10-20 Comics
This weeks selection is like getting extra doses of Tim Drake.
EDIT: Teen Titans #17 and Robin #116-120 connection.
Robin #131, War Games 3.4
I'm thinking of giving Willingham a fighting chance, after this. How he portrays Tim this round actually made the connection. Don't get me wrong, he's no Dixon yet, and I really think he should have written this for last month, but he's slowly getting better. Now if Willingham would just do a bit more background reading, I think he might be set.
The art by Derenick and Campanella made me happy. It could have been better (when compared to the art I've been seeing in Catwoman) but it was much cleaner and less rushed then last month's issue.
The reason behind my new possible support of Willingham: Tim as Robin calms a riot (according to Oracle), takes down the Ravens, the Trickster, and Mr.Fun all in one single issue, while also managing to have another uneasy talk to his dad and being pissy to Oracle.
Page distrubution this time around: 11 pages for Tim art, 10 pages for the Stephanie/Black Mask ordeal, and Bruce/Barbara spat got 1 page, though Barbara also went into a Tim art page (making her total 2 pages).
I think my favorite line this issue would be: "I knew he'd be back. He was born for this work."
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Gotham Knights #58, War Games 3.5
And here's the issue where they start tieing up the loose ends. As Tarantula tries to get as many of her little gang to safety while being shot at by cops feeling they need to show Gotham the G.C.P.D.'s ability to contain the gang wars, Batman takes the injured Stephanie to Leslie, and Black Mask works to get a third gang meeting set up.
The art, as always that I've seen with this series, is spectacular. Perhaps the only thing I could ask for would be afterimages in some of the motion shots.
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Batgirl #57, War Games 3.6
The storyline is another wrap-up. Batgirl goes and makes Onyx accounted for in the list of survivors while on another plot line we see how exactly Hush dupes Black Mask.
The art is something I can live with, but again is also something I think could be better (again in comparison to Catwoman). The slight cartoonish/anime style feel it has doesn't really fit right with the Gotham atmosphere created in the mainline Batman comics. However, this is of course my opinion on art in a series I don't follow religiously. For all I know, this art could actually be much better then a run done last year or five years ago.
My favorite line: "So what? Maybe he [Batman] had an operation?!"
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Teen Titans #17
Reading this after the current issues of War Games is slightly shocking on the Tim scene. Going from a happy-to-be-back-as-Robin Tim to the hardcore-executing-Batman Tim who pulls the triger on a gun to kill the next generation's Joker right under a Bruce Wayne portrait leaves you with thousands of questions on how this version of Tim came about. Then there's the shattered Batman statue, and the most forefront question one gets is "Oh Bruce, what did you do to make Tim so angry with you?"
If the Superman and Lex Luthor statue didn't tip anybody else off that something was up with Superboy, there are major observation problems in this group. Though we knew that long before when nobody else paid attention to Cassie's new lasso.
Then of course follows the regular scheduled DC meeting fight. The Flash (Future!Bart, who I totally want to know why he's not wearing the regular red outfit) shows Bart up while looking like he has small breasts in one pannel, Cassie and Kon wind up getting hit with telekinesis fields, and Future!Gar wears no clothes at all while seeming able to multiply. Nicely enough, every Future incarnation defers to Batman.
Then we get another one of the lovely Kon/Tim scenes with Tim adamently saying the future is fluid and subject to change (which it obviously is, since the last time they looked into their future during Young Justice, Bart wasn't around) and that he's not going to be Batman. Kon leaves to talk to his future self about the D.N.A. thing, and the issue ends on the terrible cliffhanger of Titan's Tower now sporting a torture room.
If anything would tell Kon that the Luthor D.N.A. thing is a problem, I think seeing a facsimile of himself burning people's arms off would be it.
The art, as usual, is very pretty. If McKone leaves, I will be very, very sad.
EDIT: I've only just thought of this but... Batman!Tim mentions that they're at war in the first few pages of TT #17. And, if you read between the lines of the issue, the Titans are presumably at war with other superheroes. It got me thinking about the issues of Robin #116-120 where Bruce sets up a mystery for Tim's birthday and in #120 when Tim finally has enough of stalking all of the Batfamily to find out who the person that perpatrates the suposed "war" of superheroes in the future, he sits down and writes up the vision and plan himself. Could the reason the Future Titans are defering to Batman!Tim be because he expanded those plans not to include a city, but the entire world?
Favorite line: "There aren't any computers anywhere." Because of course our technological dependent Robin would want a computer, if for nothing else then the familiar feel of a keypad under his fingertips.
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Identity Crisis #5
Even if I hadn't been reading this series, I would have picked it up just for the cover. I seem to have an irristable urge to buy comics that have Tim on the cover.
Ray Palmer (The Atom) makes up with his almost murdered ex-wife, Firestorm seemingly dies (I don't know enough about him, so I say seemingly) and two sets of neglectful father's and neglected son's spend time together. Then neglectful father's kill each other, leaving both son's fatherless.
Only problem I had: Wally's not the only speedster. Why didn't they try getting hold of Bart or Jay?
Let's sit back and see if the writers remember Tim has a legal stepmother.
Favorite Scene:
Robin: "Bruce, please... Please help him..."
Bruce: *looks away from the road long enough to give Tim a surprised look*
Oh Tim, do you know what type of impossible burden you're asking of him?
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Nightwing #98, War Games 3.3 Question
Out of random curiousity I feel I must ask, does anybody know if Nightwing from War Games was ever moved from that lonely fire escape or is he still there unconcious and bleeding from a gun shot wound to the thigh?