Comments on: Shades of Gray(son): Rounding up June’s Bat-books

By: julius brown

julius brown — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:45:12 +0000

As boring and disinteresting as I found Battle for the Cowl and all of the associated one shots, I must say that the relaunch is pretty strong. It also pointed out to me how badly the re-setting of all the Superman books has erred as well. Both Action and Superman seem to be largely unnecessary filler which is sad when there are only four books to support.

The Bat family hopes to support seven books (Batman & Robin, Batman, Tec, Streets, Sirens, Red Robin, Confidential) not including Outsiders and the unneeded Superman Batman title. Yet much less of it seems like total filler or uninteresting. I can only really single out Red Robin here. Batman and B&R both seem to be core books. Detective is pretty darn good and Streets and Sirens continue to service the needs of hardcore Batfans. Confidential varies and is not continuity bound but the King Tut storyline alone justifies keeping it around for a year.

With Superman, I keep wondering why the hell isn’t Superman in this comic and Action just doesn’t seem compelling; the whole concept just seems to have come out of left field aka editorial offices. Streets connects to the former storyline in Detective and the Gotham Central concept and Sirens picks up for Catwoman and loosely the all femme angle of BOP.

I’ve bought all the Superman titles since the Byrne restart but frankly dropped them all once Superman and Action became superfluous. I hated Battle for the Cowl and was willing to cut everything back to just Batman and Tec but will probably keep everything except Red Robin and will give Batgirl a look too.

By: Mark D. White

Mark D. White — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:52:19 +0000

Jake said:

“Why do YOU resent that? Are you a representative, in any way, of those writers?”

I resent it as a fan, if these writers’ visions are being constrained by Morrison’s (through Bat-editorial). If Dick-as-Batman has to happen, I want to read what Winick et al would do with the concept without having to fit in around what Morrison wants to do. And for the most part, that seems to be happening – what the other writers have given us so far seems more comfortable to me than what Morrison has offered. (Again, after just one issue of each – I’m cautiously reserving final judgment until I read more, of course.)

“If those guys are happy playing with his ideas, then hey, go with it. But really, they’re doing their own stories in a new way. It just so happened that Morrison set that new way, is all. I don’t see what the big deal is.”

If that’s true – and they are happy playing in Morrison’s sandbox – then there is no big deal. But if they’re not happy playing with his ideas, then I resent that his ideas are imposed on them. But we may never know.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:36:19 +0000

Well-written article, Tom. I picked up Detective, and am really happy I don’t have to read any other title. The art is gorgeous, the story was great, and I’ve forgotten so much about 52, Batwoman is a new character, really. I’d like to see the Question storyline eventually fold into the main feature – I’m not smart enough to follow two cliffhangers in one book.

Cheers,

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:39:08 +0000

Why do YOU resent that? Are you a representative, in any way, of those writers?

If those guys are happy playing with his ideas, then hey, go with it. But really, they’re doing their own stories in a new way. It just so happened that Morrison set that new way, is all. I don’t see what the big deal is.

By: Mark D. White

Mark D. White — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:59:17 +0000

Should be “ARE playing with Morrison’s scraps” – not “THAT playing…” – sorry.

By: Mark D. White

Mark D. White — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:52:41 +0000

Nice wrap-up, Tom – I’ve been sour on B&R since its launch (all one issue that we’ve seen!), and all the Bat-books that followed it seem more collectively consistent to me without it, in that they’re dealing with the Dick, Tim, and the rest of the gang that we know, whereas Morrison is reinventing them from scratch. (I like your analogy to Morrison & Quitely’s X-Men – I only read that run in trades, but I got the distinct impression it had nothing to do with the other X-titles at the time. Though he’ll have my undying gratitude for bringing Emma Frost back.) But I resent the implication (not from you, but from DC) that Dini, Winick, and Yost (not so much Rucka, for obvious reasons) that playing with Morrison’s scraps.

I sincerely hope Morrison proves me wrong, but if he doesn’t, I’ve still got the rest of the books to keep me happy.

By: N. Post

N. Post — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:27:59 +0000

Batman & Robin and Detective series are among few of my must have/must buy titles. I noticed that when these title hit shelf, people stormed into the store the second the doer opened and hungrily seeking variant covers.

Hey DC, come on, this is killing me and other customers who didn’t have a chance to pick variant covers. make it 50-50 covers, not 1in 25 or even 1 in 100, which I think is absolutely ridiculous!.