A little break *snigger* (down) also Allie Brosch

Sometimes a girl just doesn't have the capacity to be clever, or funny, or any of that shit.
Sometimes life is more Ally Brosch than anything else. I've not abandoned you, I'm just taking a little time to worry about hospital emergency room visits, Lumbar punctures, respiratory infections, oncology appointments, and upcoming major surgeries made more stressful by your mothers near non-existent immune system, due her recent lung transplant.

While I'm having my breakdown, go read Allie Brosch's Hyperbole and a Half. She is a goddess of comic blogness. Her work makes me laugh till I cry, and cry till I laugh. It's real, beautiful, tragic, relatable, and occasionally life saving. Seriously. I use her updated pain scale quite often. You know, due to aformentioned CRAP.

She's a 10/10, and saves ones sanity, and the poor postman may get attacked the day her new book comes out. Gimmeeeeeeeeeee

The Outcast! In two parts, part one

I finished up on the third volume of Outcast just in time to watch the first episode of the tv adap.
I thought I'd review the books BEFORE watching though.

Before I get started, I may have to admit something. I have not read The Walking Dead. I've watched most of it, but I haven't read a single issue. Which seems a bit ridiculous. I do know that Robert Kirkman, responsible for both TWD and Outcast is considered to be a great, but so far, I'm not feeling it.

Kyle Barnes is living a shitty little life in a shitty little town, where everyone thinks he's a shitty guy. Well, everyone except his foster sister. They think he's a shitty guy because they all think he beat the crap out of his wife and young daughter. Except he didn't. And they think that he beat and hospitalised his mother as a child because she was abusive. But she wasn't, and he didn't. Somehow Kyle is a magnet for demonic possession. Somehow all the people that he cares about become vulnerable to possession just because he's around. Coming home and discovering a demon inside his wife using her body to hurt their child is not even the worst thing that's happened. Figuring out that his daughter *spoiler* has inherited the same "ability" when his foster sister throws her policeman husband out of a second floor window is still not even the worst thing.  

The actual devil moving in next door? maybe. Him babysitting the niece? *shudder*

There is a grand conspiracy at work here. Every demon that Kyle and his Reverend partner  come across knows who he is, "the outcast". And they seem to have big big big plans for him. Plus, it seems that he can exorcise them completely just by using his touch, or his blood. And as long as he's got there quick enough, they'll be okay. If the demon has been there long term, however, they'll end up comatose like his mother.

It's a slow burner. Maybe too slow for some people. The story takes it's time, nothing happens quickly,  and no questioned have answers have yet. The small-town setting adds to the slow atmosphere. Also giving everything a claustrophobic feel. 

So far I waver between a 5-6/10. I can believe in it's potential, I'm just not sure if everyone will have the patience. Perhaps the tv show will offer a more visceral immediacy, and a few more chills.

I have to wait for the Mother to fall asleep, or something because it's too scary for her. Unfortunately, taking care of her is my job, so my scary show time is minimal. 

Red Thorn #6 is here!

I unfortunately did that thing where I got super excited and thought that I had the entire arc ready to go, only I was WRONG! So I had to wait for #6. 

Still, it's freaking brilliant. So, American born artist Isla heads to Glasgow to try and find out what happened to the sister who died before she was born. Instead she finds magic, monsters, old gods, new gods, and a WHOLE lotta trouble. Meet Red Thorn, ancient Scottish God, who has been chained underground for centuries. Isla is about to release him. Hence the trouble.

Slight Spoiler? Neither Isla, or originally her sister were drawn to Glasgow by accident. A secret in their blood gives them the power to change reality through their art. In high school she accidently brought to life a drawing who decided to attend her school for a whole semester. And then kill a teacher by stabbing them with a pencil 27 times. Of course. I love this reality bending power. It's both a beautiful plot point, and a great meta-narrative idea. I love me some meta. It's got some similarity to Art Ops, and to Unwritten, and lets be honest to American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Which I love. It turns out that she's not he only one either. Red Thorn has a plan to collect people with this power in order to get revenge on the guy who captured him so long ago. The thing is, he's looking to not just change his present, but also the past with Isla's power.

Some of my favourite parts? The "New Gods". Evil Old God Cadros, who slaughtered the old gods to take all the power for himself, has been, ah, inteferring with belief. 

Red Thorn is a tattooed, manipulative, morally questionable, hyper-sexual, confident BASTARD. Very Glaswegian. He's a fabulous character. I love how he has plans on top of plans on top of plans. I love how far he's willing to go to get what he wants, lying, stealing, and fucking with everyone. (Let's be honest, he's working on just fucking everyone, too. Centuries of celibacy to make up for). I'm fascinated by him, I can't wait to see what he comes up with, but MAN is he trouble.

 

I also freaking love Tarek. Like Isla, he has the power to change reality through his drawings. Only his power is over spaces rather than people. He can actually create and change places through his art. 

Making him mute is an interesting dynamic. His loss of power and agency with words, compared to his power and agency through art is great. Being so young and having been dismissed by his father because of his disability, gives him a vulnerability and makes him easily manipulated.  With Isla getting a little, ah,"lost", (not spoiling that bit), I'm very worried about him.Though, I also wonder if he is going to prove to be a lot more powerful than expected.

David Baillie, I adore you. 8,5/10, and I'm betting that number goes up with Vol 2.

(btw, I've also just read a great debut urban fantasy novel set in Glasgow, this time about a half Maori, blue-haired werewolf by Maria Lewis. Read it)

Another Image Update: Mythic, Monstress, Luminae.

Mythic is just super fun. An ordinary guy discovers that there is a super secret agency responsible for policing and cleaning up magical disturbances. There's an immortal seer named Cassandra, a Native American Shaman who's twin brother is a hell beast, a fertility goddess, and that's just for starters. The whole lot is led by a gigantic baby who is. you know, life itself. They're generally pretty competent and good at sorting out all the problems. I mean, Nate's first job on the team is helping a couple of elemental beings through some couples counselling so that it will stop a drought. Because, of course it does.  The elementals get it on, it rains, they all have drinks.

The big problem is that all these mythic being, mythic wars, mythic problems are all just so irrational. And there is a force at work that is willing to go to war, to mix magic and machines in order to take out all the magical beings. They even take all the mythical figures prophesied to end the world in Ragnarok and turn them into magic/ machine hybrids. As you do.

Volume one is issue 1-8. I'm hoping that there will be more. It's clever, gory, funny, and a 7/10 for me. 

Now, Monstress was actually a bit of a mistake. I thought that all of the issues for the first TPB has been released and I WAS WRONG! Enter tears and trauma. 

However, It's brilliant. It gets described as steampunk kaiju, which is pretty apt. It's so much more though. It has a fantastically feminist dealio going on, It's kind of an alterno history with a matriarchal as well as a magical twist. The idea is that The Ancients are immortal, all powerful, god-like beings. Whilst living amongst the humans, they, umm, made babies with said humans. Thus was born the Arcanic's, who are monstrous, and beautiful, and powerful, and scary,  sometimes winged, clawed, furred, and sometimes human-looking. Which the humans find scarier. Of course there was a huge war.

                                      

Then, of course, there arose a religious order of scary freaking nuns with psychic powers known as the Cumaea. SCARY NUNS! SCARY PSYCHIC NUNS. Who capture Arcanics and torture and experiment on them for their intrinsic magic, which they distil as "lilium" and use to improve their own powers. Gross. I mean they, and their brutal, all-female, soldiers seem to think that they're doing their duty to save the humans from the evil Arcanics, but......UGH.

Enter crippled, mysterious, teenage Arcanic, Maiko, who has herself sold to the evil Cumaea in order to discover the truth about herself, her mother, and about the strange demonic power living inside her.

Extra feminist points for the demons, ghost demons, living demons, and the one living inside Maiko having that monstrous-feminine, vagina dentata (I love you Barbara Creed, and one day I will sneak into your film studies lectures, 'kay)  bodily horror of the power of female genitalia.

(Extra points also for the multiple-tailed, talking cats who consider themselves the children of the gods.)

Tentative 7,5/10. TBD once I read the final part of the story arc (grumble, grumble...)

Last up, Luminae. I wanted to love it. A group of mystical female warriors? Check. A strange, female, messiah who must be protected at all costs? Check. An evil darkness infiltrating and hunting them throughout the lands? Check,

Incredible beautiful and detailed art work that you could just stare at? Check. Coherent storyline? Depth of character? Logical worldbuilding?

Not really. 4/10. Which makes me feel like a bitch "sigh"

Image Comics Update

So, Wolf by Ales Kot is looking like a favourite. Supernatural detective with secrets? Check. Teenage girl who may end up being the actual antichrist? Check. Sudden time jump to five years into the future for volume 2? Oh, man. I want the last two issues so, so, so bad. 8.5/10

Lets all just accept that I am a Terry Pratchett fan. Almost every member of my family cried on the day that he died. Just a fact. Reading Huck, I am unavoidably reminded of Captain Carrot. Huck, and Carrot, have this beautiful naivete which both contrasts, and highlights and compliments their sheer strength and ability, and the power of story, narrative, and expectation of the foundling, the third son, the boy with the mysterious birthmark that has become almost an ontological part of our socio-cosmic world-view. Pratchett, in his way, knew how to play with the audiences expectations, the way that the reader seeks to see familiar stories, and figures in everything. Huck, is just BEAUTIFUL. 

His mystical abilities to "find anything" mean less than his need to do the right thing, to make a difference. He doesn't give a shit if his to do list is paying for the dinner of every body in line behind him at the drive-in, or heading to Africa to save 200 kidnapped schoolgirls. He is just that innocent. And I LOVE him. Oh, Huck. I would ring you fresh milk and band-aids, and help you fill in all your horrible paperwork just so you could go on being yourself. I don't care if you are a cold-war era, super-soldier experiment. I really don't. I don't care if your long lost twin brother turns up with all the details, or if he proves to be a lying, sneaky government plant using you to find your long-lost mother. You are exactly what I need in my comic books. That moment when you told your empathic mother to brainwash you into breaking through the unbreakable glass imprisoning you? I'm really, really, really excited for Volume 2. GO, HUCK!

Also WicDiv? OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG,

TV adaptations: upcoming AND arrived.

We can probably blame the MCU for Comic books being such hot property these days. Yay, MCU!

I'm so bored by Arrow, but I really like The Flash and I'm cool with Legends of Tomorrow. I liked Constantine, but I can understand why it doesn't have the mass appeal of lighter DC fare. I struggle a little with reading Classic Hellblazer because of how morally ambiguous it is, and how depressed it can make me feel. Even New 52 Constantine can be a little difficult to take. He's, well, he's an asshole. He is not a nice person, and the people around him are pretty sure to get hurt.

Supergirl is a favourite. I really enjoyed her "adorkable" demeanour, the way she wrestled with her power and what it could mean, and the part of her that was a normal, confused, 20-something who worried about her job, and men, and social expectations as well as the superhero stuff. I loved the relationship between the sisters, and I really, really, really, want a season 2.

Marvel is totally winning when it comes to their partnership with Netflix. Daredevil and Jessica Jones are both extraordinary pieces of filmmaking and storytelling. As adaptations, they take every part of the source material that works. As film, they have a visual power that is breathtaking. I'll rather them both  9-9.5/10, and I'm TOUGH. I'm really looking forward to Luke Cage (sweet Christmas!), and I'm all on board with Game of Thrones Finn Jones taking on Iron Fist.

Agents of Shield works WITH the MCU, and Agent Carter is one of my favourite television characters ever. She's brilliant, tough, and determined, and can I be her when I grow up?

When it come to the independent titles, there is a lot more scope to breathe and explore. Not being weighed down by decades of history and canon lets them have so much more freedom when it come to their adaption. 

iZombie, and Powers season 1 may require a seperate review, but I can honestly say that I enjoy the tv episodes just as much as the comic books.

Given their success, I am super excited for a couple of things. Vertigo's Preacher, the story of a man named Jesse Custer, running from his cultish upbringing, and finding himself possessing and  possessed by the all-offspring offspring of an angel and a demon, literally possessing the "word of God" is due in days. And I'm super excited.

Anything with the ghost of John Wayne, an Irish vampire named Cassidy, a character literally named Assface, and a mission to track down God and MAKE him live up to his responsibilities has my vote.

The other upcoming excitement is the adaption of Robert Kirkman's Outcast. You may know him from, oh, THE WALKING DEAD!!!!!!!

The fact that there is a whole series based on only two TPB's gives me hope, and some worry. It looks freaking amazing though.

Plus season 2 of Powers is coming, and they've reached the moment where the comic book series begins, "Who killed Retro Girl?" I waver between liking the tv Christian Walker, and missing the comic book one, but I do like what they've done with it so far. Okay, Playstation, bring it on.

(and yes, I am re-watching the whole thing in preparation)

Bat Family: Part 2. The Girls, Batgirl.

Okay, so Batman is a very manly kinda guy. His greatest allies, as well as his greatest enemies are all men. His creators are men. Almost all of the authors who have made waves with their work have been men.

BUT.....There are a few Bat-Ladies to leave their mark. Some terrible (sorry Uma), and some amazing. The New 52 has four distinct female-centric titles within their oeuvre. We'll start with #1...

Batgirl

While she may be the best known female bat-ally, her history and storyline has become seriously problematic in the New 52. With the exception of the Batman and Robin movie (1997), Barbara Gordon aka Batgirl has always been the stubborn, genius daughter of Commissioner Gordon, who has taken up the vigilante role without her fathers knowledge. As a cops daughter, she has martial arts training, which combined with her own phenomenal IQ, eidetic memory, and computer savvy, make her a force to be reckoned with. Batman is initially reluctant to have her on team, but eventually (and often surreptitiously) aids, abets, and equips Miss Barbara. This causes a whole lotta troubled relationships. Barbara is keeping secrets from her father, who HATES Batgirl for killing his psychopath son (a whole huge gigantic "thing"). Batman is keeping a very important extra secret from his ally. Nightwing/ Grayson and Batgirl have one of those shippable will they/ won't they, complex histories. Plus there is a whole canon thing where Barbara Gordon, as Commissioner Gordon's daughter, not the crime-fighting Batgirl, is shot and crippled by the Joker. Alan Moore (please see my previous post about my Moore issues) in The Killing Joke, had the Joker simply turn up, knock on the door, and shoot her. It's almost petty in its simplicity. He destroys and cripples, and perhaps sexually assaults a teenage girl, just to fuck with her father. It's one of the Joker's most monstrous moments. Especially the moment where he stands over her taking pictures of her. Ugh.

The cripples, wheel chair bound Barbara, however, was not broken by her attack and assault. She became Oracle, the computer genius, techno-whiz, intelligence centre of an entire crime-fighting family. She also became an amazing character whose need and ability to help is not changed by her disability. As Oracle, she is perhaps of more use than the able-bodied Batgirl.

The New 52, however, finds a super advanced treatment to fix her spine and enable her to return to her Batgirl Mantle. She's got major issues, and some PTSD from her attack and temporary paralysis, and is not exactly confident in her abilities, but she's out here fighting. A lot of people feel like it is a major step backwards. Taking away her disability takes away so much diversity. For a disabled reader to see a disabled superhero, who has accepted the things she can't do, but superseded them? It's extraordinary. 

The other major Batgirl issue is this cover.

Captured by the Joker, she finds herself within her worst, most powerless moment, all over again.

A huge backlash to this cover, meant to be an homage to the original The Killing Joke, lead to it being pulled from print. All that people could see what the victimization of Batgirl, the sexually predatory actions of the Joker, and the dismissal of her entire emotional and physical journey. I'm not quite as adamantly, aggressively anti this cover. Her fear is understandable. His power is palpable. He made her vulnerable and powerless, and for her to overcome it for the second time is an amazing, cathartic, empowering moment. But I can also understand why people didn't want this cover, this image, to be the thing that people saw first. power, empowerment, powerlessness..... It's all there. I'm torn. I don't want to see this image of her, but I want to see her overcome her fear.

Ugh. Lighter note. Latest Batgirl embraces her youth. A teenage girl, on her own for the first time, living her life after trauma and struggle, and creating her identity as both Barbara and Batgirl really works for me. She embraces the social media, selfie culture, she learns to live and interact with normal people who may or may not know about her secret life. She even discovers that other people around her have their own secret lives. A trans-gender room-mate provides a beautiful  mirror to her own secret life. A psychopathic brother who is her equal and opposite (like all good enemies) puts her in an emotional, psychological and moral tailspin. Being forced to kill her brother (or so she thinks) in front of her parents, to save her family? phew. Heavy shit. Batgirl V4 and V5 work for me. I can let myself see the potential, rather than the loss.  

Two too perfect to bother really reviewing

There a list that I have in my head of all the books I'll be buying the nieces. And the nephews, we don't gender bias in my family. Watching age two and age almost four run around quoting The Paper Bag Princess, and  yelling "hey dragon" at each other makes my pretentious, academic, feminist, intellectual shiver in delight.

Little sister/ Fellow Aunt and I have this thing about "curating your own media", and choosing the texts for yourself that make you feel good, rather than misanthropic. I read Twilight to see what the fuss was about. I read "some" of 50 Shades for the same reason, but couldn't do it (it's not just the content. It's the terrible writing). I wouldn't do up again. Life is too short to read bad books. Life is also too short to not eat the dessert, and not drink the wine.

So when I find books, Graphic or not, that make me genuinely excited to share with the nibblets, I get so happy. So, here are two of them.

Lumberjanes is what happens when you send a whole bunch of girls off to summer camp, and you DON'T make the beautiful and blonde, or make it all about boys and bullying. Or finding your heretofore unknown identical twin sister. If you take a bunch of girls and make them clever, and brave, and silly, and scared, and cranky, and chubby, and aesthetically and sexually diverse, and full of interesting, layered, REAL qualities. You make them real friends, full of loyalty AND disagreements, love AND impatience. And then you let them have all the adventures. Did you get lost in the forest after dark and find some kind of mystical weirdness? You'll get through it together. Have the boys from the all male camp across the lake been possessed by something kind of evil and/ or gross? You can do it together. Three eyes shape-shifting bears? Magical foxes? They deal with it like they deal with canoeing, and crafts, and transgender campers. Like hard-core lady-types, Like Lumberjanes.

This is a camp for hard-core lady-types, complete with instruction manuals (like, literal pages included in the comic) and I freaking LOVE it. Vol 1 and 2,as well as author Noelle Stevenson's Nimona are 10/10's from me. Hello, freaking brilliant gender politics, feminist tropes, and plain old fun. The fact that they swear in punk rock goddesses (What the Joan Jett!) and believe in "friendship to the max" just makes me love them more. Even without added dinosaurs.

Volume three, now in my hot little hands, will be part of our family history and heirlooms. 

Next, Princeless!!!!!!!!

Imagine a kick-ass, clever, fabulous, mixed race Princess whose family shoves her into a dragon guarded tower so that she can be rescued by some stupid, ridiculous, shiny-armoured prince that she'll be forced to marry. Yeah, NO. This Princess is going to make friends with her (female) dragon, rescue herself, and then set off to rescue all of her elder sisters. Hells, Yeah! 

Princeless questions ALL of the fantasy tropes. She goes off to find armour, and finds a half-dwarf best friend (maybe more) Bedelia, who has been stuck under her fathers thumb in his shop pretending to be the dutiful daughter who never wanted anything else. Pfft.

They are both freed from who society wants girls of their sex and rank to be. And they just want to help other girls escape. And not just girls. Princess Adrienne's twin brother, Devon, the only male in the entire family, is as trapped by his circumstances as his sisters. His father wants him to be manly, princely, kingly, and warriorly. And he's not. 

Add in the kind of fuck-ups that 16 year olds get into, the kind of mistakes that people make regarding societies equation of beauty and goodness, werewolf maiden-warriors, pirate princesses, and its a whole lotta fun. Even Adrienne's parents get into the action. The Father who thinks he knows best is going to get his preconceived notions shattered, and mother? Well, I have a strange feeling about the super, secret, black knight who was the Kings mysterious ally way back when. 

10/10. Read it. Buy it. Love it.

WTF Alan Moore!

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/21/superheroes-cultural-catastrophe-alan-moore-comics-watchmen

I made the mistake of reading this interview at stupid o'clock in the morning, and I'm steamed!
Alan Moore, you are an artist and an author whose work I have read and respected, but respectively,
get your head out of your ass!

Moore, tired of being questioned about him work, his undeniably dark, violent, very adult work, has decided to "retire" from public life, and cease to give interviews. His right to do so, no doubt about it.

Where I have my issues are some of his blanket statements  about the entire comic book genre.
Dear Alan Moore, superheroes are NOT a 'cultural catastrophe'. Society and people need characters like this. Throughout the entirety of written human history, there have been superheroes.
Ever hear of Gilgamesh? Or Beowulf? Maybe that Odysseus guy? What about the Arthurian legends, or Robin Hood. They may not be as instantly recognisable as some big guy in blue tights with a giant S on his chest, but they performed the same function. The figure who is more, is other, and outside of ordinary life. He (being honest, it's mostly he) has powers and abilities beyond those of ordinary men, and can oppose evils and injustices that those ordinary men cannot. It is a social and cultural catharsis, not a catastrophe. The catastrophe would occur if humanity ceased to believe in the possibility of the extraordinary. Some amazing anthropologists have written brilliant work about the necessity of socially sanctioned, even organised  times and spaces for taboo behaviour to occur. All the things that can't occur in order to maintain equilibrium and continuum, can occur in story, in play, in the Carnivalesque ( to use Bahktin).

And how telling is it that the harder life is, the more people need stories and hope. Ugh!

Also, I strongly disagree with the statement that they were originally "unambiguously children's characters". Yes, they were a lot more naive and innocent then your work. To my knowledge, Superman has never had a character rape someone to death. And if you don't want someone to comment on the sexual violence prevalent in your work, don't put as much in. Easy.
But to write off the entirety of the mid centuries body of as just for kids is arrogant and blind. It is accessible to children, yes. It is also, and will always be accessible to older audiences. Studies have proven that a child who is too young to understand certain concepts, will simply not see those concepts within the media. An older reader will. Just because it is not all sex and brutal violence, doesn't make it too childish for an adult reader.

Your work, however, is clearly, unambiguously, deliberately only for a select audience. One who can handle the amount of murder, rape,cruelty, and racism, as well as the objectification of all of your female characters.

You helped change an entire genre, and impacted  generations of writers and readers, and as I said, I respect what you've done. But stop being such a disrespectful asshole about anything different to your work. Stop condemning people who choose to  curate their own media in a way that makes them happy.  Stop looking down on all the people who live better live for finding catharsis through the avatar of the superhero, and the story that offers hope and play and resolution and and the stuff we need in our lives and can't always find.

Alan Moore, try a little
Perspective.

DC's New 52: Bat Family Part one (I'm Batman!)

I will quite happily admit that before I discovered DC's New 52 reboot, my batman experience was limited to the movies. I'd re-watched the Burton Batman's dozens of times, and got my hands on all the Nolan films on Blu-Ray. The sheer scope of the DC universe, the 75 years of complex history and interwoven story lines made my head hurt. I mean, how does someone decide where to start? With Bob Kane in 1939? With the Frank Miller Dark Knight Returns? Ugh! Luckily, DC has realised that there was a whole gigantic audience just like me out there, and created a jumping off point for newbies, that, most importantly, DID NOT discard everything.It wasn't just clever (brilliant) marketing, but it gave a whole new scope for expansion and character development. Characters who had aged and grown cynical and calloused were reborn young and hopeful. They were allowed to have greater liberty with gender and sexual stereotypes and mores. There was debate (argument, disagreement, contretemps, and feuding) about certain of these changes, but it worked. DC made a gigantic buttload of money, and a lot of changes in comic book marketing. Marvel attempted their own reboot with Marvel Now, but didn't really manage the same kind of return to start. I mean, some of the Marvel Now titles are FREAKING AMAZING, but it still requires too much previous knowledge to really get it.

Anyway, Batman.

The Bat Family titles take some things for granted. They assume that the reader knows Bruce Wayne's history. Unchangeable facts about fictional worlds and characters who go through multiple incarnations are commonly known as "canon". The Batman canon has as these facts, the Wayne's were murdered in an alley when Bruce was a child. He was raised by the family's butler Alfred Pennyworth. He adopted and trained Dick Grayson as his sidekick. He interacted with Commissioner Jim Gordon, Gorgon's daughter Barbara, Wayne enterprises Lucias Fox, and would ALWAYS find himself running into Selina Kyle (catwoman), Harvey Dent (Two Face), Edward Nygma (The Riddler), Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin) and the always mysterious and unknown Joker, arguably one of the most fascinating, complex and thought-consuming character in comic book history. 

However, the new 52 reintroduces the history of all of these characters in ways that don't impede enjoyment, or coherent storytelling.

Anyway....Batman?

There are three separate, straight up Batman titles. Batman, Batman: The Dark Knight, and Batman: Detective Comics. It would help if there was a straightforward time or story-type distinction, but there isn't. All three are first wave titles, and there are even cross-overs. It gets more complicated.

Richard "Dick" Grayson, the original Robin, and the only one that most people are aware of, has grown up, left home, an gotten his own book. Now known as Nightwing, he has his own story lines and territory, but still comes home to Gotham to play side-kick, best friend, big brother, ex-boyfriend and voice of reason when needed. *spoiler alert* He later gets un-masked and outed. Unable to be  a masked vigilante, he becomes a spy and goes undercover in 'Grayson". He's currently two volumes in, and doing a good job.

Did you know that there was more than one Robin? Did you know that there was a whole lot?

The Second Robin, Jason Todd, was a street kid, taken in by Bat's after the drug overdose death of his mother. However, Jason always had too much anger, too much recklessness, and never had the discipline that Batman wanted from his, um, disciples. After being tricked into thinking that his mother was still alive, he went after the Joker alone, and was beaten to death. Actually to death. Dead, buried, and mourned. This being DC, he is brought back to life by Batman's ex/ enemy Talia Al Ghul (we'll come back to her later). Understandably pissed that Batman declined to avenge his death, he goes on a bit of a violent, pouty sulk for......well....a few years. He takes up with a few other misfits, and goes looking for trouble in Red Hood and The Outlaws, then post futures end Red Hood and Arsenal (an ex-Green Arrow character, Roy Harper).

Joker history has one of his first appearances as a crime boss known as the Red Hood. It says a lot about Jason's state of mind post rebirth that he takes on both the name Red Hood, and the actual red mask of the guy who killed him, He also makes the decision to use guns instead of non-lethal means to take on bad guys. There is a strong rumour that the upcoming Suicide Squad's Joker, played by Jared Leto, may actually be Jason Todd. I'm half-way convinced. I'd get quite a kick out of it.

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk5nqqWK6_I)

The third Robin, Tim Drake, actually volunteered, and kind of manipulated his way into Robin status.

Bruce was pretty torn up over Jason, and didn't want a new young man to be responsible for. Tim, however, being quite a fantastic detective, ended up putting himself in the way of Batman's enemies, leaving Bat's with the choice to take him in, or let him die. So he Took him in. Whether it was out of respect for Batman's losses, or individualism, Tim was known from the beginning as Red Robin, never just Robin. After a while, he takes off to start his own young Justice League, known as the Teen Titans, but always maintains his ties to Batman. Teen Titans comes under the "Young Justice" family, but Tim makes appearances throughout.

Then there is the current Robin, Damian Wayne. Yes, Wayne. And you know what? I think he is going to need a whole separate blog post, because he is.......complicated. 

Bat Family: Part 2 to be continued.