DC Death Spoiler

Seriously, don't read unless you want to be spoiled for a book coming out this week. Namely, Batman Inc, which I don't read.


(Spoiler Space)


Okay? Still with me?

Apparently, DC revealed to the NY Post that Damian's buying the farm. Hardly the newspaper I'd choose, but whatever. While I had no problems with killing off Jason "Robin" Todd way back when, he was a teen and one of the most annoying characters in DC history. This Robin is a child. And while annoying, he's also fun to read about in all sorts of ways Jason never was.

I get that they want to get back to basics, perhaps, and Damian is not part of the original Batman and Robin concept because he's Bruce's flesh and blood. They shouldn't have kept him in the New 52 in the first place. The way the de-aged characters and collapsed time, Bats having so many Robins in so few years made no sense, let alone Bruce having a son as old as Damian. All this is is more child killing. First was Lian Harper, and now Damian Wayne. And I, for one, will not be reading it.

Since I consider the New 52 an alternate reality, I know Damian will still be alive in the old DCU, but as I was enjoying him with Huntress (and Power Girl) in World's Finest, I'll miss the kid. Jason was brought back to life. So were a lot of characters, so perhaps Damian will be revived someday, too. Probably in the next reboot, which should be in another 2-5 years.

Multi Multiverses

I'm still a bit stunned that the book I didn't want to even look at a year ago is the one DC book I can't wait to read. Yup. Red Hood and the Outlaws. And in trying to wrap my brain around that bizarre concept, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the DCU and the DCnU and that led me to thinking about the multiverse and its place at the center of all things DC.

One idea jumped out at me: Just because you don't know about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Which led to the idea that there are multiple multiverses. When the multiverse collapsed after the first Crisis, that meant a new universe was created that was what a collapsed multiverse would look like, characters from Earths 1 and 2 mixed together, giving us an older Dinah Drake Lance who was Dinah Laurel Lance's mother, and so on. When the multiverse was reborn, the reality shifted for those characters in that relatively new universe. But the original, the one where Kara Jor-El and Barry Allen didn't die in a Crisis still existed.

Using that concept, we can assume any universe we like is still out there. For me, that means a universe continuing on from Flashpoint, where Flashpoint righted some wrongs. In that universe, Ralph and Sue are enjoying life and never died. Ted Kord is alive and happy letting Jaime Reyes be Blue Beetle while he concentrates on his company. Booster and Rip are still fixing attempts to screw up time, while Roy Harper has given up on being Red Arrow, preferring to be Arsenal so he can be his own man. He's operating solo now, having quit the JLA, and is raising Lian, working odd jobs, and fighting crime. Steph is Batgirl, Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne are both donning the Batman cape and cowl, and Babs is Oracle.

And the new 52? That's the multiverse that came into existence as a byproduct of Flashpoint, with a new Earth 1 and a new Earth 2.

Now we all can imagine our perfect universe is out there. What does your favorite universe look like?

Another Reason I'm Not Happy with DC

Superman and Wonder Woman. Together. As in an affair. With sex. That might or might not be seen.

Seriously? This is gonna be the big storyline next up for the new 52? Or as I prefer, the DCnU.  This might excite some people, but for this middle-aged chick who grew up with Superman and Lois Lane and loved the idea that he could and did love a mere mortal woman who none the less proved herself over the decades to be a worthy role model, the marriage of Clark and Lois was the culmination of the great comics romance and when the DCnU broke up that marriage, it was the first sign I was not going to like much in DC Comics, anymore.

I could understand if this is a fling, and after, Supes realizes it'll never work and he goes back to trying to win over Lois and Diana realizes it'll never work because she doesn't need a man permanently in her life. Or something like that. But the love match had been teased even when I was a kid, so I guess it was inevitable that they do it for real.

This disturbed me, though:

"The creative team believes the heroes are right for each other. She’s a mythic Amazonian warrior; he’s a veritable demigod. Both have huge hearts for mankind, yet also feel estranged from humanity. Relationships with civilians are tricky for caped crusaders, even liabilities."

Right, sure. Never mind that Kal/Clark came to Earth as a baby and was raised by Earth humans. (That is still canon, right?) Not to mention that that's all it takes to be perfect for each other. Apparently, something horrible is going to happen in the DCnU next week that will drive them to "seek solace" with each other, because, yeah, that's how the best, strongest relationships develop. When did the DCnU become a soap opera?

And this:

"This isn’t to say that fans will understand or support the hook-up. In fact, Johns and Lee expect some outcry and certainly some debate. Actually, they’re counting on it.  'Hopefully this will raise a lot of eyebrows,' Lee says. “We welcome the watercooler chatter."

Really? That's what's driving DC now? Being controversial, getting people to talk about their comics as if they were TV shows like Dallas or Mad Men? Ok-kay. Well, I never worked with anyone who was a comics reader so water cooler talk was never an option, and I would rather have talked about how good the stories were and the art and not about how bold DC was or how much they were pissing me off. Just sayin'.

I hope this romance doesn't impact Batwoman and Nightwing and World's Finest, the main DCnU books I'm reading.

I am so not the demographic they're looking for or care about. I haven't felt this depressed about DC since they offed Lian Harper.

Y'know, I hope this works for DC. I hope this leads to lots more attention and sales and helps make them a healthy, viable component of the mothership, Warners. I'm just one reader in a decided minority, I guess, and they sure don't need me to be buying 35 or so comics a month, anymore. The 5 or 6 DCs I do buy makes me even less noticeable by them. So be it. I'm not important to them. I got that message years ago.

New Nightwing

Really. I'm reading the new Nightwing. Got caught up, mostly (issue 4 was sold out, so I had to skip over that one), and will keep going. On the recommendation of a gal who works at my LCS, I gave it a try. It seems to stand on its own fairly well, not driving me too nuts with the new DC continuity. I realize I missed seeing Barbara Gordon in issue 4, which might've made my head spin a bit, but that's okay.

I did have a few continuity gripes. First, I couldn't figure out how old Dick is supposed to be. I seem to remember reading somewhere that he and Bruce are among the characters de-aged for the DCnU, which would have been okay, but in the circus flashbacks, it seemed he was a lot older at the time his parents were killed than originally, which would be okay if he were older now, but that was, according to the book, only 5 years ago. So, given he looked to be in his mid-teens in the flashbacks, let's say he was 15 when his parents died, and he's 20 now. And he just came off a year posing as Batman (more on this in a bit), which for someone aged 19-20 seems a bit odd. He would've been too youthful, I think, to pull it off, at least as well as he did in the old DCU, where he had to be in his mid-20s. I'd thought of him as 25-26 in that. But his age issues is something I can ignore. It didn't ruin the story for me.

The other quibble... well, for the life of me, I can't think of it. I should've made a written note. Oh well. It didn't make a difference in my enjoyment of the book. There are just a few things I need to adjust to, is all. I don't mind doing it for some books, especially if the characters are true to themselves. It's the characters who are totally off I probably won't bother reading. (Though I am intrigued by the new upcoming version of the original Green Lantern!)

Now for the story. I liked it. A lot. Sure, Haly's Circus had been used a lot, to great effect, in the old DCU and the revelations here don't fit with the older stories, but it's a new universe -- I'm considering it wholly new, with similarities to the old one, and not what came out of that time twisting at the end of the old DCU. I've blocked that horror from my mind and didn't even read it, so I can't recall what that mini-series was called. But for me, that didn't happen and the old DCU is still in existence. We're just not reading about it, anymore.

I was reasonably happy with Dick's portrayal here. He was lacking a bit of maturity he had as Batman in the old DCU, but he was confident, brass, introspective, and skilled as I'd expect. I was glad that the story focused on him and his history as a jumping on point, and that Batman didn't show up til the end of the story in issue 7, and Alfred made his first appearance an issue earlier, in #6. Bruce was a real bastard in this. I'm not reading his book, so I don't know why he was so harsh with Dick -- there's really no excuse for him to smack Dick even if he wanted Dick to just stop talking -- but again, it wasn't enough to ruin the story.

The plotting was nicely intricate and a small side story was slipped in that focused on one of the circus clowns, which kept the slowed pace of the main story from being problematic. I wasn't completely surprised by the big reveal of Saiko's identity, but the secret history of Haley's Circus (in the new DCU only!) was a true shocker. I'm interested in seeing if this revelation will affect how Dick views his past and how he moves forward in his life. But the first seven issues/first story arc make for a solid foundation for the series and I have expectations now that I'll be entertained by it.

The art was mostly fine, though some of the faces seemed off in a few panels. I rushed through the books because I have SO MANY comics left to read, so I didn't pay as much attention to the action pages as they deserved, but the storytelling seemed fine as I could follow it all well. And I liked that the art was realistic, though a bit more stylized or art or quirkiness for the circus would've been nice, too. I did, however, love how form-fitting Dick's costume is, though I preferred the blue and black costume for Dick vs this red and black one.

But... and this is a big question.... Was this all really necessary? Is the new DCU really any different other than changes to backgrounds, and in cases like making Alan Scott gay, reworking a few characters? I still think they could've put the old universe aside and started working with a new universe, then later, have visits with the older universes, same as in the early days of the multiverse. All I can think of is that it was all a marketing ploy, because really, this Nightwing story was just as good as what was in the Dick as Batman books. Good stories and good characters should be enough and DC should know how to market them without making everything an EVENT or a publicity stunt.

Coming Out of the Closet

So DC is going to make an established, supposedly iconic, character gay in a storyline starting next month. I applaud the decision and I think we'll see one of the male characters come out because we already have a fairly well known lesbian in Batwoman/Kate Kane.

Will it make me want to read a book I'm not currently reading? I doubt it, because I still have problems with the new reality. It's just new for the sake of change/mixing things up. I don't see that it's radically new or different than the same old same old that predated the new DCU. And as welcome and needed as this move is, it doesn't negate how little respect female characters get in relation to the male ones or how little respect female readers and older readers get. I'm not the demographic they want.

Now This is Depressing

A review of the current storyline in Wonder Woman that makes me really glad I stopped reading it and most other DC Comics after the New 52 launch. Women, who form half the population, still don't get equal respect to men. I'm not going to get into real-world politics here. I'm just sad that things seem to be going backward in the fictional realm, too. Based on the current events in Wonder Woman, DCnU sounds like a sad place to me.

Ways DC Could Have Rebooted the DCU

I've been thinking about how DC could have reinvented the DCU that wouldn't have pissed me off so much.

They could have created another universe in the multiverses and started over. They could have taken the new versions of the old characters in any direction. Everything would have been new and fresh and could've been exciting. The old DCU would exist in the universe we all knew and loved, but we just wouldn't be reading about them, until/unless there was a crossing of the universes and they all met. Fun times! Same as when Earth-1 and Earth-2 characters learned about each other.

Age the longstanding DCU characters to something resembling their actual age, maybe add in a decade or two. Most would be retired, some even deceased perhaps. Keep some of the newer, younger characters in their roles, either at their age at the end of the DCU or a bit more mature. Fill out the character roster with new heroes. Maybe Bruce Wayne, Jr. is Batman. Superman and Supergirl likely age more slowly, so might be able to maintain their roles, or perhaps, their offspring have taken over.

I like either of the above options because they maintain continuity, in a fashion, and the legacy aspect of the DCU that made it so special to me for 50 plus years, along with the multiverse. The DCnU doesn't feel special at all. It just feels like a mess.

Yet More on the DCnU

If you haven't seen it, this is awesome: What the DC characters think of the DCnU.

I read Grifter 2 and while not much seems to be happening, it hasn't turned me off, so I'm still curious and still reading.

The Nature of Sex and Sexism in the DCnU

I posted this long comment on a post over at Stars and Garters and thought I'd repost it here, to share and to keep it for myself for future reference.


An excellent post. I do feel the need to add a few things, however,

Because not all women are created equal. We don't think alike, nor do we enjoy the same things. Or get offended by the same things.

First, I'm a middle-aged white married woman who has been reading comics, mainly DC Comics, for over 50 years (egads, that makes me feel OLD).

I do prefer female characters to be strong. I prefer male characters to be strong, too. I want to read about good, interesting characters. I also like reading about quirky characters, ones with emotional conflicts, flaws that get explored in stories, and lots of other things, but mostly, I like them to be individuals.

I'm shunning most of the DCnU not because of how the characters are being treated, but because I just can't handle another reboot, especially one that negates so much of what I know and love about my favorite characters.

Batwoman is fine. She's knew without a lot of history to have negated. Catwoman, no matter how she's being written now, is out for me because too much is being denied as having happened. I'm sickened by what I've read about how she's being depicted, but my not reading her book has nothing to do with that treatment. I'm not reading Nightwing for a similar reason. I don't want to read Dick Grayson going backward in his life.

So, another book I'm not reading is Red Hood and the Outlaws because I detest Jason Todd (I'm one of the folks who voted for him to be killed). And as appalled as I am by how Kory is being treated, I'm also appalled by how Roy Harper is being treated. He was a wonderfully complex character, one who always tried to do the right thing and even though he enjoyed sex with any woman who was willing, he always respected them. And now, he's a moron, based on the panels I saw if he's willing to take advantage of Kory like that.

As for Voodoo, it wasn't the best way to intro the character, but it's a part of Pris that I remember and I'm willing to see where it's going. She is an alien, after all.

So, when it comes to the DCnU, I'm just annoyed and appalled by a lot of the choices they've made. I happen to like reading about males as much or more so than females. I like beefcake and therefore can't begrudge guys their cheesecake, provided  there's that beefcake for me and stories to go with both.

So yes, we all need to keep protesting how females are treated in comics, but let's also protest how idiotic and misogynistic men are so often portrayed, too, because that just keeps feeding the stereotypes and the wrong attitudes in the readers.

The Crisis Crisis

So the Crisis never happened? Here's my take on things, which given I'm reading very, very little of the DCnU, should be taken with a handful of salt.

Crisis happened. Everything happened. As with the post-Crisis, end of the multiverse times, there's no collective memory of it. Back then, time just rebooted itself and plopped people into place as if there had never been a multiverse, but of course, some characters outside the bubble, so to speak, did remember and that led to the second Crisis.

So now, no one recalls the old 'verses. Flashpoint reset everything, with some characters having a history that reflects the Crisis and post-Crisis times and others not.

For us veterans of Doctor Who and Torchwood, this wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff is no big deal.

And I still have no interest in reading most of it.

And someday, we'll have a new reality in the DC realm. And maybe it'll be one I'm interested in reading.

Well Into DCnU Now

And yet, I'm still working my way through a stack of DCU, aka pre-DCnU, books.

I'm taking my time with these "older" universe books, savoring them like the fine wine they are.

For instance, Batgirl. The Steph Brown BG. I love(d) this book. And Batgirl 24 epitomized all that was wonderfully perfect about this book. From the awesome cover to the last panels with Steph and Babs, this book rocked. Steph has her showdown with dear old dad who's now in prison, and has a lovely scene with her mother. But then, we also got to see amazing pages of her remembered hallucinations while under the influence of Mercy, the powerful hallucinogen her father doused her with, and well, this was a bittersweet sendoff for one of DC's best and brightest books and I can't begin to explain how much I'll miss it.

As for the new DC, I tried Grifter and Voodoo, two characters from the Wildstorm universe which I didn't mind seeing rebooted in the DCnU proper. Both diverged quite a bit from the original versions of the characters while keeping the flavor of who they were in WildCats.

Grifter shows the most promise of the two, with Cole being as badass as he was before and the book setting up an intriguing mystery. The art was nice, too, though there was more spittle in mouths than I like. Makes him look like he's drooling.

Voodoo also sets up a mystery, and introduces both Pris and agents hunting her. Hard to tell yet who's good and who's bad in this, and it might be more complicated than good vs. evil. Pris is an alien of some sort, but from where and why she's here, we have yet to discover. I'm hoping the journey to the answers are worth the time I'm going to give this because I did love Voodoo in Wildstorm. Sure, there's a titillation factor, but Pris, as I recall, was a very sexual woman, one who used all she had, including her body, as a means to an end, but she was no pushover. I do recall vulnerability in her and some self-confidence issues. It's been a while since I read Wildcats. But I'm willing to go along with this here, because the women working in the sex club, while stereotyped, are knowingly pandering to a class of men who objectify women and I want to see if Ron Marz will take this to something more empowering for women, especially Pris, who as an alien, clearly has other issues to deal with, too. And I so love the cover. So I'll stick with this through the first story arc.

Which brings me to the books I haven't read nor plan to read. The ones being vilified all over the comic blogosphere. Namely, Catwoman and that Red Hood book that Roy Harper is unfortunately starring in, Red Hood and the Outlaws) and all I can say is that I'm very glad I'm not reading either. You can find lots of links to posts about there on Dispatches from the Fridge because I can't begin to link to all of them, let alone the best of them.

So, for the record, I like when Bruce and Selina are romantically involved. I liked in the old DCU when they had sex, or it was at least, implied. I like that there was emotion there, and on Earth 2, they were actually married before she was killed, and the had a daughter.... excuse me. I got caught up in a moment of nostalgia.

But those panels/pages I saw posted were just ugly. Sorry, Judd Winick, but edgy they ain't. They sure weren't sexy, except possibly to teen boys and the men who never grew up. Aside from the art, which seemed odd in places, especially Batman's torso, I just didn't like seeing Selina like that. I'm no prude, no, that's not my objection here. But Selina of the DCU had come so far and was such a cool character, and while she took what she wanted, she certainly wouldn't take Batman like that. That Selina was above that, miles past it. She wanted Bruce, but she wanted him the way a mature woman wants a man. As an equal. As someone desired for herself and not her body.

As for the Red Hood book, I'm not reading it because I detest Jason Todd, but now, seeing how sexualized Kory is, based on the pages I saw, and how moronic Roy is, all I can say is, "Feh." Sorry, DC, but that's not how a woman who enjoys sex would act. That's how a damaged woman, a vulnerable woman would act. And the guy who goes with her is essentially agreeing to rape her. And while the old Roy would hop in bed with any female who was interested, I like to think he'd draw the line at taking advantage of someone clearly as vulnerable as Kory seems. They were friends, for crying out loud. And I can't see him hanging out with Jason, either, so he clearly isn't the Roy of old.

But then, that's why I'm not reading these books. Because I can't get what was out of my head. I can't get past who these characters are/were to me. I wish someone would just wake me when the DCnU is over.

A Late Addition to the List

I added Resurrection Man to my pull list. I don't really know the character, other than his appearance not all that long ago in Supergirl, and he seems cool, and is someone who can't be screwed up in my mind because I have no real preconceptions about him.

I did read Grifter 1 and while it's certainly not about Cole Cash from the WildCats in the Wildstorm universe, the book wasn't half bad and a lot of intrigue was set up. Cole is a real grifter in this who somehow has been dragged into something he has no clue about. Or does he? The art was fine. Nothing special, but easy enough on the eyes.

I still have some last DCU books to read and review. I think I'm putting them off so I won't have to say goodbye to those wonderful characters. *sniff*

Posted this on DC's Facebook Page

They said they were reading feedback, positive and negative and appreciated everyone's passion and hoped we'd be reading the new 52 in Sept. So I posted this:

There are precious few DC comics I'll be reading come Sept. I'll give the ones that aren't characters I know and love and don't want to see retconned a try: Batwoman, Voodoo, and Grifter. I might try something else, too. Not sure yet. But everything I love about the DCU will be gone. Better to have started the whole thing from scratch than take the characters I love and destroy them this way. Sticking Roy Harper with a character I detest (Jason Todd) is no way to make up for killing his daughter. Taking the Batman cape and cowl away from Dick Grayson is a step backward. I've read him as Nightwing. I'm past that now. I want to read his adventures as Batman. So, I'll go from reading 30 or so DC books a month to 3-5. Somehow, I figure that'll just be a drop in the bucket of DC's profits. And I'm sad that after reading DC Comics for 50 plus years, starting when so few girls like me read superhero comics, I'm no longer a reader DC wants.

The End of the Super Marriage is Big News

The NY Daily News had something to say about Superman in the DCnU. Just reading the two pages that have been circulating all over the comics blogosphere today, I've got to say: I can't go through this again. I've read Clark as dweeb for so many years, decades, even. And while I don't read all the Superman books, I was thrilled that good guy Clark finally got the woman of his dreams. I really don't want to read all that angst until he wins her over, again.

I get that it's new to a lot of people. I get that the younger writers are itching to write it. Don't mean I gotta read it. And I won't.

October in the DCnU

I didn't think the DCnU could get worse after the big announcement of the 52 #1 books, but I was wrong. The solicits for October make me even less enthused. Aside from some of the descriptions saying nothing of any note, between the non-costume Kory is wearing, the unusual tattoo Roy is sporting (doesn't looking Native American to me), and the second issue of Catwoman sounding even more soap opera-ish than the first, I really don't see myself reading more than Batwoman and perhaps one or two others. DC might be jumping a herd of sharks with this reboot.

Meanwhile, Secret Six 35 rocked, as usual. Bane wants to take the offensive and go after the people important to Batman. This cannot end well, but the sad fact is, that after the next issue, it does end. Damn.

Counting Down to the DCU Reboot

Y'know what would've been cool? If DC had just started over. Everything. Wiped out all that's come before and rebooted the universe. They could've started with Superman arriving in Metropolis and feed us his origin in flashbacks over a few issues. And Batman would've just finished training as... well... being Batman and his origin could've been shown in flashbacks. Same for Wonder Woman. Or just do each origin as a one-shot origin issue, with all the tweaking a reboot would require. That would start the universe with the traditional trinity of the DCU.

Then slowly, over the next few months, more titles would get added, some with actual origin issues because the characters would be adults getting their powers, rather than starting with childhood events (Kal arriving on Earth as a baby, Bruce being orphaned young, Diana being formed out of clay). And the excitement would've built up over maybe 3-4 months as to what new comics would be added with what rebooted characters. And they'd all get to meet for the first time. It would be contemporary and traditional.

That's how I would've done it. And if that's how they would've done it, I wouldn't be drastically reducing my pull list.

Meanwhile, here's a review of a book getting canceled.

Secret Six 34 was everything Gail Simone does best. I thought I'd reviewed it already, but apparently not. The unlikely friendship of these characters, the depth of their emotions, would be hard to surpass. And Scandal Savage has become one of my favorite characters, a frightening mix of strength and vulnerability, with some brutality thrown in for good measure. Now she has to decide which of two lovers she loves more. I'll miss this book greatly.

Another I'll  miss because I won't be reading it in its upcoming version is Birds of Prey. Issue 13 brought the creepy story with Junior to a satisfying close. Huntress and Renee made a great duo, Catman had a nice cameo, and the artist, Diego Olmos, captured each character perfectly. I can't believe the book was restarted a year ago only to have the team broken up come September.

Booster Gold 44
I was thrilled to have Jurgens back, but I just skimmed this due to the Flashpoint storyline. I'd been looking forward to Flashpoint, but given what's coming with the reboot, I've lost interest in this. It's a damn shame.

Dick Grayson Gets No Respect

Picked up this week's comics, vented at manager a bit about DC's upcoming reboot, we'll purge my pull list in September and start over. He said he was thinking about putting together a "If you like X, you might like Y" list for DC titles for folks like me looking for something else to read other than mainstream DC. I told him I'll buy more toys there with the money I won't be spending on comics.

Still trying to wrap my mind around this whole mess, especially when related to my favorite characters.

Babs/Oracle has probably been the most blogged about. I've lost track of most of the posts, but, many folks feel as I do, that losing Babs as Oracle and getting her out of the chair means DC loses something special. There was a Batgirl before Babs -- Betty Kane -- and when Babs became Batgirl, I didn't know why Betty couldn't have been given a better, bigger role, but Babs won me over. I liked that she was a librarian, which I became! But I think Steph Brown is my favorite Batgirl. But there's only one Oracle and Babs created that persona. She earned that special place in the DCU and come September, that will be gone.

But Babs isn't the only one being forced into a younger, less developed state. Think about poor Dick Grayson. With the character assassination done to poor Roy Harper (the only good from the reboot is that the damage done to Roy the last year or so will be undone, it seems, though I probably won't like what he'll be, either, in the new DCU), I refocused my comics character lust to Dick Grayson who'd been forced to play second to Roy in my heart. It's been clear for years that the PTB at DC don't like him. But finally, with Bruce supposedly dead, he got to become Batman, keeping the cowl warm til Bruce's return. And here's the thing...

If Dick had stayed Nightwing, I would be okay about him being Nightwing again in the reboot.
If Bruce had returned and Dick went back to being Nightwing, I would be okay about him being Nightwing again in the reboot.
But he did become Batman and Bruce did come back and let him stay on as Batman and coming up with the Batman Inc concept so there could be more than one Batman. Dick earned that cowl and he deserves to keep them.

So, two scenarios come to mind in the reboot: Dick goes back to being Nightwing, still a mature man in his 20s, very experienced, whether or not he's ever been Batman, and I'll get to read new Nightwing stories...
Or... Dick is Nightwing, having recently given up being Robin, and I'll have to read all over again about Dick finding his way on his own as this new hero called Nightwing. Sorry. Been there, done and read that. I want to read about a hero leaving his mentor and going out on his own, gaining experience, yadda yadda yadda, I'll find another character to read about.

The second option sucks. The first isn't much better because I preferred reading about Dick as Batman, mentoring Damian, than reading about Nightwing, a solitary hero with a mostly screwed up personal life because he keeps neglecting it to be a hero.

My LCS has a 5 title minimum for a pull list. So far, I've got:
The Lone Ranger
Zorro
Criminal
The Spirit (if it continues)
Doc Savage (if it continues)
Batwoman (because she's still new enough to the DCU to not be much affected by the reboot, I think/I hope)
At least, I've got the minimum covered, but a few extras, just in case, would be a good idea.

As for today's haul...
Nice ending on the BoP story (Birds of Prey 13), with a cameo appearance by Catman. I was happy to have something to read that isn't part of Flashpoint. Yet.

Batman and Robin 24 indicates this title will go out with a whimper, what with Jason Todd taking over, relegating Dick and Damian to guest roles in their own book. Have I mentioned how much I detest Jason? The main reason I don't want to read the coming title with Roy in it? Yeah, I figured I had.

Booster Gold 45 continues the Flashpoint storyline, which I've completely lost interest in now that the reboot's been announced. I guess this was okay. I felt pretty meh about it.

Oracle vs Batgirl

Comments on this post over at Has Boobs, Reads Comics led to these comments of mine, long enough to warrant a post here methinks:

I'm heartsick about many of the changes, including Dick becoming Nightwing again, but this has me besides myself. I work with blind and visually impaired people and others who can't read standard print, including quadriplegics. I know how powerful a symbol and role model Babs as Oracle is and I know how so many people don't just get to start over or leave that wheelchair behind. I hate that DC is going backward. Just. Hate. It.

And then:

I'm not defining Oracle by her disability. I think people need role models and she's one of the very few who are positive role models for disabled people. She's a shining example of overcoming adversity and doing something special with her life, even more than when she was Batgirl. I don't want her to be a BatGIRL. I want her to be what she's been: a fully realized awesome WOMAN who has played a vital role for the DC Superhero community. Anyone can be Batgirl; after all, there have been others besides Babs (the first one I knew was Betty Kane) and Steph Brown has filled the role admirably and capably and her costume is awesome! In fact, the current Batgirl is one of the most fun comics DC publishes. And Babs, as Oracle, has been the amazing anchor of Birds of Prey. Why anyone wants to go backward from that is beyond me. Well beyond me.

Finally, Barbara Gordon has been many things over the decades: librarian, congresswoman, Batgirl, Oracle, daughter of Commissioner Gordon, girlfriend of Dick Grayson, friend to Black Canary and Huntress and Zinda, mentor to many young female characters from Misfit and Cass Cain to Stephanie Brown and Wendy/Proxy. Babs in her personal life and as Oracle has touched the lives of most of the characters in the DCU. No Batgirl has ever been able to say that. Batgirl is just another costumed crimefighter. Oracle has been so much more. That's what DC is giving up and they should be ashamed of themselves.

Bat Books

No. Just. No.

Not gonna be reading the new Bat books, except Batwoman, unless it relies too much on the new Bat order of things and starts to annoy me, and possibly Catwoman, unless it makes Selina too much of a villain and then, no to that, too.

I wasn't reading Batman and Detective until Dick became Batman and now I have no reason to continue with them. Nor do I care to read about Bruce and Damian as Batman and Robin. That's father and son more than mentor and mentee. I love reading the Dick and Damian team and I will treasure their wonderful run, but I can't go backward. For that reason, I can't bring myself to read Dick as Nightwing once more and that costume! Ugh. The red on the black just looks ridiculous.

Red Hood and the Outlaws sounds even worse. I never liked Jason Todd. Never. I'm one of the readers who voted for the Joker to blow him up. To have Roy teamed with him and Kory? No. Just. No. I don't care that he's got his arm back. I don't care that that cover is pretty. I'm sure he won't have a daughter, but even if Lian is there, this is just wrong. Roy and Jason? I'd read it only if Roy can beat the shit out of Jason every issue. That would be worth the price. However, this makes me feel ill:

Jason Todd finds himself as a leader of a team of antiheroes – including "Green Arrow's rejected sidekick Arsenal and Starfire, a former prisoner of intergalactic war."

Ollie rejected Roy? Ignored him, yes. Tossed him out when he caught him shooting up? Yes. But rejected him? Give me an f'in break. We've finally gotten to the point where Roy and Ollie had reconciled, never mind that crap after Lian was killed. And I don't like Roy called an anti-hero. He was always a hero. A very flawed, very human hero, but a hero none the less.

I think I need to rest and eat some chocolate before I have a fit.

So, I pose a question, to anyone who still reads this blog: Given how infrequently I post while reading 15-20 books a month, and how fewer posts I'll be putting up here when I'm reading 5-10 titles per month, will anyone stick around and keep reading this humble blog?

Considering My Pull List

Come September, I'm thinking it'll be something like this....

The Lone Ranger
Zorro
The Death of Zorro (I'm not sure when this wraps up.)
Criminal
Unwritten (if it continues)

Batwoman (She's fairly new, so except for some bumps if any other Bat characters show up and they're not what I expect/want, this should be fine.)

The Spirit (Assuming it'll still be published.)

It gets a bit murky at this point. There are some books I'm reading (well, accumulating for future reading) that I could get in monthlies and keep up that way, then buy the trades. These include, assuming they'll still be published:
Air
Scalped

Ummmmm.....

I'm taking a wait and see who the heck is behind the cowl with:
Batman
Detective
Batman and Robin
If it's not Dick Grayson, I won't be getting these. Similarly, I don't want to read about Babs as Batgirl. Been there, read that, decades ago and in a lot of stories. And Dick and Damian form the best Dynamic Duo. I like 'em even better than Bruce and Dick in the old days.

Batgirl... Again, keeping to my feelings about the Bat family, if not Steph, I'm not going to read it.

A Catwoman title? Well, that depends, too. If this version of Selina hasn't had a daughter she gave up, if she doesn't know Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are both Batman, if she hasn't been through all she's been through, if she reverts back to just being a cat burglar, than no, thanks.

Supergirl? Uh, not sure at all. Kara's gone through a lot thanks to Sterling Gates and she's become an awesome version of SG. I would hate hate hate to have her regress to an earlier version.
I don't read other Superman titles, so I doubt I'll start with any in September.

Legion of Super Heroes? What? Another reboot? Are they doing this? I have no clue what to do if this continues.

Green Lantern and Green Arrow? Well, again, it depends. GA has gotten boring, and to be honest, GL has gotten way too complicated for someone who reads only the GL book and not the other Lantern books. I'm thinking of dropping it.

Aquaman.... This holds appeal because I do like the character and he's been rebooted so many times, I actually lost track enough to not be bothered by another reboot. Plus, I didn't read all the versions and many of what I did read sucked. So, I might be enticed to try this.

Secret Six? Birds of Prey? I'm almost afraid to look at them after August. I'd hate to see them ruined. Is Secret Six even continuing? I did read about a new team on BoP and given the changes coming for Babs, this is definitely questionable for me.

Wonder Woman? Hell, I stopped reading it a year ago and I see no reason to start again in September. Ditto JLA and JSA which I stopped reading even before that. I am a bit intrigued by Mr. Terrific, but if no Checkmate and Sasha, then I don't think it'll make me happy.

Nothing else sounds interesting. I'm seriously going to have to look at independents. I don't like reading black and white pages, though. That's fine for 3-4 panel strips, but in a book, it's really tough for me at times to differentiate characters and read the dialogue and text because it all kinda blends in on me. So, I'll need to seek out some fun color comics. Any suggestions? And not Marvel. I've read various Marvel titles over the years, but I can't really get into the Marvel Universe.

The big thing that bugs me about this, because really, DC can do what it wants and I don't mind saving some money to spend on other things, is that there will be a lot of female lead books I won't be supporting, and they might be great, just simply things I don't want to read. And I feel bad about that. But DC clearly doesn't want me as a reader, so that's that.