Giving Credit, As Best I Can

It has been suggested that for as much wailing and gnashing of teeth as followed her death, their hasn't been enough celebrating of Stephanie Brown's return. I don't know whether that's accurate, I haven't really been paying attention, though her fans at Scans Daily certainly seemed ecstatic.

As for me, I'm glad she's back, even though I wasn't one of the folks screaming for her to be brought back, and I didn't care about the "memorial case in the Batcave" mess. It'd be wrong to say I was particularly angry about her death during War Games, seeing as I didn't drop Robin after it happened. Couldn't have been that ticked off, could I? Still, I liked the character, and I thought her being gone took something good away from that title. Now she's back, so that's one less person Tim Drake has lost that was close to him. Of course, he still felt the pain of thinking she was gone, but maybe she can bring a little more light into his life. She seemed good at making him laugh, and at not letting him brood too much, always a plus when dealing with someone in the Batclan.

However, it occurs to me that I never made a big deal over Cassandra Cain going back to the side of angels, which seems rather rude, given the amount of screaming I did on this and other blogs about that One Year Later storyline, which did cause me to drop Robin. I still contend I would have been fine with her as a Punisher type, though hopefully with a bit more compassion, for innocents, at least. The Dragon Lady with Daddy issues and a possible romantic interest in Tim Drake? A bit too much of a shift in character for me, I suppose. For now, she's back working with the Big Bat, showing loyalty to her new teammates, and not taking it personally when Green Arrow starts trying to kill her. Good times. I really ought to be more excited, but I feel somewhat detached. It seems so much easier to express anger than joy, which is frustrating to be sure. Plus, I don't feel as annoyed by that whole One Year Later character turn now as I did when it happened two years ago, so maybe that's dampening my high.

I don't suppose that compared to getting my cash for the title every month, me saying "Thanks" counts for much, but what the heck. Of course, I'm not sure who to thank. Chuck Dixon is writing both Robin and Batman and the Outsiders, so I guess some thanks has to go to him, and lets throw some in Chris Batista and Cam Smith (the artists on this month's Robin) and Javier Lopez and Carlos Rodriguez (the artists on BatO so far). I suppose the "Slade's hypos" thing plays some part in the Cass Cain situation, but I'm not sure which writer to credit for that, so I'll just give handshakes to Geoff Johns and Adam Beechen. I probably owe Beechen some apologies for harsh words I unleashed on the blog or at the comic store, anyway, so maybe this makes up for it, just a little. I know I ripped on Dan Didio, and he has to have been involved at some level in all this, so thank ya kindly sir. Shouldn't ignore Paul Levitz, since he probably had some say in all this. Danke. Can't rule out the possibility there were some Warner Bros. execs having their say about it all. I don't that either character has enough notoriety attract the attention of the mother companies' executives, but why take chances right? So "Cheers" to you folks whose names I don't know as well.

And of course, thanks to anyone else I didn't already thank (editors, inkers, colorists). I'm enjoying Batman and the Outsiders, so, thanks for giving me a reason to start buying it, so I'd find other things to like about it. And bringing Spoiler back was really nice, I appreciate that.