What I Bought Today – Batman #26, Nightwing #26 (WARNING – SPOILERS)

So, it is Wednesday, so naturally I went to Heroes Beacon, and have returned to tell you all about…

Regarding what I said last week, I’m still looking over which books I’ll be continuing to buy into next year and which ones I won’t. Pretty sure I’m dropping The Movement, for reasons I gave before, and POSSIBLY Supergirl, since apparently they’re going to be turning her Red Lantern, possibly permanently. Haven’t committed completely to a decision on that one. Either way, though, that change isn’t coming for a while, so the book is still in the safe zone. Two books I can safely say I WON’T be dropping anytime soon (unless something REALLY dumb happens, and I’ll get to that later) are the two I bought today. So, let’s take a look at ’em, starting with Batman #26.

So, apparently Lucius‘ heel turn at the end of last issue was actually a fake-out. He’d actually injected Bruce with a vaccine for Doctor Death‘s serum. The two start to make their escape, after Bruce blows Death down a chamber with the force of a jet aircraft (See Edna? It happens whether you wear capes or not, lol), but apparently even that’s not to beat the guy, who comes back and nearly shatters Bruce Wayne‘s skull. Thankfully, James Gordon is on the scene and says, and I love this quote, “Step away from the billionaire and put your claws in the air”. However, after tending to Bruce’s head, something I think they should do more often, Bruce doesn’t seem too happy to be saved by Gordon and isn’t willing to share info. And here’s the return of my one problem with this part of Zero Year: Jim Gordon. Apparently, in this interpretation, he and his partner took pay-offs for protection, and Jim himself has some kind of secret involving the Crime Alley shooting. Depending on how this goes, this may just screw the idea of Gordon, in that he is supposed to be the one cop in Gotham you cannot buy off and cannot be corrupted. Between this and Batgirl: Wanted, which is thankfully over, I get the feeling that DC is just crapping all over poor Jim Gordon. At this point, I don’t even blame Scott Snyder or Gail Simone for this anymore, this HAS to be higher-ups in DC doing this crap. That said, while I didn’t buy Batgirl #26, I did READ it, and thankfully Gail kind of salvaged him a bit in that book, and I expect Scott will find a way around this too. Otherwise, rest of this comic is frigging great, Doctor Death makes a great villain for the second arc of Zero Year, and we keep flashing back to a death chamber in the Middle East where I’m assuming Bruce, prior to returning to Gotham City, is locked up, and I know this ties in somehow, I just have no clue as to how. lol

Nightwing #26 was awesome. Remember the psychotic mimic woman from earlier, around the time when Nightwing first came to Chicago? Well, she’s stealing anti-psychotics. Frankly, I don’t know why doctors aren’t forcing her to take anti-psychotics, but she’s stealing them illegally, so Nightwing tries to stop her. Oh, and she’s calling herself Marionette now. Thing about her is, as an expert mimic, she’s able to replicate Nightwing’s acrobatics with freaking ease, meaning the best advantage in Dick’s arsenal is being used against him, and any plans he has to use his acrobatic skill against this enemy is out the window. That’s a great match-up! That’s a great scenario to put him in! So, let’s screw that up by having the Mad Hatter show up and reveal that he made Marionette who she is. Okay, to be fair, it’s not a for certain screw-up, provided that Mad Hatter sticks to the background and have Marionette be the one who takes Dick on directly. Otherwise, moving Nightwing out of Gotham makes no sense if they aren’t going to have him build his own rogues gallery of non-Gotham villains. Oh, and apparently we’ve just decided to forget all about how Mad Hatter fridged that one love interest of Bruce’s that nobody cared about until she was HORRIFICALLY MURDERED? Yeah, those were good times. Ugh. Sorry, if it seems like I’m crapping on this book, I’m really not. I just disagree with the decision to bring in Mad Hatter, especially so soon after THAT arc in Batman: The Dark Knight. The rest of the book is awesome, and I REALLY hope it’s sticking around, despite rumours we’ve all been hearing regarding Nightwing.

That’s it for this week. Check in week to see my looks at Adjectiveless X-Men, Batman and Two Face, Red Sonja, and more. Ja né!

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