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By Sam Christopher

Batman, Batman, Batman… and Harley Quinn

I guess we’ll start off with a Valentine’s Day tale told in Joker’s Asylum II: Harley Quinn #1. I haven’t gotten any of the other of these one-shots, mainly because I don’t really care a whole lot about Batman’s rogues. Idiots like the Mad Hatter just don’t interest me, and most of the others just aren’t very interesting except in how they interact with the Caped Crusader. Except, of course, for the hilariously insane Harley Quinn. In this story, Harley has three weeks to go on her latest stretch in Arkham when Valentine’s Day comes up. I think you can guess who she has to see and what she’ll let stop her from seeing the Clown Prince of Crime. The rest of the story is all about her madcap adventures until batman shows up to employ an amazingly simple solution to the problem. A neat little story by James Patrick and Joe Quinones.

Then we move into Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #3. Bruce, it seems, is still moving forward in time, this time stopping off in 1718 so he can be mistaken for The Black Pirate and captured by Blackbeard. He is then taken to an underground grotto and told to retrieve the golden treasure he himself had hidden there. If only he had. Meanwhile, upstream in time, the JLA is consulting Red Robin while our new Batman and Robin are also following clues. And, of course, there’s the ending, where we find that next ish will be a movie tie-in… sort of. This story is getting to be a little more interesting as it goes along. Hopefully, it will have all been worth it at the end.

We have the end of the story started last month about Jenna the Carpenter (Carpentress?) being hired to construct a set of booby traps for the Batman by The Director. Yeah, I know it sounds kinda lame but it’s actually pretty well done. It doesn’t look unlucky at all for Batman: The Streets of Gotham #13. Granted, not the best story you’ll ever read but not bad considering the main character of the book is hardly in the story at all. The scene with Thomas Elliot in the “board meeting” with all the people Dick has asked to watch over him is pretty funny, especially with Alfred’s reaction to him. And the Manhunter backup was all right, nothing special.

Apparently Batwoman wasn’t doing that well sales-wise because Batman has been back for the past few issues, just as he is in Detective Comics #866. This features a Dennis O’Neil story that ties the current Batman into a case started by the former Batman when the current Batman was Robin… the current Robin is nowhere to be seen here for those interested. There’s also a Joker sighting here, both in the past and in the present. I have to admit that I kind of liked this story but it does sadden me that the current continuity has already fallen into the pattern of one-shots based on hidden “untold tales” of the characters. I don’t know how badly Batwoman was doing on the title but surely they could have had a different creative team assay the character rather than just give up on her altogether. If they’re not going to have her back in Detective Comics the least they could do is have her show up in BOP or even Batgirl.

The Continuance of Brightest Day

Brightest Day #4 starts off with the Hawks going after Hath-Set after discovering their millennia-long foe has been gathering the bones of all their previous incarnations for some reason. I go on record here as agreeing with Shiera. Boston Brand goes to Dove and runs into Hawk, who asks the erstwhile Deadman the most logical of questions. Then there’s the other subplots of Ronnie Raymond, the Silver City drying up, and people in the sea drying us—although this last we can gather is due to the weapons of the Atlanteans. I don’t know. I give Johns all benefit of any doubt; the man is simply the best writer in comics at the moment. Have to say, though, that I am unimpressed with all of this so far. We’ll give it a little more time.

Still wondering as I read Birds of Prey #2 how Oracle has time to do this and train the new Batgirl… and why isn’t Batgirl in BOP? Also thinking now that the White Canary is Sin from the future. Just a thought. Of course, whatever ends up happening we can be sure that Gail Simone will make it interesting and Ed Benes will make it pretty. I do think the WC has a lot to do with Dinah being off her game enough to fight cops rather than just take off. I mean, I find it difficult to believe the crew couldn’t have just run off.

Then we have “Captain Communist” joining the Justice League International which doesn’t exist anymore except that it does, after a fashion, in Justice League: Generation Lost #4. Max Lord has a problem: every time he uses his mental powers to take over a normal human he turns said human into a decayed husk. I have no idea how they’re going to change or explain that but it is a cool effect. The scene with Batman is about as good as it gets, too; we can only hope it means something more to the overall story. And I love the battle between all the Rocket Reds and their renegade RR, along with that renegade’s reasons for rebellion. “He sounds like my grandfather.” Pretty funny stuff.

If you don’t like the end of Green Lantern Corps #49, remember that it could be worse: it could be Superboy Prime. Not that I really had much trouble with the story, mind you, and I do like the idea of the Alpha-Lanterns rebelling, after a fashion. I just never cared that much for this character, even though he has become a natural enemy to the GLC after what he did to Hal Jordan. And I do love the idea of the Alphas asking other Lanterns for help before turning on them in order to increase the Alpha Lantern numbers… although I’m less thrilled with the Alphas turning more and more into exactly what John Stewart was complaining about in this ish, Manhunters. I guess there’s a lot of checks and balances to this storyline. I’m also wondering if they’re going to have Jade show up on Oa. I know they’re having her star in a big JLA/JSA crossover but she really needs to show up in the GLC sometime.

I even tried out Green Arrow #1 here. See, I’m no fan of Kevin Smith or Green Arrow, but Smith’s run on the character to bring Ollie back to life was excellent I thought, so I decided to give this a shot. I know it isn’t KS doing it but frankly he couldn’t hurt it here. It’s not J.T. Krul’s writing, either, and I really love the Diogenes Neves artwork. Neves brings a crisp and clean style that really captures the sf essence of this character and his friends. Still not sure what happened that made everyone forget that Ollie murdered someone (who deserved it) but…

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