I'm listening to George Thorogood, because I'm bad to the bone.

I couldn't think of anything better to name this post, but I am actually listening to George Thorogood.  So it's not 100% random.
I've been sick this week, which is why I've been AWOL, and Sushi is at Emerald City Comic-Con.  I get text updates from her about all the neat people she's running into, occasional pictures of favorite artists and writers or art, and it's hilarious to hear her complain about being lost while trying to find some person or another.  Then again, she does get to do that while I get to play catch-up on Studies of the Literature of the Americas...
Oh well.
What else? This page will be frequently updating Wednesdays and Saturdays.  Possibly one random day in-between, for the occasional ramble about how I just caved and pre-ordered the collector's for Injustice against my good judgement because apparently I just can't help myself.  Hope for the best and expect the worst, y'know? I'm going to Bat-beat the smack out of EVERYONE in the name of [in]JUSTICE.

I'm sure everyone's been caught up with Wednesday's scandalous affair by now?  I dropped Batman Incorporated around issue six, and I really intended to drop it after issue four, but I kept forgetting to take it off of my pull-list.  I wasn't going to put it back on the shelf - I take my pullbox contract seriously.  Batman Inc was a good pre-new 52 runs.  I wondered why they would attempt a brand new series knowing the new universe was just around the corner, but Batman was back in his badass, pinstripe suit, and there was work to be done.   Then the reboot happened and it's just felt like Batman Inc has been an empty husk of its predecessor. The writing is muddled; old and new readers have no idea what the flack is going on or why.  I mean do you really feel like you know why things are happening? Sure, Damian becomes Batman and all of Gotham is destroyed was the underlying theme (if you can call it that) but I never bought into it, and I never bought into the why?  Logically the next step was to kill him, right?  Whaaaaaat?

CREATIVE:
Art: Christ Burnham/Jason Masters
Written: Grant Morrison
Price: $2.99

Now I feel like I can't give a 100% knowledgeable review on issue 8 (since I'm missing issues) but I read it and I have to say, I was pretty displeased.  I'm not even pissed that they killed Damian, even though the little man is a good character and had years to grow outside of his "angry sidekick from psychopathic killer mother and borderline-psychopathic vigilante father" box.  It was the total blandness and general ineffectiveness of his death that's completely disappointing.  It was the first time I read a comic book and as I saw Batman holding Damian's limp body, I was already trying to calculate how long it would be before they brought him back, and I was glad.  That's how terrible it was.  Chris Burnham's art has never done it for me, especially in this issue where emotion was key.  The only emotion he ever manages to successfully elicit from me is hunger, because all I can see are giant, super-hero heads on Popsicle sticks and I'm trying to imagine if they're cherry flavored with bubble-gum eyes (and I would know, I buy them from the ice-cream man all the time).  Jason Master's art, despite being short-lived, was much more appealing.

Moves like Jagger.

"This is bulls*** I used to be Batman!"

Morrison's writing felt forced and flat; like hug your cousin and pretend you don't hate him forced.  Even the "sentimental" moment between Nightwing and Robin felt like a poorly executed chess move instead of emotionally charged writing, made more evident by how easily Nightwing is bird-swatted three pages later, down for the count, while Damian endures a hail of knuckles, arrows, and gunfire.

And the big finale?  I couldn't even feel anything.  I can't even say DC was going for shock value because for shock value you at least need an element of surprise, which they nixed weeks earlier by announcing Damian's death to everyone.  Nothing like the flip out I had day one in the series when I thought Damian took a bullet to the head.  I legitimately didn't feel anything until Damian asked crazy Talia a second time to call the Heretic off.  That was pretty powerful.  We all knew what was coming though, so now I'll just be waiting around for Damian to come back, even though he went out a total little boss.

"Don't worry, son.  Nobody stays dead in comics forever."

There's that and the Lazarus Pit, which could come into play even though it's already been used in a dead Robin situation before, but who knows?  Only time will tell what terrible effects this is going to have on the Batfamily (who was already in a bit of a pickle, with their fragile trust-issues from Death in the Family and whatnot) and Gotham itself.

PR Says: 1/5  Shame a bad little dude had to go out in such a lame way.  Sleep tight, little fella.