evie´s drawing board

The missing issues, 13 and 14 were done by another poster so I´m not including them here. They were, however, great reads. GA #13 "The End of the Threatening Three!" is really a heartbreaking tribute to Archie Goodwin AKA Mr Nice. GA #14 "Masks of Love: A Harley Quinn Romance" continues the plotline from GA #10, Harley´s exploits as a novelist. It is also Ty Templeton´s last issue and his good-bye letter was a nice extra, you don´t usually see that from people leaving a book. I agree about the part of writing the "real" Batman too! ;)

But on to the reviews!


Gotham Adventures #12 "Never an Option"



Since this is an issue with a "2" it traditionally features Two-Face as the villain. Only this time, Harvey isn´t really a villain. Since his latest escape from Arkham, he´s been sabotaging his own crimes, delivering his henchmen to the police and now he´s even heroically solved a hostage situation at the airport. Batman´s hope that Harvey´s good side is coming out again is dashed by Harvey´s psychiatrist Dr. Sloane, who discloses that not only has Two-Face´s coin been exchanged for a trick coin that always comes up with the good side, but that she fears that the "Judge", Harvey´s third persona, will take over again, and maybe make another attempt at executing the death penalty he had previously imposed on Two-Face.

This references another episode of the BTAS: Judgement Day. If you have the time I´d recommend watching it, it´s very dramatic. I like how it focuses on Batman´s need to save everybody, especially Harvey, whom he still sees as his friend.

http://www.animeflavor.com/index.php?q=node/35958

In the comic, Batman gets not only badly hurt in a fight with Two-Face, but also a first hand impression how far gone Harvey already is. So, in spite of his injuries, Bruce deduces where Harvey will go next and sets after him a second time. After a desperate fight in the skies he manages to save Two-Face from himself.
The last panel is truly heartbreaking. When it comes to a person he cares about, even Batman is not immune to wishful thinking.

Speaking of panels, there´s one on page 9 that shows a very creative use of the cape to catch a crook!



Gotham Adventures #15 "Cash´n the Hood"



From this issue on Scott Peterson takes over the writing duties and Tim Levins is the regular penciller. I am quite partial to Levins´ Batman. His expression is less grim, but more ... melancholy, sometimes almost sad. I´m probably projecting, so whatever.

The cover does a good job of demonstrating how not to use photoshop textures, I don´t think it was ever done again in the series.

On to the story! Bane is robbing banks in broad daylight and he´s getting away. Nobody knows to where, and nobody is willing to give his hideout away. Of course, you can´t hide from Batman, but when the team of Batman, Batgirl and Robin arrives at Bane´s house in the poorest neighbourhood in Gotham, they are in for a surprise. The kids they thought were being held hostage have actually found a home and care there, and when the police come to arrest Bane the neighbours protest, claiming Bane had done much good for a neighbourhood nobody else cared for.

Batman is baffled about Bane´s motives. Has he really done it for selfless reasons? Or is he much more cunning than everyone believes him to be? (We find out in a later issue of GA!)
Alfred´s suggestion that Bane might indeed be trying to give those children a family he himself never had leaves the Batfamily pondering in silence.

It seems to me Scott Peterson has yet to find his stride. The pacing is sometimes a bit slow (I don´t think 4 pages of Bane robbing a bank were really necessary) and the storytelling is very linear.
There are a few very nice character bits though: Bruce and Tim attend a soirée of the Gotham Heart Association and the socialite he talks to finds it incredulous that Bruce is only there because he supports the cause. Another page shows a hardened criminal unfazed by Robin´s or Batgirl´s threats, but in hysterics just at the sight of Batman. Well, WE already knew that, but every comic is someone´s first, so ...

In the letters pages we witness the birth of a legend: the real Elise Archer writes an enthusiastic letter about the Harley Quinn story.

Gotham Adventures #10 "Mightier than the Sword"




BTAS Harley was a wonderful character, of course she was presented as a psychopath, but underneath the mania there were so many authentic feelings that I always felt she was the most flesh and blood character in the show.

The Harley and Joker relationship is disturbing, a lot of "funny" stories are if you translate them into reality. In this one I was really impressed how towards the end, from page 20 onwards, the comedy comes to a stop. Harley´s tears and her moment of truth are truly touching. Her righteous anger even overshadows Joker´s clownerie. All of a sudden it sinks in that an abusive relationship is not funny, and I find myself almost hoping she´s over it. Until the last panel, which takes you right back into toonland.

There were a few names dropped in the issue, like Salman Rushdie and Gertrude Stein, so I wondered if Elise Archer was a reference to a real person too. Seems like this time reality imitates fiction!

http://tytempletonart.wordpress.com/tag/elise-archer/



Gotham Adventures #11 " The Oldest One in the Book"




Riddler has escaped Arkham! But this time, he´s not letting Batman catch him, he´s not crazy, is he?
His first move is to force Gotham entrepreneur Charles Baxter into letting him stay in the penthouse suite of Baxter´s new hotel, the Cleopatra. From there, the plan is to provide Gordon and Batman with clues to the whereabouts of other criminals. This way, he thinks, he can match wits with his caped nemesis but stay out of his grasp. In the course of the story we see Batman and Nightwing do quite a bit of nifty combination work on Riddler´s riddles, even Gordon is impressed enough to say so.
What is really impressive though, is that Batman sees clues that Riddler never intended to be there (and some that weren´t even there at all!), and while the poor delusional fool still thinks he can pull Batman´s strings, he has already tied himself up in his own.
Like Harley in the issue before, Eddie has a moment of insight in the end. Poor crazy Riddler.

Now, where were we? Ah, it´s

Gotham Adventures #7 "Dagger´s Secret"



Tim Drake´s tenure as Robin has only started in this series, his debut was covered in Lost Years #4, with a preceeding little one panel cameo in the first issue.

In the first pages we are introduced to Charlie "Dagger" Dixon, an ex-member of Two-Face´s gang. He´s keeping company with some rather suspicious looking individuals, but claims to have gone straight after being caught by Batman twice. A Batman tattoo on his right forearm serves him as a reminder to keep on the right side of the law.
Enter Batman and Robin, searching to arrest a murderer, who feels too safe in the company of a roomful of goons to give up without a fight. The inconceivable happens: in the middle of the fight Dagger Dixon recognises - and saves - Tim in the Robin costume! It turns out that Dagger was Steven "Shifty" Drake´s partner in crime. Dagger does the math: Tim´s adoption by Bruce Wayne was all over the news (we learn that Dick was Bruce´s adopted son too from there), so the big secret is out and Dagger has enough criminal energy left in him to try to take advantage of his findings. The situation escalates when Penguins gets wind of Dagger´s plan to blackmail Bruce Wayne and it all leads to a showdown in Wayne Manor.

I won´t spoil how the situation is resolved, it is actually quite clever, but I will say that I find it remarkable that Dagger Dixon survives in this story.

I was wondering if the cartoons have more on Tim and his life before he met Batman. If there was an explanation of this "new" Tim Drake, I´ve completely forgotten it.


And now:
Écoutez bien les enfants, je vais vous raconter l´histoire de l´Homme Chauve-Souris de Paris!

Gotham Adventures #8 “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”




Before I start with the story I´d like to point out how much I like the detailed and moody rendition of the Notre Dame de Paris cathedral in the background of the cover.

Batman and Batgirl follow the trail of the League of Assassins (see Deadman issue, GA #6!) to Paris to meet with Inspector Anton Legere of the Paris Sûreté, an old acquaintance of Bruce´s. Legere looks a bit like Jean Reno playing a typical Frenchman, scruffy beard, droopy eyes – the works. He leads them to the hideout of one of Sensei´s henchmen, a killer who is not at all impressed by Batman´s appearance. The planned interrogation gets a bit out of hand due to Legere´s temper tantrum and the killer´s subsequent cunning escape, but then a new player appears – the Batman of Paris, in a way. Take that, Grant Morrison!
The issue is by and large an introduction to the Hunchback, how he came to be and what may become of him.

A fun issue overall, a nice change of surroundings and a lead in to the next issue, where Batman and Batgirl continue to pursue the Sensei.

Somewhere around the early 1980ies Mike Barr got his wish and introduced a darker, edgier version of Batman in the newly created Outsiders title. Why that talentless fanboy gone hack was entrusted with reimagining Batman post COIE is anyone´s guess, but lo! the Batjerk was born.
Of course something had to be done about the friendship with Superman, which had undoubtedly gone a bit overboard with Doug Moench´s "Kryll Way of Dying" where Superman and Batmen all but lie in each other´s arms crying.  :D  So a mere four issues later we see the friendship gone and the heroes bitching and drama-queening like an old divorced couple.
The fans obviously did not take favourably to this, by the time the utterly pointless and seemingly endless Pantheon Saga had finished the new editor had to admit that she had no letters to print in the lettercol. We see some frantic backpedaling by the time WF hits #300, and for a time at least, we get Supes and Bats serving us their mutual feelings on a silver platter.

So here Random Girl (who also happens to be Bruce Wayne´s girlfriend of the week) gets to wax lyrical about Batman´s awesomeness, which leads right to the next page of Batman fanboying over Superman.






Joey Cavalieri, Stan Woch " The Network" in World´s Finest Comics #312, 1985


Too early to be having anything but coffee, even though just thinking about Mike Barr makes me want a drink.

Maybe it was exhaustion - it was Friday afternoon after all - or stories set in the future are just complicated, or Marty Pasko was just writing all over the place ... or maybe it was Cosmic Boy ...
Rokk Krinn - Hott Damm!!! What a guy.



Brave and the Bold #179, Martin Pasko, Ernie Colòn, Oct 1981, Mr Krinn´s wardrobe by Mike Grell

Batman certainly seems happy.


This post was influenced by a 2010 Chardonnay, Karl Pfaffmann, Pfalz.

I'm looking for a hard headed woman,


Brave and the Bold #141, Bob Haney, Jim Aparo, May 1978

One who will make me do my best,
And if I find my hard headed woman


Brave and the Bold #166, Michael Fleisher, Dick Giordano, Sept 1980

I know the rest of my life will be blessed -- yes, yes, yes.

Woo, boy, did DC ever catch the flak for this one.

Not that the Boy´s Club there ever had the faintest clue about what to do with their female cast without wading neck deep into dickery territory, but this time I guess the Black Canary´s fans just got exceedingly tired of seeing poor Dinah always get patronised by the male hero (which would usually be Green Arrow whose default mode is Male Chauvinist Pig anyway) or forever play the Damsel in Distress - or both, like in this story.

Penguin has escaped Arkham and is killing off stool pidgeons who have sought safe haven in Star City. Batman and Star City´s own heroine, the Black Canary, team up in a frantic race to find the stoolies before the Penguin can.


Well, to be realistic, how scary would a cute little blonde in a bathing suit and fishnets appear to Max, the hardened heavyweight criminal scumbag? How intimidating is even THIS cleavage in comparison to a guy with a monster mask whose every flexed muscle spells "ouch"?
You know what? I think size does matter. O_O

Well, on we go.
Our team is too late, two men die at the Penguin´s slimy flippers. But then our villain decides to take a break from the goons and kill Batman first because it´s more fun that way.



Ha, small wonder they were able to fit a whole story into 17 pages in the good old days: thought-bubbling the whole detective work part to the rhythm of Batman clobbering goons and the melody of half naked Black Canary eye candy does the trick.
Yes, right, Dinah ends up being Penguin´s pretty hostage, and not even establishing the fowl fiend as a seriously ruthless killer (in drag no less!) makes that part any better.


Brave and the Bold #166, Michael L. Fleisher, Dick Giordano, Sept 1980

At least Dinah makes herself look a bit useful. And she gets to kiss Batman. And wear his cape. What a weird back Batman has, though.
Some girls have all the luck. :(

Currently drinking: hot lemon tea. Made by my baby :-p

So once again I squish my valuable (LOL) back issues into the scanner to present more Bob Haney goodness to a public struck with  amazement and disbelief in the face of



Brave and the Bold #139 by Bob Haney and Jim Aparo, Jan 1978

Yes, Gothamites seem quite hard to impress, not a face turning towards the mysterious darkly garbed figure of the Batman taking a walk in bright daylight with his buddy Jim Gordon, in the middle of the shopping district. You know, if a guy in a spray painted suit with a physique like that strolled by me I´d ogle the hell out of him, but I guess I´m weird.

B&B can be considered a bit of a Silver Age sanctuary in the Bronze Age. Nothing really makes a lot of sense, thankfully nothing is ever referenced in terms of continuity, but it´s amusing most of the time, sometimes unintentionally hilarious and occasionally genuinely touching.

This one is a story where you are happy that Haney´s B&B exists in a world of its own. See, turns out the good Commish shot and killed an alien, hid the body and never ever told anybody about it back in his rookie days, and now an avenger from outer space is out to get his bloodied hide.
Oy.
Well, his vengeful plans are not only foiled by Batman and Hawkman, the Commish is also vindicated and the alien bounty hunter is so impressed by our heroes´ resolve to protect life that he decides to give up the proftable business of intergalactic executions. YAY!!


This post´s enthusiasm was markedly hightened by a glass of Bocca di Lupo. Castel del Monte Aglianico 2005 from the province of Puglia, Italy.

What??? The Boy Wonder flunking in Math? Teacher calling in to Wayne Manor? The world coming to????



Brave and the Bold #167, October 1980, Marv Wolfman and Dave Cockrum


Oh. Oh!
Earth II.
Whew.
Close one, Dickie.

I guess I need a drink now.