Roy Harpers' Family Tree?

I don't think this will be used in the relaunch but anyone remember any other members of his family besides his park ranger dad and daughter? Roy had a great uncle that was cloned. That clone became Guardian.

 

Roy also found out he was related to someone else that's intentions aren't so good. Vandal Savage. Sadly this was never followed up on. Would have been nice to see him and Scandal talk.

Superhero Work Related Dating

I used to love X-Men and picked up a recent issue to flip through. It had Iceman one of my former favorite Marvel characters. It also a lot of women he apparently dated, at least the superhero ones, and I realized I was lucky to have gotten out while I did. The X-Men have all pretty much dated, had crushes on or are related to each other. The Summers family alone was a pain to follow nevermind how it connects to other large families. I don't think DC has anything quite like that. Except for the gods in Wonder Woman but I'm not counting that because it was already like that before it entered comics. At most--at least that I know of--a couple of the Batgirls dated the Robins.

I know superhero books can be the comic equivalent of a soap opera but can you imagine how awkward that would be in the work place? Your ex dating another teammate and the trust issues? If Batman was like the X-Men Damian would be aged to an adult, someone would have kids from different futures pop up and most of them would have love triangles going on. Just when you think they couldn't get any more messed up, right?

Red Hood and the Outlaws Annual #1

This is the third part of the "Jason loses his memories" arc. It also has snapshots of Roys' life prior to the Outlaws with Ollie. Oh and another link to his preboot past shows up.

SPOILERS AHEAD

No Booster for me

All Star Western wasn't at my LCS today. I'm not sure if those issues didn't come in or they didn't order them. When I asked the cashier he was surprised they still published it although he said he'd want to read it when I told him Booster Gold was in it. Since I reached my limit for online buying for the month I'll wait until next month before ordering it. Oh well at least I'll be able to read issue 20 and 21 closer together.

Batmans' Grief Induced Madness

To be fair I think Batmans' handling Damian death pretty well in most titles. But Batman and Robin? Not so much. The things he does there are so over the top that you have to wonder if Bruce has lost it and needs to be locked up for everyones' safety. Since many of us are wondering how far he'll go to piss off the people trying to help him I decide to map out Batmans' many crazy schemes and how he screws over his family. I'll be adding to this as the story goes on.

No one Edits the Bat books anymore?

Unless Alfred finds out what a jackass Bruce has been to his other sons I'm fairly certain this doesn't fit with Batman and Robin. Although I would like to see Alfred lay a verbal smack down on Bruce for his actions. Sure Alfred let his behavior in #19 go (including trying to make a zombie Damian, Tim had to have told him that, right?) but I'm pretty sure a well written Alfred would be livid about the later stuff. Anyone want to place bets on what Bruce is going to do to the others?

Sword of Sorcery #8

The last but glorious issue. No back ups just the main tale.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Red Hood and the Outlaws #20

Now we know the why for Jasons' actions last issue thanks to Batman and Red Hood #20. I put most of my feelings over that in that review but I have to say this still feels off to me. Not just the extremely rushed nature of destroying a fragile reconnection between our bats. But there's a whole lot of crap happening to Jason back to back in a lot of titles that has him in some helpless roles more often than not acting as the victim. DOTF, the RHATO DOTF tie ins, Justice League, Batman Inc., Batman and Red Hood (more on a emotional level) and now this. Since this is happening right after Lobdells' issues it feels like I missed an arc and as much as I love the focus on Roy it's not helping that feeling.

Short Review: Birds of Prey #20

Misleading cover but still awesome.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Semi-reviews for Wonder Woman and to a lesser extent Superman

I read a few trades my sister had when I visited her recently.

Old SPOILERS AHEAD

Repacking, Repainting and One Extra figure

I'm not always a fan of companies repacking figures with a few small changes like repaints and different heads for one new figure. At least not with figures I don't care about in the first place. I'm not going to get this set just to get  a new Catwoman figure. That just sucks, Catwoman is the only one I'd want anyway.

 

This is the same with Vibe and Katana.

 

The most unsettling Batman cover ever

The variant for Batman Inc. 10. It's not the fact that their clones that's creepy, it's the fact they all have Robin masks. It's like the answer to Bruces' problem for dying Robins. The only thing that would have made Batman and "insert guest star" more crazy was if he actually did this in the arc.

Yep Bruce was always mean to Jason

Okay they had some good moments but Bruce was still a jerk. As seen here Alfred points out that it's not helping Jasons' self-esteem to constantly be compared to Dick when they train. Although this isn't as troubling as the version of Jasons' origin where Bruce kidnaps him (complete with gagging/tying to a chair) and next thing we know he's Robin.

Now that I think of it Cassandra might be the only one of his adopted kids that he's only fought for her benefit. He'd do it because she could read his intentions and needed to vent. Not surprising since she was the one that could read his emotions so he never had to struggle as much in that department.

Batman and Red Hood #20

I guess this issue starts the unofficial Red Hood month since there are three comics (that I know of) that are coming out with him in May. Although I wasn't too taken with everything Tomasi did with the character last time he used him this is the issue I was looking forward to the most. The Bruce and Jason interaction--when written right--has always been fascinating to read. More so since this will have both directly dealing with another Robins' death and RHATO #19 took place directly after this issue. Since Tynion said Tomasi and him talked over it's placement for his series it should answer the confusion of Jasons' sudden choice that lead to a "rebooting" for the character.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Batwing #20

I get Batwing in tpb so I was concerned about the change from David to Luke. But I wanted to give it a try.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Free Comic Book Day!

I got a few today but each year there's more and more of a selection. I think this was the first time I've seen kids in my LCS. There were a bunch and I had to wait until some of them left before I could even enter. It was that crowded.

Re-introducing Characters for Villains Month?

A couple surprises although not quite the characters some have been asking for (you know the ones that keep coming up.)