Sometimes it's nice to be forgotten

Remember when I was annoyed that no one was taking my interest in getting subscriptions to comics seriously? Well one family member didn't shop at all this year and said we'd get to choose our gifts. I chose to get Justice League International and Red Hood and the Outlaws through the mail. Hopefully they will arrive on time as their my current favorite books. I hate waiting to read them because it means I have to avoid all the spoilers. I only had a subscription once before, through Marvel, and I never paid attention to the release dates back then. I might get annoyed if it's a week or two.

But getting these two through the mail will help me hold onto a couple of series since I was considering cutting a couple due to costs. 

Happy Birthday Michael and Michelle Carter!

According to Booster Gold #1 Vol. 2 this is the day the twins will be born with Michael being the oldest by two minutes.  And yes, I remembered that without having to check up on it by rereading the issue. I didn't feel like writing up an essay since I've been rather busy lately but the twins would be Capricorns. According to todays' horoscope: 

"Quickie: Your compassionate side has been drawn out today. You will feel sympathy for a foe.

Overview: Music really resonates with you today, so make sure that you're listening to the tunes that move you in the right direction. It's one of those days when it's vital to deal with the right atmosphere."

I'm not a big horoscope person so I have no idea if these two are supposed to mesh. Or maybe they can be split among the twins. Either that or Booster will be fighting/dancing to music as his heart goes out to his foe. Which gives me a weird visual al la Buffy Once More with Feeling.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #4

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Batman Incorporated Leviathan Strikes!

SPOILERS AHEAD

To Buy or Not to Buy

A book that puts together clippings from Batmans' life to create a timeline and show cases from his point of view. I used to love looking through books like this. The only thing that held me back was the price, $100 bucks. But depending where you look it's gone down to $60. I'm thinking about it and reading reviews to see if it's worth the money.

Why I'm glad they redid the Robin costume

Well at least Jasons'. I don't know if they redid Dicks'. I think there was two different origins to it and one of them had Dick picking it out. So yeah Dick is a sadist. I never liked the idea of Jason wearing Dicks' outfit because he hated it and what does that say about Bruce when he forces the next kid to wear the same outfit?

On a side note I love this arc. This takes place just after Crisis with Donna Troy desperately trying to keep the Titans together in some form. Dick was in a bad place and acted like his name. What's tragically funny is that every single person she picked out except Jason was going through some serious emotional upheaval due to personal matters (Donna herself was very distressed due to Dicks' words.) 

Seriously. Wally is trying to honor Barry as the Flash but hasn't gotten the hang of it. Garth is depressed because his love Tula died. Hawk is moody and kinda nuts after his brother Don died. Donna is trying to juggle being a wife and being a leader that doubts herself. Roy is trying to keep his affair with Cheshire under wraps and soon learns he's a daddy. The rookie of the team, Jason, is trying to fit in but a little freaked out over how everyone is acting. 

Rip Hunter Time Master #1 and #2

I was lucky enough to find some old Rip Hunter stories and decided to review them all but for some reason I'm lazier with writing older comic reviews. Rip Hunter Time Master is (so far) an interesting ride. Yes, it does have some quirky Silver Age moments such as the story twists and unmasking al la Scooby Doo. But the characterization isn't what I thought it would be. I haven't read all the issues yet but all the team members are useful and while Bonnie is the girl of the group she helps the others and the men play the role of kidnapped teammate too. This is a little different from my recent reviews as their written "live" as I read them.

Silver Age SPOILERS AHEAD

What Christmas adds as a backround

So apparently the new 52 has Christmas issues or at least two that I know of. Not sure if it's considered a spoiler but I heard Batgirl has one this month and though I haven't bought it yet I know Superboy does. Not that I expect them to focus much on the holiday in these issues but this reminded me of all the books that I read that had the holidays used as either a focus of the issue or something in the backround. Since I don't feel like skimming through my collection to find all my Holiday back issues I'll just focus on a couple. (BTW one story I remember ironically has Spider-Man fighting against Mephisto to save the spirit of Christmas and returns home safely to his loving wife Mary Jane.) 

Hal & Ollie talk about Jason & Roy. Ollie is a jerk

Ollie died after Jason. How could anyone in the superhero community NOT know? Especially since Roy was best friends with Dick and according to this with Jason too. He wouldn't even call Ollie to say "Bruce was a jerk and Dick just found out Jason died from Alfred"?

I do like that this mentions Roy being close to Jason as they did get along during his Titan days. But that was after Roys' drug period, in fact Jasons' first mission was the one Cheshire revealed she had Roys' child. She does this in front of the two. It makes me incredibly annoyed that Ollie would think Roy introduced Jason to drugs and that resulted in his death. 

Not only does this show that he never moved on from learning of Roys' past addiction but it's incredibly naive for a guy like Ollie. Jason lived in Crime Alley. He had the chance to get addicted to drugs, in fact his step-mother was an addict. In one version she died of an overdose. If Jason did get addicted it would have been long before Roy met him. But Jason was the sort of kid that didn't want to show weakness or need anyone/anything on the streets. Interestingly enough there was another parallel between the two brought up with Ollie and Bruce later on. 

I'm actually amazed that Hal is coming off as the mature one putting up with Ollie. Granted I think this is back when he was trying to force Ollie back into the land of the living but in this scene he comes off well. 

It's that time again: DC Solicits

I love looking at solicits because having to wait a month between issues is pretty rough. It does annoy me when some spoilers are shown but I'm willing to believe the BIG ones revealed this month are misleading. Some books I don't get are thrown in too. 

DC cancelling lowest selling comics after #8?

I heard this and it makes me nervous. I always hate looking at sales because it has me worried about the title(s) I like. I mean just look at what happened to Booster Gold. Part of the problem is the fact that I prefer underdogs. I mean I used to follow Spider-Man and the X-Men who are pretty popular but their characters are underdogs. The ones I like in DC are mostly a combination of that and lesser known heroes. I can't get into big name like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman on their own. I prefer Booster Gold and JLI. I like the Bat kids more than Batman. Really I started on board the New 52 because of two titles, added some lesser favorites of mine and tried out a few new titles. I'm not sure if I'd stick around if they didn't have my favorite books. 

Justice League International #4

Justice League International #4:

Highlight to read SPOILERS

Superboy #3 & Justice League Dark #3

I had to make cuts because of money reasons which is why I'm giving up Animal Man. It was good but it wasn't that high on my list of favorites. I also gave up Static Shock but that was mainly because of the confusing plot elements. I wanted to love it but it was becoming a chore to read. I felt like I missed out on too much and I just started getting the arc. 

SPOILERS AHEAD

Too nerdy for my own good

The Green Lantern action figures have been out awhile. I'm currently resisting the impulse to get the Red Lantern Guy figure since I already have a Guy Gardner figure. But then there's the Black Lantern Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) figure. I don't even collect the Black Lanterns but I want this. Sadly it's only offered in a box set with figures I have no interest in. And so far a loose BB is going for half the price of the whole set online.  While I don't collect Ted figures like I do with Booster I want this one because I loved that story and I want to pose it with the Booster and Jaime figures. Or made him do poses from thriller (as best I could with the closed fists.) Of course if this was a good Rip Hunter figure I wouldn't be so unsure. 

No more Super Kids?

I've been thinking about the new 52 and one thing that makes me sad is the lack of kids the various "families" have. I'm not talking about the teens but the babies to preteen kids. Sure we have Damian and the Baker kids, as well as Jaimes' sister. But others don't exist or their fates are up in the air.

Batman : Death in the Family

I heard a lot about Death in the Family before I even picked it up and I didn't even get it until sometime after Under the Hood. I'm not going to get into the poll too much because that was a lot of hype, only open for a day and even DC admitted they were pretty sure one guy cheated it anyway. I will say that I always thought it represented the worst of the fandom, things I still see with other characters like Booster or any number of characters for what their not. Jason Todd wasn't Dick Grayson (granted his pre-crisis self was damn close to it) and that couldn't be accepted. But how does the story hold up?

Batman The Brave and the Bold #13 & Teen Titans #3

Got these two at the bookstore so I just have to wait for Superboy to come in the mail and get JLD at my LCS. I never got a Batman: The Brave and The Bold comic before but this had all the Robins in it so naturally I had to buy it.