It's a set up

MIGHTY AVENGERS #9 BM Bendis, Mark Bagley. Bendis got lazy. He thought he could fool me into liking his Mighty Avengers if he put three spreads of the Avengers fighting Doombots. Well, he almost did, I get hypnotized by spreads and pretty colors. But after reading the last page, I realized that the dialogue balloons were completely useless (since nothing significant was said) and that you could understand the story easily (since nothing much happened). To make sure that I buy the next issue, Bendis threw in a cliffhanger. I wonder how the battle in Latvia is connected to Secret Invasion?

NIGHTWING #141 Peter Tomasi, Rags Morales and Michael Bair. Bruce Wayne is filthy rich! Nightwing is setting up in New York and in order for him to be able to get around the city fast he needed strategic bases. He sent the addresses to Bruce and he bought all the buildings for Dick in a snap. Nothing much happened in this issue in furthering the story of the mystery of the body thieves but Tomasi wrote little special moments that satisfied my geeky heart. The JSA and JLA all pitched in to build his new HQ. Imagine having John Stewart as you architect! I was wondering when a Titan would come over and help him then Wally shows up. They shared a beer and talked—Tomasi and Morales succeeded in making the moment special.

BIRDS OF PREY #115 Sean McKeever, Nicola Scott, and Doug Hazlewood. PERFECT! Like Avengers and Nightwing, the BoP issue is setting up the stage for the big story in the arc. Avengers overdosed on fights and Nightwing was character driven but I missed the brawls. McKeever told a “set-up” story where characters evolved, the story moved forward, and there were fights! The Huntress and Lady Blackhawk went to go after Shark and they found his hide-out on a deserted island. In a few pages, Lady Blackhawk’s history with the villain was told and that Helena’s loyalty and respect for her has grown. They also fought giant eels and a damn big fish with big teeth. Oracle is still obsessed with trying to find out where their last operation in Metropolis went wrong. She enlisted Black Alice and Misfit threw a tantrum over what she believed was favoritism. Charlie was angry that Barbara considered another kid like her a Bird of Prey while she wasn’t considered to be an official agent. Just as Barbara and Lory were at the verge of a breakthrough on the case they were working on, Charlie teleported in to fight Lory. Meanwhile, Helena found Zinda drugged and transformed into an evil bitch. PERFECT!

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #4 Chuck Dixon and Julian Lopez. Batgirl is back and Green Arrow hates her guts! (Come to think of it she’s the X-23 of DC – raised as an assassin and all but I think X-23 have more social support than Batgirl.) Anyway, after being betrayed by his kung fu master and how he and his family were hunted down by the league of assassins (the Black Canary and Sin arc) Green Arrow’s hate and distrust of Batgirl is completely understandable. The thing is Batman didn’t tell Ollie that Cassandra would be part of the team. It was typically manipulative of Batman. I have a problem with Ollie becoming a match to Cassandra in a fight. Cassandra was trained to read body language instead of verbal language—thus she could anticipate moves. Pretty much like Midnighter but without the enhancements—just human abilities but so honed and perfect that Batman once wondered if she was a meta. Unless, she was letting Ollie win so that he will feel better. Thunder is still hanging around Grace and the supposedly top secret Outsiders hideout. I don’t understand why Batman allows this. Maybe he has a plan for her, I don’t know why he didn’t put her on the team but he lets her hang out at their HQ. The reformatted OMAC is interesting—it can imitate anyone, George Clooney or Brad Pitt. I wouldn’t mind having one of those.

Gotham Knights

Last Wednesday I finished the 1st draft of a particularly difficult project - to celebrate, I spent the next three nights watching Batman Animated series season 4 . I've had the DVDs for months now but haven't gotten around watching them. Here are the episodes I loved:

• Sins of the father - the season started with Batman minus Robin (Dick). This episode was the origin of the next Robin (Tim Drake) whose story had a Jason Todd feel to it. Tim was the son of a criminal who was murdered and Batman saved him from the goons looking for the loot that Tim's father stashed somewhere. Batman got injured and Tim saved him, brought him to the Batcave - well, events of course led to Tim becoming Robin. This episode had heart - Bruce is a big softie when it comes to orphans. Further into the series, I liked the detail that Batman worked with Batgirl more since she was better trained and well, bigger, than Tim.
• You scratch my back - Nightwing (!) and Catwoman worked together -- fun!!! Catwoman double crossed Nightwing but Nightwing and the Batgang were expecting it.
• Joker's Millions - What if Joker didn't need to steal anymore because he became richer than Bruce Wayne (in a legit way)? It was the only thing that could have stopped his criminal activities but that would be too easy, right? I never would have thought that Mark Hamill was the voice of Joker till I saw the credits. Harley Quin and Ivy were also in the episode - having both of them together is always funny.
• Old wounds - Dick tells Tim why he left. Batman wanted to beat up a Joker-minion in front of the minion's family. Dick wouldn't have anything to do with that. To complicate things, Dick and Barbara were going out without knowing about each other's secret Bat-related commitments. Of course when Dick found out that Batman had knowingly put his girlfriend in danger... (yes, he blamed Batman for anything and everything).
• Legends of the Dark Knight - three kids were telling each other Batman stories: one of them was a silver age story - the illustrations/drawing/art (whatever you call it when its cartoons) and dialogs were silver age!!! The other story as from Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns - the final showdown with the mutants. (And the story where a kid pointed that Robin was a girl) This got me to sit-up from bed and pay close attention, and rewind, and watch it again.
  
• Girls' Night Out - Batman was out of town. Batgirl and Supergirl worked together to bring down Livewire. Harley and Ivy were also in the mix - so yeah, more fun!
• Mad love - Harley Quin's story - why is she obsessed with the Joker? (In this episode, Joker (voiced by Mark Hamill) said, "May the floss be with you!" It was a joke. You have to watch the episode to get it.) Now I know why Thor loves Harley. Paul Dini did an absolutely great job in characterization. She wants to be better but she couldn't help but give in to her psychosis. I liked it that Batman sympathized with Harley and that you knew he wanted to help her become better.
  

Speaking of... Here's the Joker in the next Batman movie (*excited!*)

Annual Fix

Nightwing is one of my guilty pleasures. (I have said before that I cannot explain why – except that I think he’s the Robbie Williams of DC – may pagka-gago. Its embarrassing to admit but well … basta!) But unfortunately Nightwing by Marv Wolfman is fast becoming uninteresting and I may have to let go of Dick soon. The story arches are becoming a “monster of the week” and “girl of the week” event. Bleh. But I was looking forward to the Annual written by Marc Andreyko (Manhunter!) that was going to tell why Dick and Barbara’s engagement did not push through and OYL – they weren’t even a couple anymore (since Dick was being a DICK in New York City – grrr…). I know that you guys would not have bought and read the annual – or the series – but indulge me …

The Annual starts with the proposal taken exactly from BoP / Nightwing before the Crisis and how Nightwing was hit by a blast from Alexander Luthor and then how Barbara nursed him back to health. The way Andreyko wrote the flashbacks – Barbara and Dick recalling their first date and their adventures as Batgirl and Robin – was sweet and funny. Seeing Dick – then a big strapping teen-ager - in green “panties” and pixie shoes was silly! The laugh-out-loud moment was when Batgirl and Robin were trapped in a safe (hehe!) and because of the tight space, Robin got “excited.” He had to come out crouching, covering himself with his cape. (Now we know anotheruse for the yellow cape.)

Andreyko also answered a question that was bothering me before – what happened between Babs and Dick before Dick and Starfire became a couple. In Teen Titans – it was as if Babs didn’t exist. (I told you before I was stalking Nightwing!) Well, the scene where Babs finally decided to tell Dick that the feeling was mutual was – was like the scene in Bridget Jones 2 (the movie of course) where Rene almost gave in to having sex with Hugh Grant but then a beautiful Asian woman knocked on the door! It was a “Argh! MEN!!!” moment. Babs knocked on Dick dorm room and then Kory opened the door (scantily clad, tall, green eyes, long hair). Andreyko didn’t make Kory a gorgeous-evil-stealing-slut - in four small panels he showed how Kory was insecure and how much she wanted Dick that she lied about who knocked on the door (pizza guy with the wrong address). So not evil – just gorgeous-stealing-slut.

Babs finally did have sex with Dick – he was gone for six months and he came back from Tamaran to find out that Babs was shot by the Joker and was paralyzed from the waist down. After the sex, he gave her the engagement announcement – Kory and him were going to get married! (“Argh! MEN!!!”)

OK, back to the present (or one year ago), in the end Babs decided to give the engagement ring back – when Batman asked Dick and Tim to accompany him in his soul searching she knew that Dick was conflicted – it wasn’t a easy decision for him to choose between Batman and the woman he loved. Well, I guess she had enough – it must be all or nothing. Babs was a strong woman – but her biggest “flaw” was Dick, she knew that Dick was still unsure of what he wanted in life. Still she let go but not completely … the last panel showed her holding Dick to his promise that he will come back. (BUT HE WAS SLEEPING AROUND IN NEW YORK ONE YEAR LATER!! IS THAT WHAT YOU CALL SOUL SEARCHING?!!!!)

Thank you Marc Andreyko, Joe Bennet, and Jack Jadson for the chick-flick - it was well told and well drawn – I wish you guys were writing the series….