Welcome! This is Jailbait in Hotpants! The title is a phrase I used to describe Nightwing's former career as Robin. I am a relatively new comics reader, and as I go along sometimes I read things too hilarious or awesome to not share. So I share them with you, and hope you enjoy!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Battle for the Cowl - Review

Fist off, SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't read Battle for the Cowl or Batman and Robin No. 1 and do not want the ending spoiled for you, then do not read any further! Just turn around and go read Cakewrecks or something.

So, I've been putting off posting about the Battle for the Cowl comics. I finished reading them and Batman and Robin No. 1 almost a week ago. The reason for my delay in posting? To be honest, I'm torn.

To begin with, I was completely unsurprised, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Dick Grayson was the logical choice to become the new Batman. He was the first Robin, and is an exceptional athlete and well respected by the Superhero community. That being said, I was a bit sad they went with him. I felt Tim Drake would have been a more daring direction, especially if they took their cues from Batman Beyond as to how to deal with a teenage Batman (even though it was a typo, an issue of Superman/Batman did show us a future Batman that looked like Batman Beyond being called "Tim" over the intercom). I also feel that it was slightly weird to have Dick Grayson go from "I want to be my own man and get out from under Batman's shadow like crazy" to "I'm gonna be Batman." They sortof explained his rationalle in Batman and Robin No. 1, and they'll probably go into more detail later, but at this point, I'm still kindof wondering how the complete 180 in reference to Dick's feelings about Batman happened.

Also, Dick being Batman will cause the character to change completely, which is both a good and bad thing. Dick Grayson, as Nightwing was a highly sociable Superhero. He lead multiple superhero teams, including the Teen Titans, and has been in so many crossovers higherups in DC have been quoted as saying that he's more important to the fabric of the DC superhero community than Superman. This is completely the opposite from Bruce's Batman who was always a loner and didn't like working in teams or with others. He especially hated others butting their noses into Gotham. So either Dick Grayson is going to have to change to fit the Batman mold, which I think will cause him to suffer as a character, or Batman is going to have to become... well.... not Batman.

I was also sad that they ousted Tim Drake as Robin. Dude was one of my favorite Robins, hands down and Damien had been characterized until this point, largely, as an obnoxious brat. Apparently, Tim will be starting a new career as Red Robin ala Dick Grayson in Kingdom Come. I hope that works out for him and they don't fuck it up. But that's also kindof weird considering fromt he get go Tim was adamant about not staying Robin forever. I suppose he's too interesting and well liked of a character to let retire, but still, it (like Dick's decision to become batman) seems incongrous with what we've seen from his character thus far. That being said, I'm personally glad he's going to continue on with the superheroics since he's a fav of mine.

In regards to the event as a whole, I have even more mixed feelings...

One the one hand, I feel this event couldn't have been more poorly timed, especially with who they chose as the new Robin. With the semi-recent success of the Chris Nolan Batman movies, a lot of potential new readers are going to be coming to the comics expecting Bruce Wayne, and they're not going to find him and be very confused. They might have heard of Dick Grayson if they saw the earlier Batman movies and/or any animated incarnation of Batman ever. But they'll NEVER have heard of Damien unless they read the comics. If they'd seen Batman TAS, they would have known who Tim Drake was, but no, DC decided to make the new Robin someone who no one who wasn't an existing comic reader would know about. Well done there.

On the other hand, perhaps this is the perfect time to start over. As a new reader myself, the one road block I've come up time and time again is where to start. The last big restart was in the 80s, and there have been over 600 volumes of Batman since then. Hence the reason I've been sticking to oneshot stories like Superman: Birthright, The Dark Knight Returns etc or more recent serials such as Nightwing and Superman/Batman. So with that in mind, starting a new Batman and Robin comic with issue one might be a good idea. It's a clean starting point for new readers to launch from, and all it requires is being willing to read Wikipedia for a few hours to figure out who everyone is and what's happened recently in the DC universe that the characters are reacting to.

Those are my initial thoughts. I may have more to add later, but that's the bulk for now. I thought the art was amazing and the story arc was well done. No real complaints there. The very end was a bit rushed, but I guess they wanted to be able to put some of the aftermath into Batman and Robin. I have my doubts, but I am definately looking forward to seeing how it all works out, especially since I'm pretty sure Batman isn't dead for good. Really, what it comes down to is Nighwing is one of my favorite superheroes, and I'm sad to see him go, and I hope they don't fuck it up making him Batman.

Welcome to Jailbait in Hotpants

So, I'm a new comic book fan. Though I've been reading manga since middle school, I only got into American comics within the past year. The reason? Where to begin!? When dealing with characters who have existed since the 30s, it's a bit tricky to figure out a starting point. So, most of my exposure has been through oneshots like The Dark Knight Returns and Superman Birthright. But I have started reading some serials like Superman & Batman, Nightwing, and recently Batman & Robin - mainly because these serials started recently enough that starting from the beginning is a reasonable task. I mainly read DC, mostly because I haven't found an easy entrypoint for any Marvel series yet (suggestions are welcome). I would love to read X-Men though if anyone can recommend a good starting point.

Anyway, while reading these comics, especially the Justice League Unlimited comics based on Bruce Timm's series of the same name, I came across many quite humorous, amusing, and "laugh out loud" moments. I started posting these on my personal blog, but then, inspired by my most recent post, I decided to create a separate blog dedicated to those special little moments I came across while reading. I may also, from time to time, include my thoughts on/ review the comics I read.

I hope you enjoy this little journey into the lighter side of the DC universe. Suggestions and submissions are always welcome.

The post that started it all

or Why I like Dick Grayson as Nightwing better than as Batman....

Because as Batman, he has to wear a cape. And then we don't get wonderfully hot and beefcaky images like this one from Secret Six #9:


What's especially great about this pose for Nightwing, is that it's one that is traditionally reserved for female characters because you can see both T&A in it. So not only is it crazy sexy, but it's subversive too! Excellent.

And look, even Nightwing doesn't like wearing the Batman cape! He complains about it in Batman&Robin #2.


Yes, balance. I'm sure that was your reason for ditching the cape. And not at all because you needed something new to distract the bad guys with since your new costume actually had pants. Your days as jailbait in hotpants were over, but now you have a fantastically sculpted rear to display. And now it's all over. Stupid cape.

*So, this was the post that made me decide to dedicate a seperate blog to Superhero shenanigans and musings. It also inspired the title. This also marks the end of re-posts from my personal blog. Now, on to the new material!