What I Bought 10/24/2010 - Part 1

Played a hunch, and it worked out. I've mentioned before the post office in these parts is only open for an hour on Saturdays. By the time the mail carrier leaves the note in the mailbox telling me there's a package at the post office for me, it's been closed for two hours. So I went there directly yesterday, because if the comics weren't there, no harm, no foul. They were there, plus there was another package full of candy waiting for me as well. I shared that one with the coworkers. It goes against my greedy instincts, but everyone else has been sharing candy, so I figured I might as well get in the spirit.

Batgirl #14 - Supergirl's bored, so she comes to visit Batgirl in Gotham. While enjoying a film fest, an experiment gone awry at the 'requisite super-collider lab' causes Draculas to leap off the screen and attack people. It's the World Finest versus an overly dramatic celluloid representation of the Lord of Vampires!

I didn't realize Kara and Stephanie had become friends, but it's a nice touch, and so was Kara's excited reaction to Earth college. I wonder what the equivalent for college on Krypton is, though. The Draculas coming off the screen was a clever little problem to deal with, but it felt too easily handled. It was mostly depicted over a two-page spread showing their pursuit of various Draculas. I liked the photo booth one myself. Garbett's artwork felt rougher than it was during "The Flood" arc. Don't know if he was rushed, or if Trevor Scott as the inker that's the difference. I think if I'd liked the art a little more, I'd have enjoyed the issue more. As it stands, the execution didn't match the concept.

Batman Beyond #4 - "Hush" is halted in his attempt to kill Catwoman by Old Man Wayne controlling a Bat-Robot. Which Hush promptly defeats, forcing Wayne to blow it up. Terry learns what happened to Dick Grayson, then confronts Hush, with poor results. Also, one of Amanda Waller's top scientists has flown the coop.

We learned who Hush was, and I was wrong. None of my guesses were right, though a couple were in the general ballpark. There is cloning involved, just not of any of the people I suggested. The story's been pretty interesting thus far, with everyone Terry meets as Batman either doubting him, or telling him to get far away from Bruce Wayne. Not bad advice at all. Bruce is hearing the bell tolling, which I think is making him push harder, be more reckless than is typical. I wonder how much this story is following the stuff from the Justice League Unlimited cartoon. The clone thing seems drawn from there, but Beechen's Amanda Waller seems harsher than the old version we saw in that episode that revealed a truth about McGinnis. Of course, this Waller is still active, and that one was retired, so there's time for her to mellow.

Batman Beyond #5 - I dig that cover. Very WW2-era propaganda. All hail the Great and Glorious leader of the Worker's Revolution, Hush! Or not.

Batman is saved from bloody death by the new Catwoman, following field medic instructions from old man Bruce Wayne. Wayne also clarifies a few things for me when he tells us she's Multiplex' daughter. I couldn't figure if all the Catwoman's that jumped Hush last issue were duplicates, illusions, or if she just came from a big family. Now her comment about not being Catwoman just because she's a burglar makes sense. She can make up to nine dupes, so she has nine lives in a sense. Let it never be said I don't catch on eventually.

Meanwhile, Dick Grayson comes out of retirement and saves Waller's rogue scientist from Waller's goons, then we learn exactly what escaped Cadmus that is on the loose in Gotham. By the time that's been sorted out, though, "Hush" has helped himself to Mad Stan's weapons cache, Old Man Wayne's Bat-Robots, and is prepared to solve Gotham's crime problems - permanently! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Sorry.

About Ryan Benjamin's art. It's solid, but some of his faces need a little work. There were a few panels where Barbara Gordon looks like she's had a stroke, or simply that her brain's no longer in residence (it's the same vacant, slack-jawed look my grandmother had the last few months of her life). I do like his rendition of McGinnis in the costume, and how Catwoman's helmet seems to be set up so the lenses she has for eyepieces can be partially obscured by metal which slides into place like eyelids, or to look reminiscent of dilating pupils. It makes the mask more expressive, and it would make sense for a burglar who has to be prepared for surprises like rapidly changing light levels.