Because these feelings need to go somewhere...
Okay seriously DC,
what have you done to my Robins and Batgirls?
Jason was my favourite since the Under The Red Hood animated movie. His backstory with him stealing the tires of the Batmobile was the best idea ever and I loved him for his street smarts, his jaded attitude and the sweetheart he was despite everything on the inside.
Now, his backstory is pretty generic, though I liked that they brought back the story of his mother being a junkie. What I don't get is the Joker's part in it, because Batman and Jason just clicked. Jason had the guts to steal from Batman, he made him laugh and he showed that he was capable with this Ma' Gun business.
All of this combined with Batmans loneliness after Dick left, made it feasible to take Jason in. Jason became Robin because he was picked up for his own merits already. He wasn't picked up because someone needed to be Robin. Batman didn't recruit little boys.
Reboot verse, I don't get you. He didn't make Batman laugh. He acted like any juvenile criminal and never made any attempts at the Batmobile. He had the guts to struggle, but seriously, that was enough to impress Batman? Picking him up to be Robin didn't make any sense like that.
Rhato is one of the less terrible books, but Jason was (like in the very very beginning of his character) again made to be some copycat Dick Grayson. He even got his cast off friends. And I'm not just talking about Roy and Kory (by the way people thought she was DEAD, why did Dick act like he was just avoiding her and knew she wasn't really dead? That doesn't make much sense...), I'm talking about Tim.
Why would Jason go to Tim, when he was the one member in the family besides Bruce he really hated?
Which gets me started on Tim.
Tim "gets it". Jason died and hey, you nearly killed me a few times and made my life hell and made me regret springing you from jail, but it's all water under the bridge? That's awfully careless and friendly for Tim (in comic canon at least, is this some appeal to the fangirls?).
HIS backstory made even less sense than Jason's. So Bruce followed him around instead of the other way around. And apparently Tim really wanted to become Robin, not because Batman needed one to get better after Jason died, but just because he wanted to and thought he could be good at it. His relationship with Dick seems sort of non existing and whenever he was seen with other Robins, HE DIDN'T TALK TO DICK. They both talked to Damian. Or to Jason. But they barely acknowledged each other at all, which seriously sucks, because they were fun together.
Tim's very own series is simply awful and got progressively worse. His costume is ridiculous, nobody seems like they are really happy to be in the Titans with him and Superboy has to be read along in his own comic to make sense. Cassie's backstory reduced her from the independent amazon and strong female that never needed a guy to validate her existence (she more or less dumped Superboy because she wanted to focus on being a better leader for the Titans) to.. a girl who grimly sacrifices herself for a useless boyfriend.
Back to Tim. He doesn't show real character development, he's always pushed around by circumstances and villains, but never really shines. The recent death of the family arc? His great trial was the Joker stealing his stupid cape and realizing that the kidnapped guys weren't his or Jason's fathers. Basically he got kidnapped, pushed around a bit and then went back to the Titans. It was like the writer didn't know what to do with Tim, because he's just that much of a non-entity personality wise and that's just sad.Worst of all, after the whole Joker debacle and his unfounded jealousy of Damian he now gets mind controlled and acts like a jerk, and seemingly everybody is ok with it. Also. One of the first scenes he's shown, he disses Alfred's cooking. NOT COOL.
This isn't really the Tim Drake I came to love again deeply in the pre-Reboot Red Robin series. This is just some strange character with lots of shiny exterior and absolutely no substance.
Dick Grayson is Nightwing. He's this one cool vigilante trained by Batman who set out to become his own man. No matter how many times he gets faced with tragedy, rejection or the death of dear friends, he never really gives up on people. His heart takes a lot of damage, but he refuses to harden it, because he thinks it's worth it. He gave Damian a chance when nobody else would. I loved officer Grayson, I loved him trying to make a name for himself in New York with the Titans and in Bludhaven as a solo agent. He kept up with Tim, struggled with his relationship to Bruce and kept in shape though he was never really seen eating anything but cereal and sandwiches. His origin is the famous circus story, yes. He'll always be somewhat of a show-off and an acrobat.
But in the recent series everything about him is about the circus. It's like nobody knows what else to write, if it's not connected to the circus somehow. And re-building an amusement mile in Gotham City? Seriously? How could he ever think that was a good idea? It's like painting a fat red target sign for each and every villain of the city, and especially the crazy ones. Everybody knew it was going to end in tragedy. Besides, he was thinking of tying himself down to one place? Not even when he made Bludhaven his home base, did he do that. With him it's always been about the flexibility. He adapts to situations, new places and new people on an unreal level of fast and owns them. Not in the reboot. Everything in the comics made things worse and worse and then some more fucked up for him. Him loosing his friends, the circus, all his financial backing, his confidence and emotional warmth. (Seriously, even Damian came running when he heard Jason scream, but Dick is still sulking on the roof or something?)
Also, his relationship with Tony Zucco's daughter is just a disaster waiting to happen. Sure, he didn't seem all that interested in her on a romantic level, but I'm pretty sure the story is leading there eventually anyway. There's no possible future, no way this isn't going to be stupid. I don't particularly care for her and now that his professional relationship with her is over, I really don't care to read much more of her. It's just warming up his backstory AGAIN AND AGAIN. [update: BUUUU, he's going to Chicago to chase his parent's murderer, WAY TO BE ORIGINAL DC. THAT's the big important reason for him to turn up in a vigilante-hostile city? Virtually anything would have been more creative. Even throwing a dart and accidentally ending up there.]
Everything is always about the circus and his personal tragedies connected with it. Tony Zucco's daughter is just another way to remind the reader of his origin story and really, enough is enough already. There's more to him! Just like with Jason and Tim, he's been reduced to a pretty, but ultimately pretty flat character who isn't recognizable as the one I fell in love with anymore. It rankles.
Barbara Gordon.
I loved her as oracle so much and I loved that even from a wheelchair she controlled so much about the hero business. She found a new angle to it and she rocked. I can barely describe my RAGE at what they molded her into. Now she's *healed* and I can't even begin to tell how dissappointing and angry this made me. So she can't be a super hero behind the scenes. She has to get back her legs (and apparently leaves a lot of her genius behind for it). Her family history is a mess beyond messes now.
Seriously, what exactly do you want to do with her?
She was the first Batgirl, she was cool and she moved on. Nobody ever expects Dick to go back to being Robin, it would seem like a backwards development, the same goes for Jason, so why isn't it the same for Barbara? Because Batman isn't as much of a mentor to her? Her glasses also mysteriously vanished. Her character is all pretty and sexy again now, hard and uncompromising. It's tragic and gritty and no fun to read at all. It just hurts and not even in a good way.
And I can't even write anything about Stephanie Brown or Cassandra Cain, because apparently THEY DON'T EVEN EXIST in the Reboot. Because yeah, really, who would like to read about female super heroes!? It's not like girls read comics. And anyway, there's still Birds of Prey with all it's cleavage. Grrrrr...
So to the baby of the Batfamily. Damian Wayne.
The character who apparently was only created to die tragically. His development in Batman and Robin was the one saving grace for the Reboot and made the one comic I actually enjoyed reading on occasion. Batman Inc isn't even synchronized with the other titles, but apparently it is? So not only is it okay for DC to break Dick, change Jason's issues around, (literally) fuck Tim over and erase the cool girls from existence or heal them from being awesome back to being some weird tortured male fantasy, they now kill little boys, who changed themselves against all odds for the better through the machinations of his own mother. (Despite the parallels to Jason's death and it being sort of epic bat-family history, this is just wrong. It was wrong the first time, and it is wrong now.)
Batman Comics in the Reboot, especially the ones about his sidekicks are apparently not meant to be enjoyable. They just want to be crass, gritty and tragic. They break the characters in so many ways, loose all humour, character development and emotional warmth and substitute with cheap drama, echoing regret and forced heart break.
The court of owls crossovers were ok, predictable and lacking in aftermath dealing, but alright. The parallel stories for Teen Titans? Death of the Family? They seem more like the writers really hate their characters and all the cross title reading is more of a sales decision then plot-development.
Frankly the reboot doesn't treat any of the characters I love the way I would like to see, they don't seem to have any great ideas for the directions they want them to take other than further down the drain right now and I just can't find anything fun about reading them anymore.
The one and ONLY exception to that is Lil' Gotham. It doesn't take itself too seriously, everybody still exists and the stories are fun and true to character and the art is lovely.
It's a sad, sad state of affairs, that the little festive digital comics are the best DC can offer the fans.
what have you done to my Robins and Batgirls?
Jason was my favourite since the Under The Red Hood animated movie. His backstory with him stealing the tires of the Batmobile was the best idea ever and I loved him for his street smarts, his jaded attitude and the sweetheart he was despite everything on the inside.
Now, his backstory is pretty generic, though I liked that they brought back the story of his mother being a junkie. What I don't get is the Joker's part in it, because Batman and Jason just clicked. Jason had the guts to steal from Batman, he made him laugh and he showed that he was capable with this Ma' Gun business.
All of this combined with Batmans loneliness after Dick left, made it feasible to take Jason in. Jason became Robin because he was picked up for his own merits already. He wasn't picked up because someone needed to be Robin. Batman didn't recruit little boys.
Reboot verse, I don't get you. He didn't make Batman laugh. He acted like any juvenile criminal and never made any attempts at the Batmobile. He had the guts to struggle, but seriously, that was enough to impress Batman? Picking him up to be Robin didn't make any sense like that.
Rhato is one of the less terrible books, but Jason was (like in the very very beginning of his character) again made to be some copycat Dick Grayson. He even got his cast off friends. And I'm not just talking about Roy and Kory (by the way people thought she was DEAD, why did Dick act like he was just avoiding her and knew she wasn't really dead? That doesn't make much sense...), I'm talking about Tim.
Why would Jason go to Tim, when he was the one member in the family besides Bruce he really hated?
Which gets me started on Tim.
Tim "gets it". Jason died and hey, you nearly killed me a few times and made my life hell and made me regret springing you from jail, but it's all water under the bridge? That's awfully careless and friendly for Tim (in comic canon at least, is this some appeal to the fangirls?).
HIS backstory made even less sense than Jason's. So Bruce followed him around instead of the other way around. And apparently Tim really wanted to become Robin, not because Batman needed one to get better after Jason died, but just because he wanted to and thought he could be good at it. His relationship with Dick seems sort of non existing and whenever he was seen with other Robins, HE DIDN'T TALK TO DICK. They both talked to Damian. Or to Jason. But they barely acknowledged each other at all, which seriously sucks, because they were fun together.
Tim's very own series is simply awful and got progressively worse. His costume is ridiculous, nobody seems like they are really happy to be in the Titans with him and Superboy has to be read along in his own comic to make sense. Cassie's backstory reduced her from the independent amazon and strong female that never needed a guy to validate her existence (she more or less dumped Superboy because she wanted to focus on being a better leader for the Titans) to.. a girl who grimly sacrifices herself for a useless boyfriend.
Back to Tim. He doesn't show real character development, he's always pushed around by circumstances and villains, but never really shines. The recent death of the family arc? His great trial was the Joker stealing his stupid cape and realizing that the kidnapped guys weren't his or Jason's fathers. Basically he got kidnapped, pushed around a bit and then went back to the Titans. It was like the writer didn't know what to do with Tim, because he's just that much of a non-entity personality wise and that's just sad.Worst of all, after the whole Joker debacle and his unfounded jealousy of Damian he now gets mind controlled and acts like a jerk, and seemingly everybody is ok with it. Also. One of the first scenes he's shown, he disses Alfred's cooking. NOT COOL.
This isn't really the Tim Drake I came to love again deeply in the pre-Reboot Red Robin series. This is just some strange character with lots of shiny exterior and absolutely no substance.
Dick Grayson is Nightwing. He's this one cool vigilante trained by Batman who set out to become his own man. No matter how many times he gets faced with tragedy, rejection or the death of dear friends, he never really gives up on people. His heart takes a lot of damage, but he refuses to harden it, because he thinks it's worth it. He gave Damian a chance when nobody else would. I loved officer Grayson, I loved him trying to make a name for himself in New York with the Titans and in Bludhaven as a solo agent. He kept up with Tim, struggled with his relationship to Bruce and kept in shape though he was never really seen eating anything but cereal and sandwiches. His origin is the famous circus story, yes. He'll always be somewhat of a show-off and an acrobat.
But in the recent series everything about him is about the circus. It's like nobody knows what else to write, if it's not connected to the circus somehow. And re-building an amusement mile in Gotham City? Seriously? How could he ever think that was a good idea? It's like painting a fat red target sign for each and every villain of the city, and especially the crazy ones. Everybody knew it was going to end in tragedy. Besides, he was thinking of tying himself down to one place? Not even when he made Bludhaven his home base, did he do that. With him it's always been about the flexibility. He adapts to situations, new places and new people on an unreal level of fast and owns them. Not in the reboot. Everything in the comics made things worse and worse and then some more fucked up for him. Him loosing his friends, the circus, all his financial backing, his confidence and emotional warmth. (Seriously, even Damian came running when he heard Jason scream, but Dick is still sulking on the roof or something?)
Also, his relationship with Tony Zucco's daughter is just a disaster waiting to happen. Sure, he didn't seem all that interested in her on a romantic level, but I'm pretty sure the story is leading there eventually anyway. There's no possible future, no way this isn't going to be stupid. I don't particularly care for her and now that his professional relationship with her is over, I really don't care to read much more of her. It's just warming up his backstory AGAIN AND AGAIN. [update: BUUUU, he's going to Chicago to chase his parent's murderer, WAY TO BE ORIGINAL DC. THAT's the big important reason for him to turn up in a vigilante-hostile city? Virtually anything would have been more creative. Even throwing a dart and accidentally ending up there.]
Everything is always about the circus and his personal tragedies connected with it. Tony Zucco's daughter is just another way to remind the reader of his origin story and really, enough is enough already. There's more to him! Just like with Jason and Tim, he's been reduced to a pretty, but ultimately pretty flat character who isn't recognizable as the one I fell in love with anymore. It rankles.
Barbara Gordon.
I loved her as oracle so much and I loved that even from a wheelchair she controlled so much about the hero business. She found a new angle to it and she rocked. I can barely describe my RAGE at what they molded her into. Now she's *healed* and I can't even begin to tell how dissappointing and angry this made me. So she can't be a super hero behind the scenes. She has to get back her legs (and apparently leaves a lot of her genius behind for it). Her family history is a mess beyond messes now.
Seriously, what exactly do you want to do with her?
She was the first Batgirl, she was cool and she moved on. Nobody ever expects Dick to go back to being Robin, it would seem like a backwards development, the same goes for Jason, so why isn't it the same for Barbara? Because Batman isn't as much of a mentor to her? Her glasses also mysteriously vanished. Her character is all pretty and sexy again now, hard and uncompromising. It's tragic and gritty and no fun to read at all. It just hurts and not even in a good way.
And I can't even write anything about Stephanie Brown or Cassandra Cain, because apparently THEY DON'T EVEN EXIST in the Reboot. Because yeah, really, who would like to read about female super heroes!? It's not like girls read comics. And anyway, there's still Birds of Prey with all it's cleavage. Grrrrr...
So to the baby of the Batfamily. Damian Wayne.
The character who apparently was only created to die tragically. His development in Batman and Robin was the one saving grace for the Reboot and made the one comic I actually enjoyed reading on occasion. Batman Inc isn't even synchronized with the other titles, but apparently it is? So not only is it okay for DC to break Dick, change Jason's issues around, (literally) fuck Tim over and erase the cool girls from existence or heal them from being awesome back to being some weird tortured male fantasy, they now kill little boys, who changed themselves against all odds for the better through the machinations of his own mother. (Despite the parallels to Jason's death and it being sort of epic bat-family history, this is just wrong. It was wrong the first time, and it is wrong now.)
Batman Comics in the Reboot, especially the ones about his sidekicks are apparently not meant to be enjoyable. They just want to be crass, gritty and tragic. They break the characters in so many ways, loose all humour, character development and emotional warmth and substitute with cheap drama, echoing regret and forced heart break.
The court of owls crossovers were ok, predictable and lacking in aftermath dealing, but alright. The parallel stories for Teen Titans? Death of the Family? They seem more like the writers really hate their characters and all the cross title reading is more of a sales decision then plot-development.
Frankly the reboot doesn't treat any of the characters I love the way I would like to see, they don't seem to have any great ideas for the directions they want them to take other than further down the drain right now and I just can't find anything fun about reading them anymore.
The one and ONLY exception to that is Lil' Gotham. It doesn't take itself too seriously, everybody still exists and the stories are fun and true to character and the art is lovely.
It's a sad, sad state of affairs, that the little festive digital comics are the best DC can offer the fans.