a valkyrie's steed is a most glorious sight
Uh, getting behind on this. In before new comics Wednesday! Incidentally, it looks like Steph and Cass made it onto the cover of the first Li'l Gotham floppy, hooray!
Li'l Gotham #8: It is difficult to express just how much I love Li'l Gotham. "Robin, finish your chocolates!" Damian tackling the Easter Bunny and going egg hunting ~for justice was pretty much the best thing. I like to imagine Steph and Dick are somewhere off-panel doing the grabbing-arms-jumping thing and going "Did you see that, he's doing kid things AND DOES NOT EVEN REALIZE IT!"
Batwoman #18: The art was mostly good but kind of uneven. Kate and Bette fighting Mr. Freeze was fun. It is great to have both of them on-panel at the same time again, and their quips are very entertaining. Just...just look at Bette and Kate's dad on the comms:
Jacob Kane: Bette! Do you copy?! Are you all right?!
Bette: Can barely hear you...and your voice must be distorted, 'cause you're starting to sound like Grandma.
Jacob Kane: *sigh* You're okay. Still snarky.
Also, Maggie looking at apartments was sweet. But I hope we get to see Kate and Maggie talking soon! (Of some relevance, I saw this adorable gif on Tumblr last night.)
Fearless Defenders #1-#2: I know I am late to the party, but this is, like, my new favorite thing. If you asked me what I, as a girl, want out of comic books, um, this is pretty much everything I never knew I was waiting for. It's a team of ladies who fight stuff, starting with a zombie horde raised by an evil ancient music box. And then in the next issue, they take a break in a diner before going to Asgard. Silliness + kicking butt + ladies hanging out, this is the actual best. I think they're doing a really good job with diversity, and with getting the different personalities of the ladies, and it's just really fun in general. Plus, Valkyrie is my new favorite everything. She has her own font because everyone thinks she talks funny, and she has a flying horse that travels in space and time. A FLYING HORSE. This is like, my childhood fantasies come true, okay? When I was younger I made my Barbies domino masks out of electrical tape so they could be superheroes, and I found them dingy-looking clothes and put them on their horses and sent them on Lord of the Rings adventures, so a badass lady with pigtails who fights evil on a flying horse is pretty much the best thing ever to me.
Batgirl #38: Steph and Cass having a chat was really sweet. Their falling-out at the end seemed sort of abrupt. Like, I get why Steph would be upset, but either the phrasing was confusing, or else the things she said didn't quite seem to fit the reasons she would be upset?
Batgirl #49-50: I think I missed most of this arc. Apparently there was some drug called Soul, and Cass got temporarily fired? There were some nice interactions between Cass and Oracle, and then at the end with Batman, and the flashback to Cass' childhood was neat. But overall this was a little boring.
Robin #119: Tim gets a message from the future about a traitor and overthinks about it, Tim finds out Steph ran away from home and insists upon helping her move back, Tim follows Cass on her patrol to decide if she is the traitor. I feel like this is supposed to play as "Tim being clever and lonely and helpful" and instead I am like, Tim, you are being maybe a little too paranoid and bossy. Also I can never figure out how Tim and Cass get along because every other time I see him he seems to swing between being vaguely in awe of her and wanting her help or thinking she's scary and weird and not thinking of her as a friend at all. I guess it makes sense why he didn't get along with Damian, then, other than the near-death experience bit. Which leads us to....
Red Robin #14, #17: Tam, you are adorable, why isn't more of this comic about you? But anyway. I can see how beating Damian up a little might seem like a good way to win his respect, but Tim takes it...a little far. Damian looks so tiny and adorable when Alfred is fixing his face, aww. Tim's contingency plans have contingency plans, which is probably a sign that he has spent too much time funneling his trauma into crime-fighting, *cough* Bruce is not a good role model for coping mechanisms, *cough*. And then I skipped several issues because Cass. I wonder if Bruce sent her to Hong Kong because he suspected things would get crazy when he "died," and she and Dick argued a lot? And if he wasn't going to make her the Bat she might be happier working someplace else? Anyway. TIM WHY ARE YOU MOVING INTO THAT THEATER IN CRIME ALLEY? That is morbid and creepy, and I can't believe anyone in your family isn't going to be mortified by it.
Tumblr keeps telling me that Tim Drake is adorkable, how can anyone not like him, etc. This may well be true, but I think I keep picking things from after everything terrible ever happened to Tim, and Tim has similar coping strategies to Bruce, which makes him hard for me to relate to, ergo, my impression continues to be, hmm, Tim is maybe a little bit of a jerk sometimes, and often seems unhappy.
X-23: The Killing Dream: I really liked the beginning of this, and I thought Laura and also Julian were interesting characters, but then suddenly after the first issue everything became very weird. What is going on with demon Wolverine? Why does the art change so many times, and often look video-game-y? I get that Laura has trouble with emotions, but sometimes her affect is so flat that she looks a little uncanny-valley. Who is Claudine Renko, and what does it mean that she is a clone of Mister Sinister? Why does Claudine live in a glorified sewer, babysit a bunch of kids, look like she is dressed for some sort of cowboy/dominatrix theme party, and also have a strong resemblance to Laura? SO MANY QUESTIONS.
Teen Titans: A Kid's Game: Everyone being sad that Donna Troy is dead made me sad that Donna Troy doesn't exist. Starfire did some cool stuff, and Bart Allen was very adorable, especially when he was reading all the books in the library. Oh, and Arrowette and Secret's retired-from-superheroing-but-still-helping-Cassie cameo was neat. Otherwise, we are mostly killing time until Rose Wilson does more than appear on the last page.
Young Justice: A League of Their Own: Wow, the nineties. :P If Bart Allen had written a comic book, it would be difficult for it to be more hyperactive than this one. Also, it toys with the fourth wall a lot, which is kind of amusing. The costumes were kind of terrible, though. Aquaman looks like he's wrapped his arm in electrical tape. Anyway, in other news, I like Arrowette and Secret! They were cool. And it's interesting to see how much Cassie evolved over time, particularly how much they changed her character design. I wonder, though, is it possible to be a teenage superhero, or a teen superhero team, without at some point having to deal with DRAMATIC PLOT POINT OF ADULTS WANT YOU TO QUIT? "Adult heroes want you to quit" or "parents want you to quit" seems to be the default starting point, which I understand, but am getting bored of.
Astonishing X-Men: Gifted: I...have probably not read enough X-Men to properly appreciate more than the surface-level version of events. Mostly I spent a lot of time wondering if Joss Whedon had asked the artist to draw Kitty Pryde to look like Felicia Day, or if I was imagining it, and admiring the *snikt* noise Wolverine's claws make. It is a good noise and whoever came up with it should be proud. Question: Why did they pick Emma Frost to run the school if they are all vaguely suspicious of her? Or is it just Kitty who doesn't like her?
Li'l Gotham #8: It is difficult to express just how much I love Li'l Gotham. "Robin, finish your chocolates!" Damian tackling the Easter Bunny and going egg hunting ~for justice was pretty much the best thing. I like to imagine Steph and Dick are somewhere off-panel doing the grabbing-arms-jumping thing and going "Did you see that, he's doing kid things AND DOES NOT EVEN REALIZE IT!"
Batwoman #18: The art was mostly good but kind of uneven. Kate and Bette fighting Mr. Freeze was fun. It is great to have both of them on-panel at the same time again, and their quips are very entertaining. Just...just look at Bette and Kate's dad on the comms:
Jacob Kane: Bette! Do you copy?! Are you all right?!
Bette: Can barely hear you...and your voice must be distorted, 'cause you're starting to sound like Grandma.
Jacob Kane: *sigh* You're okay. Still snarky.
Also, Maggie looking at apartments was sweet. But I hope we get to see Kate and Maggie talking soon! (Of some relevance, I saw this adorable gif on Tumblr last night.)
Fearless Defenders #1-#2: I know I am late to the party, but this is, like, my new favorite thing. If you asked me what I, as a girl, want out of comic books, um, this is pretty much everything I never knew I was waiting for. It's a team of ladies who fight stuff, starting with a zombie horde raised by an evil ancient music box. And then in the next issue, they take a break in a diner before going to Asgard. Silliness + kicking butt + ladies hanging out, this is the actual best. I think they're doing a really good job with diversity, and with getting the different personalities of the ladies, and it's just really fun in general. Plus, Valkyrie is my new favorite everything. She has her own font because everyone thinks she talks funny, and she has a flying horse that travels in space and time. A FLYING HORSE. This is like, my childhood fantasies come true, okay? When I was younger I made my Barbies domino masks out of electrical tape so they could be superheroes, and I found them dingy-looking clothes and put them on their horses and sent them on Lord of the Rings adventures, so a badass lady with pigtails who fights evil on a flying horse is pretty much the best thing ever to me.
Batgirl #38: Steph and Cass having a chat was really sweet. Their falling-out at the end seemed sort of abrupt. Like, I get why Steph would be upset, but either the phrasing was confusing, or else the things she said didn't quite seem to fit the reasons she would be upset?
Batgirl #49-50: I think I missed most of this arc. Apparently there was some drug called Soul, and Cass got temporarily fired? There were some nice interactions between Cass and Oracle, and then at the end with Batman, and the flashback to Cass' childhood was neat. But overall this was a little boring.
Robin #119: Tim gets a message from the future about a traitor and overthinks about it, Tim finds out Steph ran away from home and insists upon helping her move back, Tim follows Cass on her patrol to decide if she is the traitor. I feel like this is supposed to play as "Tim being clever and lonely and helpful" and instead I am like, Tim, you are being maybe a little too paranoid and bossy. Also I can never figure out how Tim and Cass get along because every other time I see him he seems to swing between being vaguely in awe of her and wanting her help or thinking she's scary and weird and not thinking of her as a friend at all. I guess it makes sense why he didn't get along with Damian, then, other than the near-death experience bit. Which leads us to....
Red Robin #14, #17: Tam, you are adorable, why isn't more of this comic about you? But anyway. I can see how beating Damian up a little might seem like a good way to win his respect, but Tim takes it...a little far. Damian looks so tiny and adorable when Alfred is fixing his face, aww. Tim's contingency plans have contingency plans, which is probably a sign that he has spent too much time funneling his trauma into crime-fighting, *cough* Bruce is not a good role model for coping mechanisms, *cough*. And then I skipped several issues because Cass. I wonder if Bruce sent her to Hong Kong because he suspected things would get crazy when he "died," and she and Dick argued a lot? And if he wasn't going to make her the Bat she might be happier working someplace else? Anyway. TIM WHY ARE YOU MOVING INTO THAT THEATER IN CRIME ALLEY? That is morbid and creepy, and I can't believe anyone in your family isn't going to be mortified by it.
Tumblr keeps telling me that Tim Drake is adorkable, how can anyone not like him, etc. This may well be true, but I think I keep picking things from after everything terrible ever happened to Tim, and Tim has similar coping strategies to Bruce, which makes him hard for me to relate to, ergo, my impression continues to be, hmm, Tim is maybe a little bit of a jerk sometimes, and often seems unhappy.
X-23: The Killing Dream: I really liked the beginning of this, and I thought Laura and also Julian were interesting characters, but then suddenly after the first issue everything became very weird. What is going on with demon Wolverine? Why does the art change so many times, and often look video-game-y? I get that Laura has trouble with emotions, but sometimes her affect is so flat that she looks a little uncanny-valley. Who is Claudine Renko, and what does it mean that she is a clone of Mister Sinister? Why does Claudine live in a glorified sewer, babysit a bunch of kids, look like she is dressed for some sort of cowboy/dominatrix theme party, and also have a strong resemblance to Laura? SO MANY QUESTIONS.
Teen Titans: A Kid's Game: Everyone being sad that Donna Troy is dead made me sad that Donna Troy doesn't exist. Starfire did some cool stuff, and Bart Allen was very adorable, especially when he was reading all the books in the library. Oh, and Arrowette and Secret's retired-from-superheroing-but-still-helping-Cassie cameo was neat. Otherwise, we are mostly killing time until Rose Wilson does more than appear on the last page.
Young Justice: A League of Their Own: Wow, the nineties. :P If Bart Allen had written a comic book, it would be difficult for it to be more hyperactive than this one. Also, it toys with the fourth wall a lot, which is kind of amusing. The costumes were kind of terrible, though. Aquaman looks like he's wrapped his arm in electrical tape. Anyway, in other news, I like Arrowette and Secret! They were cool. And it's interesting to see how much Cassie evolved over time, particularly how much they changed her character design. I wonder, though, is it possible to be a teenage superhero, or a teen superhero team, without at some point having to deal with DRAMATIC PLOT POINT OF ADULTS WANT YOU TO QUIT? "Adult heroes want you to quit" or "parents want you to quit" seems to be the default starting point, which I understand, but am getting bored of.
Astonishing X-Men: Gifted: I...have probably not read enough X-Men to properly appreciate more than the surface-level version of events. Mostly I spent a lot of time wondering if Joss Whedon had asked the artist to draw Kitty Pryde to look like Felicia Day, or if I was imagining it, and admiring the *snikt* noise Wolverine's claws make. It is a good noise and whoever came up with it should be proud. Question: Why did they pick Emma Frost to run the school if they are all vaguely suspicious of her? Or is it just Kitty who doesn't like her?