What I Bought Today – Batman #18, Batman Incorporated #9, Talon #6 (WARNING – SPOILERS)

Gosh, what day is it again? Oh yeah, it’s Wednesday, which means it’s time to look at…

So unfortunately, still no Batman and Robin #18, so it seems I’ll need to wait another week to get ‘the feels’. Until then though, let’s look at Batman #18.

So this is a really emotional book that shows Harper Row return, realising that Batman needs her help after he’s become increasingly reckless, sloppy, and violent. While I do like this book a LOT, I have two problems with it. The first is that, after saving Batman’s life and showing her new skills obtained from some training she’s been doing, Batman shows his appreciation by punching her in the face through a fence and telling her off . Now granted, he’s EXTREMELY sleep deprived, working both in the day and the night, and he’s only doing it to shoot down any chances she’ll try to become his partner, in essence trying to protect her. Problem is, he still punched a teenage girl in the face and broke her nose. He does apologise for it the next night, though, after Harper went to see Bruce Wayne about helping Batman (teehee) by sending him a message on the side of a building, ‘RESOLVE’ (with emphasis on the R). The other problem I have with this book, and I’m sorry that I’m not the first person to bring this up, but this is pretty clearly what A Lonely Place of Dying would be like if it was condensed to one book and was starring Stephanie Brown instead of Tim Drake. I mean, it’s still a good book, but I can’t ignore that it feels a lot like retreading old ground.

I should probably take a moment to address something. Supposedly, there’s sort of an anti-Harper stink going around. Some people saying that she’s just Scott Snyder‘s personal character project. Um, if that IS true, then guess what? EVERYBODY is a writer’s personal character project to begin with. So yeah, sorry, but you’re not gonna get me on-board with that. However, I DO have to ask, what the hell is Harper wearing? She looks like Holly Robinson when she was serving as Catwoman for a while. I mean, it works for now, but I hope it isn’t her permanent look.

Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again

Batman Inc-Okay, I’ve danced around this issue for a while, but I need to discuss this: The continuity between Bat books SUCKS. They’re all good stories in their own ways (odd one out being Batman: The Dark Knight, though clearly some people are still buying it), but the continuity between them is TERRIBLE. Supposedly, they’re all happening simultaneously, but there’s no way that can work. But regardless, we’re back with Batman Incorporated after the death of Robin, and apparently Beryl has elected to become Knight, though it seems that people looking to possibly bring back Cyril are aware of the existence of another Lazarus Pit…Hmm…Anyway, it seems Talia has sent Gotham City higher-ups an ultimatum: Batman Incorporated is to be shut down, or Gotham will be brought to its knees. So yeah, Batman’s an outlaw again. Wonderful. Starting to see how this ends up getting us to the point we saw at the beginning of Batman Incorporated #1.

Talon #6, HOLY CRAP! So yeah, Calvin Rose starts to make an impressive escape, but it seems he’s caught again. Afterwards, he finds out at the same time as a snooping Casey that it turns out John Wycliffe, the current Grandmaster of the Court of Owls, is not the man who recruited Calvin into the Court. In fact, it seems that Calvin hasn’t been striking at the Court’s resources, but rather reclaiming them for the former Grandmaster: Sebastian Clark! DUN DUN DUNNNN!!! Also, seems that the Gotham Butcher, who is becoming even more difficult to control, is out for more blood, but he’s not after more civilians, he’s after Batman…Dude, you might wanna rethink that. Oh, and if you think all this is insanely shocking, guess who shows up next month?

WTF?!?!

Anyway, that’s all for this week. Next week, we traverse back to Earth 2, check in on Batman dealing with the Mystery of the 900 in Detective Comics, and hopefully I FINALLY get the last issue of Batman and Robin to be titled Batman and Robin for a while. Ja né!