12 comments to “This Week in Panels: Week 8”

1. Always nice to see an innovative twist on a stale character thrown away for no good reason!

        by BodyMassage November 15th, 2009 at 14:41 --reply
   

2. @BodyMassage: Because it’s so “innovative” to make a beloved character become the can’t-get-anything-right-fuckup in every possible situation he enters. I say bravo Daniel, and yah boo sucks to Dini.

   Moving on…Warren Ellis writes a Death’s Head mini? Pleeease?

        by Stig November 15th, 2009 at 15:12 --reply
   

3. @Stig: He seemed to be doing fine to me. He had a successful business, had a cool, legitimate dynamic and was able to compete against Batman in a way that didn’t end with him being a laughing stock who had to spend his nights in the asylum.

   There were plenty more stories that could have been told about Edward Nigma, PI.

        by Gavok November 15th, 2009 at 15:21 --reply
   

4. @Gavok: I agree, there could have been some great stories, However, there weren’t any. The two times he appeared to be an intelligent, capable detective and a successful business was in GOTHAM UNDERGROUND and TRINITY, both of which are now dead and forgotten; the majority of his appearances were written by Dini, and they all portrayed him as a walking punchline, unable to actually solve a case and most often coming off as charmless and phony.

   The approach obviously wasn’t working, so they’ve gone back to basics, and perhaps at some future point they’ll change it again and give it a new dynamic. But as it was, it was broke. They fixed it.

        by Stig November 15th, 2009 at 15:26 --reply
   

5. I still disagree because I didn’t think he was that much of a joke in Dini’s Detective run. Yes, granted, he didn’t solve every case by himself, but at the same time, Batman needed Riddler’s help as well. Other than his inability to out-think Batman, his only real weakness is his inability to understand Batman. Though that does remind me, I always liked that bit where the two of them solve the same murder mystery at the same time via completely different directions.

   Not that I’m a total Dini apologist. In fact, I found Scott Lobdell’s issue of Gotham City Sirens about Riddler to be the only readable issue of a series where all the other issues are Dini-penned.

        by Gavok November 15th, 2009 at 16:06 --reply
   

6. Huh, kinda surprised to see Death’s Head back to the size he had, prior to Doctor Who shrinking him.

        by versasovantare November 15th, 2009 at 16:31 --reply
   

7. @Gavok: I forgot about Lobdell. That was pretty cool too.

   I suppose I’m just totally anchored to the Frank Gorshin-type commemorated in Neil Gaiman’s “When Is A Door”, who despite being a giggling, manic madman is still a tragic figure and still dignified.

   If DC wanted to rehabilitate a B- to D-list villain in an interesting, compelling way, they could take a page or two out of the books of messrs Jackson & Publick with their fantastic Sergeant Hatred. Never before have I seen a character go from being a one-liner joke about pedophilia to a tragic protagonist with the character depth of Falstaff or Malvolio.

        by Stig November 15th, 2009 at 16:58 --reply
   

8. Yeah, The Riddler’s a joke? What now? He was doing really well for himself. Even Batman had to turn to the guy for help, and what about the time he helped out Harley? I liked him better as a free agent in the crime solving business, someone who could pop up on the same case Batman’s working on, and perhaps not have it solved, but sees it from another angle and gloats about it. That really worked for the guy.

        by Dane November 15th, 2009 at 16:59 --reply
   

9. Yeah, the Riddler retcon was weak and unconvincing, but I’m surprised no-one’s mentioning Battle Armor Batman’s “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” as he feels for the plight of African-American skateboarder victims of violence.
   Next issue, he’ll no doubt help the Muslim kittens in wheelchairs of America deal with race-hate while shouting “WWWWHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYY?”

   If you steal that from me, DC, I’m suing.

        by AlLoggins November 16th, 2009 at 06:01 --reply
   

10. surprised you didn’t go with “Bwahahahaha” for Booster Gold

    @Gavok: yeah, I was still holding a small hope that Dini (or Lobdell) would have switched GCS from being about the gals and be about Nigma.
    @Gavok: agreed. also that story had Nigma save Batman using flaming arrows. Also liked the issue he wrote just before the Hush storyline where this guy tries to get revenge on Riddler for a collateral damage death from one of his past crimes.

    @AlLoggins: cause that was the last page.

         by Nathan November 16th, 2009 at 08:35 --reply
    

11. I for one am going to keep pretending that Tony Daniel’s Riddler is a bad dream and we can actually keep new Riddler.

         by PeterV November 16th, 2009 at 23:38 --reply
    

12. I, for one, loved the Gorshin interpretation of Riddler, and to be frank, liked the idea of that personality focusing on trying to do some good. This Riddler was begging, BEGGING for a mini-series. Now? He’ll have one moment of badass within these pages, and then return to being a joke villain who every once in awhile gets a “shining moment” because a writer comes along who likes him.

    Sheesh. “I’m so happy to be back! Let’s throw away the money and comfort… to be foiled by Batman again!”

         by Entertainer13 November 17th, 2009 at 19:17 --reply