All right, folks, it’s Thursday night, and while this is normally the spot where you’d find a list of this week’s releases and what I thought about them, the fact that we’re coming off of a shipping delay means that this week, we’re going to be doing things a little differently.
Of course…
…things aren’t going to be that different.
But, since comics shipped late and I haven’t actually read most of the ones from this week, I’m going to switch things up and do this week’s reviews a little more freeform.
Really though, there’s only one comic that I’m really interested in talkinga about, and the one that everybody’s been talking about: Batman #681. Needless to say, spoilers below.
I gotta say, I loved this issue. Loved it to pieces. Loved almost everything about it, and while I’m not crazy about Tony Daniel, I don’t have the hate for his art that a lot of other folks do, and I think he does all right for himself. Of course, as my pal Chad said, if you can’t make Batman clawing his way out of his own grave while lightning crashes in the background look good, then you should probably just quit comics entirely.
Would it have looked better if Cliff Chiang or JH Williams III drew it? Well, yeah, but so would 90% of the comics coming out today, and while I’ll admit that Daniel’s not spectacular, he’s not horrible either, and there’s something vaguely Aparoesque about the leaner form that he gives to Batman that appeals to me, even if his action scenes are a heck of a lot clunkier than the ol’ favorite.
The story, though, I had no problem with whatsoever, to the point where I was actually surprised that there were a lot of people out there who did. From what I understand, their main problem stems from the vagueness surrounding Dr. Hurt’s identity–which may be Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne, an actor that we’ve never actually seen before, or the fucking Devil–and the lack of a big dramatic reveal, but that didn’t bother me at all.
Sure, there was an interview where we were promised the biggest reveal in 70 years, but, well, let’s not forget that there was a time when Ten Nights of the Beast was going to be the next Dark Knight Returns, so I tend to take promises like that with a golf ball-sized grain of salt.
Beyond that, though, there are two key points: One, in as much as it matters, we do know who Dr. Hurt is. The entire story is about Batman is always one step ahead of everyone, whether he’s “drawing another box” around the Joker, second-guessing his own emotions when he’s falling in love, planning to escape from every conceivable deathtrap and so on, so when Batman says it’s Mangrove Pierce, there’s no reason we shouldn’t believe him. He’s certainly theatrical enough to be an actor–check out his pose on the page where he delivers the scenery-chewing speech “The BLACK GLOVE, at great expense, has made certain SHOCKING documents and photographs available to Gotham City’s MEDIA!”–and as Batman says, he certainly had motive, method and opportunity. Sure, he rants about being the Devil, but, well, that’s what crazy people do.
Secondly, for all intents and purposes, it doesn’t matter who Dr. Hurt is. All you need to know for the purposes of the story is that he’s someone that a sinister organization called the Black Glove put in charge of a plot to destroy Batman. And in the story, we’re all but told flat out that this is the biggest and best plot to destroy Batman ever, attacking Bruce Wayne on both levels, spending years developing a psychological attack that’ll turn off Batman, blunting his edge by softening criminals… it’s some far-reaching stuff, designed to bring down one man. And yet it fails, because he’s Batman, and the Batman thinks of everything.
For me, that’s damn near perfect.
The second–and far, far more stupid–problem a couple of people had was that Batman didn’t really die, or that his “death” wasn’t convincing, and… Cripes, man. Really?
Even putting aside that this is comics and that “death” in super-hero books is less than meaningless thanks to a litany of miraculous recoveries that I could spend all night listing, did any of you out there really think that Batman was going to in a story that opened with this page?
If you did, then I’m sorry: You are dumb.
There’s been a rumor floating around that DC Editorial made Morrison change the ending of RIP (a completely separate and distinct rumor from the one where DC Editorial made Morrison change the ending of Final Crisis, I assure you), and while I suppose it might be true, I’m pretty sure that I don’t buy it. The far more likely version, I think, is that Morrison wanted to do a story where he shows why Batman always wins–along the lines of his All-Star Superman
Yeah. I’m looking at you, “Heart of Hush.”
It’s the same thing they did to Final Crisis with the twin trainwrecks that were Death of the New Gods and Countdown, wherein Morrison specifically asked DC to stay away from the New Gods and they instead passed them around–and I’m quoting G-Mo here–“like Hepatitis B.” And it’s not like you can really blame them for that. I mean, it’s not Dan Didio’s job to tell good stories; it’s Dan Didio’s job to make money, and we all know that if DC swears up and down that something’s going to “matter,” whether it’s Death of the New Gods or a story in Robin with an “RIP” banner slapped on it where Tim Drake vows to take Batman down if he has to, they’re going to sell more comics. Especially if it’s a slow news day that comes while the mainstream media’s trying to fill the void left by the Election and Batman’s No Seriously You Guys I Know We Did An Event Called “This Issue Batman Dies” Like Six Years Ago But We Mean It This Time “death” gets onto the radio somewhere.
But all of this distracts from the real issue here, which is… well, the issue itself. Even if Morrison did rewrite the ending to make it more palatable to his corporate paymasters, there’s no point in discussing what else it might’ve been, any more than there’s a point in wishing that Jim Aparo came back from the dead to draw it: The Batman: RIP that we have is what we have, and I think it came out great.
Last year at HeroesCon, I had a conversation with Josh Elder–of Mail Order Ninja
Also, this week’s issue was fantastic as well, if for no other reason than the Hamlet Scene. Cracked me right up.
As for the other comics of the past couple of weeks, let’s see here… Thor: Man of War was even more metal than its namesake, Wolverine: Manifest Destiny is Big Trouble in Little China
But I’ll get to that another time.
Oh hey! I almost forgot: The second chapter of Chad Bowers and Chris Nye’s Impossible! is now up for your reading pleasure at the Action Age of Comics! Click here to head over there, give it a read, and let us know what you think, won’t you?
I think the brilliance of the Dr. Hurt ‘reveal’ is that instead of certainty, it creates doubt, but not in the reader (or in just the reader) but in Batman, or rather, the Morrisonian Batgod version of Batman that Knows Everything and is Totally Infallible. The sheer possibility that Hurt could be his father is a huge game-changer, even if we eventually find out that Hurt is actually Polar Boy sent back in time or Brother Eye’s cyborg daugher or whatever other horrible, Dixonian solution they’ll come up with to placate the dissatisfied masses in a year’s time.
I guess my confusion at first was really whether or not Bruce died at the end. My first time reading through this, I thought the ‘six months later’ was Nightwing in the cape and cowl, as suggested by that full-page shot of him holding said cowl. It took a second read-through for me to figure out that Bruce wasn’t actually dead, thankfully.
Once I had worked out that one sticking point, (a sticking point only because of my love for Batman, and a fanboyish assumption that Nightwing would never be as good as Bruce under the cowl) I really enjoyed this last issue.
Yeah, but even if Bruce Wayne was “dead,” and Dick Grayson became Batman–which was shitty the first time they did it–it’s not like it would last.
Yeah, good point. I just don’t even like the [i]threat[/i] of these temporary “bold, new directions”.
Well said, Chris. I loved this series from start to finish, Morrison seemed to be having incredible fun with it, and I was content to let him take me on a ride, as opposed to the legion of readers out there who seemed to want to fight him every step of the way.
Only book I got was Doctor Who: The Forgotten. The Six and Seven stories were adequate, but now some of the artifacts that came from episodes near the end or after the Ten/Martha run make sense. Also: the bad guy sics one of “The Robots Of Death” on the Doctor, along with a Clockwork Droid from “The Girl In The Fireplace.” A scary mechanized combo if I ever saw one.
That issue of Tarot was worse than the stuff in ABVH you Twittered about today?
also, i just noticed that the kick to the face’s sound effect is “KRAKKINAJAA!”
which is awesomely close to “Crack in the jaw”. Probably intentional, but HILARIOUS nonetheless
Why do fans get up in arms about deaths? We all know they don’t stick. All that really matters is, “Is it a good story?” If it is (see Brubaker’s Captain American run), then hey, everything’s peachy keen. If it isn’t (see most everything else involving main character death), then complain about the bad stories.
Also, how could Tarot be bad? Scans_daily said it was empowering and feminist!
Also, how could Tarot be bad? Scans_daily said it was empowering and feminist!
Er, what? Because thats an entirely new complaint about S_D…
Anyway, I’m mostly enjoying MZ3 despite my utter disdain for the rest of the franchise and then this issue has one of those things that reminds me WHY I hate it. Zombie Ghost Rider. Yes, I know he’s just there to set up the Hunger for Vengeance joke and the Aaron steals his bike joke. But its the demonic spirit of vengeance and its been infected with the zombie virus. And thats just so fucking stupid. Even for comics…
Oh, and new Mouse Guard! Mouse vs. Owl with Owl-language smack talk!
Morrison did indeed tell a great “middle story” here. If anything it’s a very deliberate “middle story” as he goes to great pains to integrate all the other “middle stories” from the characters entire 70 year history into his narrative. And for all DC’s sturm and durang, I have no doubt that Morrison will put all his toys back in the box pretty much as he left them with maybe — MAYBE — Damien being the big exception.
I’m a big fan of Morrison, I think Final Crisis is great, All-Star Superman was the best superhero book of the last few years and I really liked a lot of the stories building up to RIP…but sorry, this has been a complete incoherant mess. If I like this issue it was because the story is finally over and thankfully Morrison didn’t do anything too drastically insane (like bringing Bruce Wayne’s parents back from the dead…at least I think).
I mean let’s examine this story…we have a bunch of unestablished silly looking villians and a retconned superplot. We don’t care about any of villians and we’re supposed to marvel at this brilliant plot, but it never comes across because it’s so full of holes a vagueries…how did they know Bruce Wayne was Batman? Or find the Batcave? Or get onto the Bat computer? Or take over Arkham without anyone noticing? They just did! Because they’re the Black Glove! Lazy plotting can’t keep them down! When Batman wins in the end it’s not a triumph…these are a bunch of D-list looking dudes we know nothing about. You’re instead left to wonder what’s causing Batman to slip so badly that goofs like this can get the better of him in the first place.
Although admittedly compared to “Heart of Hush” this is indeed a masterpiece. See Hush stole Catwoman’s heart and Batman wants it back. IT’S A METAPHOR.
You know, I swear I never once heard anyone from DC, including Morrison and Didio, say that Batman was going to die in this story arc. They played up the idea that “you never know what might happen” and other than that it’s been all the fans and interviewers that jumped to that conclusion. I’ve always assumed that a story titled “Rest In Peace” was meant to titillate readers with the possibility of death, while leading to a conclusion where Batman takes a vacation (i.e., he rests) to get his mind back.
I think the best part of the story is that it gave a sense of closure yet left us still asking a lot of questions. The best stories don’t leave you content – they create conversations that last longer than the story ever did.
As for the tie-ins… I have stated numerous times on my site I hate the banner they put on the covers just to sell issues because Robin and Nightwing both had good stories that were crippled by our distaste for the marketing.
My problems aren’t at all with this story itself. If they existed in a vacuum, outside of the world where Grant Morrison and Dan Didio do interviews, I would have thought it was great.
Nonetheless, the hype machine does exist, and it totally led me astray in regard to what this storyarc was going to be.
It’s one thing to be a little confused about who a bad guy is; I can handle that, and kind of appreciate it in a weird way. But when the company that publishes a book lies to me about its content, ostensibly just to sell it to me, that’s really not very cool.
Thank you! I thought I was the only one:)
In an interview about “Batman RIP,” Morrison said that readers know that DC isn’t going to kill Batman, and that they aren’t going to replace Bruce Wayne, since we’ve already seen how that plays out. (I’m still peeved that the “Dick Greyson fills in as Batman” arc was as lame as it was — such potential.)
The outcome of “Batman RIP,” according to Morrison, was supposed to instead be a game-changing shift that left Bruce Wayne as Batman. I thought that was nifty, since it respects the readers’ intelligence.
But that ending…”Oh noes, did teh Batman die?” You know he didn’t, we know he didn’t, and you know that we know. So why end the story as though we’re supposed to take his “death” seriously? And fumble that “death” to boot? The pacing was blown to shit, and the end lost its impact.
I liked the Morrison run overall, despite agreeing with Nate Burch above about the shortcomings of the “Black Glove” plot, but that ending was a letdown. If the end result is supposed to be a new status quo Batman, um, shouldn’t we see that? Instead of “ooh, he’s dead, no he’s not” ending that we’ve seen a grillion times? Alas.
I’ve seen conflicting accounts of if and when Morrison will write Batman again. Anybody know? Or are we settling in for “Battle for the Cowl,” followed by a return to pre-Morrison comics? (That’d be fine, I’m just curious.)
First, RIP. The name obviously brings expectations into play – DiDio can say all he wants “well we didn’t actually *SAY* he was gonna die” – titling an arc what you put on a gravestone carries a pretty big implication. Not to mention all this Battle for the Cowl crap that have canceled three titles. “Oh, but Batman will be back” doesn’t fill me with hope when Robin and Nightwing aren’t getting monthlies anymore (or BoP – yeah, I really bet they’re gonna make the cripple in a wheelchair be Batman, talk about suspenseful). Not outright saying that Batman was gonna die doesn’t mean they didn’t build that expectation.
And as for tie ins – Heart of Hush had next to nothing to do with this crap (aside from being a pretty good arc. It’s not like Loeb did anyone any favors when he intro’d Hush to begin with. Now the character doesn’t suck – and this arc was obviously planned pre-RIP). Thank God too, because at least one of the Bat books is putting out good Batman stories. If you want crossovers that aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, try Morrison’s pieces of the stupid return of Ras crossover. Two guys who weren’t even on the Batbooks and just came in for the goddamned crossover did a better job on that thing than he did.
I get that you love Silver Age wackiness, but this was just a pretty bad run from start to end.
I thought it was just confusing. I didn’t really have any idea what had happened, or when things had happened, or why. I finished the issue with no idea if Bruce was supposed to be dead, or missing, or if he had just jumped into the water and then swam his way back to shore so he could be in Final Crisis. Maybe I’m dumb, but the story just didn’t flow, and the dialogue was too twee and discombobulated to really map out the action.
Oh, and I’m baffled by this sentence: “The outcome of “Batman RIP,†according to Morrison, was supposed to instead be a game-changing shift that left Bruce Wayne as Batman.”
Am I on crazy pills? Is this sort of the same thing as a game changing shift that leaves Clark Kent as Superman? Or do you literally mean that he was supposed to give up the cowl and go flying around the city fighting crime openly dressed as Bruce Wayne.
I dunno why everyone seems certain that the Black Glove is not Bruce himself, particularly given that when we hear, in the helicopter, an unknown person say, “The Black Glove always wins”, it’s Bruce/Batman’s black glove shattering the window of the helicopter that we see next.
So this is what I take Morrison to be playing around with in his “game-changing shift”: that when Bruce next takes up the mantle of Batman, it’s going to finally be Bruce Wayne as the real man, Batman the performance–that Morrison is ultimately going to try past the Batman-as-crazy, Batman-the-real-person characterization of the past two decades. Because Bruce is going to have to face the fact that allowing Batman to become the real person allowed evil and madness into his own mind. Batman always thinks of everything: so he’s going to have to realize that being Batman means not being Batman the way that he’s *been* Batman most of his life.
Which puts another twist on rest-in-peace: maybe Bruce is going to make peace with being Batman, to be a much more serene or contented kind of Batman. Not a Batman who knows only madness and death.
First, RIP. The name obviously brings expectations into play
I refer you again to the “event” from a few years back called “This Issue–Batman Dies!!” Batman did not, in fact, die in any of those issues.
And as for tie ins – Heart of Hush had next to nothing to do with this crap (aside from being a pretty good arc. It’s not like Loeb did anyone any favors when he intro’d Hush to begin with. Now the character doesn’t suck – and this arc was obviously planned pre-RIP). Thank God too, because at least one of the Bat books is putting out good Batman stories.
You are so wrong that I’m not even sure you’re speaking English.
Batman 682 makes it clear that RIP happens pre-Final Crisis, if that helps anyone figure out the whole “Batman doesn’t actually die at the end” thing. Also, as the last issue of RIP helpfully pointed out, HE’S FRIGGING BATMAN.
Hell, he probably had the Atom put miniature pacemakers in his brain just in case he dies again and Ray isn’t there to stomp all over his medulla oblongata. And then he mindwiped Ray in case he turned evil and tried to put Batman in a coma.
For what it’s worth, Timothy Burke’s guess on how RIP is meant to play out (“Bruce vs. Batman — who’s real?”) is what I’ve suspected too. It’s a “game changer” of a sort, but it leaves the status quo in place and it allows for future writers to use or ignore it as they see fit. It also fits with the “backup personality” jazz. We shall see.
What we need to see is Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi fighting for control over the dead Batman’s body by leaping around his brain. That would be comics with a capital COM.
I don’t typically read Batman, but picked up this last issue when non-comic reading colleagues asked me about “the death of Batman”, and realized that awareness of it had poked through to the general public. I liked parts of it, and was able to more or less follow the story, which is an accomplishment nowadays for the last chapter of a multi-part story line, but the ending left me cold. I have no interest in seeing a “battle for the cowl” that will end with Bruce Wayne resuming the mantle of the God Damned Batman. Just saying.
In Mark Waid’s run on the Fantastic Four a few years back, he had the Thing die at the end of a fierce battle with Doctor Doom. But the issue did not end with Ben’s death, but a scene six months later, where Reed leaves a message to the estranged Johnny and Sue that he has decided to bring Ben back to life.
Waid respected the readers’ and fans’ intelligence. We KNEW Ben would not stay dead. So he emphasized that Ben had really died, and then made the cliff hanger revolve around how Reed was going to undo the death. I thought the trip to Heaven story didn’t work in some spots, but at least it had me coming back to see What Happens Next. Again, just saying.
Well, personally I liked it. I’m more pissed off that fans continue to ask who the Black Glove is when it says in the freaking issue that the Black Glove isn’t a PERSON, it’s FIVE people, each one a “finger” to the glove.
Also, Chris, what did you think of the “Zorro in Arkham” = Zurr En Arrh thing? Personally I thought it was brilliant on Morrison’s part.
Also, Chris, what did you think of the “Zorro in Arkham†= Zurr En Arrh thing? Personally I thought it was brilliant on Morrison’s part.
Loved. It.
Seriously, I’m a sucker for wordplay like that in comics–see Alan Moore’s affection for acrostics–and when I hit that, I flipped out.
Batman will never die! Batman is forever!
Sorry… I couldn’t resist.
You know what’s getting pretty old by now?
The whole “he’s Batman, and the Batman thinks of everything” shtick.
Final Crisis could well end with Batman pulling out his anti-Darkseid spray he prepared in the 70s because he had a hunch something like that might come in handy..
And it would be freaking rad!
Seriously, that ending by count cannot be topped no matter what DC does
“You know what’s getting pretty old by now?
The whole “he’s Batman, and the Batman thinks of everything†shtick.”
yes, thankyou.
a spoiled brat in a leather suit cannot prepare for everything. its like if you wrote a chuck norris comic with chuck just pointing at stuff and it explodes or showing him perched on a rooftop waiting.. it got old years ago.
[…]maybe Bruce is going to make peace with being Batman, to be a much more serene or contented kind of Batman.
Maybe…. HAPPY BATMAN?
PS
I agree with a fellow poster: Happy Batman is “nightmare fuel”.
a spoiled brat in a leather suit cannot prepare for everything. its like if you wrote a chuck norris comic with chuck just pointing at stuff and it explodes or showing him perched on a rooftop waiting.. it got old years ago.
Congratulations. You’re an idiot.
And Kryptonians aren’t REALLY that strong either!
Seriously, what’s with Superman flying in to save people all the damn time?
I’d totally buy a comic where Chuck Norris points at stuff and it explodes. That would be awesome.
Batman’s whole deal, much like Captain America, is that he’s a mortal who can hang with friggin’ gods. Of course his expertise exceeds all rational limits – he’s a comic-book super-hero!
As for R.I.P., I loved the ideas (Batman vs. Bruce; reincorporating 50’s and early ’60s stories into continuity (the original Batwoman returns!); the Joker’s ever-shifting personas) but they never quite fit together to shape a coherent story for me.
So in my book, R.I.P. was an ambitious failure. Better that, though, than Red Lanterns barfing blood every where or the prospect of yet another “Prodigal Son” or “Knightquest.”
It doesn’t matter if Batman died or not in that event mentioned – but I bet people sure expected him to. Expectations again built up at strongly hinting that Batman will die and not carrying though.
Also, you’re still wrong about Heart of Hush.
I think this is very self-evidently the middle act of Morrison’s story. Whether he’ll be allowed to write the final act is another question. (Or whether he actually wants to.) But in any event, the “Batman thinks of everything” in this story isn’t just making him god-like: it’s part of Batman’s problem, I suspect. He thinks of everything: and that’s how he got into this mess. I’m still pretty certain that he himself is the Black Glove, but even if he’s not, it’s his attempt to “think of everything” that made him vulnerable to the Black Glove in the first place.
Chris-
How did your customers respond to the book? It always seemed to me that Batman wouldn’t die because, if he did, they wouldn’t put it in a huge banner across the top of the book for seven months. Look at Captain America. Plus, most of the customers at my store do live in a comic vacuum: they don’t read newsarama on a daily basis or read all the blogs or even look at Previews EVEN WHEN WE FORCE IT ON THEM. They did not know about the alleged hype created by DiDio and Morrison. They just buy Batman. And for the most part, they seem positive toward the book (though some did not get all the minutiae that I only learned through the internets). ‘Course, a few of them really liked Detective (Batman says he loves Catwoman!!!). So, you know, that hurts.
As much as people like to say “oh come on, it’s not like Batman’s going to die, why are you so surprised he didn’t?” we know that post-RIP/FC the post of Batman is going to be empty and that various secondary characters are going to fight it out to be the fill-in Batman. They’ve been hyping that since day one of RIP.
And therefore, part of RIP’s mandate is to lay the groundwork for that, which informed speculation said would be by setting up a sequence of events that lead to Bruce Wayne retiring (due, possibly, to the secret identity of the Black Glove, or just generically the Black Glove’s psychological assault.) It didn’t: it ends with Bruce Wayne just as committed to being Batman and as “sane” as he’s ever been.
Hype – including from Morrison himself – built up that there was going to a major, shocking reveal (implied to be the truth behind the Black Glove) that would shake Batman and change things forever, yadda yadda. While we all know to take hype with a grain of salt, there wasn’t a disappointing or nonsensical revelation in Batman RIP. There was no revelation at all; the story just winds up confirming what we already knew – that Batman is awesome and prepares for everything – not revealing anything new.
None of which makes Batman RIP a bad comic. But it does make it easy to see where a) the rumor that the planned ending was axed at the last minute, and b) the feeling that the whole story was an underwhelming bait-and-switch, both come from.
I just loved the fact that Morrison had been playing with the red&black = bad pretty much through his entire run. And the thing that he had been alluding to was that Jezebel Jet was going to betray him. A black chick with red hair! It was there the whole time and while having the girlfriend be the baddie is not that surprising, the fact that Morrison had been practically screaming at us with the whole black and red allusions makes me feel like a fool for not picking it up sooner. Black chicks don’t have red hair. That’s just silly.
Honestly I felt it made no sense as I was reading it. However I had time this past weekend to go back over Morrison’s total run. Lo and behold everything actually made sense.
I agree with our host, Timothy Burke and all the other people who aren’t stupid so hard that its dangerous.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh wow! Simply wow Mr. Sims…you finally lost ANY credibility you had (and maybe common sense) but I’m not here to correct you or to dispute this R.I.P. arc. I can finally see that you really are one of those Morrison fans that like ride the high horse and see the rest of us down.
All I’m going to say is this…I’m glad you liked this arc. I like how you call it a good story..maybe a decent story..but not all there. Have fun reading Batman…the others (i.e. bat-heads) will stick to Dini in TEC. Have a great day Mr. Simms.
As for your Heart of Hush comment….Dini>>>>>>Morrison. See in you in the funny pages.
“For me, that’s damn near perfect.”
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Oh, you’re killing me! hahaha!!!
Congratulations. You’re an idiot.
wow.. nice move calling a loyal reader an idiot.
and no, I just don’t think an adolescent fantasy of being “teh tuff batmanz!!1111!!1!!” is cool like you.
batman isn’t cool. Eisner said so.
[and yes, I’d unironically buy the shit outta a chuck norris comic too.]
and finally; http://tinyurl.com/5kakkc
make that possibly former reader.
Dangle that sword of Damocles, dangle it! The suspense is tangible: will Chris lose a reader? Turn in next Bat-time, same Bat-channel to find out.
Yer breakin’ my heart, kid.
…I dunno Sims. He included a comic of Superman punching Batman. Maybe he’s right? Maybe it’s time to call this whole thing off.
Meh. If Sims didnt call one of us stupid, i would assume something was wrong with him. I find it to be hilarious.
@edc Do you even understand that comic you linked? You DO realize that Wonder Woman was rationalizing the entire super-hero genre with her ‘ret-con’ comment? Do you realize Chris Sims is right in calling you an idiot? Do you know the ratio of intelligent readers (comics or otherwise) to stupid readers?
Sims, you just keep doing what you’re doing.
My issue is still that, all through RIP, I was like “for the ‘most horrific and effective plot agaainst Batman, ever, this whole Black Glove thing sure is hackneyed, infantile, and totally something Batman should shrug off an beat the hell out of the perpetrators of in an issue or two… I mean, he’d practically have to be playing along for this to last this long…”
Then, we find out he has been, only, not in a “he’s crazy in an MPD sorta way, and is his own worst enemy…”, but instead in a “he just let them all find out who he is, and do all this shit to him… for no reason whatsoever… and even drugged and exhausted, took all of three pages to whipe out the whole lot of them. This could have been one issue.” sorta way.
I disliked it especially because, short of the Joker hitting his head and forgetting it all, it had the same “clean” ending that you (Sims) were joking about months ago.
It was utterly meningless, and, while it contained great geek out moments, all in all it was NOT very good when viewed as whole. As shocked as you are that so many people dislike it (and many, I admit, for the wrong reasons), I am just flabbergasted that your standards are so low.
Then again, maybe what with you calling it with the “everyone will forget what happened, and it’ll all be back to normal”, it’s just your expectations that were low, and I’m the dummy that was hoping for All-Star Superman, and instead got this dreck.
zak, I can’t even be bothered wasting a facepalm on ya.
well chris, looks like you go to the “reject blogs” pile with topless robot.
Now I know I have a heart… because I can feel it breaking.
There, there, Chris. (holds Sims, pats his head)
Now my Sims/edc fan-fic doesn’t make ANY kind of sense. Why Sims, WHY?
Can we make a new Godwin’s Law, only involving instantly losing an argument the moment you bring Chuck Norris into a conversation?
You guys do know that Batman planned for Sims and edc’s relationship to end this way, right?
Batman is rad.
December 7, 1941: A day that will live in infamy.
edc Says:
well chris, looks like you go to the “reject blogs†pile with topless robot.
December 8, 2008: A day in which blog readers said, “Who gives a fuck?”
Chris,
Come here, and I’ll give you a warm man-hug.
Gordon
P.S. I like Batman.
On the bright side, Sims, you get to hang out with a topless robot.
I am now expecting much topless robot porn at this site, as long as Sims is hanging out with one.
All well and good and whether the owner of ISB is a shill or not (and let’s assume he isn’t),
just in terms of English as it is spoken and understood…
What does putting RIP after someone’s name or alias mean?
It means they’re dead.
So Batman RIP means Batman is dead.
Since mainstream comics won’t kill trademarks um I mean really really well written deep 3-dimensional characters… No actually I mean trademarks… Batman RIP couldn’t have meant what it said.
It isn’t a question of it being a con; it’s a con. The question is how BIG a con was it.
And the answer from the readership by a large majority vote is-
not as big a con as anything Marvel has put out lately as an event. But a con nonetheless.