shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 21, 2014 13:29:25 GMT -5
Detective Comics #602
"Tulpa, Part Two: Night Moves" writer: Alan Grant pencils: Norm Breyfogle inks: Steve Mitchell letters: Todd Klein colors: Adrienne Roy assoc editor: Dan Raspler editor: Denny O'Neil creator: Bob Kane
Grade: C+
I have a nagging intolerance for titles that try to have double meanings, yet clearly don't have a primary meaning. The secondary meaning of the title "Night Moves" clearly corresponds to Jason Blood and Randu playing chess. However, this little attempt to be clever fails, both because there's really no significance to the chess playing in the story and because there is no other meaning behind the title "Night Moves." Yes, the action of this story occurs at night. That's pretty much true for 90% of Batman stories.
Oh well.
So here's the obligatory guest appearance of Jason Blood, designed to garner the reader's interest in The Demon. I don't think it works. I used to be a major fan of Wagner's take on The Demon (which is what is being pushed here) and I found Jason's presence, as well as the entirely unnecessary extraneous information we receive about the recent developments in his life, entirely tedious and not the least bit interesting.
Worse yet, Jason's correct in dismissing Batman's problem as just another run-of-the-mill incident in which a superhero is desperately trying to stop some escaped demon. The story really isn't any more clever than that.
Of course, Breyfogle's art is the saving grace, once again. I cannot get over how he chose to illustrate Tenzin's descent into his own mind in order to summon his demon (not Etrigan). I also found his choice of facial expressions for Batman, while telling Randu "I just hope I don't regret this!" on page 20, both comical and disarming. You just don't expect to see that kind of helplessness on Batman's face.
Probably the one thing Grant gave us in this issue that I enjoyed was the further development of Rafe Kellog's one assistant, who refers to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal and generally amuses us with his entirely out-of-place intellect in the world of mob enforcement.
The minor details
- This is a least favorite Batman cover of mine. Both the entirely blank background and the choice of vomit-orange to fill it disturb me.
- Page 3: "Niggling doubts"? What an obscure word. I wasn't even aware of it until I looked it up just now. Sure sounds uncomfortably racially charged, even if it isn't.
- Don't use the word "hoary" when entering a spirit word. It's practically trademarked by Dr. Strange.
- Batman refers to Alfred as "the old guy" on page 5. That really bugs me, somehow.
- Why did Tenzin create Tulpas that looked just like him? Kind of defeats the purpose of his not doing the crimes himself, doesn't it?
- Last issue, Batman suggested he had other means of tracking down the guy who robbed Wayne Manor when Tenzin destroyed the tracer device, but this issue, he's still on a random rooftop, looking through binoculars for nothing in particular, until Kellogg shows up and Batman makes the correct wild assumption that he might be connected to the thief.
- Batman wonders what Kellogg is up to at this time of night. Uh, doing mob stuff?
- Kellogg conveniently decides that, if Tenzin doesn't pay him tonight, he's going to kill him. Why now? He's been beating him up for nights on end, presumably since Tenzin's father died. Isn't it convenient that he arbitrarily decides this now, just as Tenzin has prepared the demon for him? Also, does Grant understand nothing about this line of work? Collecting something from the debtor is more logical than killing the guy if he can't produce the total amount and then going home with nothing.
- On page 10, Tenzin proclaims "N-no! It wasn't supposed to happen like this!" while the demon he summoned to kill Kellogg attempts to do exactly that. In what way was he expecting this to happen differently? Granted, Batman made an unexpected entrance, but he's not in frame and does not appear to be the source of Tenzin' concern in this panel.
- How do the police officers on pages 20 and 21 completely miss the giant six armed demon charging them until the very last moment? Instead of working so hard to convince them to take him in, couldn't Kellogg have just pointed at the darned thing?
- REALLY, what the heck is the point of the "From the Den" column? We're on the threshold of the biggest moment in Batman history, with tons of exciting storylines planned, new release schedules, the movie almost in theaters, etc, and all O'Neil can do is whine about losing his wallet. Clearly, the intent of this column is to function as a personal blog as opposed to providing any kind of worthwhile information to the reader, so why is Denny taking valuable space out of the letters columns of both Batman titles each month to do this? He even whines that he had no idea what to write for this month's column, so why not open up the space for more fan letters (the readership is certainly about to expand considerably!) or to provide worthwhile Batman-related news?
The plot synopsis in one long sentence:
Jason Blood whines to his friend, Randu, about having to share his body with Etrigan the Demon again, Tenzin (we finally know his name) summons a demon to protect him, Randu senses it, Batman is stalking the neighborhood and looking for the guy who robbed Wayne Manor when he spots Kellogg and (correctly) hopes he might be connected to the thief, he watches as Tenzin unleashes the demon and intercedes, Tenzin gets shot by Kellogg (who escapes with one assistant), Batman is unable to stop the demon and gets badly beaten, he learns from Tenzin that the demon is a tulpa and calls an ambulance for Tenzin, the demon keeps chasing Kellogg and his man, Batman goes to Jason Blood for help, but Jason refuses (no longer wanting to be involved in magic and fighting evil), and only Randu agrees to help.
Meh. If it wasn't for Breyfogle's art, this story would be incredibly tedious by this point.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 21, 2014 13:30:43 GMT -5
Well this is a significant post for me, both because it's the thousandth reply in this thread (wow, it's come a long way) and because it's the preface to my review of the first comic I bought as a regular reader/collector (Batman #436).
The first comic I ever bought was Detective Comics #552. I was 5 years old and stopping at the local 5 and dime after my doctor's appointment with my mother (as was our tradition) in reward for being poked and prodded. A superhero geek from birth, I usually picked out one of those 7" tall (?) rubber superhero figures but, since I'd been reading those mini comics that came with my Super Powers figures, I took notice of the comic spinner rack for the first time and asked for a Batman comic instead. I'd hoped to find something that had resembled the Superfriends adventures I adored and was disappointed that this wasn't the case. I couldn't even find Robin or a decent costumed villain in the issue, and I certainly didn't understand all the dense Moench narration. Had I been living in the 1960s, I might have become an avid comic fan right there, but this more mature comic of the 80s completely turned me off from reading for several years. I promptly tossed it aside and forgot about it for a long while.
When I was 8, I had been with my best friend and my mother at her school (she'd gone back to college) when a colleague informed her that Robin had just died and the comic was going to be an instant collector's item. It had been a long time since my encounter with Detective #552, and I didn't give a damn about comics, but I grew up on superheroes (especially Batman and Robin), so I cared a little. My mother drove us to the local stationary store (remember those?), gave us money to buy two copies, and told us to run in and find them. My friend had no interest in the comic and went to look at something else, but I started reading Batman #428 right there in the store and still remember my utter shock at seeing Jason's bruised, bloody, dying mother lying in the wreckage of a detonated bomb, as well as that panel where Bruce finally found Jason's body. Still, I didn't catch the comic bug from that, for some reason. Maybe I was still too young to appreciate the amount of time given to dense narrative introspection over actual action. Maybe I was still looking for something simpler and reminiscent of my childhood understanding of superheroes. Either way, it didn't take.
And, oddly enough, while I can recall my encounters with these first two comics with an almost photographic memory of both occasions (though I often misremember how old I was in both cases), I have next to no recollection of what led me to Batman #436. I know I was 9, I know I bought it at the comic shop that would become my first regular haunt, I know my mother drove me there, and I'm relatively sure #437 was the current issue, with #436 still on the stands (I guess due to the bi-weekly publishing schedule), and I know this was the moment that got me into comics, but I'm so vague on the rest. I figure one of three things happened:
1. I was so obsessed with the movie that either I or my mom thought it would be a good idea to check out the comics (#428 was still fresh in my mind and sitting in my desk drawer at home).
2. My best friend at the time got into Batman first and recommended that I do the same. I pretty much followed him through every possible fad.
3. We were there to rent movies (the store was primarily our regular video rental store that had loaned out the front quarter to a young guy running a small direct comics stand with a few long boxes of back issues) and I noticed the catchy Year 3 covers with ROBIN on #437 (he was my favorite character, and I thought he was dead).
I really don't remember.
Regardless, I came to Batman at about the same time as thousands of other new comic readers. I don't actually remember the Year 3 story that well at all, only the basics, but I loved those covers, and the "Part 1 of 4" business made the collector in me, who had only come off of baseball cards a year earlier, very excited. Denny sure knew how to dupe a kid with money.
So I became a regular reader of Batman. Lonely Place of Dying and Batman and Other DC Classics (a solicitation masquerading as a comic) would both soon turn me toward following the Titans as well. I'd soon start picking up Superman too (that was pretty much inevitable). A year and a half later, I'd start reading Spider-Man (beginning with the "Powerless" mega-arc), and X-Men (because my friend told me to, and several months before that title got into mega arcs and loads of #1s) Then Spider-Man #1, with its two covers, poly bags, and penciler who had no business receiving creative control over the title, hit the scene, the comic bubble opened wide, I started believing everything Gareb Shamus and his lackies at Wizard had to say about comics, and you can pretty much guess the rest from there.
The sad part is that I found myself lying on my bed one day at the age of 14, reading through the $30 of comics I had spent that week (I could barely maintain my pull list with my dog walking job), and realizing that I didn't enjoy the comics I was reading at all; I was just reading to get through them all before bagging them. Wolfman/Perez's New Teen Titans, Claremont's X-Men, and Shooter's Valiant runs aside, comics had never lived up to the grand storytelling adventures I'd always expected them to be. The covers were exciting, but the content within never did anything for me. I suspect now that this was due to a mix of being too immature for some comics (Grant/Breyfogle, for example), too mature for others (the new X stuff that was all about how hot you could draw Psylock or how improbably large you could make Cable's gun, and don't get me started on Image), and in the midst of the saddest period in comic history, in which pencilers, incentive covers, and mega arcs sold more books than quality writing.
Whatever the case, I left comics for a long, long time, and even though I returned to new comics in 2005 (leaving again this past year for much the same reason I did the first time around), I generally doubt that most mainstream comics published after 1990 are worth reading.
So this is an interesting point for me. I originally began this review thread in high anticipation of eventually getting to these issues from my own boyhood, but, the more I've come to realize what was happening under O'Neil and in the comic industry in general at the time, and the more I realize that I have fond memories for these covers and next to no memory of what's inside, I grow pessimistic in my expectations.
Still, I go in, hoping to prove myself wrong...
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 21, 2014 13:31:34 GMT -5
Batman #436
"Batman, Year 3: Different Roads" writer: Marv Wolfman pencils: Pat Broderick inks: John Beatty letters: John Costanza colors: Adrienne Roy assoc. editor: Dan Raspler editor: Denny O'Neil creator: Bob Kane
grade: C+
Odd that, on the cusp of the new Batman film, which (to my recollection) will be mainstream media's first ever brush with a solo Batman, the mega arc hitting newsstands is focused on his meeting the first Robin, reflecting on the loss of the second Robin, and laying groundwork for the introduction of the third Robin. Don't get me wrong -- I'm glad O'Neil didn't attempt to bow to the film depiction of Batman and abandon everything else; I just find the pairing odd, especially since O'Neil is consciously preparing these books for new readers coming off of the Batman film. Of course, we do know that Warner Bros. merchandizing department was furious that Robin had been killed off a year earlier and put a lot of pressure on O'Neil to correct this. Perhaps they demanded that a Robin-related story be on the stands at the time of the movie's release? Tim Drake's introduction in this storyline and his subsequent evolution into the third Robin were almost certainly a reaction to such pressure.
On a related note, I've often wondered if the reason Year 3 was published so long after Year 1 and 2 (which were practically published back to back) was because the movie had been in development by the end of Year 2 and O'Neil hoped to save this (perhaps the most significant aspect of Batman's origin after Year 1) for the release of the film (remember, Sam Hamm's original script did have Robin make his introduction late in the film).
Year 3 is odd, though. Whereas Years 1 and 2 were straight depictions of the major events that occurred in those years, Year 3 juxtaposes a current day gangland plot that appears to have no connection with Batman's past against flashback retellings of the origin of Anthony Zucco and, later, the Dick Grayson Robin. Batman is nothing more than supporting cast in this story that barely counts as an origin tale.
Surely, spending so much time on Zucco is a miscalculation on Wolfman's part. I get the thematic groundwork he's trying to lay -- depicting the coldblooded/murderous direction Dick could have gone in (and may still go in if Zucco is freed) and that Batman may be heading in as a response to Jason's death, but it's still an awkward choice, with his spending 11 of these 22 pages on the gangland killings and Zucco's origin before it becomes apparent at all how this is a Year 3 story, or even what the focus of this story might be.
Pat Broderick on pencils? You've got to be kidding me. I don't know if Broderick had some past heyday and longstanding reputation that allows him to get these jobs, but his last stint on Detective was atrocious, and his work here isn't much better. He draws kids like demented dwarfs, his faces are inconsistent, his panel arrangements are weak and awkward, and just look at how he annihilates the otherwise powerful death of the Flying Graysons on page 1 with terrible, terrible faces. This man should not be allowed anywhere near a comic book. Why in the world would O'Neil put Pat Broderick on the book that's supposed to win over new readers coming off of the Batman film?
So Dick is worried about Batman's sanity in this issue, but I don't see any signs of that over-the-line Batman we were seeing in earlier issues, here. In fact, I'd expect a more troubled Batman to let the gangland thugs "off" each other instead of working so hard to save them because their crimes don't excuse their murders.
Odd that this seems to be the first Batman story in months to actually mention Jason. Clearly, his death is the reason Batman has been acting differently, but I'm not sure we've actually heard his name being used since #430.
Probably the most significant aspect of this issue is that it provides the first appearance (in flashback) of Tim Drake, simply referred to as "Tim," here. He's a young boy who is present when the Flying Graysons are killed, awed both by their performance and by his first glimpse of Batman.
Continuity points:
- Dick stopped being Robin two years ago.
- Jason has only been dead for a few weeks (I found this surprising since he's been dead for 8 months in real time and hasn't been mentioned in quite a while).
- According to Alfred, the Flying Graysons were killed "almost ten years ago." This messes up both my timeline and O'Neils. O'Neil would have the Flying Graysons killed 7 years ago (He sees Batman starting ten years earlier, this occurred in year 3), and my own timeline I worked out from all the facts presented post-Crisis would have them killed 8.5 to 9 years ago. I suppose 8.5 to 9 can count as "almost ten," but it's a stretch.
- Of course, this story contradicts its own timeline with Zucco's attorney stating that he's already served 12 years in prison. I suppose he could have served two years, been paroled or escaped, and then served the rest after killing the Graysons, but that's certainly not implied here.
- Tim Drake appears to be anywhere between 2 and 4 years old at the time of Year 3 (Wolfman clearly doesn't have any young kids since Tim talks like a 2 year old, but is left with a life-long inspiration after seeing Batman and the Graysons that would require a 4 or 5 year old attention span). If we average it out to 3, then (following Alfred's timeline) Tim is about 13 in current time, and (following Zucco's attorney's timeline) Tim is more like 15.
- Minor detail, but the Clown at Haly's Circus who befriended a young Dick Grayson is Harry. I'm relatively sure it was determined in DC Comics Presents #31 and again in Batman #337 that his name was Waldo in the pre-Crisis, unless this was a different clown from Haly's Circus (who, incidentally, was later revealed to be the friend of a young Jason Todd).
- Batman is still wearing the Year One chest symbol in Year 3, yet he was wearing the modern one in Year 2. Oops.
- At least one on-looker is convinced Batman is wanted by the police. This both links back to the events of Year 2 and suggests that Batman's reputation had not been firmly established by this point. Clearly though, he's not seen as an urban legend, as O'Neil tried to make him out to be early on in the reboot.
- Dick was originally sent to St. Jude's Orphanage before Bruce took him in.
minor details:
- I'm not sure how many times Dick's origin has been retold since Detective #38, but Wolfman does a nice job of adhering to the original details, fleshing out "Zucco" and even having the triple spin be a stunt performed in both tellings of the final Flying Graysons performance.
- Dick describes Wayne Manor and states:
"There's always some new work of art. Or furniture. Or something imperceptibly different that I know has changed and yet can't pinpoint. Only Bruce could keep track of everything he owns."
Since when has Bruce ever taken an interest in Wayne Manor and all the "stuff" within it? This just doesn't sound like him at all.
- Wolfman is truly trying to make Dick and Bruce seem like strangers to one another, with Dick returning to the cave and viewing it as if he has no relationship to the boy who played there. As a reminder, Bruce and Dick initially parted on friendly terms, both in Batman #217 (pre-Crisis) and Batman #408 (post-Crisis). Starlin revised the second parting in flashback, presenting it as a conflict that ended in hostilities between Bruce and Dick in Batman #416.
- Alfred's depiction of the Graysons' final discussions before their last performance is sickeningly saccharine, especially as Dick's mother randomly asks him if he's happy at the circus or wants a more normal life. I suppose one could argue that Alfred is intentionally presenting it this way for the benefit of the parole board, but I doubt it. I generally love Wolfman, but he's far from a perfect writer.
- Okay, I know that this has been canon from day one, but explain to me both why a local mobster would be hitting up a traveling circus for protection money (a traveling company wouldn't be familiar with Zucco's reputation and wouldn't be around for long anyway) and how his men would have cut the ropes so quickly after that discussion. I mean, if Dick saw them and ran back to tell his parents, he wouldn't notice the men going in the same direction, or wouldn't spot them in the catwalks while he was up there, waiting to perform?
- Alfred concludes by saying "I've come to you each year since he's been eligible for parole, and showed you how this man has not repented."
Uh, no he hasn't. His entire point (in the story he allegedly tells every year that Zucco comes up for parole) has been that Zucco did something terrible ten or twelve years ago. He's made absolutely zero mention of who Zucco is today. And, while we'll inevitably see that Zucco is still a bad seed today, does Alfred truly believe that criminals can never reform? That certainly doesn't seem to be the Batman line of philosophy, endlessly returning criminals to prison or to Arkham in the hopes that they'll change, rather than intentionally crippling or killing them because they'll just be paroled and do it again. Perhaps Wolfman and his depiction of Alfred should be working with the Punisher?
- That cliffhanger ending: "Ha! Nothing could've survived in there -- NOTHING!" I guess they killed Batman...for good. Wow. Who saw that one coming?
The plot synopsis in one long sentence:
Batman is trying to stop a series of gangland killings and figure out who's responsible, Alfred shows up at Anthony Zucco (the murderer of the Flying Graysons)s' parole hearing to argue why he should not be paroled, he recounts Zucco's origin and the death of the Graysons, explains that he worries what Zucco's being freed will do to Dick, and Dick returns to Wayne Manor, worried about Bruce after Jason's death.
I love Wolfman. I really do. But he's written some true stinkers and, so far, this is one of them. I'm at least enjoying getting new info about the Bat continuity, but Wolfman even screws that up with the discrepancies in how long ago Year 3 occurred.
...and Pat Broderick's pencils are not helping.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 21, 2014 13:35:47 GMT -5
Detective Comics #603
“Tulpa, Part 3: When Demons Clash” writer: Alan Grant pencils: Norm Breyfogle inks: Steve Mitchell colors: Adrienne Roy letters: Todd Klein assoc. editor: Dan Raspler editor: Denny O'Neil creator: Bob Kane
grade: C+
There really isn't too much to say about this one. It's a long and relatively uninteresting half-issue setup for the entrance of Etrigan, which does provide a decent pay-off, especially as Batman dares to try to fight him, one-on-one, for the sake of protecting the souls of two criminals. Etrigan's response to this is utterly priceless, a perfect intersection of Grant and Breyfogle's talents to provide one fantastic laugh-out-loud moment. Clearly, Breyfogle enjoys drawing Etrigan and depicting his extreme temperments.
It's also a bonus that Grant is a good rhymer. The last time someone tried to rhyme in these pages, it was Moench depicting that awful poet working for Mr. Freeze who had to call Batman “Man of Bat” in order to make the rhyme scheme work.
Still, this story was all over the place. What began as a pretty typical Grant story bled into a second unnecessary issue of pure filler in which we got to watch two criminals comically attempt to outrun a demon and not much else, and then we got this final installment of half filler/ half Etrigan guest shot. This easily could have been told in two issues as opposed to three and, even then, it would feel like it was suffering from a tonal and thematic identity crisis.
The minor details:
-So let's be clear. Tenzin is still alive and still capable of summoning tulpa and demons whenever he needs a quick solution to his problems.
-The same cop who, at the end of last issue, seemed to have no idea who Kellogg was, laughing at him as he tried to confess and get himself arrested, addresses him by name at the beginning of this issue.
- Batman sought out the help of magic just so that he could charge into battle without consulting Randu and use a wrecking ball against the demon instead of waiting to see what magic-related solutions Randu could offer. Truly, it seems the only reason for bringing Randu was so that Grant could give Jason Blood a reason to finally become Etrigan.
-Why does Batman know how to operate a forklift? This couldn't have been something Bruce Wayne needed to know, and I doubt Batman sought out a construction expert when training to become a crime fighter. Maybe Matches Malone got a day job working for a crime family at one point?
-Denny seems to have heard my complaint, as his useless “From the Den” column has been replaced with news about upcoming Batman stuff this month. I hope this is a permanent change. Denny's ego is big enough without his having a personal soapbox at the back of these books.
The plot synopsis in one (brief, for once) sentence: Batman and Randu try to stop the demon and fail, and Etrigon intervenes.
For a cheap cross-promotion story, this was kinda' fun, but it was still a cheap cross-promotion story.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 21, 2014 13:36:36 GMT -5
Okay, I've updated and expanded my Post-Crisis Batman timeline and finally worked out a major kink, getting it to sync with references in Batman #431 and The Cult, as well as Denny O'Neil's assertion that Batman had been active for 10 years when the continuity rebooted Post-Crisis.
__________________________________________________ The Post-Crisis Batman Timetable
19 years prior to Year 1 -- The Reaper retires after a career of protecting Gotham through murderous vigilantism (stated as having occurred 20 years prior to Year 2 in Detective Comics #575).
18-19 years prior to Year 1 -- Alfred Pennyworth's father dies; Alfred takes his place as butler to the Waynes (all immediately prior to the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Batman Annual #13). Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered (20 years prior to Year 2, as stated in Detective Comics #578, 18 years prior to Year 1, as stated in Batman #404). Bruce is taken in by Dr. Leslie Thompson. Alfred watches over Wayne manor and remains involved in Bruce's upbringing (Detective Comics #574 and Batman Annual #13).
12 to 13 Years prior to Year 1 -- Bruce attends college and studies criminal justice (presumed. Detective #574 implies he attended college in Gotham since he was still under Dr. Thompson's care. I'm assuming he attended before going abroad for 12 years, that he would have been at least 18 at the time, and that he was no more than 12 years old when his parents were killed -- the same age Dick Grayson was when Bruce took him in. Going with this timeline, Bruce only would have attended a year or two of college. This makes sense since he did all of his learning outside of class and therefore wouldn't need four years of classes.
12 Years prior to Year 1 -- Bruce goes abroad and does not return to Gotham until Year 1, presumably in preparation for his war on crime (Batman #404). This potentially conflicts with the implication in Batman #431 that Bruce began his training less than a year prior to Year 1.
2 Year prior to Year 1 -- Bruce spends six months training with Henri Ducard (established that he had already trained for ten years prior to this in Detective #600, which agrees with Batman #404 that Bruce trained for 12 years, but contradicts Batman #431's implication that he trained for less than a year).
6 months to a year prior to Year 1 -- Bruce Wayne studies under various mentors/trainers (studied under Kirigi ten years before Batman #431, which occurs in Year 10.5. It's implied that Kirigi was the first, or one of the first, mentors Bruce sought out "Kirigi would be but one of many...". Batman #434 also indicates that a significant number of the experts Bruce sought out were at the peak of their careers 7 years prior to year 10.5, including those in fields with short career spans such as a body builder and race car driver, suggesting the same approximate time frame).
Year 1 -- It's likely Bruce trained well into Year 1 before returning to Gotham (giving him 1 to 1.5 years to train under Kirigi and the 16 other people we're known to have trained him as of Batman #435). Bruce Wayne completes his training and returns to Gotham. Jim Gordon moves to Gotham and rises to the rank of Captain. Batman begins his career. James Gordon Jr. is born. Catwoman begins her career. Batman forms informal partnerships/friendships with Gordon and Harvey Dent. (Batman #404-407).
Sometime after Year 1 -- Jim Gordon begins to foster his niece, Barbara Gordon, after her parents die. Jim Gordon's wife divorces him and moves to Chicago with James Jr. at some point afterward (Secret Origins #20).
Between Year 1 and Year 2-- Batman switches to the yellow chest symbol (Presumed since he has it in Detective Comics #575, the beginning of Year 2). The Joker begins his career (presumed from the end of Year One in Batman #408, though this jibes uneasily with the events of Year 2, which suggest the Reaper is Batman's first major villain) after falling into a vat of chemicals while pursued by Batman as The Red Hood (assuming the Joker is telling the truth in The Killing Joke, though even he casts doubts on this). Jim Gordon is promoted to commissioner (Batman #575).
Year 2 -- The Wayne Foundation building is constructed. Batman fights The Reaper, who is implied to be the first major villain he has fought (Detective Comics #575-578).
Year 3 -- Dick Grayson's parents are murdered by Anthony Zucco. He is initially sent to St. Jude's orphanage under the care of Sister Mary Elizabeth (Batman #426). He is taken in by Bruce at age 12, becomes Robin at age 13 (presumed, working backwards from Batman #416)
Year 3-8 -- Most of Batman's rogues gallery is active for some time prior to Dick's retirement, but presumably not until after the events of Year Two (since it's implied that Reaper is Batman's first majro villain), including Two Face, Penguin, and Joker (Batman #408 and Detective comics #575-578)
Year 8 -- The first Robin is retired at age 19 and presumed dead by the general public (assuming Year 3 counts as a full first year when Dick tells Bruce he fought by his side for six years in Batman #416).
Year 9 -- Bruce takes in Jason Todd. Dick attends one year of college, leads the Teen Titans, drops out, becomes Nightwing, and "started a new life as leader of" the New Teen Titans (presumed from the timeline provided in Batman #416, which seems to imply that Dick formed the New Teen Titans after becoming Nightwing and never led it as Robin, yet Batman Annual #13 indicates that he did initially lead it as Robin).
Year 9.5 -- Jason becomes Robin six months after Bruce takes him in (Dick confronts Batman about Jason being the new Robin 18 months after his retirement in Batman #416; the preface for Death in the Family states that Jason became Robin 18 months after Dick retired). The general public believes it's the return of the same Robin (Batman Annual #13).
Between Years 9.5 and 10.5 - The Mike W. Barr run, featuring a younger, less jaded/impulsive Jason Todd (Presumed, though it is debatable whether this run counts in Post-Crisis continuity at all)
Year 10.5 -- the events of Batman #416 (takes place one year after the confrontation between Dick and Bruce over Jason becoming Robin, which occurred 18 months after Dick retired). The events of "The Cult" (indicates that Batman has been active for 10 years, presumably takes place after Batman #416), Batgirl retires and is paralyzed by the Joker (occurred in The Killing Joke prior to Jason Todd's death in Batman #426). Jason Todd is killed (occurred between Batman #416 and #431). The events of Batman #431 (Indicates Bruce trained under Kirigi ten years earlier and prior to becoming Batman, so could not have occurred later than Year 11, and we must assume Bruce needed at least 6 months to train under Kirigi and the mentors who were implied to follow before the events of Year 1. It's more likely he trained well into Year 1 before returning to Gotham, giving him 1 to 1.5 years to train under Kirigi and the 16 other people we're known to have trained him as of Batman #435).
Continuity glitches:
-Bruce's training. Batman #404 and Detective Comics #600 indicate he trained abroad for over ten years prior to Year 1, but Batman #431 implies he first began his training less than a year prior to Year 1 (Batman #434 roughly agrees with this, indicating that a significant number of the experts Bruce sought out were at the peak of their careers 7 years prior to year 10.5, including those in fields with short career spans such as a body builder and race car driver, suggesting the same approximate time frame).
-Year 3 and its distance from Batman #436. According to Dick, the events of Batman #436 take place only weeks after Jason Todd's death, yet Alfred claims the events of Year 3 occurred almost ten years earlier (making Death in the Family and all that followed occur in Year 12.5), and Anthony Zucco's attorney claims that Zucco has served twelve years in prison since that time (making those stories occur in Year 15 if Zucco was convicted and sentenced promptly after the events of that story).
__________________________________________________
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Post by shaxper on Jul 21, 2014 13:38:37 GMT -5
(1989 Batman film released in theaters)
Batman #437
"Batman, Year 3: Changes Made" writer: Marv Wolfman pencils: Pat Broderick inks: John Beatty letters: John Costanza colors: Adrienne Roy assoc editor: Dan Raspler editor: Denny O'Neil creator: Bob Kane
grade: B
I've got to give it to Marv. Whereas last issue was thoroughly unimpressive, this one tells a stronger story and, beyond that, makes an absolutely critical contribution to Post-Crisis continuity.
The problem I've been having with the Post-Crisis Batman all along is that his personality in Year One is borderline sociopathic and entirely in keeping with his over-the-top characterization in Dark Knight Returns, yet everyone who's written him since Miller portrays him as generally well adjusted (though Barr portrayed a barely contained darkness beneath the surface) and not turning towards being an anti-hero until the death of Jason Todd.
Wolfman takes great pains to connect these disparate portrayals of the dark knight in this issue, providing repeated explanations for the transition in characterization throughout the issue:
"Two years ago, the idea of a partner was unthinkable. Two years ago, I began to answer violence with violence. I was very effective. But the criminal element toughened themselves. To stay ahead, I had to change."
"Times are changing. Criminology isn't just a matter of stool pigeons and strong-arm techniques. Criminals are smart today and we've got to be even smarter."
"We can't just rely on physical force anymore. That's to be used only when absolutely necessary."
"My war's been a lonely one. At times I've felt swallowed up by it. Wallow in mud, you wind up dirty. Perhaps I need a reminder what I'm fighting for. I'm feeling good about this, Dick."
So, essentially, Bruce changed his Batman demeanor for two reasons: 1)The criminal element was changing, so he had to change with it, and 2)He realized he was getting sucked into it and saw Dick's partnership as a means of marking the boundaries and keeping his psyche safe.
Wolfman gives more attention to the first reason, but the second reason makes more sense, and it also does an excellent job of complimenting the underlying theme of Mike W. Barr's run, in which Bruce and Jason kept each other lighthearted, preventing one another from getting sucked up in their own personal darknesses.
Furthermore, it thoroughly reconciles the two dominant competing depictions of Batman -- the dark solo avenger, and 50% of the bright and campy dynamic duo. Really, was there a better time to publish this story than in the exact same week that the Burton Batman film was hitting theaters. in which millions of movie-goers were realizing for the first time that Batman could be dark and were therefore beginning to doubt the need for a Robin in his universe?
It's interesting that Dick seems to have no understanding that Bruce had ever been dark prior to their partnership. Twice in the issue, he refers to Bruce as having "never" been like this before. Wolfman takes a gamble here that the audience will be intelligent enough to realize that Dick's perspective is not as reliable as the flashbacks we are offered.
Beyond explaining Bruce's transition out of his Year One persona, Wolfman gives a lot more attention to both modern day Bruce and Alfred in this issue. Whereas we couldn't see anything wrong with Bruce last issue, we discover in this one that he pounded an informant to a bloody pulp after he had already freely offered all the information he had, and there's also the subtle point that Batman made no effort to save any of those mobsters from the explosion at the beginning of the issue...only himself.
Alfred is similarly offered more serious treatment, considering his intervention in Dick's upbringing to be the sole reason that Dick is not as disturbed as Bruce. I believe most other writers would argue that it was Bruce, himself, who made the difference by playing the role of the father/mentor he never had to the grieving boy he once was. Certainly though, Alfred was a "motherly" influence in that family portrait. Perhaps more significantly, Alfred is so worried that Dick will become like Bruce (and, in fact, seems to be trying to save Dick because he is unable to save Bruce) that he clearly has a gun on his bed at the end of the issue as he considers "SOMEONE has got to stop him." So now, Bruce, Dick, AND Alfred are all on the brink of crossing their moral lines and descending into personal darkness.
Another important point -- Wolfman once again reminds us that Bruce has (or at least had) a reputation for being an idle, useless womanizer, even to the sisters at St. Jude's orphanage who probably weren't watching Entertainment Tonight and reading People magazine. And yet, only two issues ago, we heard Commissioner Gordon describe Bruce Wayne as:
"...the man who turned the Wayne Foundation into one of the finest charitable institutions in this country...the man whom anyone will tell you is one of the finest citizens in Gotham..."
Perhaps he's somehow known for both? That's quite a PR balancing act.
As for the plot itself, things are finally beginning to come together. All the remaining mob families are attempting to unite against their unknown antagonist, Zucco turns out to be the mastermind behind it, and Batman appears to be about to make a deal with the mobs to stop Zucco, (which feels more than a little reminiscent of what happened in Year Two, but at least this time the alliance makes more sense, as does the thematic danger zone Bruce is allowing himself to cross into by doing this).
Pat Broderick...Okay, let me restate my gripes about him from last issue. It's not that he CAN'T draw. It's the fact that he's damn lazy and frequently combines decent to strong panels with utter crap. Take a look at the last panel on page 6. What the heck is Dick doing on that bike? Is he crying? Is the wind getting in his eyes? Oh, and Broderick didn't even bother to notice that Breyfogle already gave Batman a new Batmobile just last month in Detective Comics (it was even on the cover!). He gives Batman his own new Batmobile on page 6, and it's pretty ugly. It's also missing a passenger side door (though I think Broderick just got lazy again).
Hey, at least good ol' Pat made an effort on ONE panel of this issue -- page 5, panel four has got to be a deliberate attempt to copy Breyfogle's work on the cover of Detective #585. Sad. It's not like most loyal readers wouldn't have remembered that cover from a year and a half earlier. And, if he's following Breyfogle's work, then he really SHOULD have known about the damn Batmobile.
In case you haven't noticed, this is the first Batman or Detective cover since Death in the Family NOT to indicate the creative team on it. The next issue will similarly leave the creative team off. I have to wonder if this was because O'Neil didn't want to advertise that Broderick was doing pencils. Probably not, but you've got to wonder. He's certainly the weakest penciler O'Neil has put on either title yet (and I'm not even sure that's a subjective opinion).
Minor details:
- Wolfman seems to have added the bit about the Robin costume being based on the Flying Graysons costume. But wouldn't someone have noticed that connection and paired it with the fact that Robin first appeared shortly after the Flying Graysons' final performance?
- Wolfman does not attempt to explain the choice of the name "Robin" beyond having Dick explain to criminals that it's pronounced like "...Robinhood, not robbin' hoods! That's what you creeps are."
- Alfred is strongly opposed to Bruce allowing Dick to become Robin. He also seems more opposed to Bruce being Batman than in Year One or Two.
- Leslie Thompson, who was such a key player in Bruce's life in Year Two, is suspiciously absent from this story.
- Bruce does not make Dick swear an oath over a candle in this retelling. I'm very glad to see this.
- Bruce first starts using computers in the Batcave shortly before Dick becomes Robin. There does not appear to be a central "Bat Computer" at this point.
- Wolfman places a lot of emphasis on the amount of work and research that Batman and Robin had to put in before bagging the bad guys. On page 17, Batman explains, "Research and working with contracts took a week. This is where all that time pays off!" It's a far more realistic take on crime fighting, especially if you want Gordon to be able to lock the bad guys away after you pound them.
- Dick is cracking jokes from his first moments as Robin, even as he pursues the man who killed his parents. This doesn't seem consistent with the angry/saddened boy who wanted justice for his parents' killer eight pages earlier.
- For once, I'm kind of pleased with Denny O'Neil. In anticipation of the Batman film, he gives a lot more attention to younger, newer readers in the letters column rather than the typical fanboy. In his own words to one reader:
"It's particularly gratifying to hear from a new reader such as yourself, because there are so many of you out there. It's rare that you get a situation in which our writers must write each story as though it were the first Batman story someone out there is reading, but there days, that's precisely the case."
Of course, one might then ask why the very next storyline in this mag will be a 5 part crossover with parts 2 and 4 appearing in a sister title only available at direct market comic shops.
Still, O'Neil goes on to explain exactly how a comic is created and what the writer, penciler, inker, letterer, and colorist contribute to the story, and he even uses his "From the Den" column to explain how kids can get into comic book writing, rather than blathering on about his personal life for once. Really, it's a nice effort. I only wish he were as committed in delivering the kind of Batman these kids would understand and could believe in, not some haunted anti-hero whose dark cloud isn't going anywhere by the end of this story...or for the next two decades, for that matter.
The plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence:
The building with the mobsters (and Batman) inside of it is bombed, Nightwing starts tracing Batman's steps that evening, discovering how unnecessarily brutal he has become, he finds Batman at the bombing site and pulls him out of the wreckage, they fight, Nightwing chases him back to Wayne Manor, Alfred discovers Anthony Zucco will be paroled and worries (Dick still doesn't know yet), we see a flashback of Dick moving to Wayne Manor, being offered the opportunity to become Robin, training under Bruce, and finally going out on his first mission, Batman confronts the remaining mobsters with an offer of some kind, we discover that Zucco is the one killing the mob families from within prison as part of a plan he's been putting together for ten years to take over Gotham and is blackmailing a member of the parole board, and Alfred stares at a gun, considering that someone is going to have to stop him.
A much, much stronger issue, even in spite of Pat Broderick. Still not sure I buy or enjoy this soap opera-like tension between Dick and Bruce though.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 21, 2014 13:42:38 GMT -5
Post-Crisis Batman Jumps from Year 10 to Year 14: A Working TheoryEdit: This theory is now confirmed by Robin II #1, which takes place around a year after the jump, and has Tim at about 14 years of age while he was about two years old in Year 3.So for the one deranged person out there reading this who cares about post-crisis Batman continuity as much as I do, we have two glitches in the timeline right now, and I now believe both were intentional changes made because of what they did to the ages of characters. 1. Batman's age One of the discrepancies is in whether Bruce trained for twelve years before returning to Gotham (first mentioned by Frank Miller in Year One, reaffirmed by Sam Hamm in Blind Justice) or less than one year (supported by James Owsley in Batman #431, reaffirmed by John Byrne in The Many Deaths of the Batman). Clearly, Miller's original idea of Batman training abroad extensively for such a long period of time is more believable...until you consider how old that makes Batman. Bruce attended college before going abroad (Detective #574) and one must assume he would have to be at least 18 anyway to go abroad on his own without his guardian (Leslie Thompson, who clearly remained in Gotham). 18+12 makes Bruce 30 years old at the beginning of Year One. Not a problem until you consider that Year One occurred approximately ten years earlier, both according to numerous references in the books and to the words of Denny O'Neil himself. 18+12+10=40. Batman at 40 is not an impossibility, but who wants to START a rebooted continuity with an aging Batman beyond his physical prime, a full generation older than Clark, Diana, and Wally? How long could he be expected to continue as Batman in the rebooted continuity? So, reducing his training to 1 year allows him to be as young as 19 in Year One, and 29 in the present. He would have adopted a 12 year old Dick Grayson at the age of 22 -- really JUST old enough to be a believable guardian, and still young enough to have years of crime fighting ahead of him. I therefore assume that the length of Bruce's training was changed intentionally and, as improbably as it seems for a man to train under 17 or more experts in the span of a single year (especially if he still trained with Ducard for six months), it allows Bruce to remain as young as possible in the new continuity. 2. Tim Drake's age The other major glitch is when Year 3 happened. By all accounts prior to Batman #436, Year 3 occurred 6.5 years earlier. However, in Batman #436, Alfred indicates that Year 3 occurred 10 years earlier, and Anthony Zucco's attorney indicates it's been 12. I won't attempt to explain the disparity between those two characters' timelines, but either way, Year 3 suddenly needed to be further in the past than 6.5 years because of Tim Drake's age. In the flashback in Batman #436, Tim Drake appears to be two years old. He is still sounding out common multiple-syllable words and does not speak in sentences. Considering how advanced Tim will prove to be, he could even be one. 2 + 6.5 = 8.5 years old. Tim clearly isn't 8.5 years old when he appears in the present day in Lonely Place of Dying, and certainly, a Batman who had just lost Jason Todd wasn't about to let an 8 year old fight crime by his side. Instead, Alfred's new timeline makes Tim 12 in the present day (the same age Dick was when Bruce took him in [Batman #416], and the same age Bruce was when he lost his parents [presumed, working from Detective Comics #574 and #578], and Zucco's attorney's timeline would make him 14. Now, there's certainly a chicken and egg question here. Did Wolfman (or O'Neil) change how many years ago it had been since Wolfman had depicted Tim so young, or had he or O'Neil already decided to set Year 3 10 years in the past for some other reason, creating the need to make Tim so young in the flashback? Whatever the reason, Year 3 can only work 10-12 years in the past in order to make Tim old enough to be Robin in the present. So what does this mean for the continuity? I'll wait and finish Year 3 (and maybe Lonely Place of Dying) before deciding, but it looks like: - Bruce trained for less than one year prior to Year One - Blind Justice and Henri Ducard may be out of continuity entirely - The present day is now Year 14, and assuming no other references to the past have changed beyond that, Jason Todd was now Robin for 4.5 years as opposed to 1.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 21, 2014 13:45:38 GMT -5
Detective Comics #604
"The Mud Pack, Part One: Men of Clay" writer: Alan Grant pencils: Norm Breyfogle inks: Steve Mitchell letters: Todd Klein colors: Adrienne Roy assoc. editor: Dan Raspler editor: Denny O'Neil creator: Bob Kane
grade: A-
If you really think about it, in some respects, the "The Many Deaths of the Batman" storyline was the beginning of the "hype bubble" of the early '90s comic industry that ultimately led to its decline. I say that because it was the first comic mega-arc that had no real legitimate purpose warranting a multi-part story, nor warranting a special mega arc logo on each cover. O'Neil had gambled that creating a special logo and labeling each issue as part _ of 3 would convince readers that the story was somehow important and sell more books. Apparently, the gamble had paid off. Suddenly, you didn't need good writing, good art, or even a good idea to sell a book. A decompressed 3 to five part story and a cool logo sold the book for you.
I explore this line of reasoning because, if you accept it, then this issue was the next step in that long process towards hype and inevitable later decline. Regardless of the quality of this story, it's now the second mega arc created around a relatively unspecial premise -- a fun premise, but not a landmark story event by any stretch of the imagination. It's also the first time ever that two mega arcs were running concurrently, and both are for Batman ("Mud Pack" here in Detective, "Year 3" in Batman). The Batman film had just launched, and O'Neil tried to be ready, moving both books to bi-weekly publication and having mega arcs start in both titles, each with attractive specialty logos, just in time to attract new fans.
The weird part though is that, in reading this again after so many years, I was instantly reminded of exactly how this story came across to me as a 9 year old looking to get into comics for the first time. Grant and Breyfogle unquestionably take Batman to a more adult level than most other creative teams, and it comes across clearly in both Breyfogle's pencils and in Grant's dialogue. While I've come to appreciate the team as an adult today, I looked at these pages and clearly recalled what a turn-off they'd been to me back then. Even with colorful superhuman rogues at the center of the story, this just wasn't a kid-friendly book. O'Neil had done everything possible to appeal to new readers, changing the focus of his letter columns to be more kid friendly, creating these attractive looking mega-arcs, giving kids a Robin-centered story in Batman and a superhuman bad guy story in Detective (no more Aboriginal priests and Cornelius Stirks -- though he does make a brief cameo), but O'Neil missed out on the most important part. He made no effort to make the books accessible to kids. They were still written for brooding adult readers. It seems to me that, had I been in O'Neil's shoes, I might have taken this opportunity to brand the two Batman titles differently. Let the Grant/Breyfogle Detective title be the more adult-oriented home for Batman, and let the Batman title be the more colorful, kid-accessible title. That didn't happen. It's amazing I stuck around as a new young reader for as long as I did, as a result.
So the story itself --
I assume that O'Neil had specifically asked Grant and Breyfogle to have Batman fight a recognizable nemesis from the rogues' gallery in time for the release of the Batman film, and I love that they took it in this direction. Certainly, Matt Hagen hadn't been a major Batman antagonist since the 1950s, Preston Payne had shown up a mere three times in the past decade (even though he must have been becoming a fan favorite), Sondra Fuller showed up once(?) in The Outsiders, and Karlo hadn't been seen in over a decade. How many people would have actually known who all four of these characters were without a "Who's Who in the DCU" on hand? This is the first villain (or set of villains) Grant writes that he didn't have a part in creating himself, and I love that the obscurity of his choice still somehow gives him a partial "ownership" over these characters in the sense that they likely would have fallen to rot if he hadn't rebirthed them with this story. "The Mud Pack" really put the "Clayface" brand back on the Batman map, and I doubt if Matt Hagen would have made it into the Animated Series and become a household name to a whole new generation of fans without it.
Still, I can't help but suspect that the only reason Grant went this route was out of a desire to pick up where Alan Moore had left off with Preston Payne in the brilliant "Mortal Clay" story in Batman annual #11. Without recalling too many specifics, it seems to me that Grant, Wagner, and Moore all came out of similar comic writing experiences in the UK, and there certainly is a similar intelligence and punk poet sensibility in their writings. I can absolutely see why Grant would feel the need to explore Payne's character further after Moore had taken a second rate villain and transformed him into the parody of a tragic hero, which somehow made him more tragic still.
And I give Grant credit. He doesn't try to keep doing what Moore did. Moore's story had found its natural conclusion; it would be a waste to spin the same wheels again, so Grant takes him somewhere new. Whereas Moore left Payne still desperately clinging to a now fractured "normal" life with his mannequin wife, Grant provides the extra impetus to blow that delusion apart and send Payne into a new world of tragedy and rage. The highlight of this entire story for me was page five, panel 5, when that world finally shatters and the creepiest Preston Payne ever drawn (Breyfogle was truly on fire with this issue) announces:
"I don't want to hurt anybody but Helena's dead and I'm burning inside and I don't care any more!"
For Payne to have arrived at that point indicated a tremendous fall, a total loss of all he'd tried so desperately to maintain.
Beyond that, I really enjoyed the dialogue in this issue. I come and go with Grant's writing, but it seems to me that his greatest strength is the little signature dialects he gives to various characters so that you can actually almost hear them when you read -- Scarface, Ratcatcher, Stirk, and now all three of the Clayface's present in this story. Payne transitions from the tender but tragic language Moore had given him to a dialect suggesting interminable pain/tragic hunger in his unwillingness to stop for commas and sometimes even spaces between words. Meanwhile, Karlo speaks with the practiced eloquence of a self-aggrandizing actor, and Fuller speaks with the deflated familiarity of puppy who has been beaten a few too many times. Her unwillingness to even fully articulate the two syllable word "around" in contrast to one of Karlo's extensive narratives speaks this sad fatigue in volumes. Truly, Grant has an exceptional gift for doing this.
But, once we get past the brilliance of what Grant has done with Payne and with dialect in general, I'm not sure he's bringing much else to this story. When you get down to it, this is actually a pretty dumb concept. Why in the world would Karlo feel some sense of mutual destiny with the other Clayfaces when he is the only one who isn't really a Clayface (it's just a mask), why is he or Fuller so intent on stopping The Batman (Batman stopped Karlo twice ever, and he and the Outsiders only confronted Fuller once), and why would he be so intent on doing this under his same old alias after just now returning from prison after all these years? The whole thing seems like Grant was desperately searching for reasons to throw all the Clayfaces together, and this was the best he could do.
Which begs the question -- why not bring back Hagen? Certainly he was the most well known of the group. Was there some mandate preventing him from doing this, or did he not want Hagen to eclipse Payne and Fuller? Oh, and speaking of which, why does Karlo have any knowledge of the Crisis on Infinite Earths and Hagen being killed in it? I thought only the heroes involved in the Crisis walked away with any memory of it occurring.
Anyway, I'm curious to see where this goes. It's a silly idea, and "The Mud Pack" is a stupid stupid name, but I'm willing to believe Grant has some fuel left in Preston Payne's tank. That character has further to go in this story, and Sondra Fuller is just begging to be explored further.
The minor details:
- Breyfogle truly rocks out in this issue. Beyond the mini poster, and beyond the awesomely tragic and/or menacing Payne faces, I'm in love with the first panel of page 7 -- those rapists looking over the reader with mock pouty faces as a menacing Batman swings over them. Wow.
- Page 19 -- It's Cornelius Stirk! I love it!!
The plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Preston Payne flips out while sitting in his Arkham cell, accidentally beheading his mannequin wife Helen in a moment of rage, he breaks out, Basil Karlo (the original Clayface) returns from prison to his old theater and quickly proves that two armed thugs are no match for him, Looker (of the Outsiders) presumably interferes with the police's pursuit of Preston Payne, telekenetically carrying his tranquilized body back to Karlo's theater, Karlo attempts to resurrect Matt Hagen (Clayface II) by adding water to his dried out clay, but it does not work, Batman is in pursuit of Payne and "Looker," but is still several steps behind what is happening, "Looker" turns out to be Sondra Fuller (Clayface IV), she had placed a suggestion in Payne's head to trigger his earlier outburt/escape, and Karlo leads the first meeting of the four Clayfaces, with Payne passed out and Hagen still unanimated, establishing that their charter is their mutual hatred for and desire to get revenge upon Batman.
Not sold on the premise yet, but the writing and art are top notch.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 21, 2014 17:54:34 GMT -5
Batman #438
"Year 3, Chapter 3: Turnabout" writer: Marv Wolfman pencils: Pat Broderick inks: John Beatty colors: Adrienne Roy asst. editor: Dan Raspler editor: Denny O'Neil
grade: C-
Hmmm. Right on the cusp of the Batman film release, and yet no "creator: Bob Kane" credit in this issue? With DC going so far overboard to thrust Kane into the spotlight over the release of the film, I find this omission fascinating. I'm pretty sure DC had a legal deal with Kane requiring them to credit him in this way. Maybe the ghost of Bill Finger had a hand in this little snafu?
Anyway, I must begin by saying that this issue was PAINFUL to start. Truly. No matter how much I try, I'm never prepared for just how awful Pat Broderick's art can be, and Alfred's weird manic face on that opening page is no exception, nor is most of the art that follows in this issue, especially the Joker's completely disproportioned face that makes him look like a puppet on page 4. Somehow, Broderick did a nice job with Batman and the crime bosses -- maybe he took that aspect of the story more seriously or something, but the rest is just so awkward and clumsy.
On top of that, Wolfman begins to feel like a total tease here, reneging on so much of what he'd laid out on the previous issues. For one, it takes Alfred all of two seconds at the beginning of this issue to determine that he cannot kill Zucco when the big reveal at the close of the last issue was that he would. For another, Alfred is no longer worried about how Dick will react to learning that Zucco is free (even though that's what he explicitly said all along); he's worried how Bruce will react instead. Finally, whereas the first chapter of this story contained the glitch that Alfred outright said the events of Year 3 (beginning with the death of Dick's parents) took place 10 years ago and Zucco's attorney said they took place 12 years ago, Alfred now explicitly states that Bruce Wayne adopted Dick Grayson 11 years ago. C'mon, Marv! You're driving me nuts here!!
As the story progresses, there are ultimately some positive moments. I really enjoyed the contrast Wolfman deliberately draws between Dick's meticulous detective ethic and whatever the heck Batman has become (though he explicitly draws attention to this contrast ad nauseum). Additionally, Batman's uneasy team-up with the mob bosses is pretty fun to watch. You almost start to like it until "Grenada" tries to take it too far and Batman has to draw the line for him. Finally, Dick and Bruce's reunion in the Batmobile while awaiting Zucco's release was sort of touching, especially with Dick explaining prior to this that he loved Bruce and suspected Bruce had felt the same about him. Wolfman is the first to turn this often resurrected rift between Bruce and Dick into a paternal love story. I enjoyed that. It's far more mature and rewarding than the soap opera Starlin treated us to back in Batman #416.
So let's talk about Zucco's black book. His having written down everything he ever heard or witnessed in organized crime is what has given him power over everyone else. I've certainly heard of real crime bosses having less comprehensive notebooks used in similar fashions, but I have to ask:
1. Why would anyone in organized crime ever let a guy who was clearly writing everything down ever get close to them?
2. To what extent could anything in that diary be considered proof? We learn that Zucco's hold over his parole attorney is that he has information in his book that can prove he once bribed a judge, but what would that proof look like? Couldn't any crime boss produce such a notebook after the fact and put in it anything that suits them? Besides, all crime bosses keep some records and have some memories of past events that would prove incriminating to others. I'm just not sure I fully get this concept that Wolfman is leaning upon so heavily.
Minor details:
We learn that Batman took down all of Jason's memorabilia in the Batcave and told no one about the death. I'm assuming the Jason monument has not been put up in the cave yet either.
Why are the assassins still flying around in the same traffic copter with the same markings on it? I'd expect the police to be a little more prepared and on the look out for this chopper a second time around. Couldn't they have at least painted over the call letters?
Why would Alfred bribe Zucco to leave town? First of all, why does he have access to limitless supplies of Bruce's cash, allowing him to offer "anything it takes. Anything"? And how would he rationalize this to Bruce later? Maybe this all goes back to the fact that I truly don't see the threat that Zucco's freedom poses to Bruce's sanity. Wolfman hasn't sold me on it. It isn't the same kind of lynchpin that having your kid sidekick murdered by your arch rival is. Beyond that, there's also the issue of what the heck makes Alfred think Zucco would honor the deal anyway? If Zucco took the money and then didn't cease his activities in Gotham, what would Alfred do? Call Batman? Wait, why not just do that in the first place and screw offering him all that cash?
In "From the Den," O'Neil seems to be barely concealing his disappointment in the new Batman film, absolutely refraining from offering any praise and expressing a desire to take time collecting his thoughts and hearing the reactions of others before sounding out. True, the film had taken a long series of departures from the Sam Hamm script that O'Neil apparently loved enough to offer Hamm work on Blind Justice, and true, the film had its share of weak points, but I'm a bit surprised to see O'Neil so honest and restrained here when he's already begun building an empire on over-the-top endorsements for storylines and plot ideas he often hasn't even read. Quality film or not, more readers going to see the film generates more buzz for the film, which generates more readers for Batman. Surely the film wasn't SO bad that O'Neil couldn't put his name behind it.
The plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence:
Alfred decides he can't kill Zucco, Dick continues and continues to reflect upon how Jason's death changed Bruce, he investigates the latest gangland execution and finds clues while reflecting on the training Bruce gave him, Gordon proposes a meeting between the crime families and a city representative (possibly suggesting it should be Batman -- who is already doing this, though not in a legitimate/straight-side-of-the-law way) , Alfred decides to meet with Zucco and tries to bribe him to leave town, but Zucco makes it clear that he's planned this release since almost the beginning and has no intention of putting aside his plans, Batman and Nightwing both discover that Zucco is about to be freed, Batman and the mob bosses shake down one of Zucco's men for information, Alfred reflects some more on Dick's upbringing in the cave, Batman and Nightwing meet while waiting to watch Zucco leave prison, Zucco is executed by another traffic copter, and Nightwing flips out at Batman, claiming he knew this was going to happen.
A mostly poorly executed chapter, though it had some truly worthwhile high points. I really do respect the complicated relationship Wolfman is trying to build between Bruce and Dick in the Post Crisis, and I feel that's the one saving grace of this entire storyline thus far: rich and Intelligent emotional conflict that isn't just sensational and over the top fluff for the sake of stirring up trouble. These two are still closer than best friends at heart, even while they often act like enemies to one another.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 21, 2014 17:56:35 GMT -5
Detective Comics #605
"The Mud Pack, Part Two: Heart of Steel; Feet of Clay?" writer: Alan Grant pencils: Norm Breyfogle inks: Steve Mitchell colors: Adrienne Roy assoc. editor: Dan Raspler editor: Denny O'Neil creator: Bob Kane
Grade: D+
...and it all falls apart. Whereas last issue had been full of rich characterization and tone, this one sacrifices all for the plot -- and it isn't a very good one. Batman's line of questioning and logic that leads to his being absolutely sure the Clayfaces have teamed up is ludicrously sloppy, for one. His rationale for allowing the Clayfaces to continue to impersonate him and ruin his image is non-existent, for another. Even the title for this story has no particular relevance to anything that occurs within, for a third. And Grant completely loses track of those lovely dialects I praised him for last issue, even having Preston Payne disingenuously declare, "You're gonna pay for what you did, Lady!" as if he was Ben Grimm, as icing on the cake of suckiness.
At least Grant tries to offer some reasonable explanation as to why Clayface IV and I are working together, but even that is far stretched. IV visits I in the prison hospital and suddenly feels that they are kindred outcasts, but why was she visiting him in the prison hospital in the first place? Couldn't she have felt that way with any criminal? Certainly, she and Karlo don't have much in common.
It's been obvious for a long while now that Grant and Breyfogle are not "arc" creators. They tell a story in whatever length of time it takes to tell that story but, generally, the longer that story goes, the sloppier it gets. Clearly, they were asked to create a "mega arc" for the sake of generating new interest in sales this time around, and they're totally out of their element. This story has no idea what it wants to be nor how it wants to get there.
Minor details:
- All but Basil Karlo's first appearance/confrontation with Batman have been erased from continuity. Batman only faced the guy once and barely remembers him.
- So, Sondra Fuller can impersonate a person and steal their psi talents at ANY time and from ANY proximity? Seriously, how long has it been since she met Looker or even Batman for that matter?
- And Fuller's entire reason for being miserable is that she can impersonate others but never truly live as herself. Can't she take the form of her former self? Where's the problem there?
- Breyfogle returns to that same cute depiction of the exterior of the Batcave with the "Poison Ivy Keep Off" sign prominent in the foreground.
- When Preston Payne backhands an old man just out of the prison hospital, shouldn't that man DIE? Karlo just looks mildly annoyed after.
- If I ever aspire to own an original piece of Breyfogle art, you'd better believe it will be page 17 -- Preston Payne's look of sheer joy as Sondra Fuller comforts him with her telepathy. Wow.
- Gotta love these covers, with Batman getting thoroughly trashed by the Clayfaces on each one.
- I totally missed that Batman and Detective just jumped to $1.00 cover price last issue. There's the frontier we all thought they'd never cross.
The plot synopsis in one long sentence: Looker of the Outsiders is conveniently having bad dreams about Clayface IV when Batman calls, asking what she was doing visiting Preston Payne at Arkham, they both conveniently assume it was Clayface IV even though neither has seen her in ages, Clayface IV reflects on how miserable she is being able to impersonate others but not live as herself and how that sorrow drew her to team up with Basil Karlo, the two are having trouble controlling Preston Payne's rages over his "wife"'s death, they start committing a crime spree with Clayface IV disguised as Batman, Batman and Gordan figure out the Clayfaces are responsible, Batman decides to let them ruin his public image in order to see what they're up to, Karlo is trying to make an appointment with a Dr. Lowell, Clayface IV is able to comfort Preston Payne with Looker's psi abilities, Batman tries to stop their next heist as a casino but is utterly panicked to see someone there (presumably Clayface IV has taken the shape of Jason Todd, based upon the cover to the next issue).
I don't know how a story goes from great to terrible this quickly. Really hoping the next one offers something better.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 21, 2014 17:57:03 GMT -5
Batman #439
"Year 3, Chapter Four: Resolutions" writer: Marv Wolfman pencils: Pat Broderick inks: Michael Bair letters: John Costanza colors: Adrienne Roy assoc editor: Dan Raspler editor: Denny O'Neil creator: Bob Kane
Grade: C+
A nice culmination of a story that certainly didn't need to be four issues long. Wolfman contrasts the current void between Dick and Bruce with a flashback to Dick's custody trial, showing just how much love Bruce was able and willing to offer him back then. Again, the entire strength of this storyline has been Wolfman's ability to portray that strained, multi-faceted relationship in a believable way. It continues to work here. Bruce and Dick don't really reach a resolution -- that would be too convenient for the messiness of their emotional realities, but Wolfman does leave both heroes admiring the other just a little bit more by the end. The mystery of Zucco's book gets answered as well, but truly, who cared? It was the obligatory plot through which Wolfman could explore the far more important issues between Dick and Bruce.
Minor details:
- We never explicitly learn who it was that was killing off all the gangs. It would appear to have been Taft, but this is never outright acknowledged.
- On page 2, Dick appears to be referencing the KGBeast as the criminal Batman nearly let die, "locked away in the subway tunnel." Dick brings this up as evidence that Bruce has been losing it since Jason died, except that Jason was still alive when that happened. Perhaps more importantly, Dick states that the KGBeast escaped. Sure enough, Wolfman will be writing a story featuring him in the very near future.
- Why was Zucco content to rot behind bars indefinitely, controlling his criminal empire by remote? If he had the ability to get out all along, wouldn't it have made sense to have gotten out as soon as possible? Besides, if no one is maintaining the ledger while he's behind bars, then there are new criminals entering the underworld each day with which Zucco has no pull. Eleven years later, you'd expect him to already be on his way to obsolescence.
- Confirmed in this issue that the reason Zucco was put away was for the murder of the Flying Graysons, and Wolfman is sticking to the 11 years ago timeline in this issue.
- This issue finally explains why Dick was Bruce's ward rather than his adopted son. Dick requested that it be done that way, not wanting Bruce to replace his father.
- The original Batmobile appears in the cave on page 9. Yet Bruce has only been Batman for 13 years by the timeline established in this issue. I guess car styles change fast in the DCU.
- Is it obvious to anyone else that Wolfman had just watched Vertigo before writing this chapter?
- Why wouldn't Dick or Bruce use some of their immense fortune to prevent St. Jude's from being torn down? It clearly holds tremendous importance to Dick and does a world of good for Gotham's orphans.
- The ending to this story is an odd one. Dick's needing to reconnect with his deceased parents has not been a theme running throughout this storyline at all, so why end with it? Shouldn't the resolution somehow deal with how Dick and Bruce relate to each other?
The plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence:
Nightwing confronts Batman about the fact that he's been going over the edge since Jason died, Batman swears he didn't know Zucco was going to be killed, Taft makes a public statement about the ledger, driving criminals all over Gotham to beat each other up looking for it, Bruce figures out that Taft is doing this because the ledger contains something against him, Bruce refuses Dick's help, not ever wanting a partner again, we flashback to Dick's custody hearing, Nightwing and Batman both figure out that Zucco hid his ledger in the bell tower at St. Jude's, Nightwing struggles with Taft at the top of the bell tower before Batman enters, startling Taft and sending him over the edge Vertigo style, Bruce reflects on how capable Nightwing has become, and Dick visits his parents' grave to catch up.
Not a necessary story by any stretch of the imagination (especially at four issues in length), and barely a "Year 3" story, but it does lay some important emotional groundwork for the next story arc and Batman's transition into taking on a new partner.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 21, 2014 17:57:54 GMT -5
Secret Origins Special #1
If I'd been pitched this idea, I would have been excited -- a special Secret Origins issue to launch awareness of the Rogues Gallery and where they stand post-Crisis just in time for the Batman movie. In fact, this would be Penguin and Riddler's first post-Crisis appearances, I believe. Best yet, you've got Neil Gaiman framing the story, and Mark Waid (Mister History of the DCU) editing instead of Denny, so you know the facts will be right.
Unfortunately, the book never really takes off from there. None of these stories are bad; they just aren't anything even remotely special either. There's really no information contained in any of these stories that any reader (new or old) would need to know, and the stories are just plain "meh."
(Framing plot) writer: Neil Gaiman pencils: Mike Hoffman inks: Kevin Nowlan colors: Tom McCraw letters: Todd Klein editor: Mark Waid creator: Bob Kane
grade: D
Not sure where Gaiman thought he was going with this. Some opportunistic tv reporters want to do a special on Batman's villains, taking their sides and portraying them as victims. A complication is briefly introduced and discarded about two of the main characters having an affair, and there seems to be some slight mistrust for one of the crew who seems to like Batman, but it all goes absolutely nowhere. These are uninteresting characters, and even the not-so-shocking twist ending, in which (what appears to be) The Joker laughing gasses the host, fails to impress.
Continuity-wise, this framing plot establishes the following:
- The Joker has not been heard from since Batman #429 - The Riddler is not a well known member of the rogues gallery and has been inactive for some time - Scarecrow has killed 16 total people
And while Gaiman probably intended for the mysterious figure at the end to be the Joker, it could just as easily have been the Joker imposter who will soon surface in Batman #450 (less than a year away). Certainly, this story is the first mention we've had of Joker since Death in the Family, and Gaiman seems to be having some fun here with raising the question over whether he's actually dead. O'Neil will stretch that doubt out a while longer.
"The Killing Peck" writer: Alan Grant art: Sam Keith letters: Robert DeGuzman colors; Tom McCraw editor: Mark Waid special thanks: Jim Sinclair
grade: C
If anyone has the ability to make the Penguin an interesting character, it's Alan Grant...and apparently he doesn't. Grant really tries, giving us the sympathetic back-story of an intelligent and sensitive young boy bullied beyond all reason and his resolve to rise above it all (which weirdly parallels Bruce's resolve to avenge his parents' deaths). Still, by the end, all we have is a somewhat more twisted version of the Penguin who enjoys quoting Shakespeare and might be a better fighter than he lets on.
facts established:
- Penguin loves all birds and chose his specific identity ironically after what his childhood bully, Sharky, used to call him.
- He's a self-trained fighter.
- He carried an umbrella at a young age at his mother's request, for fear that he'd catch pneumonia without it (his father died from this).
"When is a Door: The Secret Origin of the Riddler" writer: Neil Gaiman pencils: BEM 89 inks: M. Wagner colors: Joe Matt letters: ABCD editor: Mark Waid
grade: C+
Pretty pointless story in which The Riddler evades all questions asked by the television crew by answering with thoroughly nonsensical riddles. This Riddler has quit crime, not out of a desire to reform, but out of disgust for what crime has become. He fondly remembers the era of the 1960s TV show (specifically referring people, places, and events from the show rather than from any past comics) and recalls that no one got killed back then. Clearly, he's troubled by the direction the Joker has taken, and may even be indicating that he's aware of Robin's death (though how would he be?).
I get the sense that Gaiman tries a little too hard to copy Alan Moore in "The Killing Joke" by the end, having Riddler run through the different explanations for how he became what he was and refusing to select a right answer.
Minor detail -- Riddler owns Finger Alley. Nice to see Bill getting some under-the-radar recognition amidst the Bob Kane mania following the release of the film.
Not much of a story, but The Riddler's odd nostalgia at least provides a unique perspective on how Batman's world (and indeed the world of all comics) has changed since the Silver Age. I assume the Riddler never read any Golden Age comics though...
Facts established:
- The Riddler has reformed.
- Name may be Edward Nigma (is this the first time that name was used by him?) or "Nashton".
- If you take this story at its word, elements from the 1960s TV series such as the "What A Way To Go Go," King Tut, Egg Head, Book Worm, and Marsha, Queen of Diamonds are all now in Post-Crisis continuity.
(Gilda Dent's story) writer: Mark Verheiden pencils: Pat Broderick inks: Dick Giordano letters: Augustin Mas colors: Tom McCraw editor: Mark Waid
Grade: C-
This was, perhaps, the most useless of the three stories, telling us precious little about Two Face and spending far more time on a recent struggle he had with a former convict he'd put behind bars while a DA. There's no real significance to it -- Harvey seems like he's going to reform at the end, but of course he doesn't.
Facts learned:
- Harvey was already unstable prior to being hit in the face with acid by Boss Moroni. He couldn't deal with the fact that the law wasn't enough to control Gotham's criminal element.
- Acid burning and obtaining of the scarred coin occur the same as in pre-Crisis continuity.
- Connects to Year One and indicates that the media ultimately established a link between Harvey's office and The Batman.
- Though not outright addressed, Harvey and Gilda do not appear to have a daughter. No more Duella Dent.
A pretty skippable issue, which is too bad. This could have been an impressive special.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 22, 2014 0:39:02 GMT -5
Detective Comics Annual #2
"Blood Secrets" writers: Mark Waid & Brian Augustyn pencils: Val Semeiks inks: Michael Bair letters: Todd Klein colors: Adrienne Roy assoc editor: Dan Raspler editor: Denny O'Neil creator: Bob Kane
grade: A+
It's funny. This was definitely one of the first ten comics I ever bought, and yet, of all those early issues, I somehow never got around to reading Batman Annual #13 (no real loss there) and this issue. I'm very sorry I didn't read this one earlier. It's a brilliant story -- an honest to goodness solid detective story for Detective Comics. Sure, I had a basic idea who the killer was all along (his presence as an unquestioned trusted accomplice was suspicious from the start), but I was absolutely wowed when Bruce connected all the pieces together in the end. I'm still not positive why Cloris Pratt was trying to contact the killer( to beg him to stop, to tip him off?) but everything else connected beautifully.
Plus you get the whole theme about controlling your anger, with Dr. Falk being a foil to Bruce, and Bruce feeling the need to visit and torment him each year in order to remind both of them that anger and revenge do not bring back the dead.
Minor note: Why would Harvey Harris have studied under Chu Chin Li? Doesn't quite seem to suit him. Harris is an awesome character that I was sorry to see go by the end (would have loved if he could have stayed around and teamed up with Batman from time to time), but the Chu Chin Li connection isn't quite working for me. Laid back elderly Southern detectives generally don't seek out martial arts legends in far away countries, no matter how good they are.
So the other major contribution to this issue is that it answers some new questions about Batman's post-Crisis timeline, though it also creates new problems as well. While the writers were careful to leave themselves some leeway in the dates and time-frames they establish in this issue, most obviously omitting a death date on Harvey Harris' tombstone, they really messed up by giving us one problematic fixed date -- Richard Hunt died in 1951.
Waid and Augustyn had good intentions with what they were trying to do with the post-crisis timeline in this issue. A previous problem we'd had was that Barr and Miller had both suggested that Bruce Wayne had gone abroad to begin his crime-fighting training as an adult, which would mean that he'd either have to train for a very brief time or already be approaching middle age at this point in Batman continuity. They side-step this problem by having a clearly younger Bruce Wayne traveling abroad and training prior to his turning 18 and (presumably) prior to his attending college.
Like the other recent and conscious change made to the post-crisis continuity (Year 3 now occurred 11 years ago as of Batman #438 and #439), this new information about Bruce's training does contradict info that came before. Detective Comics #599 clearly shows an adult Bruce Wayne studying under Chu Chin Li, and it shows Bruce being dismissed from his school without Li ever recommending Bruce seek out Harvey Harris. However, this story outright contradicts that one for the sake of making other aspects of the continuity work better.
But, again, that 1951 date creates problems.
Before I get into that, though, here's what we actually learn in this issue:
According to Judge Nelson (no, not Judd Nelson), The Paladins of the Cross massacred the shantytown forty years ago. The group disbanded immediately after and Richard Hunt died at some unspecified time after.
Mrs. Sykes hadn't seen the cross in forty years. She seemed to equate Richard Hunt's dying in 1951 with that symbol passing into obscurity. Thus, 40 years prior to current day is 1951. So the present day in Batman's world is 1991. Hmmm. A little bit off. This story was printed in 1989. Let's assume then that Mrs. Sykes blurred a few years together and, in fact, the raid on the shantytown occurred in 1949, with Richard Hunt dying two years later.
Judge Nelson also indicates that the current day of the story (which, in itself, takes place in the past) was 25 years after Richard Hunt died (1951+25=1976). Bruce is 17 in this story. Thus Bruce is 17 in 1976, meaning he was born in 1959 and is thirty years old in current continuity.
This all sounds good, but if Bruce was born in 1959, and we assume that the current day is 1989 (the real year these stories were published) and that it is currently Year 13 (Batman #438 and #439 just placed Year 3 11 years in the past), that would have Bruce being born 17 years prior to Year One, which contradicts all sorts of information provided by Both Barr and Miller in Years 1 and 2. It then makes Bruce 17 in Year One, once again creating the problem it tried to solve of leaving Bruce no time to train before becoming Batman.
I also don't buy the idea that Bruce was only 19 when he took in Dick Grayson (30 - 11 years earlier = 19). I can't see the courts going for that.
So I'm not sure how much of the info presented in this issue we can take at face value. The Post-Crisis timeline is clearly damaged beyond repair in some respects at this point. I suppose, if we omit the 1951 date given in this issue, we can still just assume that everything else happened the way other writers said it did and that Bruce just started his training a few years earlier.
Oh well.
Finally worth noting in this issue is the next batch of Who's Who entries it contains. While Batman Annual #13 provided entries for good guys in the Bat Universe, these entries are all for villains. Some of them were a bit disappointing, though. The Poison Ivy one, in particular, reminded me why I don't read the old Secret Origins stories. Some of the post-Crisis reboot ideas for characters were downright terrible and deserve to be forgotten.
Joker: The entry largely entertains the "Killing Joke" origin, though it concedes this is only one possibility. It lists his status as “active” even though it also states he is presumed dead after Batman #429.
Catwoman: The entry largely follows the events of the 1989 Catwoman mini series, including the fact that Ted Grant (Wildcat) trained her and that her sister is a nun.
Penguin: follows the story from Secret Origins Special #1
Riddler: This entry (sadly) favors the Riddler origin from The Question #26 over the one from Secret Origins Special 1 (although it does mention his running the Finger Junkyard). Name is Eddie Nashton. Changed name to Edward Nigma. Leaving riddles is a psychological compulsion. Generally an unimportant ex-Batman villain.
Scarecrow: Does away with explanation that he was driven to crime because people thought he looked poor. Wanted more fame and prosperity, so used fear to turn to crime. “Sonic skulls” from Barr run are alluded to but largely dismissed. He primarily works with fear gas. Unstable after being exposed to a lot of it himself. The entry says he’s never killed, but Secret Origins Special #1 (published just this same month!) said he'd killed sixteen people.
Poison Ivy: Here's where I get really angry. According to the entry, she became a villainess for the sole purpose of meeting Batman. She was boy crazy from age of 5, and everything that drives her comes from a desire for or a hatred toward men. The entry further indicates that she has a limited control of plants, contrasting her abilities against Swamp Thing's (what the heck? Do you compare Zatanna's ability to use magic to the Spectre's?). Ivy studied under Jason Woodrue in college (later becomes the Floronic Man). Not sure when Ivy picks up the eco-terrorist twist (there was some early hint of it in Batman #400), but she still hasn't clearly adopted that persona at this point.
The plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Batman has returned to again tell someone a story that relates to Klansmen raiding a shantytown 40 years earlier, he begins by telling parts of his origin story (leaving out details that would expose his secret identity), and then recounts meeting up with detective Harvey Harris (upon the advice of former mentor Chu Chin Li) who teaches him detective skills and (more importantly) how to manage his rage at injustice as they attempt to solve a series of murders in a quiet Southern town, all of which end up relating back to a group of Klansmen called the Paladins of the Cross raiding that shantytown, and the one surviving boy from that town seeking revenge upon them (who ends up being the person Batman keeps revisiting as a form of punishment for what the killer did -- I won't reveal the killer's identity).
All in all, a fantastic detective story that makes some well-intentioned contributions to the post crisis timeline and contains some obnoxious Who's Who entries in the back.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jul 22, 2014 0:39:09 GMT -5
The (updated) full list of people who have trained Batman (as of Legends of the Dark Knight #5):
College (Gotham University?) -- criminal justice (Detective #574) Kirigi -- martial arts, including "The Vibrating Palm" (Batman #431) Chu Chin Li -- martial arts and pain management (Detective #599) Tsunetomo -- ability to alter body functions, sense of time, and more martial arts (Detective #599) Henri Ducard -- assassination (Detective #600) Alfred -- make-up, acting the role of Bruce Wayne, altering his voice as Batman (Batman Annual #13) Mark Jenner -- high speed driving (Batman #434) Frederick Stone -- explosives (Batman #434) ? Kingsley -- chemistry (Batman #434) ? La Salle -- Body Building (Batman #434) Peter Allison -- Acting (Batman #434) Mina and Aurelius Boch -- toxicology (Batman #435) Raphael DiGiorda -- bowmanship (Batman #435) ? Shastri -- snakes ((Batman #435) ? Campbell -- electricity (?) (Batman #435) ? Weber -- acids (?) (Batman #435) (unnamed/never shown) -- daggers or ritualistic sacrifices(?) (Batman #435) Harvey Harris -- detective work, emotional restraint (Detective Comics Annual #2) Willy Doggett -- ALMOST taught Bruce tracking, but he was killed before he could do so (Legends of the Dark Knight #1) ? -- commercial pilot's license by the time he was 18 (Legends of the Dark Knight #5) ? -- jet pilot training when he was 19 (Legends of the Dark Knight #5)
Also, whereas we don't know the order in which Bruce underwent these trainings, we do know the following:
Kirigi is implied to have been the first, or at least one of the first, that Bruce trained under. Willy Doggett is the last expert Bruce attempted to consult before returning to Gotham for Year One.
Bruce studied under Harvey Harris after studying under Chu Chin Li, and was 17 at the time.
Since Detective Comics #599 implies that Bruce trained under Tsunetomo and Ducard soon after Chu Chin Li, and since we know Harris rebuffed Bruce's letters at first, it stands to reason that Harris came after Tsunetomo and Ducard.
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Post by shaxper on Jul 22, 2014 0:39:35 GMT -5
Detective Comics #606
"The Mud Pack, Part Three: Killer Clay" writer: Alan Grant pencils: Norm Breyfogle inks: Steve Mitchell letters: Todd Klein colors: Adrienne Roy assoc. editor: Dan Raspler editor: Denny O'Neil created by: Bob Kane
grade: C-
Before I get to the issue itself, a point of clarification: There never was a "Mud Pack." Whenever I've done internet searches for the various Clayfaces while reading this storyline, every site I've gone to has listed each Clayface as belonging to the "Mud Pack" as if it had been an organized group, but in fact:
1. No one in the story EVER uses the name "Mud Pack" 2. The only Clayfaces who ever consciously chose to team up in this story were Karlo and Fuller 3. That team-up dissolved after exactly two minor capers. It was never a formal arrangement anymore than The Joker and Lex Luthor teaming up constitutes an official super-villain team.
As for the story, this issue felt completely directionless, as if Grant had absolutely no idea where to go with this thing. We get the surprise twist (not really) that Fuller disguises herself as Robin to unnerve Batman, and this lasts all of two seconds, and then there's some mindless action, some mindless torture of Batman, and then Karlo randomly and illogically betrays the other Clayfaces and Clayface III and IV inexplicably fall for each other. I suppose the final twist makes logical sense considering how thoroughly alone both characters have felt, but Fuller certainly had no affection for Payne prior to that moment, and Payne was still struggling with his conflicting emotions for Helen and Looker; impulsively adding a third to the list while he's already hating himself for betraying Helen doesn't make much sense.
But then I'm thinking about this too much as, honestly, none of the rest of the issue makes sense either. Humor me for a moment:
1. Fuller posing as Robin -- How in the world do the Clayfaces know Robin is dead? Bruce kept this quiet, and it's only been a few weeks since the death so it's unlikely anyone is really noticing the absence yet (Jason didn't always go out with Bruce on patrol anyway), so the only way they could know is if the Joker was going around telling people, but Secret Origins Special #1 indicates that, despite a painstaking search, a TV newscrew could unearth absolutely no information about the Joker's activities (or even continued existence) after Death in the Family.
I suppose it's possible Fuller was just trying to mess with him by pretending to be Batman's partner, but that's certainly not what's implied. Her turning into Robin appeared to have been the ace up their sleeve for taking in Batman.
And, incidentally, how can Fuller completely duplicate the appearance of a character she has never met? Fuller never ever met Jason Todd, yet she gets his details accurate enough to truly mess with Batman. Batman is transparent enough about the experience to tell us he knows that's not Jason even though his emotions are still thrown by the experience, but he certainly seems to feel that it looks and sounds like Jason.
2. Karlo's master plan. If all he wanted throughout all of this was to obtain Payne and Fuller's blood so that he could replicate their abilities, why bother to team up with and dupe them? He easily could have gotten such samples without the elaborate and risky hoax that could easily result in their getting revenge on him. Plus, why not kill them when he had the chance? Clearly, they're going to want payback. And finally, why go through all the trouble of trying to resurrect Hagan? Fuller's powers include his. Actually, for that matter, why would he want Payne's abilities? They're more of a curse than anything, and he could just use Fuller's abilities to temporarily become Payne whenever he needs such abilities. Yeah, none of this makes sense.
Oh, and how will Karlo know what to do with the blood samples? Payne was a scientist, and even he couldn't correctly duplicate Hagan's abilities while working with his blood. What makes a washed up actor more capable of doing this?
3. The whole revenge issue. Gordan claims, "Between them, the Clayfaces have reason enough to kill Batman ten times over,"...except that they don't. He captured Karlo twice (according to current continuity) and Fuller once. Where's the personal vendetta in that? Most criminals don't take personal vengeance upon the officer of the law who arrested them. The only Clayfaces who have a real reason to hate Batman are Hagan (they tangled so many times, but he's not present in this story) and Payne (who believes Batman stole his wife's affections).
4. Batman's torture. Why? And, if Fuller can truly use Looker's psi powers to look into Batman's mind and dredge up his darkest secrets, WHY NOT LEARN HIS SECRET IDENTITY??? Maybe even just the security code for the Justice League headquarters or something. Come on. Why waste such abilities on a wanna-be Scarecrow moment?
And again, Fuller's powers don't make any sense to me. She just thinks of Looker and can suddenly imitate her psi powers? Wouldn't she have to have some understanding of how those powers work in order to mimic them? Just wishing it to be so seems a little simplistic.
5. How does Payne kiss Fuller? On page 20, he's clearly wearing a solid transparent dome over his head, yet that dome seems to function more like flexible plastic wrap through which Payne can kiss Fuller on page 21. A minor detail, I know, but it bugged me.
Gee. I wonder if Batman is going to be okay next issue.
Minor details:
- This is the first time Jason Todd is ever acknowledged by Grant and Breyfogle, alive or dead. I almost wonder if his appearance here, as well as the cover depicting this moment, was mandated -- a way of catching new readers up on what happened to Jason Todd in case they missed it. Either that or it may have been Grant's own way of setting up the basis for Batman taking on a new partner (apparently, Grant had hoped this would be Anarchy, a character introduced in his very next story arc).
- pages 14 and 15 are the visual high point of this issue as we watch Batman relive his most traumatic moments. However, Jason's death (given one panel) is surprisingly diminished in contrast to the Joker paralyzing Barbara (given roughly one fourth of the entire two pages) and a picture of Cornelius Stirk. I might have even expected Dick's near death at the hands of the Joker in Batman #408 (the entire reason Bruce dismissed him as a partner) to figure in here somewhere. Apparently, Dick isn't on Bruce's internal radar at all, which seems thoroughly contradicted by what's going on in Year 3 and Lonely Place of Dying right now.
- The ad for Lonely Place of Dying at the back of the book asks "Batman is destroying himself. Can Nightwing help? Will he?" Didn't we get at least half of those questions answered at the end of Year 3, published just last month?
The plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence:
Clayface IV turns into Jason Todd and stuns Batman, Clayface III uses the advantage to knock Batman out and nearly kills him, IV knocks III out and takes them both back to I, I has IV use Looker's psi abilities to make Batman relive his greatest fears, I poisons IV (temporarily) and steals III and IVs blood, revealing that this was his goal all along, III and IV fall in love, Looker rescues Batman and is horrified to see his condition as he faces his fears.
Watching Clayface III and IV get together was fun (even if it didn't make sense), but the rest of this issue just seemed like Grant was making it up as he went. Breyfogle's art always keeps me from failing these issues entirely, but it was still an issue that I wouldn't choose to reread.
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