Ep. 34: Gordon Smash!

[Mr.Shaw]

Our intrepid heroes find themselves confronted by piles of mediocrity. The casefile books (Batman 264-5, Detective Comics 449-50) are all weird and somewhat lame, and half of the current books (Detective Comics 867, Streets of Gotham 14, Return of Bruce Wayne 4, Gotham City Sirens 13-14) are mediocre. But which ones? I'll never tell! In other news, Batman takes down Dr. Doom; there's discussion of Arkham Asylum 2, Detective Comics news, and Batman, Inc.; sitcoms, comedians, and why Joe Quesada sucks. Also, we name our top 5 covers from Legends of the Dark Knight.

The Band o' the Week is Def Leppard, with their greatest hits album "Vault."

[DarkKnightJared]

On "incorporating" Batman--I'm not exactly sure either, but supposedly we'll find out in October in The Return. My thinking right now is that he's meaning "branding" in the same way that, say, corporations put their brand on NASCAR cars. It's taking the concept of The Network and taking it another step, where he's having people label the handiwork, and who's in control.

As for "Batman's mission was never to save the world." Well...kinda, yeah. He's talked about a literal "War on Crime," and dreams of actually eliminating the concept of crime, working to have a world where men like him aren't needed. It's a massive pipe-dream, nigh impossible, but Bruce is both crazy enough and ballsy enough to try to make it possible. And, like it says in Kingdom Come, at the end of the day, Batman is about not letting anyone one else die. He is out to save the world.

"Bruce shouldn't be running around the world." Uh...O'Neil/Adams run that you guys love? That's the same thing?

"We might get a year out of Inc." Two, actually. Morrison's talked about the first hear being one, two, three-issue arcs, and then the next year would be a twelve-part epic.

Streets of Gotham...the initial story was interesting, but not enough to really get me interested, and didn't really care about the co-feature. 2 out of 5.

Gotham City Sirens...I hated that development with Maggie when they hinted at it in Blackest Night, and it's even more dull and aggrivating now. The whole "plant-man" thing is also just dumb. I'll give the upcoming issue with Selina/Talia/Zatanna a shot, same with the one in November with what looks like a new creative team, but after that, if it doesn't get any better, I'm done. 1 out of 5.

Return of Bruce Wayne -- It was the weakest art so far in this issue, and there is a bit of the "middle of the road hump" thing going, but I still enjoyed it. I'd give it a 4 out of 5.

"Nothing was explained in this issue." Well, it pretty much confirmed exactly who Doctor Hurt is. As for the box...if you haven't already, read Batman #702.

As for the time period for next issue--I believe they said that Bruce will actually see his parent's death from an outside perspective, so I'm guessing we'll find out for certain what was the relationship between the Waynes and the Black Glove--besides the fact that, y'know, it's run by an immortal Wayne ancestor.

If you like Scott Hampton on Batman, I'd highly recommend Batman: Night Cries, which has a really twisted story by Archie Goodwin, and painted by Hampton.



I've seen blackjacks in, like, old 40s stuff, in film noir and pulps.

Y'know, with the way that you guys make Batman sound so smug with the padlock, I think I could see why in this issue Gordon's constantly pissed off--Brucey's really being a bit of a dick.

As for who Gordon is talking to with the sex talk, my money's more on Kate Spencer. The two have had a few dates over in the Manhunter co-feature...

As for the plot for Batman #450 sounding familiar...the fact that this guy wants Batman's cape and cowl makes me think it was adapted into the B:TAS episode "The Cape & Cowl Conspiracy."

Fantastic Four's actually one of my favorite parts of the Marvel Universe--the current run by Jonathon Hickman's basically the best book being published by Marvel at the moment.

Uh, Sue Richards isn't Doom's weakness--she's Namor's weakness. Doom's pretty much obsessed with Reed, though. If you're going to try to trick Doom with a woman, the only one that really comes to mind is Storm.

Favorite Past Sitcom: either Married With Children or Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
Favorite Current Sitcom: Modern Family

My mom actually worked in the school cafeteria, and that's pretty bad. DMV and the Post Office is pretty bad, too--in fact, I remember a bit from a memoir Lewis Black wrote when he worked the night shift at a post office. It was hysterical.

Favorite comedian...kinda drawing a blank. The only stand up I really listen to lately is interviews from another podcast I listen to called . Aside from the co-host, Keith Malley, there's a lot of funny guys, like Jesse Joyce, Myka Fox, Micah Sherman, Pat Dixon, etc. As for older stuff...Bill Hicks is very timeless.

This pretty much sums up OMIT--and pretty much Spider-Man post-BND for me:



As for the whole "one book per publisher" deal, I think I would go:

DC: Batman & Robin
Marvel: Fantastic Four
Dark Horse: Whatever Hellboy mini is out
Image: Walking Dead

Great episode, guys.

[Mr.Shaw]

[DarkKnightJared]

[Arkholt]

[nacho]

I don't mind globe-trotting Batman as much as everyone else. Most of the good Ras stories over the years involve Batman having to travel elsewhere. However, I don't think that translates into liking the global-franchise concept. It very much waters down the concept of Batman, as if any schmuck in tights is good enough. Batman cannot be xeroxed for other zipcodes. It basically becomes a self-parody and invokes other pop culture knock-offs like Night Owl, Nighthawk, and Bat-Manuel. That's very different than Batman himself doing his own thing in a new locale occasionally.

[Mr.Shaw]

[DarkKnightJared]

[mguy1977]

Batman #702 was just average & glad the "missing" chapter of RIP is over. I'm skipping the return of Bruce Wayne miniseries because we all know the outcome hint Bruce returns. Finally ending the Morrison & Daniel era of Batman for good for my taste & moving on to reading a better comic in the process.

Matthew

[Crazy Clees]

Why don't you all NOT leave the other forums. And I did request once, in the forums early inception (no I didn't dream it), that DAMPcast get added. I resubmitted a request. Mostly out of spite.

[Mr.Shaw]

[nacho]

It's ok. Now he's one of us.

one-of-us!
one-of-us!
one-of-us!