Things I Think About #22

Why should Robin be more like Batman?

I've pretty much accepted that kalinara is right, and DC is trying to make Tim Drake like Batman, thus suggesting Tim's the one that would take over for Bruce Wayne, on the slim chance that someday DC is actually willing to do that. But why would they go that way?

I know Tim is trying his hardest to do what's necessary to be the good partner for Batman, but I thought the whole reason he tried to become Robin in the first place was because he was worried Batman was going off the deep end, and required someone less dark to keep him balanced. If Tim is becoming just like Batman, then HOW IN THE HELL IS HE GOING TO KEEP HIM BALANCED?!

Is he betting that if there's a teenager present Batman will restrain himself? Is he trying reverse psychology, becoming dark to force Bruce to look at who he is, and make appropriate changes when he sees the deep emotional scarring he's inflicting on Tim?

I think I liked it better when Tim was pissed at Batman for giving his secret identity away to Spoiler. He stayed away from him, made his own decisions, did things his own way. Oh well, that train has left the station.

Character Archetypes #1: Peter Parker

If you're like me, there are probably certain types of characters you gravitate towards. For whatever reason, their stories interest you, moreso than other characters'. I thought I'd do a few posts about the different types that appeal to me. In this case, I'm probably going to be combining American comics with anime/manga, as I've seen some carryover.

So it only seemed natural to start with my favorite character of all: Spider-Man. What you see here is the cover to the first Spider-Man book I ever read. I'll be honest, my original reason for liking Spider-Man was twofold. One, like Scipio alluded to in his post on Sunday, Spider-Man has an incredible variety of powers. He's not the fastest, strongest, smartest, but the combination of all his powers and skills means he has a chance against just about anybody. Second, that black costume just looked so damn cool. I thought it would be totally awesome, to be hiding in the shadows, up on the ceiling, then just drop down, scare somebody. Plus, Spidey was a bit of a smart aleck, which I readily identify with, being one myself.

This was actually a really good place to jump on because the next part of the story, the Beyonder pretty much lays it all out for you with regards to Peter Parker, the person. He worries, he ties himself up in knots over stuff that wasn't his fault, things he couldn't control, but at the end of the day, he thinks things are going to be alright, and if he can, he's going to help make things that way. That just seemed very unusual to me, as the only comics I'd read before that were my dad's Supermans and Batmans from the '60s. And I had never seen those people struggle with money, or have to repaint their home because some punks burned it up. And they almost never seemed to doubt themselves. On the rare occasions they did, it was something an enemy was doing to them, and it was over by the end of the issue, when they defeated the villain. So Peter, who often had real-life problems, seemed that much more approachable to a five-year old.

Yeah, he stopped the Beyonder from destroying everything, or the Puma from killing an innocent person, but he didn't get any pictures, which means his rent will be late, which means he's in trouble. Since then, I always seem to gravitate towards characters with those sorts of problems (it helps if they look cool or have cool powers).

Speedball was a goofy kid, one with seemingly academic talent, but no real desire to use it. Stuck in the middle of a couple of parents who seemed to constantly fight. Kyle Rayner was just a guy that got handed this awesome weapon, and was told to help save the universe. Plus the whole thing with his love life (well-documented elsewhere). Hey no pressure. Darkhawk (who looked Very cool) was stuck in a single parent household, with a father who had vanished under odd circumstances. Like Peter, he was trying to help the family, unlike Peter, he had the additional strain of younger siblings to watch out for. Tim Drake, who wasn't wearing the shorts, who had a cool staff, was dating, was trying to keep an eye on an injured father, and at the time his ongoing started, was working with an armored up lunatic that called himself Batman (I think it's kind of funny that Batman seems to have moved a lot closer to what Jean Paul was doing, which was part of why Bruce took the title back). The Ray (who looked VERY damn cool), who had been trapped inside his whole life, then finds out he has powers, then his dad pops up as a 'ghost', and tells him he has to be a hero. And now Ray has to adjust to trying to have a real life outdoors, with jobs and bills, and the fact he hasn't ever really known anything about his life.

Ultimately, I guess the common denominator is they're all close to my age (or closer than the Tony Starks and Bruce Waynes), and they all had problems that I could easily envision both interfering with attempts to be a hero, and that wouldn't be easily resolved because of the superhero aspect.

I don't suppose that's anything all that surprising or unique, seeing as that was the whole idea that Kirby, Lee, Ditko, etc., were going for with Spider-Man, make him accessible to young readers, but I did want to start with an easy one.

Random Comic Thoughts from this Week's titles

Blech. I need a better name for this than that mess. Maybe it should fall under "Things I think About". Oh well. Just some questions and random impressions from the week, now that I got that whole "mutant" thing out of my system:

1) I'm worried Starfire won't survive Infinite Crisis. I glanced through what I think was the most recent Outsiders. Her sister, who I take it doesn't like her any better in the comic than she does in the cartoon, is there, extra powerful and looking unfriendly. I hope I'm wrong, because I would really like to see Starfire in Teen Titans when One Year Later kicks off. Nightwing doesn't seem to be in a bad place (at least if IC is to be believed) and that was the whole reason she left the Titans, to keep an eye on him. I guess I'm just paranoid. I start thinking Batgirl might be OK, so now I'm thinking "Which other character I like is DC gonna take instead?"

2) If Cassandra Cain is a living member of the Birds of Prey at the start of OYL, I will buy the title regardless of quality. Come on Didio, I'm not asking for her to still be Batgirl (though I ask why she couldn't be), just that she still be alive. Work with me here!

As for books I actually bought:

Robin #146: What was with those sores on Conner's body? I can't figure his body would start devouring itself in select circular patterns here and there, though it is better for him than his body eating his own heart.

Robin mentioned a program he made that determines how difficult a place is to break into, on a scale of 10. There were 3 tens: The JLA Watchtower (oops, never mind), something in Washington D.C., and something that moves, and was in Coast City at that moment. What is the thing that keeps moving?

Ultimate Spider-Man #89: Is there a reason to have S.H.I.E.L.D. except as cannon fodder? I mean, they are constantly getting shown up. If it isn't six of Spidey's enemies escaping from a prison designed to hold them, it's Norman Osborn managing to hide Harry's "abilities" from the lab guys. Or it's Magneto escaping, or anything that's happening in The Ultimates. I know I said it when I reviewed this book, but I do not feel confident in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s ability to stop Gah'Lak'Tus.

Exiles #76: Should I be expecting the Dr. Doom of 2099 to catch up to and absorb Proteus' abilities at some point? Doom stole the Beyonder's power, and compared to that Proteus is like a firecracker.

New Avengers #15: Would Jameson really have broken his word like that? Saying he will ease off Spidey for exclusive access, then turning around and broadcasting that arrangement to the world.

I mean he lied to CAPTAIN AMERICA! Isn't that considered treason?

Also, doesn't this mean Joe Robertson quit? He told JJJ, 'Say yes or I quit.' Jonah ended up going back on the deal, so I guess Robbie has some people offering him jobs now. Good, now let's see the Bugle fall apart, and Jonah have to crawl to get Robbie back.

And really, why can't Warbird be on the Avengers? I mean, besides Cap, Iron Man, and I would say Spidey, none of the others have proven themselves as much as her. That includes Luke and Jessica, and I'm really glad they're on the team.

Spider-Man and the Black Cat #6: One more time, why did Kevin Smith add rape into Felicia's origin? I would say that when a book is as late as this one has been that your goal should be to take what Chris has described as the Geoff Johns approach: comfort food. Don't go for the home run, just give the fans what they want. Some fighting, the hero wins, his friend is safe, maybe she gets to do some ass-kicking too. Just a simple superhero story. Do NOT add elements of rape to a story that didn't need it!

Wolverine #38: I'm sorry, was there anything to this issue?

Amazing Spider-Man #528: What was the point of Peter being sick? The first four issues of The Other, they made a big deal about how Peter was sick, and there was nothing anyone could do, in the realm of science of magic, to fix it. He was weaker than normal, and then Morlun attacked, and skin was shed, and Spider-creatures showed up, and it just got dropped.

From a biological standpoint it made sense for Morlun to attack when Peter wasn't at 100%. That's how it works in nature, predators attack the weaker individuals. The young that aren't full-grown, or the old, or the sick, or the injured. But there wasn't any need for that in this story. Morlun showed the first time around he was fully capable of kicking Spidey's ass even if Peter is at full strength. Peter won that fight on a gamble that paid off. The sickness was unnecessary. This one has been bugging me for awhile.

If you have answers to any of these, please help the world (meaning me) to understand.

Things I Think About #12

When did Terra come back? Or is it a different person? I remember she was in that "Titans of Tomorrow" story, but I just figured it was a different person. But then there she was again, in Infinite Crisis #4, right alongside Kalinara's favorite Sand, sticking it to Whiny-Brat Superboy, I mean Superboy-Prime. If it is the same Terra that teamed with Deathstroke, why bring her back? To me, she had one of those deaths that made sense.

It just occurred to me this morning, Tim Drake is now officially an orphan. His stepmother was in a mental health facility/clinic in Bludhaven. And we all just watched Bludhaven go *POOF*, in a cloud of green smoke (ew). So, she's dead. Man, they really are trying to turn Tim into Batman. Crap. Well, under no circumstances should Tim live with Bats, not unless Batman gets a massive personality adjustment. Back when he was escaping from giant typewriters, and making goofy comments, he was at least somewhat ok to be a parent-type. If that happened now? Well it would be a miracle if Dick Grayson didn't turn into the Punisher. Hey, I think I just figured out where Miller's going with his All-Star Batman and Robin. Which is fine. Anything that keeps him away from characters and books I care about is ok.

Besides, I don't think Selina would want Tim around the mansion much.

Major question for the day, connected to the Terra question: What character's death - that has been undone - do you feel shouldn't have been undone and why? In other words, why did the death 'work'? Can be a hero, villain, normal person. Could be a nice/heroic death, depressing, traitorous, whatever.

For me, Colossus. Now I like the big Russian. I mean, he's not one of my favorite characters, but I like him alright. But his death seemed appropriate. Here he was, with a chance to end the Legacy Virus forever. An opportunity to destroy the thing that had killed his little sister, the only family he had left I think, and had done the same to who knows how many others. And all he had to do was give his own life. He didn't have to fight, and at heart, I don't think of Colossus as a fighter. Sure, if punches need to be thrown, he'll do it, but he's a farmer and an artist. And this death just required him to inject the vaccine, and activate his power. That's it, and he ensures no one loses their little sister again. And I'll be honest: I think Peter had been on kind of a downward spiral since her death, maybe since before that, since he had to kill Proteus. Sure, he wasn't hanging with Magneto anymore, which he had done after her funeral, but you wonder if someone ever recovers from that entirely. When you've saved the world - several times - it can't be easy, accepting that you can't save people most important to you. So he might have been looking for a way to leave.

There was an issue of Wolverine, #176, where Logan was right on the border of life and death and he runs into a bunch of old enemies. Colossus shows up to give him a hand, and tells Logan to tell the others 'I'm with my little snowflake. I am happy.' It was a little sad, but I thought it made sense. Obviously, Joss Whedon disagreed.

Then again, Whedon never did know when to leave a character dead.

So, who is it for you?

Pointless Indulgence

Man, nothing like a season premiere of The Shield to get you in the mood to post.

First off, relating to my earlier post about Robin, I forgot to mention I do like that Willingham has tried to give Robin some enemies of his own. Sure Johnny Warlock, the Rising Sun Archer, and the Dark Rider won't be challenging Flash's Rouges anytime soon (not if they value their health anyway), but as Robin establishes his own identity, he needs a few villains of his own. That being said, the title is 'Pointless Indulgence', so these were just a couple of ideas I'd have like to have seen explored, had the characters involved not, you know, died.

1) Jack Drake does not die in Identity Crisis, and Tim is back being Robin. How do they interact? Does father try to limit Tim's crimefighting (no crimefighting on Sunday night, so he's rested for school?) Does Jack try to spend more time with Tim, either in an attempt to draw him away from Batman's siren song of vigilantism, or because he's figures Tim is on borrowed Tim, so better go to the ballgame with him while he can. What about Tim's stepmom, Dana? Tim clearly has no problem keeping her in the dark, but can Jack do that to the woman he goes to bed with every night, especially when he told her he was sure Tim was involved in something dangerous? If he thinks he is going to tell her, what does Tim (or Batman) do?

2) Stephanie Brown survives 'War Games'. When Batman fired her as Robin, he told her to drop the vigilante stuff entirely. She ignored him then, just like she did the Birds of Prey and her father, the Cluemaster. But in the event the gang war actually occurred, maybe she gets herself and her mother out of Gotham, and follows Tim to Bludhaven. Tim is going to know she's still being Spoiler. If she doesn't outright tell him so, then he'll notice some injury she'll got from being out there one night. Does he tell Batman? Does Batman try to get Tim to make her stop. . . again? If he does, would Tim go along with it, or ignore Batman and just try to work with Stephanie, improving her chances of survival? In fact, why couldn't Tim or Batgirl train Stephanie, assuming Cass would also move to Bludhaven? Tim could teach her (and Cassandra for that matter) some of the more detective-related aspects of the job, while Cassandra works on Steph's fighting technique (Tim could benefit from that teaching as well). I'm not saying Batgirl, Robin, and Spoiler would all being appearing in Robin and Batgirl each month, but training together or comparing information on something large every few months shouldn't be out of the question. This is the first time any of them have tried to handle an entire city without the Bat's guiding presence, so a little teamwork wouldn't be a bad idea.

Steph can also serve as a morale booster for Tim if he gets depressed, like she did when he was out of sorts because he believed he killed Johnny Warlock. With Spoiler, the problem has never been a lack of determination, rather it's been a lack of skill, or a matter of being overeager, too gung-ho to prove herself. With people who regard her as a friend, and not a pupil/novice, that wouldn't be as much of a problem, so she'd be less likely to repeat old mistakes of throwing herself into situations too quickly. And as the girlfriend, Stephanie would get Tim out there on dates, forcing him to get out in public and interact with people as Tim Drake, not just spend all his time as Robin, which I think is a vital part of the character as a whole.

Clearly, I think there's more ground to be covered if Steph were still alive than Jack, but really having either character (or at least giving Tim some new people to interact with) would probably have helped Willingham out, if he had thought along these lines. Oh well, it's all moot now, but I feel better for having put this out there.

What's Wrong With Robin?

The obvious first answer is that Bill Willingham is just killing time. You can tell from the series of seemingly pointless fight issues, that he's been told "don't do anything major with the character, just leave him for the new creative team coming on at One Year Later".

While for me personally, the artwork has been a stumbling block (Scott McDaniel is a nice upgrade over Damion Scott, whose fight scenes were almost incomprehensible at times, but McDaniel's style seems too blocky, I guess), the stories themselves haven't grabbed me and for that, the blame falls to the writer.

Two things: First, Bill Willingham seems to be a pretty good writer. I mean, it's hard to find a blog that doesn't sing his praises for Fables, so clearly we're talking about someone with talent, not Chuck Austen (damn, there goes my resolution to stop taking shots at Chuck Austen). Second, as I've said before, I feel like the book's been hamstrung by the deaths of Jack Drake and Stephanie Brown, and I don't know how much control WIllingham had over that. It may have been something he had no choice about, but it may have been something he thought was a great idea. If that's the case, he's an idiot. Still the loss of those two characters highlights what I think is the major missing component in the book, especially since War Games.

Tim Drake.

I'll admit this is a bias of mine. I think that Robin, like Spider-Man, is most effective as a character when having to balance super-hero and civilian activities. But since Tim moved to Bludhaven, how much of that have we seen? We saw him go to public school, not react well to what was admittedly some pretty insensitive questions from the other students, and that was pretty much it. 'Uncle Eddie' shows up and pulls Tim from the school, and that's the end of that. We don't see Tim trying to deal with the fact he's made himself highly unpopular, and so maybe he tries to make some friends.

Heck, Tim's stepmom is in a mental health facility, and he hasn't visited her once. Not once! Alfred has been there at least twice that we've seen.

The closest we came to Tim Drake moments was when Darla Aquisita showed up again. That's cool, she had been very interested in Tim before she got shot, and Tim and Stephanie had been drifting a bit, so there was a human element there. Of course now Darla is 'Warlock's Daughter' and she's here to kill Robin, so Tim has a bit of a conundrum. And that was actually a nice issue. Both parts of his life conflict, but it's the exception.

Here's why this bothers me. Tim has said, on more than one occasion, he doesn't want to be Batman, and he certainly doesn't want to be the gun-toting version of himself he saw in the future. I think. He's made some comments about wanting to shoot criminals and only maybe being joking, plus all the time he spends with these military folks. . . Anyway, so supposedly Tim wants to be a great crimefighter/detective, but not a closed off, no life person like the Batman. And Tim does still have friends, and he does still have fun. . . with the Titans. As Robin. But when your whole life is what you do when you have that mask on, and there isn't anything else to you, then I think you're pretty close to becoming Batman. I mean let's face it: Bruce Wayne might as well be a holographic image for as real as he is right now, and Tim Drake seems to be in danger of going the same route.

Or maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe it's just a phase, and the new creative team will get Tim back into more 'real people' stuff. If DC really plans to go in a lighter direction, then that would make sense.