The joke's on us

Since I mentioned The Killing Joke in my previous post, it only seems right that I discuss my favorite Gotham villain as well. Joker will forever be the bane of Batman's existence. They are polar opposites and yet continue to be foils for each other in the strangest of ways.

 Batman claims to have one rule, to never kill, yet because of Joker we see that he holds to a set of standards much more rigid than any normal person adheres to. Here is this man, without a name, without a face, without any sort of identity other than that of a clown. He is the definition of madness and chaos and he makes Bruce Wayne's life hell at every turn. 

He killed one partner, paralyzed another and come dangerously close to bringing down Gotham time and time again for no other reason than because he wanted to and had the means to do so. In past continuities Batman actually has broken his one rule to eliminate Joker for good. In my opinion Joker is the only villain who could pull the bat so far down that he would do this.

Who runs the Justice League? Oracle - Lian Harper

Barbara Gordon, in my opinion was one of the strongest characters in the DC universe. She started out as Batgirl but had to quit after she was shot in the spine by Joker and paralyzed from the waist down. She quickly overcame this and took on the name Oracle, working behind the scenes. She worked mainly from her computer but was an invaluable source of information to not only Batman but the Justice League and the Birds of Prey, a group of female heroes which she helped lead. Not only did her mental strength come in handy but she proved her physical strength many times over. She was able to take out League of Assassin members single handedly and stop criminals breaking into her home

She held this role for nearly 20 years until the reboot stripped her from all the strength she had acquired since The Killing Joke. She has now regained the use of her legs almost miraculously, was never a mentor to the two Batgirl's since her, and never led strong teams. She is a child again. This is why I refuse to give my money to support DC's decision to remove not only the strongest female in their line-up but one of the only handicapped characters.

OH HEY LOOK AT MY PRETTY LEG I CAN USE IT AGAIN! YOU SEE IT? RIGHT THERE! MY LEG! (this is pretty much the first three issues of the new Batgirl series in a nutshell just to save you some time and money)

--I would however like to point out that I did love Barbara Gordon as the original Batgirl. She was great in the role but now it's just different. She is not the same Batgirl she once was and I feel the reboot was detrimental to her.

When the dead walk

Now I'm going to change paces a little bit to discuss my current obsession, zombies. I spent the better half of last week reading the entirety of The Walking Dead series and then watching all the episodes of the show based off of it. After spending so much time focused on heroics and villains it's nice to take a step back and enjoy something completely different. The Walking Dead makes great use of realism and horror to pull you in and hooks you on the last page of every issue so it's hard to put the series down. The television show also does a fantastic job of this. Everyone can relate to at least one of the survivors which makes the series so enticing. For me the characters take on a life of their own and it's especially hard when they are trapped in a post apocalyptic world where they could die at any second. If you've ever wanted to get into comic books but find that superheroes aren't so much your thing then I would more than recommend you give The Walking Dead a try. The books are released once a month and the television show airs every Sunday on AMC. If you are just tuning in the entire first season is on Netflix instant and the second season will come back from mid-season break in February (I CAN'T WAIT THIS LONG)

Girls do read comic books

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Entering into comic books

For someone who isn't well versed in comic books, jumping into a story can be particularly daunting. There is already so much set continuity that it is easy to get overwhelmed and lost. With DC Comics recent reboot of their titles, it created an amazing spot for new readers to jump in. It allowed stories to rely less on the continuity of stories that have been expounded on for decades now and more on the characters from this new starting point. However, the same can not be said for Marvel and I know a lot of people want to know the stories further back than two months ago. Jumping in can be hard, but to be entirely honest your best bet is to do research. By no means am I telling you to go out and buy every comic book from a certain line and read them all, because that would be madness. If you've found a character or team you'd like to read then go check out a wikipedia page on them. No seriously. Every comic book character has a wikipedia page and even better a Comicvine page. These pages provide a relatively brief history of the character that tells you just about everything you need to know. I guarantee that anyone who is just getting into comic books will find that the internet is their best friend when it comes to understanding everything. There's absolutely no shame in it.

Batman had five Robins

Today is a history lesson for anyone who isn't as well versed in the Batman mythos as myself. Many people fail to realize there has been more than one Robin to ever work alongside Batman. Dick Grayson, the original Robin, is certainly the most widely known Robin, but there have been four others since Grayson stepped down. This is something that you need to know if you ever plan on having a conversation with me, because I am the girl who gets way too emotionally attached to all the Robins.

Dick Grayson was the first boy to take on the pixie boots. He came from a circus background but his parents were killed during a performance that Bruce Wayne was attending. Wayne took in the young boy and trained him to fight alongside Batman in their quest for justice. Grayson kept this title through his teenage years until he outgrew the being The Boy Wonder. At this point he quit and moved out of Gotham City to become Nightwing.

Enter Jason Todd (and this is where my emotional attachment might become painfully obvious). Jason grew up on the streets with less than reputable parents. One night while Batman was out on patrol he returned to the Batmobile to find the tires missing and a young boy with a tire iron in hand. Instead of getting angry he was amused and took the boy in and once again trained him for the now open spot of Robin. Todd was brash and violent but a strong fighter, however during a mission, Joker gained the upper hand and got Jason away from Batman. He then took the 15 year old boy, beat him half to death and left him alone in a warehouse to die from explosives. Through a series of events (Superboy Prime punching the space time continuum causing a massive "retcon" or retroactive continuity... confused yet?) Jason Todd was brought back to life. He holds a massive grudge against Batman for not killing the Joker after his murder and now works as the anti-hero Red Hood. He has abandoned Batman's no killing rule and is taking out Gotham's criminals his own way.

Then comes Timothy Drake. After Jason's death, Batman vowed to work alone. That was until Drake, being the amazing little detective that he is, uncovered that Batman is Bruce Wayne and showed him that Batman needs a Robin. Tim was the only Robin to have his own comic book series which ran from the early 90's to the early 2000's. At one point in time, Tim decides he needs to step down from the role of Robin to focus on his father who he has lied to for as long as he has been Robin. At this point his long term girlfriend Stephanie Brown takes over as Robin.

Steph was the daughter of Gotham criminal Cluemaster. To make up for her father's wrongdoings she took up the vigilante name Spoiler and fought crime with self taught skills. Batman never really accepted her (because DC hates Stephanie Brown. Really. They do.) and was reluctant to take her on as Robin when Tim stepped down. However he did but fired her shortly thereafter because she disobeyed his orders to save his life. (seriously Batman was a huge jerk to her all because DC hates her) So Tim becomes Robin again and then she is murdered after going back to being Spoiler. Well fans hated this because Steph is awesome and DC shouldn't have killed her JUST BECAUSE THEY HATE HER. So they retconned (there's that word again) what happened and she came back and eventually became Batgirl (a role that she ROCKED at!) until the reboot just happened that they put Barbara Gordon back as Batgirl and we have no idea where Steph stands (I'm not bitter. I'm SO not bitter. I swear.)

Now in recent continuity Bruce Wayne was believed dead (another long story about as confusing as the Superboy Prime punch). This lead to Dick Grayson taking on the cowl and become Batman, somewhat unwillingly. He had to choose a Robin but he felt that Tim was his equal and would not fight along side him as his superior so he chose Bruce Wayne's wayward son Damian Wayne to be his Robin. This led Tim to become Red Robin, the name that he still fights under. Bruce was not aware of Damian's existence until the child was 10. He was raised by the League Of Assassins which is run by his grandfather R'as Al Ghul and his mother Talia Al Ghul. He chose life with his father over that with his mother. He is a snarky little brat due to his upbringing but wants nothing more than to please his family in Gotham. He still fights alongside his father as Robin

I'm going to mention one other Robin just because I love her. Carrie Kelley was a part of a story that was not written to be a part of the over arching story of the Batman world. She took place in a future world were Batman came out of retirement to fight in a failing city. She recognized that the aging Batman needed a partner, made her own Robin costume, and waltzed right up to him and told him she was Robin. The rest is history.

If you made it through this entire post, congratulations. You now have my undying respect. Now excuse me while I go cry some more over dead and female Robins...

Comic conventions

One thing that is huge to the comic book fandom is conventions. I have never personally been to one (not yet at least) but I have heard they are incredibly fun. This is where fans, artists, and companies all meet in a convention center. Artists and companies have booths where they sell merchandise, art, announce upcoming events and promote their product. Some fans dress up as their favorite comic book characters. Most fans will simply attend to get the chance to meet celebrities, artists, and spend time with other fans. The biggest of these is the International Comic Con held in San Diego (which I plan on attending in July). They not only promote comic books but movies and television shows. There is a smaller convention held in Kansas City called Planet Comicon. This won't be held until March, however. It will be at the Overland Park International Trade Center. For more information check out www.planetcomicon.com 

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Huntress #1

Every week new comic books come out at the local comic book store Gatekeeper Hobbies. I've got a pull list set up with every book I'm subscribed to. This week one of the most notable books I picked up was Huntress #1 written by Paul Levitz, and with art by Marcus To and John Dell

The Huntress title revolves around Helena Bertinelli, the daughter of an Italian mob boss who lives in Gotham and fights crime as Huntress. However, the Huntress title was originally held by Helena Wayne. She was the daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle (Batman and Catwoman respectively) and took up the mantle of Huntress after her mother was murdered in the field.

Helena Wayne has become, by far, one of my favorite female characters in the Batman mythos despite the fact that DC chose to kill her off in 1986 during the last major reboot "Infinite Crisis." A year later Huntress resurfaced with a different background and that is who we see in Huntress #1. I decided to pick up this title mostly for the fact that Marcus To, one of my favorite comic artists, is the one doing the pencilling for the art. I then found out that the writer for the book would be Paul Levitz. He was the original creator of Helena Wayne in the 70's. After learning that fact there was no doubt in my mind that I needed this book.

I was more than impressed with the first issue of the six issue run. The art was fantastic, and I knew I could expect no less from Marcus To. The writing was also amazing. It was exactly what I had hoped for from this book. I've been bored with a few of the #1 title's I've read from the New 52 in the last month. Since writers are starting a new story it takes a couple issues to really get into things. That is definitely not the case with this book. Levitz did a great job of providing exposition quickly and breaking straight into the action. The book is fast paced but still drew me in and quickly created a sense of attachment to the rebooted character. I can honestly say this book is the one I am most excited to continue reading out of all the new books.

However, what really excited me was the final page which announced that after this mini series is complete, DC will be putting out a new Justice Society book based in Earth-2. This "earth" (an alternate universe in the comic reality) was the original home of Helena Wayne. This page also went into detail about Wayne and how the Huntress mini series has connections to Karen Starr, Helena Wayne's best friend, and the book that she is in. All in all it speculated that Helena Wayne will be resurrected and find her way into comics once again.

Please let me know if this blog post lacks coherency. I'm just a little bit excited at the moment and that probably has a negative impact on my writing abilities.

This video is a trailer for something that I will be referencing a lot in this blog, the DC reboot. In September DC Comics stopped every one of their titles and relaunched 52 books from #1. Many characters where re-imagined, stories were changed, and some characters were taken out entirely. This was an attempt by DC to bring in new readers considering the company has been behind Marvel in sales for the past 6 years. There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the "New 52" and I can guarantee I will discuss this quite a bit.

My introduction

Before I start babbling about comics, I feel like it would be a good idea to introduce myself and explain why this topic is so important to me. I'm Morgan, a 20 year old college student, who, for all intents and purposes, is pretty normal. I was introduced to all things nerdy by my big brother when I was a kid. I found myself hooked on Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, and X-Men while most of my friends were playing with Barbies. When my brother told me about Batman, that became my sole focus. I was intrigued by the fact that a human could run with the superheros and be just as effective. I only got more obsessed when I learned about the girls on his team. I felt like I could relate to these girls like Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown, or Batgirl and Spoiler respectively. They became a positive role model in my life when those were few and far between. I admired the fact that these normal girls could be so strong and do such extraordinary things. 

I fell out of the fold a few years back, but in the past year I've been renewing my interest and diversifying what I read. Now I'm just as hooked as I ever was and I'm pretty sure there will never be a lack of things for me to say on here.

This post might be the fluffiest piece of fluff that has ever been fluffed out. I promise my content driven posts won't be this terrible.