Tim Drake is a brilliant idiot

[SPOILERS below for the most recent issue of Detective Comics. No, I don't think the title of this post is a spoiler, just a self-evident statement that's been true since the Nineties]

Sometimes you love a character because they're a precious little cinnamon roll who has done nothing wrong. Sometimes you love a character because they're a self-destructive idiot and you enjoy watching the trainwreck.

So Tim Drake's back from the dead and being an idiot.

The thing about Tim Drake, a thing that I love about him, is that he's an arrogant little son of a bitch. I adore him but he absolutely is. He has that problem of being so often the smartest person in the room that he relies on it and tends to have a massive blindspot for how other people are going to feel about his decisions, especially when he doesn't explain that he's even made a decision.

Right now his decision is to embrace the future he's glimpsed where he becomes Batman. His plan before that was to set up Batman with a team and then swan off to Ivy Town for university and making the world a better place through computer science. As far as Steph Brown, his girlfriend who is very pleased to see him alive again, that's still the plan. Tim is being Tim about thing and changing the plan whilst assuring himself that she'll see how good the new plan is and come around to it without him actually explaining himself.

Yay for emotional honesty in relationships, am I right?

James Tynion really gets Tim's characters because this is the perfect Tim move: its essentially selfless (he's giving up his dreams to alter his destiny and avoid becoming a fascist dickbag); its logical (because fighting this destiny actually causes him to become a fascist dickbag); and, most importantly, its going to explode in his face. Hell, he even has Kate, a woman who admits to being the crappy partner in most of her relationships, telling him he's being an idiot and he's just not listening.

I look forward to seeing the flaming ruins of his arrogant good intentions in the future. 

Comic Reviews

This week the Kingpin of Crime gets his Trump on; Tim Drake has a word with himself; mutants and aliens get therapy; and after months of uncertainty we get branding confirmation that Jennifer Walters is still female.

Daredevil #595

Mayor Fisk part 1

Marvel just does not do subtle satire, does it? I mean, they even have Foggy Nelson explain to the reader that no one who voted for Fisk was under any delusion that he wasn't the Kingpin of Crime but they liked that he was a political outsider. Just about the only thing they don't do is make him a Republican, instead making sure to mention he ran as an independent.

Meanwhile, Mayor Fisk has ordered he DA's office and Matt Murdoch in particular to start preparing briefs on how to hold vigilante superheroes accountable. Its not a comfortable situation as any reasonable person probably would prefer people who cause massive property damage on a regular basis to have some accountability and it ties in with the recent Supreme Court arc about bringing the heroes into the legal framework. We get Matt in full hothead and pissed off mode which means he falls for approximately one hundred percent of Fisk's plans through the whole issue because Matt Murdoch can always been relied on to make things worse for himself. Its an interesting angle that continues to use Matt's new position as a prosecutor to good effect and I look forward to seeing where it goes, though I hope that Fisk stays mayor for a while to come because that's the sort of angle that has a lot of juice in it.

Detective Comics #968

A Lonely Place of Living conclusion

Given her presence on the cover I was hoping to see a Steph/Tim reunion but sadly not. Instead we get a big long fight between various elements of the Bat-family and evil future Tim. Its not badly written or drawn but there is a lot leftover for future stories and in the typical infuriating time traveler way evil future Tim keeps banging on about how Kate will do “something” without going in to the sort of specifics that might help prevent the something even though his murder plan fell through.

Still, he does say the something will happen in a few weeks so we might get to that sometime within the next year.

Runaways #3

Find Your Way Home part 3

Okay, this is a SPOILERS one so skip down a bit if you don't want to know why I liked it...

…

I like that Karolina said now when Nico, Gert and Chase came into her life and asked her to abandon it. I like that she felt guilty about it and had to chant affirmations at herself whilst crying after they left. I like that she's shown as conflicted and unhappy with her decision but that the narrative is firmly on her side about it. I like that she is putting her own needs first here. Chase never recovered from Gert's death and Nico has her abandonment issues from the break-up of A-Force (such a good title...) but Karolina is in college, she has a girlfriend and is making headway with therapy. Much as I like the character (and please let that girlfriend be Julie, please please please) I think showing all this is a very positive thing.

I also liked that there was acknowledgement that getting Chase and Gert back together would probably be a mistake. He was always a little older than her and now there's an age gap of years that makes things horribly creepy if they tried to reignite their actual relationship.

Generation X #8

Speaking of superheroes moving on, after far too many years an X-book gets back to seeing what Husk is up to. Last time we saw her was back in the dying days of the Wolverine and the X-Men title when she'd started being the school's guidance counselor. Now she's completely outside the X-Men, taking her PhD to become an actual psychiatrist. What's more, she's started talking with her proper accent (and less annoyingly written, I hated the old phonetic way the “hayseed” characters were written, its more contractions and the odd apostrophe now).

Also, nice to see the likes of Mercury, Dust and Hijack are now low level leadership figures amongst the student body.

She-Hulk #159

Jen Walters Must Die part 1

I am so very dubious about that title change. Nostalgia is one thing but... ugh, nevermind, still the same writer so there's hope. That having been said...

Now, its not like Tamaki's run on this title was without humour before, in fact it was pretty damn funny, but there's a different flavour to the funny in this issue. There's a restaurant that sells “burger cake” and a professor who is a stereotypical airhead blonde. Maybe that's the “Legacy” angle for this title: to go a little more towards the oddball humour of the original She-Hulk run (okay, okay, pedantically it was the second run but no one actually cares about the first one).

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about the change. On the one hand it is a pretty minor change but I hope that it doesn't come to dominate the tone of the series which up to now I've really, really liked. Time will tell. 

A Lonely Place of Living: picking up the breadcrumbs

First of all, this moment is very, very sweet. One of the changes to Cass' character I do like in the Rebirth continuity is that she's a lot closer to the family in emotional terms. Back in the day there was affection, yes, but she always held herself a little distant. Also, someone whose primary language is physical should probably make more use of physical contact than she usually did.

Anyway, as sweet as this (and Tim and Luke being complete comp-sci nerds) is what I'm really interested in talking about is the latest little breadcrumb in the mystery of Conner Kent. Here it is:

So, more confirmation that Tim does not remember Conner. Considering that, contrary to my memory, the New 52 Superboy did use that name for a while this might indicate that he has been removed from history. After all, no one's so much as mentioned him since Rebirth started. Either that or Tim literally cannot connect the concepts of “New 52 Superboy” and “friend” which... is not totally out of the question.

The guy was an epic tool, let's face it.

However, this does suggest that somewhere deep in Tim's subconscious he does remember Conner, that there is an emotion tied to the name. A rather shippy, slashy emotion apparently.

This could conceivably be the same process as we saw with Wally West the elder at the very beginning of Rebirth, another consequence of that “stolen decade” business. We know from the experiences that Barry Allen and the original Titans had that memories can be restored from the old history even if it can be a bit oddly selective (none of the Titans remember Cyborg or Beast Boy being on the team back in the day) or perhaps indicates that this is not quite the pre-Flashpoint history that was changed.

The plot thickens and we're only halfway through this arc. 

Untangling Detective Comics #966

[This post MAJOR SPOILERS for Detective Comics #966 as well as recent events in the Batwoman ongoing which also has implications for the whole meta-narrative of Rebirth as well as my own unsupported speculation, be warned, they begin right after the header picture.]

Oh, sweet Jesus, time travel in a multiverse involving the timeline of a character I have an unnatural in-depth knowledge of. Its Christmas come early!

Context: this week's issue of Detective Comics, the second part of A Lonely Place Of Living, features the current Red Robin version of Tim Drake (as seen since the dawn of the New 52) and a future version of himself who is Batman (as mentioned in the recent flashforward issue of Batwoman) being chased through Mr. Oz's prison by Doomsday (the New 52 version that killed Superman except he didn't because there was only one Superman now not two so that's sort of undefined at this point).

Mixed up in all this was a recent promise by James Tynion IV that this issue would bring us some answers on the question of Conner Kent, the pre-Flashpoint Superboy. The issue sort of delivers on that but also uses these answers to set up more mysteries.

So, where to begin?

Tim!Bats: Who He Is And How He Came To Be

Firstly, the future Batman who is Tim Drake and uses guns including the gun used by Joe Chill to kill the Waynes. This Batman originally appeared in a Teen Titans storyline by Geoff Johns over a decade ago. In that story Tim, along with a bunch of the Titans, have turned all-out fascist. In fact, one of the first glimpses we get into how bad things have gotten for the characters is Tim executing Duela Dent, the Joker's Daughter (she was a nicer, more whimsical character in those days and wasn't wearing anyone's face but her own).

Except maybe he's not quite that version of gun-totting Batman Tim Drake. This future Tim says he remembers “an echo” of the conversation he has with present day Tim, a conversation in different context but where he (future Tim) was equally horrified by the depths to which his future self had fallen.

The conversation he is referring to is quite specifically not the one he's currently having with his past self here. Logically, then its the conversation Tim had in Teen Titans with his own future.

The future Batman here is Tim from the pre-Flashpoint continuity who remembers meeting his future self and, in spite of all the warning, still chose to go down this route of being a Batman who kills because he felt driven to it after Bruce's death. However, he also remembers events from the life Tim is now living (or was going to before his abduction) as he refers to getting maybe a couple of months into his life as a student in Ivy Town before being drawn back into the world of costumed vigilantism. In the flashbacks to his native time we also see a conversation between the future versions of Anarky and Spoiler which ties in to the recent Utopia/Dystopia two-parter, though clearly a version of events where either that relationship didn't fall apart or the two reconciled in later years.

Future Tim claims that certain events are fixed so the obvious conclusion is that if the pre-Flashpoint continuity had continued it would have reached the status quo Johns set out and it would have passed through at least some of the events of Rebirth.

Considering that the whole premise of Rebirth was to restore a whole bunch of pre-Flashpoint continuity this isn't surprising. Presumably then the future we're dealing with here is one unfiddled with by whatever “stole a decade” from the DC universe.

It is also the future as seen in Batwoman, a Rebirth-continuity series.

Two options: either this future is inevitable (as it happens in both pre-Flashpoint and Rebirth continuity) or something is going to happen now future Tim is loose in the present to make this future happen, Terminator-style.

Then there's Conner Kent.

Kon Artistry

The big twist at the end of the issue is that future Tim remembers Conner but present Tim does not. This isn't much of a surprise as even the New 52 version of Conner (who never adopted the name, I don't think) hasn't even been referred to since Rebirth. Neither version was even present in the flashback to The Death Of Superman during the recent tour of Superman continuity that established what was and wasn't canon in the new continuity where the two New 52-era Clarks have been merged into a single history.

This might or might not be meaningful. It might tie into what we're talking about here or if might just have been editorial buying themselves time over a character they had no real use for.

So, is Conner coming back? It all comes down to whether we're dealing with two distinct futures with similar aspects or some unified future no matter which timeline we're looking at. The future we see in this issue has both Conner (not a part of the future we see in Batwoman) and Commissioner Montoya of Free Gotham (both featured in the Batwoman issue).

If the future Batman Tim comes from is exactly the same future we saw in Batwoman, if it is the future of the Rebirth continuity, then it makes sense that Conner's presence within that future means there's some future planned for the character. If, however, the lack of Conner in the Rebirth continuity is just a good mechanical way to establish that time is mutable and this dark future can be prevented (as Batman Tim actually says in the issue) then it makes sense that he'll stay gone.

Or both these theories could be way off because Tynion is a better writer than me or just because this was all a cute nod for fans rather than something deep and meaningful that a sane person would spend the better part of a thousand words trying to noodle out. 

Comic Reviews

This week, my avoidance of Secret Empire reaches comes to its sad conclusion, Lana Lang and Cass Cain have family moments, Luke Skywalker goes on a date with his father's sidekick, and it turns out Storm is black.

Secret Warriors #1

Oh, its a Secret Empire tie-in. I'm doing my best to avoid this mess but events being events, of course Marvel are using it to launch an ongoing series that they set up in their last damn event. I get the feeling I'd actually appreciate this issue more if I had any interest in the event because otherwise this is a pretty bland “getting the team together” issue with a slathering of green Nazis on top. Its not badly written, its reasonably engaging but I have no context for half of it.

I might actually drop this until Secret Empire is over and this series has a chance to tell its own story divorced from larger context and green Nazis.

Superwoman #10

This title has been hovering on the edge of being dropped for a few issues now and I worried that whatever lay in store after Superman Reborn might be the final straw. Surprisingly, Lana losing her powers a couple of issues ago has made me appreciate the series in a whole new way. I never really got the character. Part of the problem is I'm used to so many different versions of Lana but I didn't follow the New 52 Super-books closely enough to be used to this version.

K. Perkins writes the hell out of this issue, a real character study that goes into Lana's strengths and weaknesses as a person. Also, we get a bunch of background for Natasha and John Henry Irons, again characters whose previous incarnations I'm familiar with but whose current selves escape me.

Detective Comics #956

I'm trying to think of something to say about this issue beyond “Kate looks great in a suit and bowtie”. I mean, that's a valid critical opinion but I feel, given how much I've loved the arc, I should come up with something more.

I love Batwing and Azrael as a partnership, the whole science and magic thing really works. Cass continues to be my favourite character of the whole team and her final confrontation with Shiva is a joy to read. I've heard a lot of people complain about how this series “marginalises” Batman himself but so long as it turns out stories like this I'm all for it and Batman can muddle through with his two other ongoing series.

Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel one-shot

The Star Wars/Doctor Aphra crossover I didn't know I wanted until I read this issue. The thing is that once Aphra was out from under Vader's thumb I was so much more interested in seeing her fly solo in a proper EU series with no big famous movie characters getting in the way. After this issue I'm finally convinced that having her interact with the main cast has more mileage in it. Luke and Aphra at the Star Wars equivalent of a high society party is a great hook, not just for how they boune off each other because of how artist Marco Checchetto goes to town on the drawing the guests.

Tonally, this is much more an Aphra story than a Luke story, not just because Gillen is writing and Aphra sets the story in motion but because the gloriously over-the-top setting of the Screaming Citadel itself is much more the sort of place we're used to seeing her in. I like that, I like the mad as you like vision Gillen has for the Star Wars universe and I'm really looking forward to four more issues of Luke bumbling through that side of things.

Black Panther and the Crew #2

To my utter surprise, in spite of having Captain America on the cover this issue had nothing to do with him or the bloody Secret Empire event. Instead, the love letter to Harlem continues as Storm meditates on what the place means to her: her father's birthplace, the place she should have grown up in if her parents hadn't died in Africa. Its actually interesting, after all these years, to see a series address the fact that Storm is black, I know it sounds utterly mad that for all the hundreds and hundreds of X-Men comics I've read, the fact that one of Marvel's oldest and most well-explored black heroes is black has barely come up.

The simple fact is that her being a mutant and all the allegory that entails has sort of eclipsed the fact she's black. This, more than anything else, really convinces me that this series is going to go great places. Hell, even if it doesn't, the team-up of Storm and Misty is more than interesting enough in itself. Hell, I was almost disappointed when T'Challa finally turned up. 

Comic Reviews

Have I been sent anything with Nazis in it this week? What is wrong with the world that this is even a concern for me?

Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider #1

Okay, old favourite character being relaunched by Nazis Are Cool-era Marvel. Deep breaths... deep breaths... open the comic... and...

Well, okay, so first thing we learn is Ben got his new costume by mugging a cosplayer and, of course, this all spins out of his recent heel turn as the Jackal in The Clone Conspiracy so this is hardly the Scarlet Spider I remember from the not-exactly-good old days. Peter David is doing his best, poor chap, but I honestly wonder if this thing is salvagable. Ben's USP back in the day was that he'd been dealt a truly crappy hand but the old Parker morals still guided him. I knew I wasn't going to get the old Daily Grind Coffee Shop crew back in this series but I had hoped Ben might be a bit more “himself” than he was as the Jackal.

What David chooses to focus on is the internal struggle between the two versions of Ben: the Scarlet Spider and the Jackal, with both turning up as delusions from time to time to get on Ben's nerves. Most of the issue is that, basically, with a little side trip to tease the fact that Kaine knows Ben's still alive and is pissed.

I'm in for the second issue but if that doesn't absolutely grab me, well, I get to save some money. Still, at least he's not a Nazi.

Infamous Iron Man #7

Well, shucks, if this wasn't the perfect example of why I still read Bendis' comics after all these years. Whether you like his very conversational, talky style or not, you have to admit that Bendis just gets how to write the relationships between characters.

The first half of this issue is a big fight, starting with a huge meeting of villains that Doom breaks up in order to lay the smackdown on just about every costumed villain in New York which segues into an after-the-fact post mortem of events. The other half of the issue is a gorgeously atmospheric conversation between Doom and Ben Grimm that Alex Maleev and Matt Hollingsworth draw the absolute hell out of: close-ups, deep shadows, the perfect level of detail to every facial expression. You couldn't direct actors this perfectly in a million years, its the sort of scene the sequential art form was made for. Bendis goes deep into the decades of feelings and emotions (both as people and characters) that inform how these two characters interact and then, with a fantastic cliffhanger, he promises to top it next issue.

And not a Nazi in sight.

Detective Comics #955

Dear James Tynion IV, stop making me ship things, your humble servant, James.

Seriously, that ballet dancer that yelled at Cass in #950 found Cass after she got slashed up by Lady Shiva and nursed her back to health. And she read Cass children's stories as she slept. Its too cute. Then Cass went and cut her way through about a million ninjas. Which was not as cute but was equally awesome. This is mostly a big fight issue with everyone aside from Cass captured and most of them naked, too.

Also, what is it with comic writers hating people called Ullysses right now? First that Inhuman who started Civil War II and now this Colony dickhead with who makes chemical weapons and steals Tim's costume?

Mother Panic #6

I really like how this arc is filling us in on Violet's home life at the same time as deepening the weirdness that surrounds her operation. For instance, in this issue we get some closure on the whole business of those funny rats Violet's mother was talking to and it just serves to make it all stranger. That aside, there's a great scene of a woman Violet us dating reacting to the violence of Violet's life in an interesting an complex way, not so much scared of the fact Vi can be violent (she even admits it was probably justified) but of the way Violet looks as she hit the guy. Its a more complex treatment, brief as it is, than most fiction usually allows for.

Patsy Walker AKA Hellcat #17

And so it ends, my favourite series in the stands.

Its a self-consciously light weight little epilogue to the series as Patsy finally gets her royalties from her mother's books and takes her friends on a shopping spree. Everyone gets to do their bit: Tom and Ian are cute, Jubilee gets to do cool vampire things (and wear her classic costume!) and there's one last set of silly villains for Patsy to be unreasonably nice to. I'm going to miss this series and I hope writer Kate Leth and artist Brittney L. Williams have more work lined up because both have made such a huge impression on me over the course of the series.

This really just is the most adorable series.

Mighty Thor #18

Always good to see Quentin Quire knocking around, especially as it manages to act as a little bit of a Wolverine & The X-Men reunion with him, Kid Gladiator, Warbird and even Krakoa turning up. I've actually really enjoyed this arc with Thor and the Shi'Ar gods getting into a bit of barny and having Jason Aaron return to some of his old X-Men characters is a delightful little bonus.

Honestly, Quire is the main attraction of this issue, the narcissistic little puke gets a wonderful line in selfish prattle that completely flips the tone of the whole arc so far. Plus, that's always a fun personality to pit against someone as serious as Thor. 

Comic Reviews

Horrible week, comics arrived a day late, capsule reviews, motley...

Lumberjanes #36

Might As Wheel

Yay! After an epic catch-up session, this is my first “as new” issue of Lumberjanes and not only do I get to enthuse about this great series in a timely manner, I think I almost understand roller derby. Watching the hardcore lady types from the world's most deeply strange girl scout camp playing roller derby against a team of sasquatches .

That's enough. That's enough weird to draw me in. That the hardcore lady-types are doing this on behalf of a family of yeti who the sasquatches have turfed out of their treehouse is icing on the cake. The fact that somehow the roller... ring? Circle? Thingy?... become a death trap for no readily apparently reason is the cherry on the icing.

Extraordinary X-Men #20

An underwhelming end to an underwhelming series that was the backbone of an underwhelming era of X-Books. Its not completely without virtue, going out on a rather sweet scene that either promises or threatens a return to more traditional X-Men stories in the new series depending on your taste. The main meat of the issue, though, is Storm having some meta musings that are pretty obviously Jeff Lemire bitching about the holding pattern Marvel had this book in through his entire run.

Still, a major theme of the issue was having Nightcrawler smiling again which is one hell of a step up from having him as some sort of morose avenger figure for God alone knows what reason.

Mother Panic #5

Broken Things part 2

Mysteries stack on mysteries with this series. On the one hand we get some concerete answers on how Violet got her powers and the nature of Gather House whilst on the other the actions of Violet's mother bring up further questions and not just in a “crazy person talks prophesy” sort of way. I hate that trope, I've seen too much of the real thing to find any romance in it.

Oh, and the Gotham Radio back-up finally got my attention by bringing back a minor league Bat-villain I always thought there was much more potential in.

Unworthy Thor #5

I guess it works.

Okay, for serious, I think the mystery of “What did Nick Fury say to make Thor unworthy?” just plain went on too long. I know they had to address who the new Thor was first but at a certain point you just end up in a place where no answer is going to be fully satisfying. The rest of the series? Very satisying, there's a reason Jason Aaron has been writing this character (and his distaff successor) for so long and if he could find an excuse to use Beta Ray Bill more often I'd be a very happy man.

So, I guess it works.

Invincible Iron Man #5

I may have soured a little on Bendis' style a little the last year or so but I love his Iron Man series, even if I question the logic in bringing in a villain from the last Tony Stark stories this soon in Riri's run. Everything with Riri and Pepper has been gold and there's something pleasingly real in how over-earnest Riri is in dealing with Sharon Carter when SHIELD turns up.

Detective Comics #953

League of Shadows part 3

A Cass focus issue? Yes, please. That this is turning into a very Cass-centric arc is very gratifying since there was a time when she (and Steph, for that matter) was brushed off by DC editorial as a “toxic” character that they didn't want to use. We also get yet more of her interacting with her biological mother Lady Shiva, one of the great dropped threads of the old DCU. There's also a lovely little scene with Clayface trying to connect with Cass over the fact that neither of them are particularly good at expressing their feelings verbally, which I hope bodes well for Clayface's continuing face turn.

I still don't like the Orphan identity, though, and I rather hope that this issue signals that Cass might eventually grow beyond it. I hope. 

Comic Reviews

This week: a lot of praising with faint damnation.

Inhumans vs. X-Men #6

Without wishing to spoil, this was a perfectly fitting end to this era of the X-Men: loud, action packed and dull. To call the final solution a literal plot device is to be generous. I mean, the whole “Endangered Species AGAIN” angle was never a winner and I'm all in favour of it ending but it really did boil down in the end to the characters flipping a switch to shut down a storyline that never worked.

There are a few consequences, of course, and the usual teases but at the end of the day I'm interested in seeing what happens with the X-Men next now they aren't shackled to the crappy status quo of the last couple of years and my interest in the Inhumans has not increased one iota.

Detective Comics #952

League of Shadows part two: The Five Fingers of Death

The core Bat-titles just don't disappoint these days. After last issue introduced Lady Shiva as the ultimate killing machine she always deserved to be, this issue we get to see her in action and get an answer to one of those “Is that thing I remember still canon?” questions that was just going to hover over the arc until it got addressed.

Most of the issue is fight scene, firstly polishing off last issue's cliffhanger and then moving into the big confrontation with Shiva. There's definitely a growing emphasis this arc on Orphan, which I for one wholeheartedly approve of. The more action Cass gets in this series the happier I am, especially now that Steph is off the board for the time being.

Christian Duce slots in to art duties this issue with a much more rounded and fluid style than the series has had up until now. I personally like it, it gives a lot of grace to Shiva's movements but I imagine the transition between styles in the collected edition is going to be downright painful to some.

Mother Panic #4

Broken Things part 1

Am I just being an old man about these Young Animals series?

Mother Panic is definitely my favourite of the Young Animals imprint, mostly because it gets to the point. Now, there are a lot of mysteries set up surrounding what happened to Violet Page as a child and how it affects her, both physically and emotionally, as an adult but the whole plot isn't drowning in obscurity. Take her headquarters: after the dreamlike introduction of the first arc we're presented with it now in more concrete terms. There's also Violet herself, who we get to see another side to as she's interviewed on a late night talk show, peeling back another couple of layers.

This series isn't just oddity for oddity's sake, which has seemed a bit of a problem for Doom Patrol and Shade The Changing Girl.

But is this just because its familiar? The art style and even the way the credits are arranged on the page have a very 1990s feel. Don't get me wrong, in every aspect of writing and production this is definitely superior to the comics I grew up with but I can't deny there's a certain comfort zone feeling to reading this series.

Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #5

I love the different flavour this series brings to Marvel's version of Star Wars. Okay, its a continuation of what was going on in Gillen's Darth Vader series but now Aphra is completely cut off from important canon characters who have to develop a certain way there's a lot more scope to explore the dirty side of the universe. Plus, Rogue One has come out now so the idea of Aphra isn't a million miles removed from the sort of characters we saw there.

I admit, I'm not that fussed about her relationship with her dad. It might be the whole hook of this first arc but I'm more interested in seeing which way Aphra and her band of merry bastards will jump in any given situation, especially the droids. Just imagining Triple Zero's dialogue in C-3PO's voice is a perverse pleasure all its own.

Jessica Jones #6

Well, someone's getting good at structure again. This has been a well-paced six issue arc, a nice little mystery with a satisfying conclusion that hasn't tried my patience at all. Issue 1 was big on in medias res and laying out a bunch of different plots that pretty much all came together here for a big finale. There's a bunch of other stuff to tie up, not least the status of Jessica's marriage, but those plots haven't been left to fester, they've all seen positive growth on an issue by issue basis.

Maybe its because this series and this character are Bendis' own baby that he pulls out the stops for it and avoids the kind of roadblocking filler that sometimes makes his ongoings a chore to read but it absolutely works and I hope this runs a damn long time. 

Weekly Comic Reviews

Detective Comics #951

League of Shadows part one: Unleashed

Lady Shiva is definitely the main event here. I've always associated her more with Tim and Cass, her being something of a coming of age test for the first and the supposed mother of the other (did they ever resolve that?) and its nice to see her used as the merciless badass I always thought she could be. The last I remember her turning up, Tim beat her using food poisoning which is a fantastic Tim move but doesn't do much for Shiva's credibility. Poor booking, frankly.

What is good booking is bringing back one of Tim's big villains because it gives me hope that he'll be coming back to the main action sometime soon. Tim is “my” Robin and Tim/Steph is one of the only ships in existence I have any sort of strong feelings about.

Also, as the situation in this issue spirals out of control you can just see the Tim-shaped hole in the team. No one is made to look incompetent or sloppy but you can see the lack of a multi-track mind as the League makes its moves and the team falls straight into the trap.

There's also a lovely moment of Batwoman wondering how much social contact Cass is getting now Steph is off the team. One of the things I like about this series is that it takes seriously the psychological problems of the Bats. I've always hated the stasis that DC insists on for the Gotham characters' trauma and its nice to see someone addressing it.

Infamous Iron Man #5

No, Victor, your mum!

No, but serious, though, this issue is all about Victor Von Doom's relationship with his mother. Its something that's underpinned his character for donkey's years. Last issue I rather assumed she'd been brought back to life in some Fantastic Four story I missed (I've always been rather patchy in following that series) but it turns out this was a big, massive revelation that went over my head!

This is the problem of coming back from the dead being a genre trope.

In typical Bendis fashion the confrontation between Doom and Momma Doom is related through two separate conversations about it: one between Ben Grimm and Maria Hill and the other between Doom and his love interest Doctor Perera.

It feel really weird writing “Doom and his love interest”. If nothing else it shows this series has novelty going for it. Okay, and being one of Bendis' better paced series of recent years as, in spite of being mostly people talking about people talking, this was actually a pretty satisfying single issue.

Spider-Gwen #17

Sitting in a Tree part 4

Is it just me or Spider-Gwen a title made out of pure joy? I mean, crossing over with Bendis' Spider-Man is rather slowing the pace of things but Jason Latour really crams in the fun. You've got Miles and Gwen meeting Ms. Marvel, who is a little matchmaker and it is so sweet! I don't think I really need to recommend this issue beyond that, frankly.

Justice League of America #1

The Extremists part one

I've never really connected with the New 52 version of the Justice League but this team, with its mission statement of being a more human and inspiring League rather than gods swooping in to the rescue, certainly appeals to me. With the Rebirth one-shot and its prequels doing the heavy lifting on establishing the characters, this first issue hits the ground running with a bunch of vignettes showing Batman's League working solo in pairs before an interdimensional invasion kicks off.

I have to admit, as silly and dated as his “coded” alien swearing is, I am rather glad to have the old Lobo back. He's over the top and silly but he's part of my childhood and I am rather fond of the main man. I'm also interested in Killer Frost, who is a character I don't know much about. In fact, I'm mainly aware of her because of the version in the Flash TV show who is so very different from this one it barely makes sense to think of them as the same character.

There are plenty of interesting conflicts and alliances between characters like Ryan Choi and Killer Frost both being scientists, Black Canary's clear mentoring role for newbie The Ray and so on but the one that interests me the most is that Vixen will absolutely be taking none of Batman's shit. As she says at one point, there's never been a Justice League Batman didn't end up fighting so I'm hoping that at some point she and Bruce come into conflict and she ends up leading the League.

Just a theory.

Batfamily Dynamics: Tim and Cass

There were never enough scenes of Tim and Cass having dick measuring contests. That might sound an immature way of describing their dynamic but I stand by it. Here was had the two Bat-characters who had some claim to being better than Batman: the girl who could outfight him and the boy who could out-think him.

And in their later pre-Flashpoint incarnations as Black Bat and Red Robin they bounced off each other amazingly. They didn't get enough chance to do it, Cass' chronic lack of a series saw to that.

Grief, was DC ever had a bigger missed opportunity than Cass as Black Bat? She's still Cass Cain but she's operating as Hong Kong's Batman! Hong Kong! Just imagine the stories a setting like that could have generated.

Ugh, water under the retcon, I suppose.

Anyway, one way Rebirth has done right by me is putting these two in the same title. True, Cass is a very different character (and I do like the new Cass, mind) but I do hope they delve into this dynamic again sometime soon.

And if I'm lacking enough sass in Detective Comics there's always Tim and Steph's relationship to tide me over...