Thank you, those people who requested it.  I like when people miss the stuff I write enough to ask about it, but I’m not doing a play-by-play of the team-up/crossover, and here’s why:

Have you ever eaten a bad egg salad sandwich?  If you have, you’ll know it put you off eggs for a while.

I don’t think it’s a mystery to anyone what this month’s egg salad sandwich was, and even though I just sampled a corner, it put me off a lot of things.  I don’t want to think about people acting like jerks because continuity says they have to, or because they were in a relationship and apparently the only way to make that interesting is to have them fight.  I don’t want tragic, convoluted history or recriminations.  I don’t want one character to be all grrrrrr and dark.  I don’t want a crossover event for which I have to read a bunch of books in order to get one story.  I don’t want a female character framed in a rifle sight at the end of the issue, because apparently the only way I would be interested in reading the next issue is if a hero’s friends, family, or love interest is on the chopping block.

(Also I hate the art and the way they stick Leslie’s head on a twenty-year-old body in a clingy dress.)

Yeah, I read and I’m going to keep reading Batgirl, and next month’s issue looks good.  But I’ve eaten some very bad egg salad.  Those issues are like a quiche.  I know there’s some good stuff in there, like Babs and St Nick finally having a good time, flirting, each knowing that the other one has a secret and being intrigued by it.  I just don’t have the stomach for it right now.

To wedge myself out of the pit of mild crankiness I’ve been in regarding comics, I have started looking ahead to things that I look forward to.

Thank you, The Brave and the Bold, for seemingly being an impossible title to bog down in misery, no matter what medium you are in.  Here we have a female team-up book, a happy-seeming story, and complete indifference to current continuity.  It has everything I’m looking for in a book.

Moreover, it has Barbara Gordon as  part of it all.  This is the kicker for me.  She’s a sentimental favorite, and while I think her role as Oracle is great character development, I can’t get over the fun she had as Batgirl.  I’m always willing to see more of that.  This and Wonder-Con, another reason to look forward to April.

As always; Spoilers.

Read the rest of this entry �

Spoilers for the latest issue of Red Robin.

Read the rest of this entry �

Cutty-cut!

Read the rest of this entry �

Immediate cut!

Read the rest of this entry �

Very Bat-heavy segment this week. I will tell you this, one of these panels annoyed the hell out of me.

Riddle me this! Why doesn’t Tony Daniel take photographs of letters and numbers?

Amazing Spider-Man #611
Joe Kelly and Eric Canete

Batgirl #4
Bryan Q. Miller, Tim Levins and Lee Garbett

Read the rest of this entry �

An oldie but a goodie. In honor of our Batgirl-centric fourcast and Esther’s latest Batgirl play-by-play, I wanted to post one of my favorite sequences from Batgirl: Death Wish.

A bit of context: one year ago, Batgirl lost the use of her pattern-recognition skills due to some ill-timed telepathic mental adjustment. To repair this flaw, she sought out and fought Lady Shiva. In exchange for fixing her, Shiva demanded one thing: a fight to the death one year in the future. Batgirl, when faced with a choice of being mediocre for a lifetime or the greatest for a year, took her challenge, was healed, and threw herself into her Bat-persona. She stopped crimes, ignored her social life, and rose to Olympian heights. And now, one year after her rebirth, she must face Lady Shiva and die.

Words by Kelley Puckett, art by Daimon Scott. Pages 7, 8, and 11 are my favorite. Great storytelling, choreo, and layout.

Let’s start this review with a look at Batgirl #7.  What’s that you say?  It’s only issue four?  I don’t care.  We need to look at this awesomeness.

Now, to issue four.

Read the rest of this entry �

Reader ACK let me know that Cassandra Cain turns ten this year, and I realized that she’s a character I enjoy, and she’s a Batgirl, so I know Esther likes her, too. Luckily, we have a podcast where we can talk about her for hours. Luckily for you I edited that down to about 48 minutes.

-Pedro Tejeda, a true man among men and Funnybook Babylonian, clues us in on a few things you’ll never hear on the Fourcast!, at least until I trick him into being a special guest.
– 6th Sense’s 4a.m. Instrumental opens up the show…
-I kick off the Continuity Off with Kurt Wagner, Nightcrawler, and run down his hits and misses. I left out the swashbuckling stuff by accident, but no one’s perfect.
-Esther talks about Batgirl some, which makes me talk about Batgirl some, and then we are down the rabbit hole, ladies and gents.

Share your favorite Cassandra Cain moments down in the comments, good or bad, and we’ll catch you next week!

Subscribe to the Fourcast! via:
–Podcast Alley feed!
–RSS feed via Feedburner
–iTunes Store