RSS Feed
Twitter
If any of you have been following me on Twitter or Facebook you may have heard/seen that my main PC passed away on Friday. I have been reduced to using our “green” energy saving laptop… and all that “green” talk is code for “slow as hell.” Anyway unlike my quad core 6 gig of ram PC, this laptop does not have a scanner and Photoshop installed on it. So the post will be limited and use and image that I found elsewhere. Don’t worry though, HP is sending me a new MotherBoard and HardDrive since my PC was still under warranty, so I should be up and running at normal speed again in time for Friday Night Fights.
Anyway, lets talk about Last Week In Comics:
Batman and Robin #2…
…is the only book I purchased last week worth talking about. Ever since Bruce Wayne died, or got lost in the time stream, Dick Grayson took over the mantle of the bat. Dick didn’t want to be Batman, that’s why he quit being Robin, I think the little green speedo and elf shoes may have played a role too, and the last time he pretended to be Batman he was Bruce’s second choice (see Batman Kinghtfall – Prodigal.) With the old Batman gone, the old Robin, Tim Drake, has moved on too leaving Bruce’s genetically enhanced son (don’t ask just read this) to play the role of Robin.
LWIC (Last Week In Comics): Grant Morrison looks at the characters of Batman and Robin. Yeah, the new dynamic duo take down a group of circus themed thugs with the action we expect from the characters, but we also see underneath the costumes and the real people underneath them. Dick Grayson is not happy playing the role of Batman; he expresses to Alfred that he is nothing like Batman and that is why he was successful as Nightwing. Damian, on the other hand, is more like Batman that a Robin; he is aggressive and somewhat violent… well he is more so than the original Batman, but you get my point.
In this issue Alfred does a great job convincing Dick that he does not have to “be” Batman because the real Batman is dead, instead he has to play the role of Batman. Dick’s childhood was filled with circus performers and he is pleased with Alfred’s advise. Damian on the other hand, does not like the approach that Dick is taking and leaves. It seems that restraining himself from killing villains AND being nice to the police is asking too much of this new Robin.
When Marvel canceled two of the three Spider-Man titles and decided to publish “The Amazing Spider-Man” three times a month made sense. Being a continuity buff, I always hated buying two or three books of a character that I love only to read two or three different ongoing stories. The Batman books have always annoyed me because of the lack of continuity, but now they seem to be doing it right. In the past the stories in “Detective Comics” and “Batman” were interchangeable each month, but now “Batman and Robin” and “Batman” feel like two different types/styles of stories each month.
I love seeing the deep character building moments, and creepy ones portraied by the villian Pyg, in “Batman and Robin,” while “Batman” focues on action/mystery style stories, and “Batman: Streets of Gotham” fills it’s pages with the supporting casts’ stories. This approach to story telling, if it continues to be as sucessful as it began, will give the new Batman and Robin a huge fictional world that feels more real and detailed than any other in the comic industry.
