I'm Just Sayin'…#52

Columns, Top Story

Alright folks, we have reached Number 52 – or as Manolis called it, our Nexusversary here at…

ONE LAST REMINDER: We’re a week away from COMEDY PARTY USA’s COMEDY PARTY USA’s spring contest at The Pinch Bar & Grill237 Sullivan Street, in the West Village just off 3rd Street (just two blocks east of the 4th Street subway stop for the A, B, C, D, E, F or V trains). That’s gonna be Tuesday, March 24 at 9pm, and the winner returns for the Finals on the 31st. There’s no cover charge, and there is no drink minimum. It’s the best underground comedy show I’ve ever been a part of, and this time I’m actually trying to win!

Don’t mind me – I’d just purchased CHRIS ROCK: KILL THE MESSENGER, and I’ll tell you – watching good comedy always makes me want to do some performing of my own, but it’s been a good while since I’ve been this inspired to go back out there and rock a mic!

And don’t forget, people – this Shipment Day be sure to grab yourself a copy of THE AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL #30 and with it not only the conclusion of the cutely-titled “Brand New May” arc, but the adventures of May Parker in her own monthly title. I gotta say, Tom DeFalco and company sure did give us something memorable here the last ten years and change – a great little future universe featuring a well-rounded cast of characters anchored by a popular, accessible, and likable female lead for 131 issues (that’s 567 in Bendis issues, by the way. Just to lend a touch of perspective).

So be sure to take a moment at your local comics shop and bid a fond, heartfelt see-ya-later to that second generation web-slinging superhero sensation…

 

…at least inasmuch as her presence on the shelves each month. Because as this bit of news goes to prove, she’s just too good for “goodbye.”

Meanwhile, true to their word IGN.com’s got more news with regards to DC’s upcoming BATMAN & ROBIN – as evidenced by this mini-interview with Grant Morrison. A couple quotes of interest:

IGN Comics: With the June relaunch of the Batman franchise comes a new Batman and a new Robin. DC will kill us for revealing their identities, but can you describe, as much as you can, the new relationship/chemistry between this Batman and Robin and how it would relate to previous Dynamic Duos?

Morrison: It’s much more…contentious. This is a very different Batman and Robin team from any that we’ve seen before. It’s almost a reverse of the traditional dynamic, with a more light-hearted and spontaneous Batman and a scowling, badass Robin. Expect fireworks and violence.

Well…neither IGN.com nor Grant Morrison in their right minds are going to give it away outright, but that sure sounds a lot like Dick Grayson & Damien Al-Ghul behind those masks, doesn’t it?

IGN Comics: You’ve also mentioned to us that Bruce and Batman are inseparable – will a large part of BATMAN & ROBIN deal with the fact that this new hero can’t actually be Batman?

Morrison: Absolutely. That’s part of the fun of this particular iteration of the character. No one can live up to Bruce Wayne’s standards.

And sticking with Gotham-related happenings for a moment, we turn to BATMAN: BATTLE FOR THE COWL, which kicked off last week. Basically, we pick up six months after the events of FINAL CRISIS #6/#7, and things in Gotham have pretty much gone to crap…

And all because of Batman’s absence – just Batman, mind you – which is interesting, because after INFINITE CRISIS, Gotham went a whole year without Batman, Robin or Nightwing, and managed to get by. Weird.

But anyway, Batman’s gone – but you’ve known that since BATMAN #676 – the very first page of that issue gives us the following enigmatic declaration:

And then the very next page tells us this:

Or, to be more specific:

So what’s the point I want to make? Dick Grayson needs a smack upside the head.

I had to cut myself off when responding to Mr. Q’s comment last week as it regards to the aftermath of BATMAN: BATTLE FOR THE COWL – mainly because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have had anything to talk about this week! – but if it took six months of Gotham City circling the drain before somebody (read: Tim Drake) realized that someone had better go out there in a Batman costume and restore some order…

…before somebody (read: Jason Todd) co-opted the Batman costume and started wreaking some serious havoc…

…then somebody (read: Dick Grayson) has got some ‘splaining to do once somebody (read: Bruce Wayne) returns from Darkseid-knows-where and wants to know why his favorite bagel place could have been spared a big, firey explosion courtesy of Black Mask, if the one person who’d known  him the best and the longest hadn’t decided instead to do his best Hamlet impression for half a year.

I almost want to go easy on Tony Daniel, as DC has been touting this event as his first major writing credit and it feels a little douche-y to start picking on him. I mean, the fact that he’s got the stones to follow fanboy god Grant Morrison’s acclaimed run on the Caped Crusader makes me wanna go “awwww” in that same way my father did when I was four years old and first tried to put on a necktie.

Okay, okay…I was twenty. But that’s not the point there, homey.

More to the point, when you consider he also hasn’t inexplicably killed anybody off, or splintered the Justice League into three simultaneously active branches – one outlawed, one legitimate, and one legitimate but eeeeevil! – or used a CCA-approved incarnation of Satan to cram some major editorial mandate down our throats, this is a relative misdemeanor! I guess at the very least, if we care enough, we can call it a minor stumble and keep on reading. So do your thing, Tony! Get your Batman on!

AND NOW, JUST CUZ I FEEL LIKE IT…

Y’damn right they won’t, fellas. SPIDER-GIRL FOREVER!

Til next week, comic book heads!