s tiara is now filled in so it doesn’t look like a pentagram, and “Castellan Draper informs us that castle defenses will fail within the hour” is changed to “within 24 hours.”
Page 20: Shilo Norman’s skin color is now, correctly, black.

Final Crisis #5
Cover: The background is now dark blue rather than purple.
Page 1: “If you can prove…” after “But I can’t seem to account for my whereabouts…” is changed to “If Alpha Lantern Kraken can shed any light on that I’m ready to listen.”
Page 2: The “RINGS ONLY WORK IF YOU CAN THINK!” word balloons are split between panels two and three now, between WORK and IF.
Page 11: Shilo Norman is now black. Unfortunately, so is Sonny Sumo. Can’t win them all, I guess.
Page 13: “the Swiss border just… just got further away…” is now “just… just got closer…”, which I guess fits more properly with actual spacetime compression past an event horizon.
Page 14: To the relief of people everywhere who were bitching about this, “solve a RUBIK CUBE with” becomes “solve a scrambled RUBIK CUBE with.”
Page 16: The Justifier to the right in the top panel now also says “UP!”.
Page 17: When Libra says “We’re thinking about having YOU lead the rearguard action against the BLUDHAVEN BRIDGE,” the “Luthor” after that is removed, probably because it was redundant alongside Libra’s earlier comment about “…can you BELIEVE it, Luthor?”
Page 18: The “…Mokkari has FAILED you, Great One!…” speech is moved from being said by Mokkari to being said by Godfrey, so Mokkari’s no longer talking about himself in the third person.
Page 21: The “I. AM. THE. NEW. GOD.” word balloons are now more evenly spread throughout the panel, starting from about 25% in to the left and ending at the far right, rather than just taking up the first half of the panel as in the single issue.

Final Crisis #6
Page 1: Superman’s “You PROMISED you could RETURN…” word balloon is now semi-transparent near its right side, to show Superman’s getting pulled back to the present. “Excuse me, Superman” becomes “Excuse me, one moment.”
Page 2: “I’m being pulled back to my own time.” is added to the end of “Make it FAST, Brainiac 5.”, and that word balloon is also semi-transparent.
Page 3: The “I’m fading…” word balloon is now semi-transparent.
Page 13: Kalibak now says “Hhhhh” before the little asterisk, just to make SURE you know he’s dead, and that he also dies explicitly mid-word begging for help.
Page 15: “3 billion FREE HUMANS” becomes “1 1/2 billion.” Shilo’s properly black.
Pages 16-17: Black Shilo, light-skinned Sonny: Is this the only spread in the book where they got it right?
Page 23: “Libra, the man who became the GLOVE PUPPET of the Gods.” now has “A hollow vessel.” between it and “I’ll show you BALANCE…”
Page 25: “Beyond the reach of LIGHT” becomes “Nothing, not even light can escape his presence.”
Page 26: “Accept that the equation is PROVEN” becomes “Accept that the equation has solved the human problem.”

Final Crisis #7
Page 5: “Beyond these walls, there’s nothing left that isn’t DARKSEID.” becomes “Beyond these walls, there’s nothing left that isn’t the Forever Pit DARKSEID dragged us all into.”
Pages 6-7: The “Of how HE, just a MAN, had fatally WOUNDED the GOD OF EVIL” caption box is moved to the second page, just to the right of the rocket. The “And how we fought for what we BELIEVED in” box was moved from the fifth panel to the fourth, just below robo-Superman’s punching arm.
Page 16: The “BOOM” at the bottom is moved a bit to the lower-right, below Hawkman’s punching hand rather than to its upper left.
Page 18: Darkseid now says “not.” in little letters after Superman says “This was SUICIDE, Darkseid.” Wonder Woman says “Talk to me.” before “Darkseid is order.” Luthor’s “Libra WAS the Anti-Life Equation and now he’s not.” line is removed, since Luthor just hacked the Mad Hatter helmets, not the actual equation. And Darkseid says “not.” in small letters again in that last panel as well.
Page 20: “What used to be TIME is slowing to a STOP” is now “What was once TIME is broken now and blinded.”
Page 22: “You’re in the final stages of RADION poisoning, Darkseid. Your composite human ‘body’ unable to MOVE, let alone ACT.” is now “We’re almost at the bottom, where it all ends, where there’s no more future. You’re in the final stages of RADION poisoning, Darkseid.” After “HOW COULD I ASK FOR A BETTER GIFT TO DESTROY YOU WITH?”, Darkseid says “MY WILL BE DONE”, implying he’d use the Miracle Machine himself. Superman says “Everything’s just FREQUENCIES, vibrations” instead of just “Everything’s just vibrations.”
Page 25: Hal’s “Whatever they are, they’re OUR WAY IN!” is now “Whatever they are, they’re OUR WAY ACROSS THE EVENT HORIZON!” And, because it’s probably more appropriate since Mandrakk is a vampire, Superman now says “Not so easy when your prey BITES BACK, is it, Mandrakk?” rather than “fights back.”
Page 27: “LET THE SUN SHINE IN!” is now in a word balloon with jagged edges, to demonstrate shouting.
Page 28: The exiled animals are now from Earth-26 rather than Earth-35, correctly matching up with the Captain Carrot and the Final Ark miniseries. “Do you HEAR me? ‘Let all who worship evil’s might…’” now becomes “Do you HEAR that chant growing stronger? ‘Let all who worship evil’s might…’”, to line up with the small army of Green Lanterns who’re saying it at this point right behind him.
Page 29: “I summon the FOREVER PEOPLE OF THE 5th WORLD!” becomes “I summon the FOREVER PEOPLE OF THE 5th WORLD FROM EARTH-51 EXILE!”, just to make that clearer.
Page 36: “Fire lights his eyes.” is removed completely. “And then…” is added before “In a halo of blazing light”, and the “…old man passes like a dream.” caption box is moved to the final panel, before “Like smoke.”

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What if there were an ultimate villain out there, unseen? An absolute mastermind, closing in for the kill? What if there existed an invisible, implacable foe who’d calculated my every weakness? Who had access to allies, weapons and tactics I couldn’t imagine. An adversary whose plots and grand designs were so vast, so elaborate, that they went unnoticed… until it was too late. How could I prepare for a challenge like that? Would I have the resources to deal with it? I’ve often wondered. If my hypothetical ultimate enemy can be imagined, I can’t help considering the possibility that he actually exists. Breathing… feels like drowning. And if he exists… if the king of crime is real… is he telling me his name?

- Bruce Wayne, Batman #674

From Batman #666

By the time we were about halfway through Batman R.I.P., and our esteemed British colleagues the Mindless Ones were divining hints from ancient Chinese wisdom, and I was still rambling on and on and on about goddammit no seriously they WILL reveal Alfred as the villain, there’s one thing we all agreed on: whether or not Simon Hurt was actually supposed to be the literal Devil, he certainly was a metaphorical one.

The question is - what’s the significance of that? If Simon Hurt is the Devil - or, as our li’l buddy Damian states there to the left, “may as well be” the Devil - then what does that mean? What, for all practical purposes, is the Devil?

Let’s talk it through. The Devil is a mythological creature, around since the dawn of human civilization, that serves as a cautionary example and inspires humans to do good through fear. He has pointy ears, and wings like a bat, and lives on through our culture as an eternal deterrent against crime - if you fuck up, you’re going to go to Hell where the Devil will tear the flesh from your bones and you will be in eternal torment. Nobody’s sure if he really exists - probably not, in our enlightened, post-religious, rational age, but you might even say he’s a sort of urban legend.

In short: Batman is, and always has been, the Devil. He inspires fear, he only punishes the wicked, he’s the Lord of the Underworld in Gotham City. So, who’s Simon Hurt? How can both he and Batman be the Devil? Certainly they both represent different aspects of the popular devil archetype - Batman is the deterrent Devil, while Hurt is the tempting one, the snake in the Garden of Eden.

Simon Hurt's temptation, from #681

So - who is Simon Hurt? He’s seemingly not supernatural, other than an apparent long life span; his methods are purely grounded and rational, employing a great deal of trickery and illusion, setting up massive games with innocent people based on Job-like bets. Comparisons to Fowles’s The Magus or the movie that kind of ripped it off, The Game, wouldn’t be at all inaccurate. And even when he tempts, he still punishes them eventually - he leaves the other fingers of the Black Glove to die at the end of “R.I.P.”, and when he calls Oberon Sexton at the end of Batman and Robin #6, he repeats the same thing he told them: “your sins have found you out.” It’s implied more than a little that even if Hurt isn’t Thomas Wayne or Mangrove Pierce, he still did know Bruce’s parents, and he seems awfully young for someone of that age. So: to Hell with it, let’s ascribe immortality, it’s a concept that’s certainly on the table ever since Nanda Parbat and the Lazarus Pits back in “Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul.”

Batman and Ra's al Ghul discuss immortality, from #671

So we have an immortal, unhinged devil figure, playing games with peoples’ lives (where he takes the pessimistic stance) and testing people by continuing to both tempt and punish. One who, according to the dialogue if not art of Batman #681, looks exactly like both Bruce and Thomas Wayne.

Gordon contemplates the enormity of Batman's mission, from #665

And now, we will also have Bruce Wayne running around 40,000 years ago, in a devil outfit, scaring the shit out of primitive man when they get out of line. For the next forty thousand years, operating as a primitive urban legend, becoming permanently entrenched in mythology and religion as an adversarial, frightening figure used to warn children and cowardly, superstitious adults against taking actions deemed inappropriate in society - crime, or sin. Not just metaphorical: Forty-thousand-year-old Bruce Wayne both inspires, and becomes, the Devil.

Bruce discusses the Second Batman's resemblance to Bane, from #665

And if Simon Hurt were 40,03X-year-old Bruce Wayne, it would explain a lot, wouldn’t it? His obsession with the Wayne line, the vast amounts of wealth, the knowledge of Bruce’s future… how else would he have known to create a faux Batman that resembles Bane years before “Knightfall” even occurred? Or that the next time Bruce wore the cape and cowl after “R.I.P.”, in Final Crisis, it would be his last (at least, from Hurt’s personal timeline). Morrison says that the title of this summer’s Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne will become “increasingly ominous as the story progresses,” and that the story will have an “apocalyptic countdown” - is Bruce Wayne going to go even more nuts over the coming 40,000 years, changed by so much death that he transforms into Hurt? Or is Hurt a new personality, implanted by the Omega Effect and the Life Trap? Hell, we don’t even know for sure how this version of the Omega Trap is going to operate.

What DO we know? We know that Bruce is apparently going to be various Waynes throughout history, including Puritan-era Gotham Village, something that this below panel certainly seems to be alluding to:

Gordon looks at Wayne family portraits, from #680

What we don’t know is how. Is Bruce going to be born into a different body for each life, or is he going to be effectively immortal and keep living new lives? If he is immortal, how? Is it a side effect of the Omega Trap, or is it the time he bathed in the Waters of Life in Nanda Parbat back in “Resurrection”? Or is he just hopping from location to location bathing in Lazarus Pits, and that’s what drives him, pun completely intended, batty?

Bruce contemplates Gotham's construction, from #679

At this point I’m off even speculation and just into randomly throwing questions into the ether, so: Robin and Batman, Cupid and the Devil, the Joke and the Punchline. It’s a role Batman’s always played, so it’s only natural that as he goes back to the dawn of time to play a part in shaping the evolution of humanity, he fill that societal role for the whole world rather than just his beloved Gotham - and God only knows what he had to do with that city’s development.

It also fits in with a lot of the hints given throughout the book. The quote I opened on, from right before the onset of “R.I.P.”, posits that this hypothetical ultimate enemy is basically… Batman Plus. Jezebel Jet exhaustively discusses the possibility in Batman #677, pointing out that the Black Glove shares Bruce’s obsessions with games and riddles and etc. - just on a larger scale. So if Batman is the Optimum Man, as Morrison keeps selling him to be - the absolute peak of humanity - then who could possibly best Batman but an older, more experienced Batman?

The Sensei informs Bruce about his shortcomings, from #671

“The victory is in the preparation,” Batman says - it’s what he taught Wingman (as revealed in #669) as well as Damian (#666). To become the pinnacle of human progress, Batman prepared - he prepared himself physically through martial arts, he prepared himself mentally through study and mastering the process of deduction, and after his incident in Infinite Crisis, he prepared himself emotionally by undergoing Thogal and “erasing the last traces of doubt and fear in [his] mind” (#681). By being Bruce Wayne, prodigal scion of Gotham’s reigning family, he prepared his surroundings with safehouses and hidden corporate holdings, an approach future-Damian takes to a hilarious but brilliantly lateral extreme by boobytrapping everywhere in Gotham with bombs. By raising Dick, and Tim, and inspiring Barbara, he prepares the future to continue his mission. Batman is nothing but preparation. So, a Batman with forty thousand more years of that? Well, that’d basically be the Devil.

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Do you want to know why we say such terrible things about something? Do you have questions and issues about Comics in 2010? Write us at the link on the sidebar, or call 347-AUNT-MAY and let us know!

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(1) True Stories of the Core Marvel Universe , in which Chris Sims points out that the Marvel Universe is wacky! I really like most of Sims’ work, but I don’t see the big deal here. I like the Frankenstein version of the Punisher too, but I think it’s okay if other people don’t. There’s nothing wrong with the fact that a segment of the superhero comics reading audience is obsessed with continuity. I’m not in that crowd, but I don’t begrudge people their preferences.

(2) A great interview with Farel Darlymple conducted by Nick Gazin of Vice Magazine (hat tip to the Beat). Darlymple is a brilliant artist who should definitely get more attention. His new project (”The Wrenchies”) seems pretty intriguing.

(3) A jaw-droppingly great meditation on J.H. Williams III by Charles Hatfield of the Thought Balloonists. You should bookmark their blog.

(4) Two potentially interesting corporate comics stories:

(a) Rich Johnston reports that Marvel is initiating a ’special character policy’ to prevent intellectual property ownership disputes with creators.

(b) ICv2 notes that some Marvel execs will personally profit from the merger deal when it finally goes through, to the tune of millions of dollars in cash and stock. Tom Spurgeon writes what I think - ‘[t]he system works, sure, but for whom?’

I’d love to see someone explore both of these stories in more detail, especially the first one, which leaves a ton of unanswered questions: What’s are the terms of these Special Character Agreement contract? Does Marvel discourage/encourage creators to consult with attorneys prior to signing? Are any of these terms negotiable?

(5) Read this great interview with Eddie Campbell, conducted by The Rumpus. As always, Campbell’s views on publishing, comics, and art are fascinating to read.

(6) The Onion A/V Club brings you a list of the best comics of the aughts. This article has been poked at a bit for having some gaping holes, but to be fair, these kinds of lists always have some kind of glaring omission. They are always deeply personal, and reflect the evolution of ones’ tastes, expectations, and preferences over a decade. Some of the books that I’d put on my personal list, like Planetary, Authority, or the New Frontier, reflect a period in which I was excited that mainstream superhero comics could tell a truly intelligent story. Others, like Box Office Poison, or Bob Fingerman’s work, represent a time when I was still surprised to read good middlebrow comics. If those comics were published this week, would they still hold a cherished place in my heart? Probably not. But I’d still put them on the list.

With all that said, Heidi MacDonald, Sean Collins and David Pepose are totally correct about the absence of manga. That’s a pretty glaring omission. I’m embarrased to admit that I couldn’t put manga on my list either. Why? Because I don’t read manga, which is the one part of the comics universe that I know almost nothing about. I’ve heard Pluto is brilliant, and plan to start picking up volumes over the winter holiday. Any other suggestions?

Note: I do not like anything that’s even remotely cute.

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If you have questions or topics you’d like to see addressed in future podcasts, write us at editors AT funnybookbabylon DOT com, or take advantage of our new phone service:

(347)-AUNT-MAY

That’s right, New York’s own May Parker has taken time out of her busy schedule of working at a soup kitchen and fretting about her nephew Peter to collect questions for us. Treat her well, she’s a great ol’ gal!

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Does Milligan still have “it”? Does John Constantine? Are they both self-sabotaging, self-destructive British gentlemen of a certain age? Listen and find out!

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Want to be spoiled? Our picks lie below!

Jamaal likes: Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin & Jill Thompson
Joseph likes: Invincible Iron Man by Matt Fraction & Salvador LaRocca
Chris likes: Vigilante #11 by Marv Wolfman, Walt Simonson & John Paul Leon
Pedro likes: Spider-Man Family: Back in Black by Sean McKeever, Kano, David LaFuente & Others

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But the two have had a very rocky relationship when they come in contact with one another:

1959 - Superman meets Pat Boone
1965 - The Thing and Human Torch meet the Beatles
1975 - Paul McCartney sings about Magneto and the Titanium Man
1977 - Howard the Duck meets KISS
1979 - Millie the Model meets Alice Cooper
1985 - Swamp Thing meets Sting (kind of)
1986 - The Transformers meet Bruce Springsteen (kind of)
1993 - Shadowman meets Aerosmith
1995 - No One was willing to meet Billy Ray Cyrus
1998 - Red Rocket 7 meets Just About Everyone

And now, My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way (along with Gabriel Ba) has entered the fray with The Umbrella Academy. On a scale of 1 (Billy Ray Cyrus) to 10 (“Iron Man”), how does The Umbrella Academy stack up? Is this even analogous to the list above? The FBBP Action News Team investigates!

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Did you enjoy the Listener Questions segment of our hundredth episode? Did you hate it because we didn’t answer your question? Do you still have a burning question for Joe?

Well, you have another chance to ask questions in a new ongoing segment. You can leave a question in the comments, or dare to take advantage of innovative Web 2.5 technology and call in to the Funnybook Babylon Hotline!

(347) 548-8377

Assuming we can work out this Web 2.5 technology, we might just play your question “on the air”!

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If you would like a primer before you check them out, listen to this musical retrospective and interview with Huggabroomstik frontman Neil Kelly.

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Oxendine is running for governor in Georgia, and was brought to my attention thanks to this amazing cartoon campaign ad, which is well worth watching. If a follow-up ad depicts a political opponent as a spider, somebody track down Mark Millar and shoot him for making Marvel 1985 real.

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This timeline is a work in progress, and I know there are loads of important releases and business moves that I have not yet added to it, especially in recent years. If you think I’ve missed something, please let me know in the comments. But in the meanwhile, check out the timeline!

Thanks to Pedro for coding the thing in Flash, and thanks to the Gang of Davids (Brothers, Uzumeri, Cole) for input on dates and design.

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What’s the secret? Is Deadpool embracing Change Fans Believe In? We took a look at Daniel Way’s recent run on the core Deadpool and tried to unlock the code. Also addressed: is this comic good?

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As suspected by a few people in last month’s comment thread, the Red Hood is in fact the obvious option, Jason Todd. So that entire mystery’s away from us, although the domino killer and Man-On-Gargoyle are still milling around, not to mention Oberon Sexton.

Philip Tan’s art in this issue is rather confusing and unclear with regards to the storytelling, especially on the fifth page, so I’ll try to disentangle some of those things as we go.

Page 1: Well, I gotta say I never thought the two random thugs from the beginning of #1 would be so important, but here’s their backstory. The final panel is from the end of #3, with Sasha suffocating a dude we now know for sure was her father (she said “He’s my papa” at the time, but she’d also been saying that a lot).

Page 4: And yeah, so much for the mystery. I discussed Jason Todd way back in the Batman #683 annotations, but Damian’s exposition here is on the money. The time Jason got his brains beaten out by the Joker was his death in Batman #428.

Page 5: And here’s where I lose track of the storytelling. From the (what look like) soggy footprints on the second panel, it appears that Penguin is trying to exit backwards while holding the umbrella out in front of him and shooting from it. Damian throws a batarang into the works, which - as far as I can tell - screws up his umbrella’s propeller, and makes him shoot out of the building. Or alternately, he was going to jump out of the building and fly anyway, and Damian’s batarang screwed up his umbrella’s propeller after he’d already leapt from the building. It’s incredibly unclear, and (I realize I’m editorializing here) pretty disappointing after Quitely’s smooth, fluid action scenes in the first arc.

Page 6: I guess Penguin landed on top of the car and then bounced onto the sidewalk? The Mexican boss they’re talking about here is the still-mysterious El Penitente.

Page 9: This is the third major domino we’ve seen - the first when the Toad was killed, the second at Pyg’s lair with the antidote. And since I was giving Tan shit earlier, I feel like I should applaud his Penguin on the street here, since he really does draw him in an appropriately grotesque manner and pulls off the ridiculousness of him threatening people with a broken umbrella on the street.

Page 10: This is the seeding-future-storylines scene, with Oberon “the Gravedigger” Sexton repping the Dynamic Duo in the media and Lucius Fox re-emphasizing the Wayne-money plot thread. Sexton is still an enigma - he could be a new character, exactly who he says he is, or he could be Bruce Wayne, or the Joker, or God knows who. We also find out the name of his book (”Masks of Evil”), which I’m sure will have some kind of importance.

Page 11: Regarding the Wayne-money plot thread, the fact that it’s being reemphasized like this implies it’s not just referencing the Streets of Gotham status quo.

Page 12: You probably don’t need me to point this out to you, but Jason’s making a dark k/night pun there. I’m also really forced to wonder how Jason Todd conducted a remotely fair phone poll, which, as Chris pointed out reading this, is amazingly ironic considering the role phone polls played in his demise. For those who don’t know, Batman #427 ended on a cliffhanger regarding whether Jason was alive or dead, and readers were given two 1-900 numbers to call to decide. By a fairly slim margin, Jason died.

Page 13: As far as I can tell, this guy (who was probably the guy in the hood in the mob scene, since he works for El Penitente) says “The guy who did this to me… he’s dead… DEAD! Flamingo is coming… in an airplane from HELL.” I also love Morrison’s mob names (Gentleman-G Merriwether!).

Page 14: So now Jason Todd’s gone from trying to replace Batman to trying to make him obsolete. This is where we also start getting into debating continuity, and a few other points.

First of all, Morrison’s pretty fond of Alan Moore references in his comics, and painting his characters and concepts as outdated, sort of ugly concepts. With that said:

Jason Todd (Red Hood) and Walter Kovacs (Rorschach)

I’m sure they’d have a hell of a socially awkward ultraviolent vigilante bromance. And it can’t just be an art tic, since a lot of the changes that make that picture possible (the zits, the baldness, the hair difference) are courtesy of Morrison as specified in the script.

From Batman #366

Which brings up the second point: that the Jason Todd Grant Morrison is using here is neither the pre- nor post-Crisis version of the character. He’s got the attitude of the street-urchin post-Crisis version, but the red hair was a feature of the pre-Crisis version, introduced in Batman #357, who was a happy-go-lucky ex-carnival type just like Dick Grayson. Additionally, when his hair was dyed black in #366, he does it himself (and puts on Dick’s costume) because he’s so eager to be Robin. However, it’s difficult to say whether this is simply Morrison revising history or just Jason Todd not admitting any of this in public. In any case, this is a new history for the character combining aspects of both previous takes in service of Morrison’s “all continuity is true” goal.

Jason’s visit to the Lazarus Pit was after his resurrection by Superboy-Prime’s continuity punches as told in Batman Annual #25, since he came back brain-dead and was taken by Talia to a Lazarus Pit.

Page 16: Again with the face-eating and face-wearing and losing of faces! God, Grant Morrison, we get it!

Then again, he bears more significance in this story, which is all about masks and faces; Oberon Sexton’s full-face mask (and his book title), the massive red hood that’s giving Jason Todd zits, Damian’s costume hood, Sasha’s second face/mask… Flamingo shows up here as a devourer of faces and masks.

Page 21: Red Hood gets shot in the chest and head, shattering his hood. Sasha’s narration reveals the general elevator pitch origin for the Flamingo, who had his brain “cut apart” by the mob - or by an evil psychologist they hired like, I don’t know, Simon Hurt.

Page 22: Flamingo looks a lot different here from his future self in Batman #666, although he’s certainly ostentatious (even though it’s hard to tell with all the shadows and Alex Sinclair’s coloring).

Welp, that’s the end of this month - a fairly straightforward issue. Next month we get #6, and then #7 will wait until January since, as revealed in this week’s DC Nation column, it had to come out after Blackest Night #6 - which implies Morrison’s going to be tying this book in with the overall DC Universe to a greater degree.

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And if you went into a comic shop on the day Planetary #1 was released, it was also a different world. DC and Marvel released a combined twenty-six comics that day; Marvel alone is shipping twenty-seven books today, with DC adding another eighteen. Each company put out a single trade on February 3rd (The Invisibles: Counting to None and a Spider-Girl collection, respectively), and there were no variant covers. The manga boom hadn’t hit — Tokyopop was still going by MIXX — and Spawn, Battle Chasers, and Danger Girl were all Top Ten books.

Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, Geoff Johns, and Greg Rucka were all newcomers to mainstream comics with a smattering of “Big Two” credits between them. Mark Millar was best known in America as Grant Morrison’s writing partner. No one had heard of Bill Jemas or Dan Didio, and when people thought of “comic book movies” Batman & Robin or Spawn came to mind.

It was to this world that Planetary was released, and it’s no wonder it seemed like such a breath of fresh air. It’s been 3900 days since the series began, and today it ends, a complete work in a different world. Its delays are legendary, and the purpose of these posts is not to mock its lateness, or cast aspersions or blame on Warren Ellis, John Cassaday, or anyone else involved with the series. I just think all of this stuff is fascinating.

Cassaday is an artist whose two major works have been plagued by delays, Astonishing X-Men to a lesser extent than Planetary, though that book was still known for its tardiness. But if you look at his output over the last decade, you’ll see he’s maintained a better-than-bimonthly schedule:

Using Planetary issues 1 and 27 as endpoints, this means Cassaday produced 1666 pages over the course of 3900 days.

1666 pages = 75.76 full twenty-two page comics.
3900 days = 10.7 years
So John Cassaday produced essentially seven comics’ worth of material each year during the duration of Planetary. This is slow in comparison to the likes of workhorses like Mark Bagley or John Romita Jr., but a perfectly respectable pace for a modern comic book artist, particularly since there were issues with scripts for the two projects that comprised the bulk of his work in this period.

More Nate Silvery overanalysis later, but for now, two takeaways:

1) Planetary took forever to come out.
2) John Cassaday is not a particularly slow artist.

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So instead, we just read 1990’s Give Me Liberty, the four issue series that introduced Martha. This was one of the first projects Miller and Gibbons each worked on after their era-defining works on The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen respectively, and like those works, it has a uniquely Reagan/Thatcher Era vision of a bleak near future. The secret ingredient this time? Ayn Rand!

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Incredible Hulk #602

versus

Legends Comics & Books

You know, if they just had Greg Land doing Ariel Olivetti’s backgrounds and Olivetti doing Land’s, at least then we’d get one readable comic and one hilariously horrific piece of shit rather than two painful comics.

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Bad art can ruin even the best of stories, but lesser known is its ability to obscure mediocre writing. Billy Tan’s art in this issue is bad: it’s static during action sequences featuring ninjas, masked superhero gymnastics and government agents rappelling from the roof. Tan’s talking sequences fail to display any emotion besides tension. As a result, at first glance, this art is terrible enough to hide a weak effort from Andy Diggle.

I wish Diggle had exercised some restraint here since the book’s “everything is rotten from the core” vibe already wears out its welcome by the time the corrupt judge shows up six pages in. When we finally see Norman Osborn, he is exhaling pure evil. It’s not as if Daredevil hasn’t tangled with some sinister dudes before, but the moral conflicts and ethical backsliding that had been the bedrock of Bendis and Brubaker’s Daredevil runs begin to feel less complex when Murdock is trying to take down the next Hitler.

Diggle’s overplaying of the systemic corruption moves Daredevil from a troubled man trying to straighten up a clan of killer evil ninjas to the leader of a band of freedom fighters. Regardless of if Murdock succeeds here, his goal becomes noble enough to the reader that he will be redeemed in their eyes. This isn’t Diggle’s intent and this will push Matt away from the tipping point that has been teased since the title was relaunched back in 1999. It’s a shame since there was just so much farther he could have fallen.

-by Pedro Tejeda

Dark Avengers #9
by Brian Michael Bendis, Mike Deodato, and Rain Beredo

In a week with a Grant Morrison Batman comic and a new volume of Pluto, somehow I think I enjoyed these 22 pages the most. Bendis’s recent work has gotten slagged on a lot - sometimes deservedly - but I think this is a solid crystallization of everything that makes his style work: Character, Character, Character. The cover promises Ares versus Fury in a glocks-versus-battle-ax contest to the death, and I’m glad the cover lied because the mature conversation inside is so, so, so much better. Then Bendis drops a shock ending bomb on you, one he’s clearly been waiting to drop forever, and one that works pretty well at eliciting an “OH SHIT!” from almost anybody invested in the Marvel status quo right now.

But Bendis isn’t even really the main reason. Mike Deodato fucking shines on this comic, with interesting but clear panel layouts, especially in the middle section. This guy has really evolved from a tits ‘n muscles artist in the ’90s to a guy who, despite his propensity for swaying hips, constantly tries to make his panel layouts interesting (and still clear) - check out the “Ares smash!” two-page spread to see what I mean. He’s good with balls-out action and talking heads (as displayed near the end with the Dark Avengers just chillin’ and chattin’), versatile enough to move from the everyday to the extraordinary and make it seem like it’s in the same world. I’m willing to take his (increasingly rarer) propensities towards T&A in stride as long as he keeps turning in superb storytelling like this.

- by David Uzumeri

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #1
“Shock & Awe Chapter 1″
by Gregg Hurwitz & Jerome Opena

I haven’t paid attention to the Moon Knight book for years, and viewed him as a third-rate Batman suffering from mental illness. But sometimes a comic doesn’t have to be original to be entertaining. We’ve all become familiar with the use of the super-hero narrative to explore identity and mental illness. Not only that, but the story of a lone man who must do battle with a crazed totalitarian state is older than John Galt. So what sets Vengeance of the Moon Knight apart from the crowd? The art. Gregg Hurwitz turns in a competent script, but Jerome Opena transforms what could have been a banal book into an entertaining romp.

The first issue sets the status quo - Moon Knight is a hero who is in the midst of an identity crisis. Will he be the restrained old-school hero who avoids unnecessary violence or a brutal vigilante close to the edge? We see MK elegantly dispatch armed bank robbers and escape from the authorities with ease in the first half of the book, which unfolds like a slick action movie filled with bright colors and unambiguous victories. In the second half, we begin to see the cracks in the facade - the criminals from Heat have been replaced with the degenerates in Taxi Driver, Moon Knight’s resolve is tested, and his instability becomes more apparent: the voices in his head/ghosts that haunt him become clearer. There are shadows everywhere, and triumph is replaced with temptation. An atmosphere of fear lurks in the background, with the visage of Norman Osborn staring at us from billboards and video screens. And that’s without even looking at the words.

- by Jamaal Thomas

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I’m one of those fans who opposed the One More Day storyline because I think that characters should always be allowed to develop and grow. In the great conflict between those who view mainstream superhero comics as a continuing narrative and those who view them primarily as part of a broader strategy to manage valuable intellectual property, I thought OMD was a victory for the latter camp: a victory of commerce over art. Why? It’s not the decision to end the marriage between the characters of Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson, but the rationales offered, many of which were based on returning to a more ‘classic’ portrayal of the character (that would also make him easier to market and package on different platforms). Although there have been a handful of strong arcs in the months following the “Brand New Day” soft reboot of the Spider-Man family of titles, they only reinforced my ambivalence about the new direction. Dan Slott, Marc Guggenheim, Mark Waid, and Joe Kelly’s fun take on the book would have been equally effective before the reboot. However, with the three-part “Red-Headed Stranger” arc, I think that Fred Van Lente has written a fun, light, compelling story that actually benefits from the new status quo.

The antagonist for this arc is the Chameleon, one of those woefully underused mercenary/assassin types that are filled with potential (I could easily imagine a great Jonathan Hickman OGN starring Chameleon, but given the current views of Marvel’s EiC, I guess that’s a long shot). Writers traditionally portray the Chameleon as a hyper-competent cipher, and while Van Lente’s version of the character is pretty consistent with that, he also explores some interesting dimensions of the character without resorting to cliche. The Chameleon’s central gimmick is that he uses technology and masks to steal the identity of others, and Peter Parker is his current victim. A less ambitious modern comic book writer would update the character by giving him full-blown dissociative identity disorder, but Van Lente opts for a subtler approach. The Chameleon seems to view himself as an artist, a person who has developed a special insight into the human psyche. Not only does he want to exploit the identities of his victims for his own purposes, he wants to ‘improve’ their lives by making the choices that they were incapable of making. The reader is only given hints of his potential mental illness, through the Chameleon’s occasional insistence on being referred to by the name of his current victim.

The story is composed of two intertwined strands, one which follows the Chameleon’s efforts to facilitate a terrorist attack on New York and the other centered around his attempts to ‘fix’ Peter Parker’s life. The former’s entertaining enough, but is a bit disposable. Barry Kitson’s art helps cohere the two threads of the story as he effectively balances kinetic action scenes with slower scenes focusing on character development. Van Lente really shines with this portion, as Chameleon disrupts Parker’s life through a mix of assertiveness, unexpected charm and flashes of cruelty. There’s an entertaining meta-commentary in the second part of the arc that gently pokes fun at the weird contradictions at the core of the classic Spider Man character (Why does he still seem so aimless? How does he manage to accumulate such a large number of attractive female friends?) and tweaks the notion that all super hero comic book narratives are circular in nature (Chameleon commits Parker to a romantic relationship, alienates him from at least one long-standing friend, and amazingly enough, repairs two relationships).

The conclusion does not disappoint. Although the terrorism plot is neatly resolved in the first half of the issue (along with a pretty neat riff on the implications of J. Jonah Jameson’s new role) the fallout of Chameleon’s impersonation is handled in a manner that reflects the ambiguity of the new status quo. The retroactive erasure of the marriage means two obvious things - Marvel writers don’t have to write about a married couple, and artists get to draw more buxom female characters. But it also changed the book in a more subtle way - Spider Man has transformed from a story about a brave hero supported by his loving wife into one about a man who lies to all of his loved ones on a pretty regular basis. In short, he’s a talky Don Draper. So, when Parker’s life is utterly transformed in the space of a single day, one is struck by how little there was to disrupt.

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The first thing that struck me about this was how much it differed - in a good way - from J. Michael Straczynski’s lead-in that capped off his Red Circle series of one-shots. Where Straczynski combined the traditional Captain America super-soldier origin with stock scenes heavily inspired by Generation Kill and added on a layer of military conspiracy to tie it in with the other Red Circle stories, Trautmann creates an early-career super-soldier who isn’t fighting as morally convincing a war as Captain America was, and as a result, is forced to operate a bit more cynically.

And to be honest, that’s really what the book is - a modern-day early-career Captain America story, and it’s a distinction that means a surprising amount. Trautmann’s Joe Higgins is still idealistic enough to be sympathetic as a patriot DC superhero, while pragmatic enough that the book doesn’t descend into a series of polemics regarding the nature of the war on terror. The Shield’s environment is what it is, and he has no pretensions of changing it, just doing what he can to make it suck less for other people.

Marco Rudy’s art job is definitely taking a star turn here - there’s a lot of J.H. Williams III inspiration (one that DC seems to acknowledge and encourage, considering they gave him early JHW3 inker Mick Gray), particularly with the panel layouts and the use of geometric shapes and circuitry to accentuate the actual storytelling. When you’re in year two of your career with the Big Two, there are far worse artists to be taking inspiration from, and I look forward to seeing how Rudy develops in the coming years (his storytelling is already considerably more adventurous than his probably rushed work on Final Crisis). In all, what Trautmann and Rudy are setting a strong foundation for a bunch of stories, and although Straczynski’s conspiracy from the original Red Circle stories must have to return at some point, I’ve got faith in this creative team to freshen it up from JMS’s rather hackneyed approach.

The Inferno backup by Brandon Jerwa and Greg Scott has more immediate ties to the overall Red Circle story and makes it clear that these ongoing series are going to remain at least somewhat related. It continues from the end of Inferno’s oneshot way more directly than Shield did from its own, and the fact that it keeps one-shot artist Greg Scott certainly adds a lot to that feeling of continuity. It’s entertaining enough - so far, a fairly standard amnesiac-fugitive story with a few superhuman twists - but while it doesn’t impress as main story, the extra buck you’re spending on this doesn’t feel like a rip-off either. And it’s only ten pages, so there’s certainly ample room for improvement. I’ve never read Jerwa’s work before, since I tend to perhaps unfairly stigmatize licensed material (I really couldn’t care about Battlestar Galactica or G.I. Joe comics), but he’s solid enough here that I won’t skip this in the future. In short, I was really happy paying four dollars for this. It’s a lot of relatively new talent going as wild as they can within the admittedly pretty tight editorial constraints, but it’s a smart, pretty and entertaining read with a lot of potential. I just hope it doesn’t get canceled within six issues.

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Reality television has probably taught me more about modeling and fashion than any other source. Maybe it’s this skewed vision that makes Models, Inc. feel like such a throwback to times past. I feel like Tobin’s story takes place in a world that hasn’t existed in ages. Even though several aspects of the story — like Chili Pepper’s outing — are obviously modern, Villagrasa’s art evokes the Mod 1960s, when the idea of modeling was more fresh, glamorous and fun. The book has none of the eating disorders, fierce competitiveness, or other aspects that seem to populate the seedy underbelly of modern modeling. It’s a decision that fits the tone of the book, even if I wasn’t fully engaged with the plot. I didn’t connect with any of the characters as they felt too light. Only three of the characters seemed to have any conflict and Millie being accused of murder was the only conflict I was remotely interested in. The art itself was adequate, but one of the two inkers was clearly stronger and detailed than the other. I did enjoy Tobin’s dialogue, which kept the characters, especially the models, from being flat. But I’m not sure that’s enough to make me come back to see what happens next.

I’ve seen every season of Project Runway, and I love me some Tim Gunn. He does a great job of being sophisticated, knowledgeable and helping others find their vision. For the first half of the backup, Sumerak nails these first two aspects easily. At a superhero fashion exhibit, Tim explains to museumgoers the power of fashion and the aesthetic beauty of the Iron Man outfit. Just like he does on television, the character of Gunn connects with the audience and conveys why fashion is so important to him. However, the moment he dons the Iron Man outfit, he turns into a quippy superhero. We still get a fantastic moment where Gunn gets distracted by the overpowering yellow of the A.I.M. agents’ outfits, but it’s almost ruined by a shoehorned “Make it Work.” Thankfully, the story ends so soon after that the quips don’t overwhelm the parts that do work. However, if you don’t watch Project Runway, there’s nothing for you here besides some old dude talking about fashion and then schooling some A.I.M. agents.

Online comparisons of Models to Marvel Divas also hurt my reading experience. Both books are perceived to be aimed at women, though I am loathe to compare the two, since they clearly have nothing in common besides having a female cast. I enjoyed Marvel Divas, Sex and the City knockoff and all, more than Models. Divas did everything right, from quality art, to characters with interesting conflicts. It gave me just enough depth without being too overwrought. Divas is a stupid name for a great book.

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Again, a link to what’s come before.

The immediate interpretation of the issue title is the Nick Cave song of the same name, but its use within the issue makes it pretty clear that while that may have been an inspirational source, the context in which it’s used in the issue relates more to Milton’s “Paradise Lost” - which isn’t to say the song doesn’t eerily parallel the promises Red Hood is trying to sell Scarlet.

Philip Tan comes on as artist for this arc, and it’s certainly very different from Frank Quitely; losing Alex Sinclair as colorist gets rid of the posterized sky effects, and Tan’s art style owes way more to his time on Spawn than any precedent Quitely set, all stark shadows and straightforward panel layouts. This is a much darker look than what Quitely offered.

But anyway: new story, new start. Let’s go!

Page 1: The Lightning Bug is, as far as I can tell, completely new. Also, I’m pretty sure it’s just the “burn unit.” The billboards in the background seem to be Tan touches more than Morrison, and not especially pertinent.

Page 3: “Dabba-do time!”, for… anyone who doesn’t know this, whoever you are, is a reference to the old suburban cavemen Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Flintstones. The most I can come up with there is that it’s a veiled reference to Batman’s current situation as neolithic avenger.

Page 6: I checked this morning, and apparently “scarlettraces” is actually an existing Twitter account. So, well, welcome to your career as a morally ambiguous eye-for-an-eye vigilante in Gotham City. “Let the punishment fit the crime”, retributive justice - a concept consistently associated with an Old Testament God and morality, which is a theme Red Hood runs with. As a matter of fact, his penchant for ironic methods of punishment combined with the Old Testament motif makes the Red Hood very similar to that other red right hand of God, the Spectre. Which, bringing it full circle, is heavily implied to represent the red light of rage in this week’s issue of Blackest Night.

Page 8: “Vengeance arms his red right hand” is a reference to Milton’s Paradise Lost - “should intermitted vengeance arm again his red right hand to plague us?” is Belial referring to Yahweh’s Old Testament smackdown policy, so again we’ve got whoever’s under this Hood comparing himself to some good old-fashioned pre-crucifixion vengeance.

Page 9: This could just be my mind playing tricks on me, but I could swear that I notice a question mark in the white space between the shading on Red Hood’s helmet.

Page 10: Wayne Tower’s penthouse garden, pretty closely matching its last direct appearance in #665. The newspaper allegations that are being referred to are the (apparently) Black Glove-circulated lies regarding Thomas and Martha Wayne, Mangrove Pierce, Marsha Lamarr, Alfred Beagle/Pennyworth and John Mayhew from Batman R.I.P.. The “odd behavior” of Bruce Wayne that Lucius is referring to is likely, in an unexpected case of linewide cohesion, the fact that the “Bruce Wayne” in the public eye is actually Tommy Elliot/Hush with plastic surgery to make him look like Bruce Wayne, as established in Paul Dini and Dustin Nguyen’s Batman: Streets of Gotham.

Page 11: I’m not sure if the financial irregularities Lucius is referring to regard the Bat-operation and the Bruce Wayne/Hush situation, or are a clue to a future storyline. Oberon Sexton/Gravedigger appears to be a completely new character; “Oberon” is the king of the faeries in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that sets in motion the series of misunderstandings that provide the comedy, while a sexton is a church officer in charge of a graveyard (which is appropriate, since his nom de crimefighting is Gravedigger). There are two previous Gravediggers in DC Universe continuity, but this one appears wholly unrelated. As mentioned in the #2 annotations, Dick’s time as a cop was during his Nightwing tenure in Bludhaven.

As for Sexton himself, he’s the first obvious (at least, within the issue) candidate for the identity of the Red Hood - red-lensed eyeglasses, scarred face, hate-on for crime, introduced seemingly innocuously at the beginning of the mystery. And his name has to do with tending all the bodies the Red Hood drops. I can’t find any reference to a “riddle of the corn dolly,” but a corn dolly itself is a ‘pagan’ harvest ritual idol that represents the spirit of the corn.

Page 12: The new Red Hood is pretty media-savvy, which doesn’t fit Jason Todd’s general M.O. although who knows where Morrison wants to take him. This scene is an indeterminate period of time after the last, so it’s still possible that Oberon Sexton is under the hood here.

Page 13: Glasses shot number one, as Red Hood places the goggles over Scarlet’s face so she’s seeing in shades of green. Red Hood’s comment about how he could have never planned for Scarlet is oddly reminiscent of many of Bruce Wayne’s comments about Dick Grayson, and how Robin was certainly never a part of his original plan. (The statement seems less sincere here coming from Hood.) The comment about this being the revenge on one crazy man in a mask on another is certainly going to end up being important, since it narrows the playing field - while definitely keeping both Sexton and Jason Todd in the game.

Page 14: Dick’s comments here are reminiscent of the gargoyles’ advice to Bruce in R.I.P.

Page 15: This is likely some foreshadowing regarding the climax of this arc - “a hood can become a blindfold” certainly applies to Damian’s outfit, but it could also apply to the view from inside that Red Hood. And the incident Dick’s referring to, with ditching the hood being one of the first pieces of advice Bruce gave him, is actually from the end of Frank Miller and Jim Lee’s All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder #8.

Page 16: Glasses shot #2: red lenses, green view. This time, Dick Grayson’s surveillance glasses.

Page 17: “Los Penitentes”, or “The Brothers of the Pious Fraternity of Our Father Jesus the Nazarene”, likely got their name from the fact that they did things like self-flagellation. But more importantly, they’re a group of laymen who got together to worship in the absence of a priest; El Penitente’s goon wears robes and a hood (of course) similar to those worn by penitentes in Spanish holy processions. Which adds to the Old Testament/New Testament thing going on here, or maybe Morrison just thought it was a cool outfit to base a crime syndicate off of.

Penguin’s comments about how he’s running things - and his partnership with (or subservience to) the Black Mask - stem from the events of Batman: Battle for the Cowl and what’s going on in Judd Winick’s Batman right now. The Flamingo being teased in the bottom-right panel we’ve seen before in #666; he was a dapper, skinny old guy who kind of reminded me, at least, of Spider-Man enemy the Vulture.

Page 18: The way to enslave and addict whole populations seems related to Professor Pyg’s mind control agent, and his plan to hold the city random based on a similar (if not the same) concoction. A lot of this arc seems to be about media branding and forward-thinking - the Twitter, the press releases, viral crime, the next generation of narcotics - as the Red Hood brands himself as a real Batman 2.0.

Page 19: I’m assuming Tony Li (as established a few pages ago, leader of the Neon Dragon Triad) was largely expendable for this, alongside High Rise Romeo. No idea about the Kato mask, either.

Page 21: As most longtime Batman fans will recognize, the “Jason” Batman’s referring to is Jason Todd, previous Red Hood, former Robin, Lazarus Pit alumnus and all-around wackjob.

Page 22: Regarding the “next in” images: Red Hood and Batman fighting; someone with filed teeth (probably the Penguin, who had filed teeth two pages ago), and what looks like a red grill on some kind of car.

So, who is the Red Hood? There’s really three apparent choices:

1. Jason Todd. He’s the obvious suspect, this matches his previous M.O., he’s got the training, he’s a masked crazy guy who’s got it in for another masked crazy guy, even Dick Grayson’s initial reaction is that it’s him. Which is why it probably won’t be him, since then this entire arc would be really eerily similar to Judd Winick and Doug Mahnke’s “Under the Hood.”
2. Oberon Sexton. He was just introduced in this issue, has the motive, is rich enough to have the means, and is generally clearly being presented by Morrison as a possible suspect. He’s so incredibly obvious that he’s as obvious as Jason Todd - which means the story has two completely obvious contenders, so really, it could be either one.
3. The original wielder of the Red Hood, the Joker himself, creating his own bizarre inverted shrine to his great archenemy’s legacy. On the other hand, Morrison’s intimated he was saving Joker for Frank Quitely’s return (which apparently won’t be until at least #13 at this point), but if you count the smile itself as a “mask” then he meets all the criteria as well.

In other words - we have at least three very logical choices, and if any one of them were the only obvious choice, then the story would be incredibly predictable. But when you have three equally “obvious” characters, the entire thing is still completely up in the air - repeating Judd Winick seems unlike Morrison, but then so does pulling a Hush by introducing a villain and new supporting cast member at the same time and then having them be the same person. And the Joker’s just the easiest way out. So really, the entire discussion is as much up in the air as if there were no obvious candidates.

See you guys in a month.

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With #4 hitting this Wednesday, I figured it was high time to get back into the game and take a look at the latest two issues of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s Batman and Robin. I just reread Morrison’s entire Batman run to refresh my memory, so I’m good and ready - here goes!

Well, maybe I *do*, asshole!

Batman and Robin #2

Batman and Robin #2 - “Batman Reborn Part 2: The Circus of Strange”

Page 1: This issue starts off after the encounter that began last issue; the next few pages of action are Dick telling Alfred what happened, as he requests here. Robin’s patch is on the floor just like the first “clue panel” at the end of #1.

Page 3: I can’t help but think “Casey at the desk” is a takeoff of “Casey at the bat”, but I’m not sure what the Hell that’d possibly ever mean. Dick’s description of Le Cirque d’Etrange as an “extreme” circus troupe probably places them in the class of operations like the Jim Rose Circus. Dick Grayson is shorter than Bruce Wayne, and of course Damian is shorter than Tim Drake, so the cop’s being perceptive there; Gordon notes that Batman’s voice is familiar (which makes sense, since he extensively dealt with Nightwing), and he saw “the kid” (who was named to him - surely Gordon must be able to figure out who Batman is by now) when Damian saved his life in Wayne Manor back during the events of R.I.P.

Page 5: I’m pretty sure “oummf” is just Big Top grunting to get through the car door, but “kushti” is circus slang for “nice.”

Page 9: According, again, to the incredibly helpful British circus slang page (Morrison must have used this), a “flick-flack” is a backward handspring, so the “flick-flackin’ freak” he’s referring to here is probably Damian regarding his escape.

Page 10: Toad did mention he had friends at the end of last issue, but he seemed to be ranting at the window in his jail cell more than telling anybody anything. “Raklo” is a non-gypsy boy, again, referring to Damian.

Page 13: “Rokker the jib” = “speaks the talk.” “Gaffer” = boss; “tober omi” = circus manager/owner. The last two are surely referring to Professor Pyg, who we later find out was, indeed, the owner of the Circus of Strange before his mysterious transformation into villainy and acute mental illness. Also note that Big Top loses the wooden gallopers on this page, since they come up later. The Russian people traffickers Batman’s referring to are, of course, Niko and Lev; I presume a Toad/Niko/Lev deal was busted up by the cops just prior to the start of the first issue, which still leaves the question of why Niko and Lev paid Toad in dominoes - and whether they knew that was what they were doing in the first place.

Page 14: Dick was, indeed, a cop in Bludhaven from Nightwing #31-100 during the time period he struck out on his own. This page also gives us Damian’s idea of interrogation; apparently the League of Assassins is all about sticking buckets on heads and hitting them with clubs. Damian’s trying to discern the origin of the wooden gallopers.

Page 15: Now, Toad’s been killed, and whoever did it left a domino as a calling card, much like the ones in the briefcase of “money” in the beginning of the first issue. This at least establishes that the “domino killer” is a third party outside of the Circus of Strange, and since Niko and Lev were both seemingly turned into Dollotrons, they can hardly be responsible either. The domino left is a double-twelve.

Page 16: It’s kind of adorable that “Damian’s way”, right after this, is making use of his detective skills by figuring out where the wooden gallopers are from. Dick’s comment that Damian is ten years old is particularly interesting - way back in Batman #666, Damian stated that he sold his soul to Simon Hurt/the Devil in exchange for Gotham’s safety at age fourteen, so we can’t really get to that story anytime soon without another flash forward in time.

Page 17: And we hit not only the beginning of the issue, but the exact moment from the first “clue panel” at the end of #1.

Page 19: I find the three roles Morrison chooses here curious, since there are certainly aspects of Hamlet and James Bond in Batman’s character - Morrison’s namechecked both of them, in #664 and #682 - but I can’t for the life of me see a connection between Batman and Willy Loman, other than maybe dogged single-mindedness. And, rather obviously, Alfred holding the empty cowl is echoing the classic Hamlet “Alas, poor Yorick” dramatic pose, since here it serves as a symbol for Bruce’s legacy.

Page 20: Damian arrives at Killing Joke Circus, and we see a number of the wooden gallopers holding up tents. Sasha appears to be tied to a carousel pony.

Page 21: And Professor Pyg takes the stage again. During his Robin career, Dick Grayson was commonly referred to as a “pixie”, or at least his shoes as “pixie boots”; the last panel, as evidenced by being wider than everything else on the page, changes location to downtown Gotham, where various Dollotrons appear to be committing colorful suicides with bombs.

Page 22: That, obviously, is the new Quad-Bat Alfred mentioned Waynetech R&D had dropped off earlier.

Batman and Robin #3

Batman and Robin #3 - “Batman Reborn Part 3: Mommy Made of Nails”

Page 1: Dick mentioned he was going to Police HQ at the end of last issue, so off-panel he must have already gone, picked up Phosphorus Rex, and taken him for this interrogation ride.

Page 3: Note Rex says “THEY’LL kill all of us,” so he can’t only be referring to Professor Pyg. This idea of someone being beyond Professor Pyg in the scheme of evil will show up later in the issue.

The comment about sickness is particularly important; back in Batman #666, Barbara Gordon comments “remember when the law meant something? Before the whole world got sick“, right before finding Professor Pyg’s reverse-crucified body. It comes up later, too - it’s clear, first of all, that celebrating sickness is not only a major portion of Pyg’s pathology, but also that Morrison seems to be crafting a model where Gotham is an organism and crime itself is an actual sickness that affects it. Batman and Robin’s roles in this model are explained pretty clearly later.

Page 4: And here’s where Harry Harlow takes over the annotating proceedings. I’d be incredibly remiss not to link here to Rikdad, to whom I owe an incredible debt for stating a lot of these connections so succinctly. The rest of these annotations will be as much of my own thoughts as I can muster, but I just want to get this link out of the way since I’m absolutely positive it greatly influenced my thoughts on Pyg’s super-important rant here.

The first line refers to a “despair pit” where “the inside went on forever.” Considering the appearance of the “mommy made of nails” on the next page, I’m quite sure it’s a reference to Harlow’s “pit of despair,” surely a concept Morrison would be familiar with considering his passion for animal rights. The despair pit experiments were, in short, sticking a bunch of rhesus monkeys with varying degrees of psychological health into complete isolation for up to ten weeks, and in every case the monkeys were completely psychotic when removed. Now, later on in this story it’s mentioned that “something happened” to Lazlo Valentin to turn him into Professor Pyg, and Pyg mentions something similar from his jail cell, so I’m going to guess that he was subjected to a series of Harlow-esque experiments (including one with a surrogate mother I’ll get into on the next page), and that the psychological trauma he underwent transformed him into the mentally ill supervillain he’s starting out his career as now.

Of course, also consider the fact that these isolation experiments are similar to the ones Bruce Wayne underwent at various points in his life - isolation experiences that recentered and rejuvenated him rather than driving him insane. And, of course, one of them was set up by Doctor Hurt in a lab.

Mormo is a Greek spirit who’s invoked as a bogeywoman for children, a sort of “mommy made of nails” who attempts to act as a deterrent for mischief.

Page 5: Tiamat is a Babylonian goddess, also representing chaos and killed by her children. “Tohu va bohu” is, as well, a formless void/chaos. The Gorgons seem to fit in less with the structure, not so much having a relationship with children or deliberately representing chaos, but they are certainly frightening female figures.

“That’s what it’s like to grow upside down in a world where a hug is a crucifixion” - here he must be referring to his time either in the despair pit or in the custody of whoever transformed him, since having a “mommy made of nails” would, indeed, turn a hug into a crucifixion, since physical contact would be met by, well, getting stabbed by nails. Here’s where I have to refer to Harlow again and his experiment on “the nature of love”, where he contrasted how rhesus monkeys behaved while being raised with terrycloth “mothers” and wire “mothers”, both of which would provide food. The “mommy made of nails” that Pyg’s constructed is very familiar to Harlow’s wire mothers, and I imagine during his time with whoever changed him he grew this bizarre affection for it (which goes against the results of Harlow’s experiments).

It’s also rather amusing that Pyg refers to a hug being a crucifixion in “the upside-down world”, since if the converse holds true he got one hell of a big fat hug when he was crucified upside-down in Batman #666.

I assume the “turvy-world” Pyg speaks of is the real world, since he refers to his Dollotrons as “well-spoken ladies” and “flower girls” (again with Pyg seeing himself as a Henry Higgins figure from Pygmalion, providing a rather arrogant service).

Pages 6-7: This section of the rant is less filled with references, so it’s more difficult to contextualize and, I think, more just provides a map of the contours of Pyg’s brain. I’m unsure if he wants to give the whole world the proverbial “pig’s trotters” or try to take them away; there’s also, again, the reference to a sickness, that Pyg’s embraced and he wants to exhibit to the world.

Page 9: As Batman noted earlier, the bombs we saw at the end of #2 were just an early distraction to get the chaos going for these germs, likely based on the mind control agent Pyg was selling the Russian human traffickers.

Page 10: Sasha seems into the “extreme justice” thing right off the bat, so she’ll probably fit in well with her new friend revealed at the end of this issue. I do love how Pyg actually squeals like a pig when he’s injured, though.

Page 11: I know Morrison’s credited Momus’s “Pygmalism” as the inspiration for this character, but all the “run piggie run!” references continue to remind me of Trent Reznor circa 1994’s swine obsession. I guess the ghost train ride is pretty broken down since Gordon took it back in 1988.

Page 13: Pyg seems to freak out when Batman shows up, like he was expecting and planning for it, and also seems concerned that he “isn’t dressed” (I wonder if that refers to the nice suit he was wearing in 666). When Batman’s about to knock him out, he’s cowering and babbling apologies like a child; could the figure of Batman have been a part of the psychological experiments that led to his creation, or is he just scared of the big scary guy in the black outfit?

Page 14: The Batman/Robin double-kick here mirrors the double-punch they gave Toad near the beginning of #1. I’m not sure if “the pig pen” is simply a joke Dick’s making or an actual name for Pyg’s base of operations.

Page 15: Note the next domino in the sequence (twelve-eleven) is laid down next to the experiment vials; I wonder if Pyg himself wrote “antidote” on the vial, or if it was whoever apparently showed up and dropped off the domino.

Page 16: Pyg is certainly a masochist. Batman iterates the stuff I alluded to earlier regarding the fact that there was a pre- and post-Pyg Lazlo Valentin. Gordon’s hatred for this abandoned circus is caused by his experience being tortured here by Joker during The Killing Joke, which was also referenced by Morrison back in #663 when Gordon showed derision towards Solomon and Sheba, the Joker’s two deformed dwarf mascots that he paraded around in that story.

Page 17: Note that Gordon’s still a little bit sick himself - if he represents Gotham, the “it’s not over” shows that he, and the city, are still somewhat sick. And in the final panel, Batman clearly establishes his role in the equation - as the antidote to the sickness of crime that infests the organism of Gotham. And, of course, the twelve-eleven domino is shown and clearly established as part of an ongoing mystery.

Page 18: Again with the sickness - the experiments that made Pyg sick are now occurring, on a larger scale, to the entire city. Pyg recognizes his master’s work in the grand scheme.

Page 19: This scene finally fleshes out both the first page of #676 and the second-to-last scene of #681; Le Bossu’s dialogue here is taken verbatim from the end of #681, and the “EVEN BATMAN AND ROBIN ARE DEAD!” line is a clear predecessor to the exclamation at the beginning of #676, “BATMAN AND ROBIN WILL NEVER DIE!”

Page 20: I assume Le Bossu’s face looks different here partially because of Quitely’s art style and partially because, rather than before, his face is actually disfigured as opposed to simply a mask. It’s also worth mentioning just how much Morrison uses power drills in torture situations in his run; the Third Batman had it, and now we’ve seen both Professor Pyg and Le Bossu wielding them.

Page 21: The picture of Bruce, Dick, Alfred and Ace from #1 is placed next to a picture of Damian and Talia, his own “mommy made of nails” that led to his unique brand of morality. As Alfred shutters the windows for sunset, a mysterious figure is watching from a nearby gargoyle - it’s unclear whether this is the upcoming Red Hood or an agent of the Black Glove a la the end of #665. (At the very least, in this case I certainly can’t stubbornly claim it’s Alfred.)

Page 22: I assume the “others” Sasha is killing are all the other Dollotrons, since they actually had the mind-control agent applied and she didn’t.

Page 23: She still seems pretty obsessed with Niko - was that the one she was just strangling, to put him out of his misery? Does she even know which one is her dad? If this new Red Hood is Jason Todd, he clearly doesn’t seem to have much of an aversion to blasting cops in the back of the head.

Page 24: The new Red Hood (or at least the new Red Hood outfit) debuts, setting up the next three-issue arc. The “next issue” clue at the bottom implies SOMEBODY with a black-gloved hand - either the Black Glove itself or just the Red Hood - is behind the dominoes, with an ascending (rather than descending like the ones dropped earlier) sequence. The Hood himself seems to be carrying an assortment of screwdrivers and power tools, so I assume he casually engages in torture.

And that’s it for annotations! But let’s take a look at a few general points and unanswered questions:

• I didn’t really comment much on the fight scenes since so much of that comes down to Frank Quitely’s unbelievable fluidity. There’s not much in the way of dialogue or clues there, just pure masterclass fight choreography in sequential storytelling.
• Question one: Who is the Red Hood? Jason Todd is the obvious choice, and the “domino” theme would even kind of tie in with his everpresent domino mask back from his earlier Red Hood costume (although that’s a stretch). Other than that, I can really only fathom another completely new player, or another agent of whoever transformed Professor Pyg (although he’s clearly at odds with Pyg, since if he is the domino killer then he shot Mr. Toad).
• Question two: Who completely fucked up Lazlo Valentin? It’s all but stated that, at some point, he went from being a fairly normal skeezy guy who ran a low-rent “extreme” circus to a batshit insane diabolical supervillain, and that whatever happened to him involved isolation chambers (”pits of despair”) and human recreations of Harry Harlow’s surrogate-mother experiments, to the point where he now transforms people into perfect dolls in an attempt to appease a synthetic surrogate mother made of nails that he feels he can never please. Since we’ve already had one major villain in this run who ran ethically questionable experiments on people in attempts to modify their behavior, and we know he’s coming back, I can’t help but think that it’s our old friend Simon Hurt.
• And finally, although this is more of an afterthought: whatever happened to Ellie, the girl hanging out with the hookers back in Batman #664? Morrison seemed to spend almost a whole page on her, and her cheek pattern matches that of the dollotron in #666, so is that just an Andy Kubert tic or could we see Ellie come back in some role or another? Wayne offered her a job as a receptionist at Waynetech, so…

See you in 24.

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Shifting back to empirical reality, we also take a look at Marvel’s Strange Tales anthology, which gives “indie” creators an opportunity to play in the superhero sandbox. Will Johnny Ryan make jokes about bodily functions? Will Peter Bagge slip in creeping references to Libertarianism? Will Nick Bertozzi somehow make M.O.D.O.K. an oddly touching tragic figure? Spoilers: Yes, yes, and yes!

We’ll be back later this week for a characteristically contentious chapter in our Young Liars Trilogy!

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First up, Marvel debuts Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D. #1 as a “Motion Comic” on iTunes, over a month before the plain ol’ paper version hits the stands. Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev are an all-star creative team, but can they transfer the magic of their Daredevil run onto your iPod? Will there be Clutch Cargo lips? We tackle these questions and more!

Then, we take a look at IDW and Darwyn Cooke’s Richard Stark’s Parker: The Hunter, the first in Cooke’s planned series translating Stark’s 1960s crime novels into funnybook form. Not every one on the podcast is in love with The Hunter, but do those flaws lie with the Cooke’s adaptation or the source material? Could Parker just not be made for these times? Or, if the rest of the blogosphere is any gauge, are we objectively wrong?

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First off, the continuing battle over San Diego panels, focusing on the kerfuffle between fans of Venture Brothers and Fables!

Then, we explore our muted reaction to Captain America Reborn, despite our longstanding enjoyment of Ed Brubaker and company’s Cap run.

Finally, we sink into the pit of despair that is the Jeph Loeb Happy Hour. This segment is not recommended for children under the age of twelve, women who are pregnant or nursing, listeners with heart conditions, or anyone wishing to maintain faith in the inherent goodness of humanity!

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If anyone cares, we were using podPress to manage our podcasts. Its developers abandoned it over a year ago, and so we had no support when it refused to serve our new podcast to iTunes. We have switched to Powerpress from the fine folks at Blubrry. The only downside is the disruption of our totally awesome site design for the time being.

Everything should be up, but let us know if anything doesn’t work and keep listening!

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But none of that should matter to people not holding stock in Marvel. The real question is, was it a good read? This week we review Millar and Hitch’s full sixteen issue run. We also take a brief survey of Jonathan Hickman’s forays into the Marvel Universe, as he prepares to take over Fantastic Four later this month.

And yes, for one episode only, we’ve rebranded ourselves as The World’s Greatest Comics Podcast!. Why not? We’re the closest thing to Shangri-La on Earth!

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Special attention is given to IDW and Darwyn Cooke’s 2008-announced, 2009-released Parker: The Hunter, an adaptation of Richard Stark’s 1962 crime novel. Are we in for a renaissance of graphic adaptations? Will we soon see Frank Cho tackling Apuleius’s The Golden Ass? Questions persist!

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Universal War One was typical military science fiction done in that hyper detailed French comic style that makes my mouth water. I enjoyed the early direction the story took, but the book lost me when it got bogged down in using time travel to resolve the storyline and to justify the characters’ motivations. Still, it left me with a desire for more stories that had a sense of adventure to them, and this mindset influenced several of the books I bought at MoCCA.

Pug Davis #1, by Rebecca Sugar stands out since it was closer to an experimental art comic than the rest of my purchases. Pug follows the space adventures of All-American hero Pug Davis, a man with a pug’s head, and The Blouse, Pug’s effeminate sidekick. Sugar uses the first two pages to set up the duo, Pug resolves situations with his fists while The Blouse cowers in fear. This leads into a second story where they are attacked by floating brains that cause people to relive their worst memories, like a reverse Black Mercy. Sugar demolishes this section. I must have gone over it six or seven times, digesting pages that made not only clear narrative sense but also were bleeding over with emotion and power. This second story also expands the characters of Pug and The Blouse in a sequence where they experience each other’s past. This is followed by this moment of downtime where they recover from the attack and try to hash out what they just saw. It’s a very clever and natural way for Sugar to provide the main characters’ origins. So far Sugar has done three issues,are all available on her site. While you are there I highly recommend you check out one of her other stories, “Don’t Cry for Me, I’m Already Dead”. It’s phenomenal.

I ended up talking with Sugar and her tablemate Ian J about the type of books I was looking to buy. Ian recommended that I check out The Mourning Star series by Kazimir Strezepek. I actually spied it earlier on Bodega Distribution’s crowded table but was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of options they offered. Thankfully I went back for Mourning Star because I enjoyed both volumes released so far. The series follows the survivors of a world nearly destroyed by a comet. The story jumps between different groups: a young man looking to find his kidnapped sweetheart, an amnesiac warrior, and a gang that is slowly taking over what is left of society. Strezepek lets the stories play out individually, building up aspects of this world’s culture, people and society. I enjoyed that Strezepek eschewed a main narrative but instead using the crossing paths to drive the stories forward The Mourning Star are smaller than your average comic, running five and half inches on each side, only allowing no more than four panels per page. Strezepek paces his story so that the size never feels like a limitation. I also enjoyed the little bits that he includes, like a Baby’s First Dictionary for one character’s artificial language. It is details like that which make a world filled with magic, different species of characters, and dangerous weapons so much deeper. It’s the type of world building I would playfully mimic as an adolescent. If you spent your childhood years filling up composition books with mystical worlds, characters, and weapons, I believe you’ll dig these books as much as I did.

I only read Asterios Polyp because Jamaal had asked me to buy it for him. I’m glad he did, because it will be the book every other great comic this year will be measured against. There isn’t a single aspect of Polyp that I do not love and that David Mazzucchelli doesn’t nail. It’s a master class on visual storytelling and a constant reminder that we still have tons and tons more depth in this medium. It also features graphical storytelling through charts, which I can never ever get enough of. I can’t wait to discuss this in detail on the podcast.

I was attracted to Neil Kleid and Jake Allen’s Brownsville because it was about Jewish gangsters causing mayhem on the streets of 1940s New York. The story follows Albert ‘Tick Tock’ Tanennbaum from his first encounter with Jewish mobsters until the end of his criminal career. Kleid draws much of the story from true events, but he is never able to tie them into a coherent story. Ironically, Tanennbaum never feels like a real person. He never pushes beyond being the cliche of a poor kid trying to make it. It doesn’t help that Allen’s art does a poor job of giving any of the characters a distinctive look. The black and white art could have used some color so that the numerous gangsters could be more visually distinctive. I felt like I was reading the storyboard for a movie, just getting the basics so I could understand how the scenes looked but needing the actors, the set designers, and others to fill in all the details. I have had similar issues with other historical fiction comics like Wire Mothers, but when this genre works, like it does in just about anything by James Sturm, it’s one of my favorites. If you do want to check Brownsville out, a good chunk of the comic is up on the NBM site.

Finally, I picked up Bourbon Island 1730 by Lewis Trondheim and Olivier “Apollo” Appollodorus. Jamaal and Chris call this one of their favorite books of 2008, and had I read it last year I would have agreed with them. Set on an island west of Madagascar, Bourbon Island mostly follows Raphael, a naive assistant ornithologist, as his group searches for the Dodo. They find themselves on an island preparing for the execution of a pirate captain who was the leader to many of the island’s citizens, ex-pirates themselves. Some pirates have become outcasts in the mountains and continue to fight for freedom, and they see stopping the execution as their last chance to usurp the upper class colonists who control most of the island. The colonists see it as the end of a long campaign to finally control this uncivilized part of the world. Those trapped between the two sides wish to keep their friends alive but not lose the little safety they have achieved. Appollo and Trondheim handle complicated ideas and viewpoints in incredibly subtle ways. Where weaker writers might have used extensive monologues to portray each side, they use a few choice words or a wordless panel. It succeeds as a historical fiction comic because it doesn’t just capture the events but also the feeling of that time period. They get the sense and scope of their world across with fantastic economy. It’s a book that will stick with you long after you read it.

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Since we recorded this podcast, Justice League: Cry for Justice has been dogpiled by an all-star cast of bloggers. It was relatively fresh news when we recorded, but it’s still a pretty bad comic!

Additionally, we look at two books about Greek emigres, David Mazzucchelli’s Asterios Polyp and Peter Milligan & Davide Gianfelice’s Greek Street #1. One of them is an easy lock for Book of the Year, while the other is the latest in a line of disappointing first issues from Vertigo. Which is which? Listen and find out!

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I just read an editorial by Sarah Jaffe of Blog@Newsarama that largely centered around the negative reaction we’re seeing to the Twilight fans practically storming San Diego as we speak. I don’t disagree that a lot of the negative reaction to their presence this year is instigated by either overt or covert sexism, nor do I disagree that, say, G.I. Joe fans should probably not be throwing stones about literary merit in their glass house. There’s certainly a segment of the commenting population that’s pissed off that girls are invading their boys’ club. I don’t deny that.

But I think there’s another reaction, as well, one that doesn’t seem to be articulated or responded to as much: the inclusion of Twilight exclusive coverage is just the latest development in the ongoing transformation of San Diego Comic Con - which, to some degree, is some sort of “embassy” of comic culture - from a convention where people talk about comics to an all-purpose obsessive fan emporium. Twilight isn’t the first property, nor will it be the last, that inspires a certain demographic to follow it with quasi-religious fervor, and comics as an industry are basically letting themselves get ghettoized by association. Why is there Twilight coverage at the San Diego Comic Con? Is it because the book and movie share science-fiction/fantasy elements that could be of interest to readers of science-fiction/fantasy adventure comics? Is it because of the upcoming manga-inspired comics adaptation? Or is it because the premier comics exhibition in North America has allowed itself to turn into a dumping ground for every major property trying to attract the greatest concentration of most obsessive fans possible to get media coverage?

I admit I haven’t read it, and from what I’ve seen it’s probably not my bag, but I’ve got no grudge against people who dig Twilight. My point here isn’t to slam the book, and if any people attending the panel grab some cool-looking comics in the exhibition hall and start discovering the medium: that’s fantastic! Then it worked. But I’m not sure whatever small gains could be made in that area are worth the fact that, once again, comics are going to be associated in the public eye with people who wait like fourteen hours in line for a one-hour panel and some exclusive sneak preview footage of a movie. I’ll admit I’ve got my obsessions when it comes to this medium - I love the storytelling, I hate spoilers, I’m generally impatient and eager to read new material every week. But I think we’d all do the industry a huge favor if we’d stop trying to sell and justify our fandom, and instead just embrace being a readership.

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Bloke’s entire entry on Perry Moore’s frequently-cited Gay Superhero List is: “First openly gay member of Marvel’s X-Force/X-Statix. Killed on his first mission.” This is all true, but before anyone construes Bloke’s death as a sort of editorial “punishment” for his homosexuality, the whole thing about Peter Milligan’s X-Force/X-Statix is that the whole team kept dying: six other presumably heterosexual team members died in the first three issues, and by series’s end, every single character — gay, straight, bi-curious, pansexual alien blob — had died. X-Force was a satirical look at Superhero-as-Celebrity and the fact that everyone in the book struggled with public and private identity politics while chasing the incredibly dangerous fame of being a superhero was the driving force behind the book. Writing the series off as “THREE GAY MUTANTS MURDERED” is woeful. But I digress.

Thinking further, I knew that there had to be a gay kiss before 2002 in a “mainstream” superhero comic book, and turns out I was right: James Robinson wrote one between “Blue Starman” Mikaal Thomas and his boyfriend Tony back in 1998’s Starman #45:

I know what you’re thinking — didn’t James Robinson kill Tony off yesterday in Justice League: Cry for Justice #1? He sure did. And everyone all stood up and yelled “JUSTICE!” at the top of their lungs for no rea– wait, what’s that? No one is actually reading Cry for Justice?

Okay, then perhaps you were thinking “why are one half of both of these gay couples oddly colored?” That’s a valid question too — could there be some sort of trend to avoid putting two “normal” looking dudes together in a couple? After all, Wiccan is dating the scaly green Hulkling in Young Avengers. And even unattached gay X-Men, like Young X-Men’s Anole and Graymalkin, have unusual appearances. Phat’s fellow dead gay X-Statix member Vivisector was a werewolf, and lest we forget the real first gay kiss in “mainstream” comics:

Way back in 1990, Doom Patrol #34 featured Monsieur Mallah and The Brain (in Cliff Steele’s experimental new robot body) consummating their desire for each other, then exploding because the robotic Body rejected the notion that it could be controlled by a Mind. It’s actually clever, hilarious and strangely moving in context, I promise.

I’m not bringing this up just to prove people wrong, though people are quantitatively, objectively wrong and that always bothers me. But any sort of progress exists on a continuum, and when everything gets snapped back to THE FIRST __________ it ignores all the progress others have made, as sporadic and imperfect as that progress may be. I’m not even trying to make a comprehensive list of Gay Kisses in Comics — there’s Midnighter and Apollo in The Authority, Obsidian and Damon Matthews in Manhunter, lots of “non-mainstream” books from Vertigo and “independent” publishers, to say nothing of lesbian kisses, which I am sure many would discount for the male-gaze titillation they cause anyway. All of these exist.

You may not like the way that these characters were treated afterward, or that they weren’t as high profile as two X-Men — though really, Rictor and Shatterstar as “high profile” X-Men is like calling Lobot and Kit Fisto “high profile” Star Wars cast members — but they’re part of publishing history. Erasing this progress every time another “milestone” hits, or stretching to make sure that the next time something like this happens gets called “The First Gay Kiss Between Two Superheroes [Who Were in Costume and Also One of Them Had His Own Ongoing Series Within the Past Five Years]” or something seems to accomplish nothing. Except maybe keep the perception going that comics are backwards and socially conservative and homophobic. I don’t know who this benefits. Discussing the whole continuum of portrayals of gays (or women, people of color, people of a certain faith, anyone) with all the good and bad things that come with that, seems far more enlightening than “Firsts”. And really, why are there so few gay characters that look like a flesh-and-blood human could in real life?

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Check back later this week for the second half of our recording session, where we discuss LONGBOX, something we are told will change something for an indefinite period of time!

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But before delving into “indie books [you'll] never care about”, we take a look at two summer blockbusters: Batman & Robin #1 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, and Dark Avengers #5 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato! Do either books have The Goods? Listen and learn!

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We chose to use Huggabroomstik’s music because their sound has always seemed compatible with our podcast’s style, and their lyrics sounded like they would make the greatest comic book.

You can check out more Huggabroomstik on iTunes, MySpace, or at cdbaby.

The third annual Huggabroomstock Festival kicks off July 11th at Goodbye Blue Monday in Brooklyn.

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• What comics do we actually like?
• Whatever Happened to Downcounting
• Do you guys like Grant Morrison?
• Who would be the greatest Black Lantern?

And others! Tune in next week for our March on 300, and say hello if you see any of us at MOCCA this weekend. Thanks for listening, everyone!

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And we’re back after those messages! Finally, the main narrative line of the Batman books returns with Grant Morrison at the wheel aided by the ever-incredible Frank Quitely. And, in an all-new team-up, Alex Sinclair on colors, which leads to such interesting effects as the sky behind Wayne Tower looking like a badly compressed .GIF. While this issue is significantly more straightforward than the past few issues of Morrison’s Batman run, I have no doubt that things will get complex and trippy eventually, and until then it’s probably best to keep up continuity with these annotations, no? Besides, they’re fun.

Page 1: And Morrison goes for the in media res opening, as we’re introduced to the crime gang of Toad, Niko and Lev. I can’t take credit for this - so I’m linking to the Comic Bloc post that clued me in, and kudos to Ed Garland - but the Toad is a pretty clear reference to the Frog, nemesis of Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse, an anthromorphic animal variant on Batman and Robin who had a flying car and were created by… Bob Kane. Cute. “Minger” is British circus slang for cop.

Pages 2-3: This is a car chase in a tunnel. Check out that engine through the grill of Toad’s car, though - holy shit!

Pages 4-5: The blueprints Damian is referring to probably have something to do with the gyroscopes mentioned later - the blueprints for maintaining balance that Damian hopes to perfect, an idea I’m sure has multiple meanings. I’m fairly certain Dick’s apology there is dripping with sarcasm.

Page 6: Toad seems pretty welcoming of death here, a trait that might extend to the rest of the Circus of Strange.

Page 7: “Josser” is, once again, British circus slang for non-circus people. The “Pyg” he references is Professor Pyg, a new villain who we’ve previously seen in the future crucified by Michael Lane in his Third Batman outfit, all the way back in Batman #666, starring Damian as Batman.

Page 8: The synchronized, symmetrical punches to Toad’s face are evocative of the ’60s Batman TV show, which is cited as an influence.

The last time around, we had roulette wheels and playing cards repping for red and black at the battle to dominate the “villain’s game metaphor” proceedings, what with the Black Glove and the Joker’s Dead Man’s Hand. Now, those colors mostly form the signature colors of Batman and Robin themselves (especially with the flying Batmobile), while these dominoes are WHITE and black - and, despite still having an element of chance, more of a skill-based game. Could this signify that Gotham’s “game” has changed itself, from life vs. death and random acts of violence to good vs. evil and considered planning? Or do I just have apophenia?

Page 9: “Nanti” and “dinari” are, again, British circus slang for “nothing” and “money.”

Page 10: “Goodnight, mechanical dinosaur.” The wrecked old Batcave, along with Wayne Manor above it, is abandoned. The dog in the picture of Bruce, Dick and Alfred in better days is almost definitely faithful old Ace the Bat-Hound, who I guess had to get Aced at the Bat-Pound at some point (his Post-First Crisis version disappeared after No Man’s Land). I’m surprised Morrison hasn’t done that story yet, actually, considering his affection for animals.

Page 11: I’m guessing the unmarked grave next to Thomas and Martha (who I didn’t think were buried on Wayne Manor territory but what do I know, apparently) is Bruce’s, especially with the little bat-symbol-esque flourish on the top. This is the body that was left in the wake of Darkseid’s Omega Beam attack in Final Crisis #6, which has also recently shown up again in Blackest Night #0. I don’t know if we should consider the revelation of Bruce’s last wishes to Dick, that he not become Batman, in Battle for the Cowl #3 as canon, but if we do then Alfred’s statement regarding Bruce’s pride becomes pretty curious as I continue to hang on to my suspicion that Alfred is playing a sinister role in this entire affair.

Page 12: That said, I really can’t in any way argue with the return of the downtown penthouse Batcave (previously used pre-Crisis by Bruce), introduced in classic new-Batcave cut-away style. It’s definitely more befitting a man of Dick Grayson’s youth and vitality, and also nicely lines up with The Dark Knight, which Morrison expressed considerable fondness for. I have to admire Alfred’s ability to carry a tray of drinks and sandwiches while climbing down a ladder, as well. Dick’s using the new Batcomputer, looking up dominoes; the fact that Morrison goes out of his way in the script to equate them with bones will probably have some sort of future significance. Much like his father, Damian is immediately dismissive of Alfred’s food.

Page 13: Gyroscopes maintain balance, and I can’t imagine a man who found maintaining balance a “source of endless frustration” more than Bruce Wayne. Damian again seems almost dismissive of Alfred, while the statement “I promised I’d finish what he started” certainly seems rather more loaded than its immediate meaning. Dick brings up the circus slang, which he’d of course know from his days as a boy acrobat in the circus, as a clue to his organizational origin.

And, in a development that certainly provides further credence to Chris’s food theory, Dick absolutely loves Alfred’s sandwiches - which could be taken as Dick buying what Alfred’s selling (if, indeed, Alfred is in any way sinister) or simply the fact that Dick is, like Tim Drake, more of a normal human being. Damian’s used *TT* as a sort of more dismissive variant of Bruce’s traditional *HH* a few times now, dating back to Batman #658; I can only assume Morrison’s setting it up as a Thing.

Page 15: The red-haired dolls are Dollotrons, introduced along with Professor Pyg in Batman #666 - they basically act as his apparently mind-controlled automatons. The friends Toad is referring to in his cell are the Circus of Strange in the following panel; it’s possible, if totally unconfirmed, that they are in some way related with Bruce’s first major villain evil-psychologist Hugo Strange. Commenter FMguru correctly points out that the Ghost Train entrance indicates this is the same place as the abandoned circus the Joker bought and tortured Commissioner Gordon in all the way back in Batman: The Killing Joke.

Page 16: The neon lights of the Gotham cityscape in the first panel echo the colors mentioned in the prose issue of Batman #663 and the colors of Bruce’s Zur En Arrh personality. It’s widely speculated that Tim Drake’s become the new Red Robin, off searching for Bruce in his own title, but that’s unlikely to affect this.

Page 19: We saw this guy earlier in the Circus of Strange’s car, so I assume he’s the distraction so the rest of the gang can break Toad out.

Page 20: Niko seems to be stuffing parts of Dollotrons into his duffel bag.

Page 22: After Pyg’s rant hinting at the kind of fucked-up worldview that provides the backbone for most of the best Batman villains, the three preview panels seem to consist of Batman and Robin fighting Dollotrons and, interestingly, a double-twelve domino, as opposed to the dominoes throughout the rest of the issue that only went up to six per side. It’s also covered in blood, adding the familiar color red to what’s apparently now a black/red/white triptych - assuming the colors still hold meaning in relation to these games.

Page 23: Grant Morrison steals a page from the Geoff Johns Playbook with the “coming this year!” preview page, providing four interesting-looking little teasers:

1. Damian ripping off his Robin badge and quitting like the petulant child he… well, he is.
2. A new Red Hood, possibly Jason Todd, with a shadowed female sidekick who, as commenter Mike Barrett points out, is probably Sasha, Niko’s daughter from this issue, based on the hairstyle and her appearance in future solicitations - she’s mentioned as breaking out from Professor Pyg in issue 2, and issue 3 mentions “the origin of Scarlet” as related to a “mysterious red-hooded vigilante.”
3. Dick Grayson (presumably) fighting Kate Kane Batwoman as, it appears, Bruce Wayne rises from a Lazarus Pit. This might be the body left behind in Final Crisis, and it comes out a soulless automaton, providing evidence that Bruce was not truly dead.
4. Dr. Simon Hurt with the keys to Wayne Manor, signifying a return to the dangling mysteries from Batman R.I.P. - dangling like the keys in Hurt’s hand.

See you next month!

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So whether you want to vent about how the gentleman from Bay Ridge is a simpering idiot for not liking Casanova, ask for clarification re: a wrestling joke, promote your new mixtape - all comments are welcome!

We’ll be recording some time this weekend, so get your questions in to EDITORS at FUNNYBOOKBABYLON dot COM by… let’s say Saturday morning! And then thrill to one of us mispronouncing your name on our epic ONE HUNDREDTH EPISODE!

Funnybook Babylon: We’re at least 1/3 as dedicated as Dave Sim!

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