We Believe in Harvey Dent

So for the past week, I've working on another big round-up post of news and announcements, but go figure, I've gotten so long-winded on them all that I've decided to just turn them into a bunch of their own mini-posts to keep activity going here between actual reviews. First up, here's something which I should have posted about two weeks ago! Whee!

You may remember the recent issue of Legends of the Dark Knight where Harvey underwent brain surgery in an attempt to remove Two-Face, and Batman screwed it up. You may also remember that the issue's author, TV producer Jonathan Larsen, popped up in the comments to offer his gracious thoughts and responses, and when he mentioned that he had some new projects in the pipeline, I told him to let us know when they were coming out. Welp, two weeks ago, he returned to announce that his new comic is being released, and you can read it now! For free! I'll let Mr. Larsen's comment speak for itself, with a couple added hotlinks by me:

I promised I'd let you know when my new project was out, and it is, so here I am! It's a free, weekly webcomic called "The Endling," and the first installment is up now, by me, an Italian artist I found named Cecilia Latella and my old Batman partner Paul Mounts on colors. It's been shepherded by comic-book deity Mark Waid and it'll be appearing on Thrillbent every Thursday. Please like The Endling on Facebook so you can let us know what you think and get notified when new installments go up. Thanks again!



Because it's taken me two weeks to get off my butt and post all this, the third part was just released today, so you can check out the first three installments back to back! So far, I'm really digging it, partially since it feels reminiscent of the 80's revival of The Twilight Zone, which is definitely a compliment (Alan Brennert was one of the show-runners, and this reminds me of one of his best episodes). I also really like the reading experience of Thrillbent in general, which utilizes the format in cool and effective ways. Give it a read, like it on Facebook, and let Mr. Larsen know what you think! And check out some of the other comics on Thrillbent, if you get the chance! It looks like a noble venture which deserves to do well!

Right, back to working on the other news and announcement tidbits! Hopefully LJ will stop being screwy in time for the upcoming barrage of mini-posts over the next week. I reiterate: whee!

When it comes to the famous Batman villains, few have gotten less respect over the years than the Riddler.

Only the Penguin surpasses Eddie in terms of being scorned by writers and fans alike, and that disdain seemed to reach its greatest heights around the late 80's, early 90's. In this period, we saw Riddler stories that saw him as a has-been (Neil Gaiman's When Is A Door?), a never-was (Denny O'Neil's Riddles), and a never-will-be (the newspaper comic strip), with the apparent consensus being that he was a poor man's Joker, a toothless leftover of the campy show who used a annoying gimmick that supplied his own defeat every time.

And yet, this very same period gave us one of the very greatest Riddler appearances ever, one which should still be a guideline for all writers as to what makes the character tick and shows just why he is uniquely great. So why does no one ever remember this story? Why does no one ever talk about Gerard Jones and Mark Badger's Batman: Run, Riddler, Run?



Well, one big reason why this story has fallen under the radar could be the art. Personally, I avoided reading this book for years because I couldn't stand Badger's artwork. He comes from the same school of 80's artists whom I normally love (like Mark Badger, Kyle Baker, and Bill Sienkiewicz, just to name a few), but his artwork is far more angular and abstract to the point of nearly being grotesque. That said, I've since gained an appreciation for his work partially thanks to this great interview with Badger conducted by the great Michel Fiffe, and partially because of my late-blossoming love of this story. Well, the Riddler of this story, at any rate.

The story itself is a bit more wonky, but that's to be expected of Gerard Jones: author of my all-time favorite run on Green Lantern, as well as... lesser works like Batman: Fortunate Son. Yes, the "Batman thinks rock 'n roll is the Devil's music!" comic. Jones and Badger's first Batman collaboration, Batman: Jazz, was a similarly oddball affair, focusing on Batman's search for a missing jazz legend. That story felt very much like Batman awkwardly wandering into an abstract 80's-tastic jazz battle, which led to things like our hero fighting evil sax-playing monsters known as the Brothers of the Bop.

... On second thought, that's kinda so ridiculous that it's awesome. It sure as hell ain't boring.

Which finally brings us back to Run, Riddler, Run. Much like Jazz, it features Batman awkwardly inserted into areas outside of his expertise. For Jazz, it was a whole culture of music. For B:RRR, it's the class war between homeless squatters and the rich people with the cops on their side. It's usually thorny to mix real life issues that challenge popular conceptions of law and ethics with the black-and-white morality of Batman comics, and it doesn't help that the villain is very dated for directly after the Cold War. It's a mixed bag of a comic by one of the oddest creative teams ever to tackle Batman, and it'd still be worth reading on those merits alone even without the Riddler.

But with the Riddler, it's a must-read refutation to everyone who misunderstands the Riddler. Jones and Badger, to their credit, don't try to counter this with the contrived tactic of trying to make the Riddler a #1 arch-villain badass. Instead, they take a more subtle approach, making Eddie a wild card with a game all his own...



( When is a villain not the villain? )

Like many or perhaps even most comics fans, there was a time when I naturally assumed that the giant penny in the Batcave was--alongside the robot T-Rex and the big Joker playing card--a trophy from some previous clash with Two-Face. Well, either that or the time the Joker dressed up as Simple Simon and used a giant penny to try busting open a bank vault, but more likely it HAD to have been from Two-Face.

Naturally, I was only half-right. It was from a past caper, but the villain was an almost-literally two-bit crook by the name of the Penny Plunderer.



Normally, I wouldn't think that it'd be important to look at a character whose legacy has been almost entirely overshadowed by a novelty weapon he used one time, but the character is surprisingly fun. Especially the first page of his origin. Do yourself a favor and read--no, perform it aloud, because every time I try, I can't get past the last two panels without cracking up.

( No, seriously! Read it! )

In the end, the giant penny's most memorable origin is the all-time-classic Batman: The Animated Series episode, Almost Got 'Im, which had it used in a deathtrap administered by--who else?--Two-Face. So whether it's by innocent mistake or just plain retconned out, the giant penny now seems largely associated with Two-Face, with pennies finally getting the last laugh on poor, forgotten Joe Whatsisname.

Note: I've posted this two different places so far: scans_daily, and at my comicsvine.com blog. The former exploded in a debate about gun control, while the later was met by a handful of dismissive comments typical of those one would find on your average comics message board. So I thought I'd post this here and see what you guys think.




A couple months back, I got into yet another debate with someone about why I hated Batman using a gun in Final Crisis. I meant to post this at the time as a canonical response, but got distracted with IRL stuff and general geekery over here. Besides, I figured this might be controversial, since it's a controversial real-life topic combined with a controversial comic topic, taken from a comic that was deeply controversial at the time it was released: Batman: Seduction of the Gun.

B:SotG was an anti-gun one-shot published as a benefit issue for the John Reisenbach Foundation for gun-control education activities, a fact which wasn't revealed to readers until the end. DC was flooded with angry letters from gun owners and Second Amendment advocates, many of which were published in the early Knightfall issues. Many letters were along the lines of "My heart goes out to the Reisenbach family, what a tragedy, BUT STILL GUN CONTROL IS BAD I FEEL BETRAYED FOR ACCIDENTALLY DONATING MONEY TO THIS CAUSE." I could do a whole post about that comic and the response it got.

So it might be a bit unfair to use these pages as my reasoning why Batman would never use a gun, and would always find another way to save the day because he's frickin' Batman. It's a very biased perspective. But in this case, I believe it also entirely fits with Batman as a character, and how he's always reacted to guns and gun violence.





WARNING: this is the single most graphic description of exactly how the Waynes died.


( Why Batman will never use a gun... in graphic detail )


That said, I'm sure there's a point to be made about how Final Crisis was so powerful because he managed to overcome his feelings to do the right thing, yadda yadda yadda. If the story worked for you, well, there's nothing I can say. But for me--and I suspect for many Batman readers--this is why we can never imagine Bruce pulling the trigger on anybody. I could sooner see him shoving the god-bullet into Darkseid by hand. Because he's the goddamn Batman, after all.

I've been meaning to look at Doug Moench's infamous handful of Two-Face stories, but his first one directly follows events and characters from an earlier storyline: the first appearance of Black Mask. Even still, I never wanted to actually read that story, because if there's one classic* Batman villain I've come to hate over the past ten years, it's Black Fucking Mask.

Thanks to his prominent roles in War Games, he dominated the Bat-books for a couple years, getting big parts in Nightwing, Catwoman, and Under the Hood, thus also appearing in the last one's DVD adaptation, as well as Teh Batman. So I really shouldn't be surprised that this one-dimensional, nasty, pointless, generic, hollow non-character actually has fans. Not surprised, but disappointed.

But why? How the hell did this character become a thing, while better gangster-style villains (the Penguin, Harvey, the Ventriloquist and Scarface) got shoved to the side?

So, as I was already writing about a related Two-Face story from 1985, I decided to check out the original Black Mask appearances by Doug Moench. What I was surprised to discover was that Moench's original Mask in no way, shape, or form resembles the version which DC rose to prominence a few years ago.

I'm not saying he's a good character, mind you. But he's a far more interesting (and cracktacular) character. Hell, just look at the cover blurb:





So yes, prepare for the ultra-modern Batman villain who makes all the other villains look like CRAP! At least, according to Doug Moench.

( Push it to the limit (LIMIIIIIIIT) behind the cut )

When Selina killed Roman a second time, I reacted with a weary "finally." But now, after reading Moench's originally stories, I feel disappointed for Ed Brubaker and subsequent writers for wasting what little potential there was for this character, and further distaste for anyone who actually likes the skull-faced version of Black Mask.

Finally, a question: anyone else think that Jeph Loeb ripped off Black Mask when he created Hush? Really, everything that Loeb tried to say with Tommy Elliot, I feel like Moench already said better with Roman Sionis. Just another little way that Moench's original creation has been swept under the rug by DC.




*I hate Hush and Dr. Hurt more, but they ain't "classic" just yet.

**The seven scans from the first issue are generously provided by superfan1, as the first issue is impossible to find. Because apparently the first appearance of Black Mask is SUCH a collector's item, ZOMG!

I was introduced to this story way back in scans_daily 1.0, wherein it was instantly beloved by all. Upon tracking down the issues myself, this three-part finale from The Batman Adventures became one of my top ten favorite Batman stories ever, from any continuity.

I'm posting it here as the next part of my Hugo Strange series, as it was his only appearance in the ten years after Prey, and it's *also* tied to New Year's Eve.





In keeping with Batman: The Animated Series' treatment of villains, Hugo is given unprecedented character depth, sympathy, and a tragedy which matches (perhaps even rivals) the stories of Harvey Dent and Mr. Freeze.

But let's not kid ourselves. I know the main reason why folks love this story. It's a testament to the greatness of these comics that Hugo's sad story could run in the same issues as moments like this:






( In Memoriam, behind the cut )

It's because of stories like this that I honestly consider the TAS comics--all four series--to be the greatest Batman comics of the past twenty-five years. Maybe if these comics ever actually had crossovers into the DCU or "mattered" in some way continuity-wise, more people would have cared.

As it is, I'm just glad I recently managed to complete my entire collection of The Batman Adventures, Batman & Robin Adventures, Batman: Gotham Adventures, and Batman Adventures, until DC finally wises up and reprints the whole series.

Happy New Year, folks! Drive safely, drink sensibly, and try not to get your memory wiped!

If I said, "Name a comic released in 1986 where a superhero loses his job, reputation, home, friends, and family due to the machinations of his brilliant, scheming arch-enemy, who knows the hero's secret identity," you'd probably say Daredevil: Born Again.

But a mere one month before the first issue of DD:BA was released, DC published Batman Annual #10, featuring a story which completely matches the description above. Because they were published so close together, I can only assume this was a coincidence. Both stories reflect something dark in the mid-80's atmosphere that could cause Frank Miller and Doug Moench to write two different stories with very similar themes.

While DD:BA is one of my all-time favorite comics, Moench's is starting to work its way up my list of favorite Batman tales. There are a couple notable differences between the two. One is that Bruce doesn't get driven to a mental breakdown, although Hugo certainly got close in his previous attempt, published three years earlier.

In that respect, this also feels like a story that Grant Morrison had in mind when he created Dr. Hurt and wrote Batman: R.I.P., comparisons to which become even more explicit in the story itself...






( This cut goes down to the bone )

Coming up next: Batman: Prey.

Right off the bat (hurr), I should say this: I haven't read the entire two-and-a-half-year-long run of Gerry Conway's tenure on Detective Comics. Which makes this post kind of a problem, because it concerns a subplot that Conway ran through 'Tec and occasionally Batman too for at least a year, maybe more.

It's a storyline about political intrigue and corruption, of ghosts and paranoia, and the arc I present here is one that starts in a political rally and ends right in the Batcave itself. Even from the issues here, I can already tell this this was a sprawling tale compared to the tightness of Englehart's Strange Apparitions, from which it cribs extensively to the point of plagiarism at times, as you might be able to tell right away:






But for all that, it's still an intriguing Batman epic, one which has been lost in the shuffle of fan memory between O'Neill/Adams and Miller. If any of you have read the whole run, do chime in and let me know how it stands in your memory. And for those who haven't, let's take a look at subplot which most concerns the theme of these posts...


( The Haunting of Boss Thorne 2: Hunt for the Blood Orchid, behind the cut! )

First things first: who here *hasn't* read the Batman story arc Strange Apparitions (the legendary comic arc by Steve Englehart, most famous for including the all-time great Joker story, The Laughing Fish)?

If you haven't--or if you've only read Fish on its own but not the surrounding story--you should at least know that it's generally considered one of the finest Batman stories of all time. I certainly agree, but I don't want to oversell it as a work, since hyped expectations have killed many a great story. I can at least safely presume to call it one of the most important and influential Batman comics of all time, and for that alone I urge you to track down the trade paperback.

Or at least, I would, if it weren't out of print. WTF, DC?

I was actually tempted to post the entire storyline here, but I had a hard enough time singling out the Hugo Strange subplot while keeping these scans under the 1/3rd limit. The story is just that tight, with each issue packed to the gills with plot, action, and character stuff.

So with regret, let's eschew the excellent stories of Bruce and Silver St. Cloud's affair, of the introduction of Dr. Phosphorus and the reintroduction of Deadshot, of the thieving Penguin and tragic Clayface III, and even of the greatest Joker scheme of all time.

Instead, let's focus on the grand return of Batman's first arch-nemesis, and the scheming villain who made the damn fool mistake of crossing him:





( At least, they do for now... )

If you'd like to read all of Strange Apparitions yourself, I wish you the best of luck. As previously stated, this beloved classic is bizarrely out of print. If you're up for scouring back issue bins and/or the internet, the story's been collected in trade paperback, which itself is a collection of the five-issue miniseries Shadow of the Batman, which reprinted the original issues. Basically, find it any way you can until DC comes to their senses.