my favorite thing about late 80s/early 90s Batman is how much of a diva they let him be. like, yes, king, lounge in that robe. read tale of two cities. also him haphazardly putting on the suit is so good. one boot on one boot off. I love it. give me a disheveled, messy bruce more often
I think if your main take away is that John is a bad person you kinda missed the point. not to say John is great, but the point of John's story is both to point out the different standards for people of different classes, how firm the hierarchical borders are (he's the only one who can cross them, making them consider him flawed). and it's also about bad (medical/psychological) treatment, and how that can cause serious damage, like we see with John having flashbacks and a seriously bad self image.
the point is that the system fucking sucks.
John doesn't do everything right. But he hasn't really been able to. he is terrorized constantly both times, him lashing out is a symptom of a bad system, not personal ethics. how do you say, if you activate someone's fight or flight system don't be surprised when they fight.
the only thing I'll actually accept as him being bad is the fighting against the safe house, that was bitterness, which makes sense, but doesn't justify his actions in that case.
I saw this prompt from @aliteralchicken a while ago and then got distracted from it but eventually circled back. Here are some of my very specific comic recs! Detailed listing and the blank template below.
This was fun! I definitely encourage anyone who sees this to do one of these themselves.
This Character/Mantle/Team has a lot of solos, but this is the best one: Batgirl (2009) featuring Stephanie Brown. Look, I almost made this Cass’ 2000 solo, but the ending to Cass’ series was just... shaky. And that isn’t Cass’ fault any more than Stephanie is to blame for the way that this series was rushed to completion for Flashpoint and the New 52. But I think the writing here is a little more solid over the whole thing (thanks to being the same writer the whole way through) and I’m just a sucker for Steph. And Babs, having such a strong support role!
I would read anything with these characters in it so here’s one of them: I’ve read every Tim Drake appearance in New Earth continuity. I’m working on the Superboy solo, now that I’ve finished Death and Return of Superman. I’ve read the first ~10-12 of Impulse’s run, and am looking into finding Cassie’s early Wonder Woman stories. I followed these four in to Geoff Jones’ Teen Titans run. I read Young Justice (2019). But Young Justice (1998) just takes the cake for the best stories and dynamics for this group.
You insult this comic you insult me personally: Death, the Deluxe Edition, by Neil Gaiman. Moment of appreciation for Neil. The Sandman in general was really eye-opening for me, in a philosophic sense, regarding how I understood what the ~meaning of life~ was or should be. Namely, that the meaning is what we make of it, and we might as well make it kind. Death and her stories here really embody that the most for me.
Would recommend to someone who has never picked up a comic and to a long time fan: Gotham Central by Rucka and Bruebaker is a cop comic. I know. But importantly, they know too. This is a really tightly written series with moving plots, complex characters, and compelling thoughts. Renee Montoya in this comic... I could write essays. But because it’s ground level, it lets anyone who just likes mystery or procedurals walk right in and get started, rather than having to be up to date on all the Bat-lore. If you do know, however, there are so many good details.
This adaptation had one job: Hush. Nothing else to say.
I have beef with this writer but this is the exception: I wouldn’t say I have beef with Tom King, I just think that having read some of his Batman work, and then reading Mister Miracle, he just needs to play with characters that aren’t Batman. This feeling was reinforced reading Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which I almost put up there instead. Mister Miracle won out because it was what converted me back to King.
Doesn’t have to be great, just has to be nostalgic: It’s well documented on this blog how much I love the JLA: Tower of Babel story. I also want to go on record and say how much I love the JLA title. Did you know that stories from the 90′s were perfect and never bad ever?
Characters or Genre that I don’t usually read but I enjoyed: I don’t care about Green Lantern. I’m sorry. Hal Jordan is just some guy. But Green Lantern/Green Arrow is a classic for a reason. This one is also really compelling to me when I think about the larger cultural context this comic was being published into.
