First Impressions: Robin

A couple years back I did a post about the history of the Robin character(s) and how more than most in comics he’s always represented providing different generations of fans with what they both want and need; here’s how I found my way with the Boy/Teen Wonder.

My first remembrance of Robin is Burt Ward hamming it up on the 1960’s Batman live action series which I saw via syndication, which truth be told is how I came to know Batman period, as I watched that before I was a regular comics reader and don’t think I saw any of the movies in the theaters until “Batman Forever.” However, while a general cultural awareness probably fueled as much by Tim Burton as anything else clued me in that Batman himself was a far darker and more serious character than Adam West portrayed him at a fairly young age, Dick Grayson remained to me the smiling kid who made the ridiculous quips, as opposed to the emerging adult Marv Wolfman and George Perez were evolving him into in New Teen Titans at the time I was growing up.

The first Batman comic I consciously remember reading was Batman #425 (I think this is either Chris Sims’ first or favorite Batman comic if I recall correctly). I got it randomly as I did all comics when I was young (six in this case), so I was experiencing it pretty much in a vacuum, not knowing until years later that it was the last issue before “Death in the Family” (or what “Death in the Family” was). All I knew was that in this story, decisively darker than the TV show Batman I knew or any other I’d experienced, Robin was kind of a nutjob, having apparently let a bad guy fall to his death in the previous issue (shown in flashback) and having to be essentially pulled off another one here by Batman. This Robin was angry, didn’t make jokes, and seemed on a hair trigger to say the least.

Now I of course know this was Jason Todd, originally a Dick Grayson clone but by this point a soon-to-be-aborted attempt at creating a more edgy Robin for the post-Frank Miller Batman. However, at the time, given that visually he looked identical to the comic book interpretation of Robin I’d always been familiar with, I just assumed they were the same character, and over time something had made him snap (I don’t think I even knew then that Robin was an orphan, as his and Batman’s origins were never really addressed on the kid-friendly TV show, for obvious reasons).

I was the rare comic book-reading kid who had no real interest in Batman. I honestly never bought a run of any of his titles regularly until Grant Morrison came onboard. I checked in for stuff like Knightfall and whatnot, but never stuck around. I’ve since gone back and read a lot of the classics in trade, but to this day, I don’t really consider Batman one of “my” characters, for whatever that’s worth (not much, I’d presume).

The point being that I didn’t try to untangle the knot of how Burt Ward/Dick Grayson Robin became Jason Todd Robin in my mind and really never gave it much thought until one of the covers from the Robin II: The Joker’s Wild series (the first issue, I think) caught my eye at the shop and I grabbed it. I was intrigued enough to snap up Robin III: Cry of the Huntress as it came out and then go back to collect what I’d missed of Joker’s Wild, along the way getting to know Tim Drake, who would become very much my Robin of choice.

I think I’m cribbing a bit from my own aforementioned history of Robin here, but while Dick Grayson was created for the rough and tumble young men of the Golden Age and Jason Todd was meant to reflect the hardening youth of the 80’s, Tim Drake was less and imposing physical specimen and more of a thinking lad’s Robin, intended to appeal to a generation increasingly captivated by video games over athletics and a society where brains had gained value over brawn. I was definitely one of those kids who was ok at sports but better at being clever, so Tim Drake was a Robin I could get behind.

Indeed, Tim Drake seemed very much like a wish fulfillment character to me and likely many other slightly nerdy boys in Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle’s excellent Robin III. This kid, not the biggest or baddest dude on the block by any means, uses his wits to take down the guy who essentially is just that—KGBeast—and along the way gets the nice teen girl, spends time with and outwits to a degree a hot adult lady (The Huntress), and kicks butt, all while both his birth father and adopted mentor are “out of town” or otherwise occupied; he’s Ferris Bueller with hacking skills!

I followed Tim Drake into Dixon and Tom Grummett’s Robin ongoing series, where I really started to understand for the first time the chronology of the character as I was also broadening my grasp of overall DC mythology at the time. The Zero Hour crossover issue of Robin gave me the chance to actually see Tim team with young Dick with even a mention of Jason thrown in to really drive it all home. From there, I swung over to Zero Hour proper for my first significant exposure to Dick as Nightwing with an actual awareness that this was the original Robin all grown up.

While Tim Drake was the Robin I could most relate to as being like me (still is), I developed a separate kind of affection for Dick Grayson both in his original incarnation and more over as Nightwing in a way that emphasized my aspiration. He actually reminded me of my cousins.

My aunt on my mother’s side has six kids who were all born at least 10-15 years before me, so as a result, when I was young and went to holidays, I was surrounded by these teenagers and twentysomethings who were the coolest and almost most intimidating people in the world to me. In particular, my male cousins, two of whom were (and remain) twins, were the guys I dreamed of growing up to be; while I was still nerdy and awkward, they were all athletic, wise cracking and popular. All three of my aunt’s sons wrestled in high school, which played no small part in leading me to do the same.

Anyhow, I saw the relationship and dynamic between Tim and Dick as being very much how I idealized the one I had with my cousins: the smart and eager younger kid learning from but remaining fairly in awe and the shadow of his impossibly cool “big brother.” Like Tim, I was (and still am) pretty satisfied with the person I’ve grown into, but I’d be lying if there wasn’t some small part that still wanted to be Nightwing someday.

Following my hiatus from and return to comics, Robin wasn’t a going concern for me anymore as a solo character. I followed Tim Drake via Young Justice and Dick Grayson via back issues of New Teen Titans and both grew to be among my favorite characters—Dick more than Tim, probably due to Superboy fandom—I had no interest in either of their solo books.

By the time Damian Wayne came into the picture, I was pretty far past my period of Robin being a point of view character for me and more into appreciating the concept over whoever was behind the domino mask (worth noting, I was not paying any attention during Stephanie Brown’s stint, so I’m not omitting her out of disrespect so much as ignorance; please don’t come to my house crazy Stephanie Brown fans, I dug her as Spoiler and Batgirl). Robin has come very much to be the tail end of “Batman and” for me, even not being an avid Batman guy. I suppose just as I’ve never been attached to Bruce Wayne but as a fan of comics am intrigued by Batman as a concept and archetype, I’m interested in what Robin adds to the mythos as a counterbalance, whether Dick as the light to the darkness, Jason as the rededication to the stagnation, Tim as the deliberate thinker to the ask-questions-later figure of vengeance, and even Damian as the unruly child to the reluctant adult.

Robin has always forced Batman to do or be something he’s not naturally (lighten up, hold back, stop and think, be a father) and thus made him a more interesting character. I rather like that every few decades we get a new one and indeed look forward to seeing who we get next.

I also wonder if some kid is confused that Damian doesn’t look or act like the guy from the Teen Titans cartoon.

The Best of 2011 Comics Gift-Getting Guide pt. 1

We don’t really do traditional “Best Of” lists at the end of the year here at the Cool Kids Table, though if you read most of our posts dealing with today’s content, particularly my Comics Worth Reading series, you can get a good sense for what we dig; we are after all very positive people who genuinely love the business we work in.

I do have a tradition, however, of kicking off each new year with a hopefully helpful guide to some of the good stuff that came out in the 12 months prior either already or soon to be available in collected form that you can use to divest yourselves of those newly acquired gift cards or wads of cash.

You’re welcome.

Though I’m sure there are plenty of people whom I avoid saying the sky is falling—this is the Internet after all—this was a great year for the craft of comics, as evidenced by the list of 30 books I’ve compiled. I’m trying to keep things a bit more brief this year, both as an exercise in restraint for me and a general favor for those of you who bother to read my work (thank you).

Also, before I begin, let me point you toward good buddy of the blog of Sean T. Collins for a list that covers more of the wide world of comics a super hero snob like me is too dull to dig into and Kiel’s team at CBR for the most comprehensive guide to this year’s best.

5 RONIN
It’s the ingenuity of writer Peter Milligan (and editor Sebastian Girner) that impressed me most about this series, integrating Wolverine, The Hulk, The Punisher, Psylocke and Deadpool with their powers and characters into five interlocking tableaus set in feudal Japan without anything ever feeling hackneyed or forced. The end result is a work that should prove timeless for Marvel devotees and fans of brilliant storytelling alike with uniformly beautiful art by Tomm Coker, Talibor Dalajic, Laurence Campbell, Goran Parlov and Leo Fernandez.

ANIMAL MAN: THE HUNT
Perhaps my favorite element of DC’s New 52 has been the expansion of its universe to cover other genres outside of traditional tights, from westerns to vampire love stories, but I don’t think any niche has been as successfully executed as horror, typified by Jeff Lemire and Travel Foreman’s Animal Man relaunch. If you like, say, American Horror Story, here’s another work that blends family dynamics with creepiness but adds in impressive mythology and grotesquely memorable visuals; Lemire is honoring Grant Morrison’s classic work while forging his out identity.

BATMAN: THE BLACK MIRROR
Scott Snyder’s Batman has been a big hit for me, with the time and detail he devotes to crafting mystery and building a world paying off in some of the most enjoyably dense comics I’m currently reading. This is a nice primer to his work with the characters, including a handful of cases that typify his approach, the fleshing out of the Gordon family and (re?)introduction of a bad guy with major potential in the process, plus heavy art from Jock and Francesco Francavilla.

BATMAN: GATES OF GOTHAM
Speaking of getting into Snyder’s Batman, here he and Kyle Higgins team for an ambitious ode to Gotham City and its history, expanding a world that has been around more than five decades now with new characters and relationships ripe for future storytelling. I’m a big fan of super hero comics that exist beyond the place and time where events are happening just in the current issues, and these guys do a great job with creating just such an expanse.

BATWOMAN: HYDROLOGY
J.H. Williams III—along with co-writer W. Haden Blackman—does a great job picking up right where he and Greg Rucka left off in crafting the continuing adventures of Kathy Kane as Batwoman. In the hands of Williams and Blackman, Kathy is a uniquely motivated and intriguing character in and out of costume, and I enjoyed seeing her cast both expand and contract as the art—also by Williams—is seriously second to none whether she’s battling a bad guy underwater or just having a conversation with her niece; impressive stuff.

THE BOYS: BUTCHER, BAKER, CANDLESTICKMAKER
There may have been no comic that hit me as hard emotionally this year as this one. Billy Butcher has always been the somewhat loathsome cipher of The Boys who I could never really generate an interest in, but in this simultaneous touching story of love and heartbreaking story of loss, Garth Ennis made me care. Darick Robertson’s art has become more and more of a unique treat of late, so his work here was a pleasure. If you think The Boys is simply about violence and sex, you need to read this book.

CAPTAIN AMERICA AND BUCKY: THE LIFE STORY OF BUCKY BARNES
No doubt one of the highlights of Ed Brubaker’s lengthy run on Captain America has been his work on the character of Bucky Barnes, not only in the present, but fleshing him out beyond innocent boy sidekick in flashback. This arc co-written by Marc Andreyko is a tremendous point of view tale that gives you Bucky’s entire experience and tremendous insight into the unique factors that shaped him. The writing is great, but I doubt either scribe would begrudge the sentiment that Chris Samnee’s art may be the true star, as he makes the journey from U.S. military bases to Soviet covert ops convincingly gritty with a tragic touch of innocence and tantalizing frame of beauty.

DAREDEVIL VOL. 1
Mark Waid rolled the dice somewhat in coming onto Daredevil this year and opting to deviate from the grim approach favored by most creators since Frank Miller made history in the 80’s, instead harkening back to the grinning Man Without Fear of his original incarnation. The gamble paid off big, as Daredevil is again one of the best comics available, and Waid had a major trump card in his deck by writing Matt Murdock not as a smiling innocent with his past wiped clean, but a guy doing his best to run from a tortured history he can never fully escape. The supporting cast is great, the villains are quirky and the art by Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin is simply extraordinary; both men have re-imagined DD’s ability to see through senses other than sight into an incredible new visual shorthand that has produced some of the most memorable graphic sequences and images comics has seen in ages. A wonderful book all around.

GENERATION HOPE: SCHISM
His cast in place and the introductions out of the way, Kieron Gillen got to really branch out and play with what he’d established in the back half of his Generation Hope run. This gave us an eerie horror story, a unique trial scenario with a particularly memorable character turn, and appropriately writ large tie-ins to the blockbuster Schism before a final farewell. Through it all, Gillen’s primary focus is on creating a different kind of teen super hero group where the cast is anything but innocent and both loyalties and rivalries have deliciously sinister undertones.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY: CONCEPTION
I’m sad to see Matt Sturges’s House of Mystery go, as it was a book outside my particular norm I really enjoyed these past few years, but it went out on top, as seen in this penultimate collection that wraps up many of the series’ long-running plots and mysteries. Beyond the main saga, we get some particularly great stories-within-stories, the book’s trademark, from Sturges along with the likes of Enrique Breccia, David Lloyd, Ulises Farinas, Gene Ha and others. This collection also has the awesome Halloween Annual #2, which starts right on the cover and features an anthology of tales from various Vertigo creators starring an assortment of the characters they work on.

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN: UNFIXABLE
One of my favorite pure super hero vs. super villain battles of this past year was Iron Man against Doctor Octopus in the story that serves as the center of this collection. It’s both a nice example of taking a classic bad guys outside of his comfort zone and also finding two foils that complement each other perfectly as both rivals and opposites. Matt Fraction did nice work crafting a historical feud between smug overachiever Tony Stark and frustrated outcast Otto Octavius that segued into a great clash between the larger than life Iron Man and Doc Ock with the added twists brought about by the villain’s life-threatening condition and the stakes he presents the hero with. I love how Fraction isn’t shy about making Ock the guy with the advantage and Salvador Larroca perfectly translates John Romita Jr.’s creepy and desperate redesign.

JOHN CARTER: A PRINCESS OF MARS
Roger Landridge and Filipe Andrade’s series was my first exposure to the John Carter mythos, and I think they did a terrific job making a nearly century old character and story accessible and fun for a modern audience. Langridge does a great job marrying high adventure and swashbuckling romance with a touch of his gift for humor while Andrade makes Barsoom and its people truly exotic with his liquid style. Classic stuff in a package that feels brand new.

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY: FEAR ITSELF
Kid Loki is the sensational new character find of 2011. The spirit of the mischievous old Trickster God reborn in the little body of a young boy looking for redemption but ostracized by all the people he pissed off in his previous life is an idea that both screams and demands the genius of Kieron Gillen. It was a joy to watch Loki Machiavelli his way through Fear Itself, making deals and double crosses with Hela, Mephisto, Surtur and all the other places in Gillen’s chessboard as he alternately sweated how in over his head he was and smirked at getting away with it. Journey Into Mystery is one of my very favorite comics right now, and I know if you sample this introduction to it, you too will be hooked.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST VOL. 2
Ah, what could have been. I was really into Judd Winick’s take on the old Justice League International and how he found a great niche for them in the DC Universe somewhere between being headliners and comedy figures. The latter part of the year-long bi-weekly saga had big action, emotional twists and nice character relationships plotted like a television show or movie in terms of hitting all the right beats. I was really looking forward to the promised follow-up series from Winick, but alas, it was not to be; oh well, it’s still a great story well worth exploring for yourself.

MYSTERY MEN
Set on the fringes of the Marvel Universe in the pulp era unexplored previous, Mystery Men is a great collaboration between David Liss and Patrick Zircher, both brilliant creators who bring their particular skill sets to bear in crafting a noir tale populated by perfect archetypes of the form each with their own twists. This one has gruesome horror, angsty romance and plenty of punching, drawn beautifully and written with wit; a solid addition to the Marvel canon in an age where folks think everything has already been done.

To be continued…

Five Comics Worth Reading - November 2011

ANGEL & FAITH
There’s a longer post to be written about this, I’m sure, but while I recognize that pound-for-pound Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a stronger TV series than Angel was, I always had a soft spot for the latter, often over the former, probably in large part because I watched both when I was in college, so supernatural aspects aside the “brooding young man with an old soul striking out in the world” motif resonated more with me at the time than “young girl and her friends finding themselves post-high school” for whatever reason (don’t get me wrong, I loved both). Now, once again, while I dig the Buffy Season Nine comic, I think I’m enjoying Angel & Faith that much more, not just because one has a prominent male protagonist though, it’s just well-done and exploring fresh ground. Aside from his Angelus periods, Angel has always been the stoic mentor, from his earliest appearance on Buffy guiding her into the world she’s embracing to leading his team on his own show, only really losing that control when he goes full evil. Conversely, Faith has always been the protégé in need of redemption, whether from Buffy, Giles or Angel himself. Here, Christos Gage is establishing a new dynamic where a reluctantly responsible Faith must look out not only for a band of neophyte slayers, but a penitent Angel, who is not just heaping his usual self guilt on for recent actions, but getting reckless without turning bad in his desperation to make things right. The plot is tight, but it’s getting to see both leads so out of their comfort zones and the characterization gold Gage is skillfully mining that makes this book tick. Rebekah Isaacs is also doing a slick job on art, walking that line between depicting characters with real life counterparts and finding ways to still own them yourselves.

BATMAN
This is probably the most dense comic I pick up, and I mean that as a total compliment. Some books I breeze through, but not Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman, which I need to really pore over to appreciate every detail and development. The fact is, Batman has been around going on seven or eight decades now, and I don’t have much interest in most stories directly tackling his mindset or stuff of that nature because they’ve all been done to some extent. What does get me going is what Snyder is doing, and that’s focusing on the mythology of Gotham City or the Wayne legacy, making Batman the explorer rather than the discovery and in the process adding layers to the character as he builds the world around him. Snyder’s enthusiasm for the minutiae of detective work, forensics, or even architecture make the stories pop as it really is an almost interactive adventure you can follow rather than just having to be a passive observer of guys in spandex kicking and punching (though there is that too). He’s doing a nice job integrating the various generations of supporting cast as well as adding his own creations, again making Gotham feel like a living and evolving organism. I was a big mark for Capullo’s X-Force as a kid, so it’s cool to see him back with quite a few years experience and refinement under his belt knocking out dark, beautiful work that also has some nice bounce to it.

THE FLASH
I may have to rethink my top five Flash artists, because honestly, few people have ever captured the pure energy of the concept in my mind like Francis Manapul has. Other guys may have conveyed speed better or drawn better figures and fight scenes, but I can’t think of anybody whose work at its essence feels like it is the burst of light, movement and pure joy I think of better than Manapul and Steve Buccalleto’s. The innovation and verve they bring to the visual aspect of The Flash undeniable, but as anybody who has read this blog for a little while knows, the real challenge is getting me to even tolerate Barry Allen; well, I’m still not the guy’s biggest supporter and can argue why he shouldn’t be wearing the red and yellow with the best of them, but I’m slowly coming around to some degree. I believe few characters have benefitted from the DC re-launch quite like Barry, as the removal of his Crisis sacrifice status as well as the Silver Age albatross of moral boredom goes a ways toward giving him a shot at being a likable protagonist. Right now, Manapul and Buccaletto’s art is so strong and their story hooks have enough pop that I’m going to try to like Barry Allen—I can give few higher compliments.

MAGNETO: NOT A HERO
There are few characters in comics more interesting and complex than Magneto. His actions make him an ostensible villain, but it’s hard to argue with his justification. At his best, he invokes conflict in readers where you’re torn between rooting against his evil plots but for his gaining vengeance for past atrocities. At his best he is also more charismatic than brutal as far as “bad guys” go; you perhaps want him to reform—and are disappointed when he ultimately can’t—but there’s also that part of you that enjoys his wicked streak. Skottie Young—best known for his exquisite art but rocking his writing muscles here—captures all of this, every last bit, in this series. He gives you Magneto the philosopher, arguing his case for why any means really are necessary, but also throws enough cold inhumanity behind those words that you question your support almost immediately. He plays with the idea of the character’s reformation, both how possible it is and even if it’s necessarily right or needed. He explores all sides of Magneto, from the ruthless and violent crusader who tears through human lives to the eyebrow-raising rogue who mocks Iron Man’s rubber suit of armor. It’s a fascinating character study from start to finish just in issue one, but there’s also great action, an intriguing mystery and skillful use of continuity and the concept of the shared universe; again, for a guy who has made most of his name drawing beautiful pictures, Skottie Young has incredible skill and finesse as a writer. He also doesn’t need to fret over the visuals for this book, as Clay Mann turns in his finest work to date; as my friend and co-worker Ryan noted, the level of detail he puts just into one of Magneto’s boots blows you away to the point where when you get the full figure it’s just something else.

SIX GUNS
Whereas once upon a time young Ben Morse could not stand for any other genres to get mixed in with his super hero comics the same way he freaked out if a mushroom found its way into his soup, I’ve matured and reversed my position on both, allowing me to enjoy my wife’s delicious fried mushrooms as well as a great books like Six Guns. This series isn’t just a Western done in modern times or within a world with guys who can fly, it’s a mash-up of a noir story, a crime procedural, a mystery and straight action with the sensibilities of cowboy lore driving it. It reminds me a little bit of 100 Bullets in some regards—high praise—but with its own distinctive flavor to be sure. Andy Diggle is a master of taking tropes like sci fi or Western and knowing not only where to take a sharp turn in a new direction but also where to not fix what ain’t broke; Six Guns delivers fun stuff you’d expect from a story about cowboys, bikers and other thugs trying to out-tough one another, but it’s also smart in where it diverges. There are only the most tangential ties to the Marvel Universe in the form of the female Tarantula being a player and somebody who would seem to be a modern Two-Gun Kid showing up at the end of issue #2, but it’s enough to give a cool edge for a fan. Davide Gianfelice is in the zone on art and this certainly seems like the stuff he was born to draw. He’s seamless when it comes to bad looking dudes, hot ladies, nice bikes and dirty action—everything a book like this needs.

Why Won't This Work? Outsiders

Looking over the 52 books DC will be rolling out this September—and August technically—as part of their massive publishing overhaul, you’ll see a lot of diversity. There are the traditional heavy hitter super hero books, some out-of-left-field revivals, genre-stretchers in fields like western and horror as well as new takes on classic characters and concepts.

One thing you won’t see—aside from a Justice Society, which is really another discussion—is a series starring any incarnation of the Outsiders.

This will mark the first time in eight years DC will be without an Outsiders ongoing series (I don’t count the new Red Hood book as a replacement). The most recent series—set to end this month at issue #40—began in 2007 as the second incarnation of Batman & the Outsiders before dropping the first part with issue #15 and became the fourth volume of Outsiders; it continued directly from the previous series that launched in 2003 alongside Teen Titans.

On the one hand, I’m a bit surprised there will—apparently—be no more Outsiders come September if only because they’ve been a DCU fixture for quite some time now; the current eight year run surpasses previous five and two year stints outside of limbo. On the other hand, it doesn’t come as a shock as DC seems to be lining up characters and concepts with a strong brand identity or hook, and as I’ve discussed with my blog-mates here on a few occasions, I’ve never seen Outsiders as fitting those particular bills.

The Outsiders were introduced in Brave and the Bold #200 in 1983 and then moved quickly into their own Batman & the Outsiders regular book. The initial roster included Metamorpho, Black Lightning, Katana, Geo-Force and Halo, but as I touched on recently, the group’s primary identity was as Batman and the guys who would help him out on missions the Justice League didn’t want to touch. That’s not a knock on those characters—Black Lightning and Metamorpho in particular I would consider DCU cornerstones and particularly resilient players—but when one guy’s name is “above the fold,” there’s really no questions whose show it is.

“Outsiders” is a cool name and conjures up images of a group that doesn’t fit in or operates far outside the law, but while both those concepts did play somewhat into the series’ initial incarnation, it really was more “these are the guys we’re having back up Batman because he’s cool enough to have a team book he doesn’t need to share with Superman and Wonder Woman.”

Batman left the book in 1985 and it became just Outsiders. I don’t know sales history well enough to speak too authoritatively—maybe somebody in the comments can clarify—but given that it lasted a few more years, I’d guess at least initially the established momentum of the book and the fact that readers had formed an attachment with these non-Batman characters—it should be noted that the series was supported by a trio of hugely talented creators in writer Mike W. Barr and artists Jim Aparo and Alan Davis, so the stories were going to read and look good regardless of the high concept behind them—sustained some success before it tapered out gradually.

Why don’t I think Outsiders continued past 1988 while the Justice League, Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes marched on? Because it really had nothing to distinguish itself, and with team books that’s even more important I’d argue than series starring solo characters.

The Justice League is the A-list of DC heroes. The Teen Titans are the next generation. The Legion of Super-Heroes lives in the future. Across the street, the Avengers are Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The X-Men protect a world that hates and fears them (honestly, they’re comics’ true outsiders). The Thunderbolts are bad guys trying to become better.

Dig deeper and you’ve got some other teams that may not be published consistently, but get lots of chances because they’ve got something unique at the heart. The Suicide Squad is villains being pressed into heroism against their will. The Defenders are powerhouses who don’t really get along but put aside their differences for the greater good. The Doom Patrol is a team of freaks (again, they’re closer to outsiders than the Outsiders). Even Alpha Flight and Excalibur have different settings to their advantage.

Then you’ve got that long list of teams who outlived their premise but the names are recognizable so you’ll see new books featuring them every now and again and sometimes if you get lucky with the right creative team or new spin, they land. Infinity, Inc. was the Teen Titans of Earth-2, but then there was no more Earth-2. The Champions were the west coast super heroes but then the Avengers got a west coast branch.

X-Factor is kind of a unique case (appropriate given the name): they started out as the original X-Men, but once those characters left the book morphed into a government-sponsored mutant team and later a mutant detective agency. Perhaps no team has proven as adaptable over the years as X-Factor, with the recognizable name remaining, but mission statements sliding in and out as necessity demanded.

At times, Outsiders has come close to being DC’s X-Factor, but more often than not it’s been another Champions or Infinity, Inc.

In fact, I’d say the book’s initial cancellation in 1988 came about at least in part because of the last part of that statement. The Outsiders even without Batman had something of their own identity as the official super hero team of Los Angles, but following Crisis On Infinite Earths, Infinity, Inc. also made their home in L.A. That’s not to say the City of Angels isn’t big enough for two teams—Marvel’s New York has at least half a dozen at any given time—but that there were two books about super hero teams set in L.A. in 1988 without anything to really distinguish either probably spoke somewhat to their redundancy, and neither lasted to 1989.

Five years later in 1993, Outsiders returned, maybe in part because there was a strong pitch—Mike W. Barr was again writing, this time with a young Paul Pelletier on art—but more likely because it was the 90’s and a lot of books were getting green lit. I was only 11 at the time, but I didn’t really have any nostalgia to see Geo-Force or Looker again—Black Lightning and Metamorpho were otherwise engaged at the time, so their spots went to fairly forgettable newcomers like Wylde and Technorat, though we did get the pretty cool Faust out of the deal as well—and didn’t get the sense anybody else did either. The book did play somewhat on the name as Geo-Force was framed for murder and he as well as his allies become fugitives, but it would only run 24 issues before being cancelled in 1995.

In 2003, while Young Justice gave way to a new Teen Titans, a fresh take on Outsiders rose from the ashes of the previous Titans book. Name aside, this was a fairly fresh take on the old brand, with former Titans Nightwing and Arsenal putting together a group to replace their former one. Judd Winick was the writer—Tom Raney started out as the artist but subbed out for Matthew Clark—and I thought came up with justification for why the Outsiders existed beyond there just being another super team; at the outset, he utilized my least favorite comic book cliché of “these are pro-active heroes,” but that seemed more window dressing for the heart of the book. What was really going on—in my eyes at least—was that Nightwing no longer wanted to work with other heroes because the death of Donna Troy burnt him out on being a Titan, but his buddy Arsenal didn’t want him to become like Batman—in demeanor—so he convinced him to found this new crew on the basis that they wouldn’t be friends, like the Titans, but strictly professionals with limited emotional attachment.

It also helped that Winick filled out the roster with a combination of less overt ties to the original Outsiders—Black Lightning’s daughter, Thunder, as well as pseudo-Metamorpho clone Shift—and actual misfits who wouldn’t fit in on the Justice League—uncouth female bruiser Grace and “reformed” killer robot Indigo. Jade—ironically formerly of Infinity, Inc.—filled the final spot to give another known quantity and it made for an interesting dynamic. Winick even had a nice moment at the close of the first arc where Nightwing informed Batman he’d be leading this new team and that they’d be called the Outsiders, with both men exchanging a smirk.

I was a big fan of Judd Winick’s Outsiders. I thought the writing was good and the characters were fun, but perhaps more than anything I was impressed that he located a niche in a universe that already had the JSA, JLA, Teen Titans and more for the Outsiders to fill. I actually became an even bigger fan following the One Year Later jump as Winick pulled an X-Factor move and changed the game.

One of the threads that ran prior to Infinite Crisis was that as more traditional heroes like Captain Marvel Jr. and Nightwing’s former fiancée Starfire joined up, it became more and more difficult for them to remain a “strictly business” operation. Ties began to be formed and Dick Grayson didn’t like where things were headed. After Jade was killed, Starfire was lost in space and Captain Marvel Jr. became involved in the Marvel Family upheaval, Nightwing took the opportunity to revamp the operation. He faked the deaths of everybody but himself and Arsenal—kicking Roy Harper out of the group because he had a daughter and couldn’t do the things required that were coming—and turned the Outsiders into a completely off-the-grid black ops squad doing dirty deeds in the post-Infinite Crisis DC Universe. Grace and Thunder stuck around, Shift reverted to Metamorpho, Katana returned and the villainous new Captain Boomerang joined hoping for redemption.

For awhile, I touted Outsiders as my favorite One Year Later DC title around the Wizard offices. It had elements of the sneaky stuff and moral handwringing I loved in the original Suicide Squad, but it was even more complex with genuinely good people crossing lines to get things done. There was a great scene in the first arc where Superman came close to shutting the team down, but Nightwing “bluffed” him off their scent with a piece of Kryptonite in a lead-lined box, and then we find out he wasn’t bluffing. Winick’s writing was smart, Clark’s art was slick, and for awhile, the book was gold.

Like so many good things, though, this incarnation of Outsiders had to come to an end. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be terribly long-term—you can’t really keep a character as prominent as Nightwing as a true outsider for long and the idea worked in large part because of him—but it got a good 18 issues before ending in a crossover with the also excellent Checkmate by Greg Rucka where control of the group returned to Batman.

Things came full circle to an extent as Batman & the Outsiders returned in 2007 with Chuck Dixon writing. I didn’t stick around for the re-launch, but from what I understand the first year or so were pretty standard super hero adventures—that’s not a knock on their quality as, again, I didn’t read them and thus can’t judge—with Batman and Outsiders vets Katana, Metamorpho, Grace and Thunder being joined by a rotating assortment of members including Martian Manhunter, Catwoman, Green Arrow and Batgirl. Geo-Force and Black Lightning would eventually rejoin and then the series name reverted to simply Outsiders with issue #15 as Batman seemingly died during Final Crisis.

I followed the 10-issue post-Final Crisis run written by Peter Tomasi—I’m a Tomasi fan—and there were some decent stories, as he had the conceit of Batman leaving behind in the event of his death a plan for the Outsiders to continue with the original team plus The Creeper and a new Owlman, whom together he felt all possessed a skill or talent needed to basically create a composite replacement Batman. While that was a neat starting point, though, more and more once again without Batman or the true outsider status Winick created, it felt like just another super hero team with no real reason to exist.

That brings us up to the present day, the current volume’s cancellation and no announced plans for a new series during the Fall re-launch.

I guess the moral of the story—if there is one; there rarely is in my ramblings—is that some team books in comics have characters or names or basic ideas so strong and iconic they can exist just on that. There will always be a Justice League series, an Avengers series, a Teen Titans series, an X-Men series. Once you go beyond that top tier, you need to work to make sure your team book has a reason for being (not that you shouldn’t even on one of those titles). Sure there are fans out there whose nostalgia for Mike W. Barr’s work or seeing Geo-Force paired with Katana will make them pick up any Outsiders series, but I don’t believe it’s a huge group. Likewise, Batman is a character who is too in demand to base an entire team around; odds are he’s going to be needed elsewhere at some point, and you need a back-up plan.

Judd Winick took the idea of Outsiders and really gave it some thought; kicked kudos to the guys who came before and the fans who loved that work, but also found a particular way to approach the franchise that had legs. I hope that when the next Outsiders re-launch comes around—and it will come around—whoever gets the chance to shepherd it will do the same.

Batman: The Worst Justice Leaguer Ever

So the Justice League is front and center of all the big news coming out of DC the last couple days, with Geoff Johns and Jim Lee teaming up to make it the flagship book of a re-launched line. Part of the line-up has been revealed and it’s looking pretty exciting—if lacking in Martians—but there are still many spots to be filled.

I’m a total sucker for when iconic teams like the League or the Avengers have their recruiting drives as I’m totally a fantasy football player at heart who loves to mix and match my dream rosters. Don’t get me wrong; I get just as frustrated as the next nerd when the team formation part of a new series drags on or feels forced, but you better believe I’ll always be back for the next round regardless because I’m a junkie that way.

All that said, since the group seems to still be in the process of getting finalized and Kiel already wrote his open letter to Geoff and Jim, I feel it’s my responsibility to do my due diligence and speak to the characters themselves with a little warning based on careful research:

Guys—and Wonder Woman—you should totally not let Batman on the Justice League.

Ok, ok, all you angry fans out there just settle down a minute and hear what I have to say. I’m not saying Batman is not an awesome character and I’m not saying from your and my point of view a Justice League book with him in it isn’t better for his presence; I’m simply warning the heroes of the DC Universe that from a purely in-story standpoint, Batman is a fucking menace to his allies.

I don’t state this lightly, but as far as I can tell, Batman is the worst Justice Leaguer of all-time.

Now as with Forge a few weeks back I’m not saying Batman is lame or that he sucks—even I, the guy who thinks Star Wars was only so-so, know better than that—simply that if we’re going by performance review, nobody is a bigger liability to the Justice League than the Dark Knight. Allow me to state my case…

As far as the Silver Age goes, Batman gets a pass. Really nobody was a bad Justice Leaguer during most of the Silver Age because it was near impossible to be. One of the hallmarks of classic Gardner Fox era JLA stories was that each character, despite being unique in terms of name and appearance, could all battle the same obstacles on a fairly even playing field. Every bad guy had Kryptonite or yellow paint handy to neutralize Superman and Green Lantern as easily as The Atom or Hawkman and Green Arrow had plenty of heat-seeking or mind-scrambling arrows to put him on par with The Martian Manhunter when he needed to be. The totally human Batman standing side-by-side with Olympian demigoddesses and the Fastest Man Alive wasn’t a problem at all.

The first real knock against Batman came at the end of the 60’s in Justice League of America #77 and it wasn’t really his fault directly, but I still hold him responsible. Posing as “ordinary guy” John Doe, The Joker poisons the mind of JLA mascot Snapper Carr against his super friends, giving him an inferiority complex that leads him to give away the location of the Secret Sanctuary. The League thwarts the villain and moves into a fancy satellite up in outer space, but poor Snapper resigns his honorary membership in shame, later going on to suffer the indignity of joining the Blasters—NOTE: I have never actually read the Blasters comic and given that Peter David wrote it, it’s probably awesome—and getting his hands chopped off before finding eventual redemption as Hourman’s buddy and the mentor to Young Justice with an awesome t-shirt collection. Still, why were the teenage years of the League’s mascot ruined? Because Batman pissed off The Joker.

Batman’s first overt action against the Justice League didn’t come until he was getting into one of his moody periods in 1983. Bats gets pissy about the League not helping him be all crazy and vigilante-like when he wants to storm the war-torn Eastern European country of Markovia and rescue his buddy Lucius Fox from a villain, so he storms off in a huff and forms his own team, the Outsiders, to go break international law. To add insult to injury, he gets two dudes who turned the League down, Black Lightning and Metamorpho, to join his group of cool kids, then probably gives Firestorm a swirly and pops out back to smoke a cigarette. With that irresponsible lout Batman having thumbed his nose at it, suddenly the Justice League isn’t the hip place to be any more and they go from beating down Darkseid to getting their asses handed to them by one-offs like Paragon (a Kurt Busiek creation who is one of the most underutilized awesome villains ever). A year after the Bat Bailout, the League gets beat down in a war with the Martians and almost all the established members take off, paving the way for Vibe, Vixen, Gypsy and Steel.

Yes, that’s right: Justice League Detroit is Batman’s fault.

The Detroit era Justice League had its unique charm and Gerry Conway took some bold risks that resulted in solid stories, but the DC Universe was no doubt a pretty terrifying place when the supposed first line of defense against evil had a break dancing kid in parachute pants front and center plus Aquaman as the inspirational leader (sorry Kiel).

But that’s ok, because being a generous and benevolent sort, none other than Batman returned in Justice League of America #250, recognizing a deficiency in training and experience on his former team and vowing to help them become more formidable and giving the world the heroes it needed.

He left about six issues later with no real explanation and then half the team got murdered by Professor Ivo.

Apparently not feeling any remorse for breaking his promise to guide a new generation of impressionable youngsters to anything other than grisly death or survivor’s guilt, Batman was back in the fold a few months later as a founding member of what would become Justice League International. He was pretty grouchy and spent most of his tenure insulting everybody around him, but that was the general tone, so you can’t really blame him. You probably could blame him for giving Guy Gardner, one of the team’s biggest guns, brain damage by punching him in the face and rendering him virtually useless for a good period, but—nah, y’know what, I’m totally gonna blame him for that. Classic scene or not, that’s just irresponsible, sir!

After incapacitating poor Guy, Batman came and went as he pleased when it came to the JLI for a year or so before abandoning the group altogether. He’d stay away for a good half decade once more this time while the team he helped start stopped and started a bunch of times, getting several members killed or maimed along the way. In the midst of it, Bane broke Bruce Wayne’s back for a bit, perhaps not out of ambition as we all suspected, but maybe as karma for the Silver Sorceress or Ice? Ok, maybe not.

Until the last few years, Batman—the Bruce Wayne variety—has been more or less a fixture on the Justice League since JLA kicked off in 1997. He’s had some truly kick ass moments, from defeating the White Martians near singlehandedly to helping kill Darkseid in the future to knocking out Prometheus. He has also nearly gotten his teammates and sometimes the entire superhuman community wiped out on more than one occasion due to his paranoia and shoddy security.

First off you had Mark Waid’s excellent Tower of Babel storyline that ran in JLA #43-46. Ra’s al Ghul distracts Batman by snatching his parents’ corpses and dangles them above a Lazarus Pit then has his daughter grab some contingency plans he had lying around to horribly defeat and torture each member of the Justice League just in case they turn evil. Ra’s and his goons proceed to light Martian Manhunter on fire, use fear toxin to make Aquaman terrified of water, freeze Plastic Man and then smash him with a hammer, blind Green Lantern, trap Wonder Woman in a never-ending virtual reality battle sequence, shot Flash in the neck with a bullet that makes him experience seizures that takes up seconds but feel like they last months, and finally, poison Superman with Red Kryptonite.

Batman designed all this stuff by cozying up to his teammates and learning their secrets through the sinister means of friendship. Sure, I’ve done the same thing to most of my pals—TJ, your weakness involves wine coolers and laser tag—but they’re not super heroes and I’d probably only write stuff on them while they’re drunk or whatever, not shatter them into tiny pieces with a mallet. Hopefully Wally West has never invited Bruce Wayne to a barbeque with his family ever.

So about five years after the Ra’s al Ghul unpleasantness and Batman had been allowed back into the League—I’m pretty sure without apologizing—he decides it would be a swell idea to build a super spy satellite called Brother MK1 to keep tabs on all metahuman heroes and villains, once again, just in case. Granted this was a response to Bats learning he had been mind wiped by his League buddies back in the Silver Age after he saw them erase Doctor Light’s memories—after reading this article, can you blame them?—but still, at one point does a dude learn that his doomsday protocols are all destined for horrific failure?

Case in point: Brother MK1 gains sentience via Alexander Luthor, hooks up with Maxwell Lord and Checkmate, renames itself Brother Eye, creates an army of OMACs, gets poor former Leaguer Rocket Red killed, nearly razes Themysceira and commits all sorts of other atrocities before Batman finally cleans up his mess by leading a team of heroes into outer space and then abandoning the young Blue Beetle out there after he saves the day. Oh, did I mention that Batman was one of several DC heroes to dismiss prior Blue Beetle—and his former JLI teammate—Ted Kord when he got suspicious about Checkmate, leading to him getting shot in the head by Lord? Yeah, so did Superman, but he was at least polite about it.

So that’s Bruce Wayne’s track record as a member of the Justice League; abandons the team when he feels like it, gets others killed or injured, cooks up contingency plans to kill or injure those he hasn’t already, and is pretty much always a jerk. He’ll save your ass against White Martians, but he will also likely poison you without meaning to at some point.

For the record, Dick Grayson has not gotten anybody killed or enacted a single scorched earth scenario since he’s been the League’s Batman. Neither has Wally West or Kyle Rayner—have I mentioned lately they should be on the team?

So fellow readers, while we all love Batman, for the sake of the other characters we care about, I do hope you understand why the worst Justice Leaguer ever should be kept as far away from that team as possible—I mean, except for the fact that the book is way more awesome when he’s inadvertently nearly getting his pals killed.

Five Comics Worth Reading - April 2011

DETECTIVE COMICS
Following Grant Morrison’s initial foray, I thought perhaps some writers might find it a bit challenging to distinguish the Dick Grayson version of Batman from the Bruce Wayne incarnation beyond the slightly tweaked costume, but for the most part I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how it’s gone down. Dick has been played as the extremely competent hero he was as Nightwing, yet with a higher level of confidence to match his new position and distinctive whimsy to perhaps combat it; few places has this new Batman shined as nicely as in the retooled Detective Comics written by Scott Snyder, which has hit on quite a few cylinders for me. Besides nailing a great protagonist in the Grayson Batman, Snyder has also embraced the book’s title with genuinely compelling—and frankly creepy—mysteries that he layers nicely with a mix of forensics and super hero stuff. Snyder’s secret weapon has also been his nuanced use of Commissioner Gordon, either as the back-up or lately star of the story, giving this stalwart a nice stage to play on and enough moral murkiness to remind you he’s no angel, just the best cop in a bad city. Having the distinctive and striking art of Jock and Francesco Francavilla certainly doesn’t hurt this title’s case either.

INCORRUPTIBLE
Since its inception, Incorruptible has been a fun companion piece to Irredeemable, telling a more lighthearted morality tale off to the side of the rampant tragedy and destruction of the parent book—and seriously, I’m not joking when I say the story about the former super criminal with the underage female sidekick named Jailbait is the “softer” side of the Irredeemable Universe. As Irredeemable has moved towards a broader story and resultantly brought some its characters over into Incorruptible, it has only made the latter title stronger. It’s quite interesting to watch what Mark Waid is doing in contrasting the heroes of Paradigm with their egos and neuroses against the simple single-mindedness of Max Damage, reformed villain; Max may have been a jerk and worse in the past, but he operates on a very simple field of “this is how we fix things” with no room for grandstanding or political posturing, whereas the “good guys” overanalyze their every move because they’re so much more concerned about keeping their images intact. The side stuff where Max is falling for his old archenemy’s girl even as she moves to portray him or putting off dealing with the trauma-fueled psychoses of his new sidekick is good stuff as well, but as ever, I just enjoy reading Mark Waid pick apart the mechanics and dynamics of what’s behind super heroes and villains.

IRON MAN 2.0
Nick Spencer writes comics that I feel like should be too smart for me, but makes sure I get them. With Iron Man 2.0, he’s covering all sorts of political, social and economic issues as he sends War Machine into the government and around the world dealing with conspiracies and WMDs, but even though I’m more or less useless when it comes to any news items not posted on the AOL homepage when I sign in at work every morning, I’m not only getting it, but getting into it, as he’s using these building blocks not to talk down, but to create a world that resonates with stuff really going on and at the same time carves out an interesting corner of the Marvel Universe for his cast to explore. I dig his characterization of James Rhodes—a tougher character to nail down than most people think in my opinion—as a guy committed to his country, more committed to doing the right thing, driven by a sense of duty, but not a total starched shirt as you would imagine years of hanging around Tony Stark would loosen up even the staunchest military man. I like the mix of big explosions with whole issues that are just supporting characters introduced only months ago talking about other characters we’ve never met—and that issue had me riveted! I think Spencer and my buddy editor Alejandro Arbona are dead on with their assessment of War Machine needing to be not just lots of guns, but whatever the next cutting edge way of waging war is; again, it’s a smart book, but not too smart for a dummy like me. And intelligence aside, scenes of Tony and Rhodey talking like kids about their armors as toys are just plain fun.

R.E.B.E.L.S.
I suppose this can be filed under “too little too late” with the book coming to an end next month, but I’ve been meaning for awhile to mention how much I enjoy Tony Bedard and Claude St. Aubin’s take on the cosmic DC Universe. They way Bedard manages a large and eclectic cast, shifting the focus every page or two and keeping things fresh, reminds me of how Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen nailed a somewhat similar premise on Legion of Super-Heroes back in the 80’s, and there are few higher compliments I can give. Bedard has once again made Vril Dox the kind of guy whose arrogance and cleverness I look forward to following—if for no other reason than to see how he’ll cheat his way out of the latest situation his mouth got him into—while on the total other end of the spectrum he writes a great smart ass and crazy Lobo while also finding nice spots for Adam Strange, Starfire, Captain Comet and the rest of DC’s displaced space stars. To St. Aubin’s credit, his clean art does a great job of making the many overlapping plots easy to follow and the action pop off the page. I should also note that their take on Starro creeps me out to no end. Pick this one up in trade!

UNCANNY X-FORCE
It takes talent to mix nostalgia and continuity service with genuinely intelligent stories as well as character-driven development plus throw in a decent amount of shooting and stabbing in one book; fortunately Rick Remender is talented as well as smart with a knack for enjoying his work, so he is more than adept at serving up delicious comics stew with Uncanny X-Force. I can’t say enough good things about this book, one of my top favorites as I tear through my comics. I love Remender’s long game as he’s both playing off existing mythology when it comes to Apocalypse and also building something entirely new. I’m invested in Psylocke’s quest to save Archangel’s soul—and her own. I’m intrigued by what Fantomex is up to and how he interacts with the rest of the team. The different take Remender has on Deadpool from just about anybody else I’ve ever read is fascinating. All that aside, you’ve got Deathlok versions of the Avengers—not to mention Deathlok himself as a supporting cast member—great old school X-Men villains like the Reavers and The Shadow King coming back, and a return trip to the friggin’ Age of Apocalypse; it truly is a perfect storm and I also really appreciate Remender’s commitment to acknowledging that every single this that has happened in past stories did in fact happen and will be addressed. Did I mention the murderer’s row of artistic talent that includes Jerome Opena, Esad Ribic, Mark Brooks, Rafael Albuquerque and Billy Tan not to mention Dean White? There are few comics out there right now I am a bigger fan of—if there are any.