death

Batman Incorporated #8 – Death of Robin (Damian Wayne)

robin-batman-inc-8-coverJust like everyone else, I rushed out to my local comic book store to pick up the most recent issue of Batman Incorporated #8. This is the issue touted as the death of Robin, better known as Damian Wayne, who is the son of Batmand (Bruce Wayne for those of you in a closet for the past 50 years) and Talia Al Ghul. As expected it was sold out at 11am today which, if you have been in a closet for a while, is new comic book release day. I have no idea how an issue this momentous can be out of stock an hour or so after the store opens. Either too few issues were ordered or too many issues were held back and saved to sell at a higher price later. Either way, I decided to pick up issue #7 to see the lead in to his death.

Actually I picked up issue #1 when it first came out and I was not a fan of the story or the artwork so I bagged, boarded and put it away in a box. After reading #7 I decided to order the digital copy of #8 from Comixoligy on my iPad. I have to say that app is pretty cool and I like the way I can easily zoom in and out of the panels.

So here is the play by play in case you can’t get a copy of it either and want to know what happens. Oh yeah, spoiler alert possibility here. Page one, Robin is flying in this jet powered Robin suit and thru his green tinted goggles he comes up on Gotham and further on he sees Commissioner Gordon and Nightwing battling a bunch of kids who happen to be under some spell, each chanting Leviathan. Next page shows Robin flying through the crowd knocking one of the kids over. As he pulls a fly by he drops some smoke bombs on the crowd thereby helping Gordon and Nightwing. Next page he is flying towards Wayne Enterprises Tower where it just so happens Batman is locked in a safe in a pool on the roof. (Talia and Damian’s cloned and super grown brother locked him in there). Next page Batman is listening to Talia drone on and on about nothing really while he picks the locks of his chains and works he way out of the safe. You really don’t see how it happens. Next page Red Robin shows up and walks in to the lobby of Wayne Towers. Fake receptionist, security guard and guy mopping the floor try to take him out, some woman yells for him to look out.

By the way, I have completely lost interest by now. Next page, battle with those three fakes with a little help from the woman who yelled. Next page he knocks a guy out with a mop and dives out-of-the-way, saving the girl, from an army of assassins on the next floor that are shooting at them with machine guns. Blah blah blah, he swings away to save the day. Next page while swinging away he kicks over a massive quarter that rolls in to the steps leading up to the assassins and they all fall over. Unfortunately the plane that he was swinging from falls over and he is under the plane wreckage. More assassins going in for the kill but they turn and yell “What’s that Noise?” Next page, TA DA, it’s Robin flying through the glass window front of the building shooting his wrist guns at everyone. Somehow the kids that were fighting someone else, miles away, are now in the same area as Red Robin and now new Robin. Robin kicks some kid in the face and…Next Page he is fighting guys in white shirts and pants as well as all these kids. The kids are all wet and somehow the rocket jet suit Robin is wearing shoots out electricity and electrocutes them all. Most likely they are not all dead. Final panel, Nightwing comes flying through the glass as well on a motorcycle. Looks like the gang is all here. Next page, Nightwing and Robin bond while hiding behind the Wayne Enterprises concrete receptionist area. Assassins are shooting away at them and missing death-of-robin-175x300with every shot. Oh no one of them has a missile launcher and is aiming right at them. More witty banter back and forth while the boys bond and finally they throw some kind of ball over their head behind them at all the assassins. Next page, big explosion and Nightwing and Robin jump over the barrier to kick everyone’s ass as a woman hiding under the tank watches. Next page, too much smoke all the assassins cannot see what is going on but they aim in to the smoke anyway. Out of the elevator comes the much older clone of Damian holder this small box with two chef looking armed guards. Through the smoke Nightwing and Damian and fighting their way through the crowd. Bad guy clone looks on with a question mark bubble out of his ear. Next page both Nightwing and Damian simultaneously punch bad guy clone in the jaw doing no damage at all. Nightwing tells Damian to get out and run away but bad guy grabs Nightwing by the throat and throws him in to some glass case housing a knight in armor. Damian tells bad guy he is going to kill him. Next page, assassins aim at Damian but bad guy waves them off saying no, basically let him for me. Bad guy clone grabs the sword that is now available from the broken case that Nightwing fell in to which is very timely. Next page the battle begins and Damian jumps up as bad guy swings the sword at him breaking more glass, this time with another suit in it that has a spear. You guessed it, Robin (yes I switch back and forth from Damian to Robin) grabs the spear and they go at each other. By the way Robin is 10 years old and looks like a toddler compared to everyone else. Finally bad guy clone kicks Robin in to yet another glass case (face first)…Next page he is laying there asking Talia (mother) to stop the madness and why can’t we all just get along. The chick that was hiding under the tank shows up holding the, very aptly named, World Bomb Trigger. Bad guy asks for it and says give. Robin now has a crossbow…which he got from the most recent glass case smashed open by his face and aims at bad guy. Final panel he says that he promised his dad (the Batman) that he would never kill anyone again but it seems he is going back on that word now. Final image shows the crossbow arrow going through bad guy clone’s heart. Next page…and this is where is gets a bit weird, believe it or not. There are 20 tiny image boxes that show this battle which is EXTREMELY tough to follow where back and forth Damian hits bad guy and vice versa. In one cool panel bad guy clone pulls a Bane and cracks Damian’s back over his knee but he shouts NO like you are not going to break my back like my dad’s back was broken oh so long ago…nope, nah ah. Meanwhile the assassins on the wall shoot arrows in to both little Robin and bad guy clone, who also seems to be on fire somehow that I missed. Robin shouts out that they are cowards for not fighting hand to hand and bad guy clone grabs Robin with his flaming arm and chokes him. Robin spits blood in to the hole in bad guy’s mask while little girl runs away batman_incorporated_spoilerwith the World Bomb Trigger. Bad guy yet again throws Robin in to a wall head first and goes after him with the sword. Bad guy is still on fire and completely unfazed. Next panel?…?Batman is finally crawling out of the pool after getting out of the locked safe…seriously it took him a long time. Some huge bat comes swooping in and knocks him down over the side of the building…that is what you get for battling in the penthouse. Out of no where bad guy clone has Robin up in the air with the sword completely through is gut/chest area…Next page? Batman is cradling Robin all bloody and beaten on the ground as the young girl still hold the World Bomb Trigger (WBT)…smaller panels shows Talia crying for her now dead son.

Ok…seriously what the Hell am I missing? 1. How does bad guy stab through Robin and hold him up in the air? 2. Why is Batman not dead after falling from the top floor of Wayne Towers with this huge bat wrapped around him? 3. Where the Hell is bad guy clone and why would he just leave Robin bloody on the ground and run away? 4. Who the Hell is this chick in red holding the weird World Bomb Trigger and WTF is a World Bomb Trigger? 5. Why didn’t bad guy clone Damian guy go after the WBT after stabbing Robin through the gut/chest area and complete whatever his mission was?

There is a good chance this may be one of the most overrated and very quickly hyped comic I have ever read. I mean…Grant Morrison is really good and I like the way he writes but this story just sucks. I am a fan of the Bat stories, for the most part, but this is just stupid. Wait until my next post on the Death of the Family storyline that I also just finished. By the way, can we please not have another Robin right now, I mean we have Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin and a dead kid named Damian that I was sort of getting used to in reading Batman & Robin. I would love to get some comments and debate this a with anyone because I think this could possibly be a good thing. I think it could make Batman better and go where the fucking Death of the Family storyline failed to go. Like I said, my next rant is going to be on that back alley massage without a happy ending.

I’ll leave you with one final thought. a Death in the Family (circa 1988) is to LOST as Death of Damian (2013) is to Barney and his Friends…Nuff said.

The Walking Dead – Season 2 Episode 12

Because of conflicting TV shows Sunday night, I was only able to watch the most recent episode tonight and it was REALLY worth the wait. The wife and I have multiple shows we like that are on different nights so we alternate to keep things fair. Next week is going to be the finale so I have to watch it real time. FYI, mucho grande spoiler alert if you have not yet seen the episode.

This episode starts off with the burial of Dale and four of the more aggressive characters (except T-Dog) going out and taking their aggressions on some harmless flesh eating zombies. The episode moves along and for a while it’s just some background character story with Lori telling Shane how much she cares for him and how thankful she is for what he did for them. Also, Carl confides in him about seeing the zombie that killed Dale in the mud and how he couldn’t shoot him. And then finally, Shane confronts the kid in the barn and is conflicted on how to kill or get rid of him. After dwelling on it, smacking himself around trying to figure it out, he decides to let him go. Well, not really. Instead he concocts a plan to make it look like he escaped by smacking his face on a tree and get the group riled up to go after him. You don’t really know it yet but once it’s all over you can see how the writers were ramping up the Shane character only to kill him off. What is it about T-Dog that makes him such a background character, he’s almost a non character.

Moving right along we find Shane, Rick, Daryl and Glenn going after the kid who “escaped”. Daryl and Glenn eventually stumble on to him and he is now a zombie. However, he is a zombie without being bit. For as backwoodsy and redneckish as Daryl is, he’s smart and he notices things. Not to mention he figures things our very quickly and formulates plans effectively. Back with Rick and Shane, they are going out farther and farther away from everyone. As time passes Rick figures it out and realizes Shane is going to make his play and try to get rid of him. What I don’t know is how Carl gets out that far without anyone else knowing he’s gone and more directly, how did he track them?

Anyway, things happen, plans unfold and Shane decides he is going to Kill Rick. Blah blah blah, they talk back and forth and finally Rick is able to pull a knife and stab him. Carl meanwhile sees this all unfold from afar and pulls his gun. The screen has weird zombie flashes that don’t make much sense to me until they flash to Shane with his eyes glassed over and very subtly twitching. What they were trying to portray was the Zombification of of Shane due to dying and not just being bit. While walking and talking to Carl Rick does not see or hear Shane get up and start walking towards them. Carl being the “crackshot” that he is shoots Shane in the head thereby killing him…again.

Final scene is a hoard of zombies walking over the foggy meadow towards the farm. Ok, don’t get me wrong as I love this show…however, some things don’t always make the the most sense to me. This time for instance is the whole Carl making his way out there and shooting Shane in the head concept. 1. He is a kid and can’t have that good of aim yet. 2. He in no way could track them that well. 3. how did his mother let him out of her sight long enough for him to get there when there is supposedly a crazy kid on the loose who could get the jump on Shane and run loose.

The entire time I am watching the episode unfold I am on the edge of my seat. I’ve become so invested in the characters that I felt horrible when Dale was gutted and they had to shoot him. Not to mention I sort of felt bad for the kid they had locked up because he may have been a product of his environment. And, the whole background story between Glenn and Maggie is quite touching and give the show a bit of hope for new romance. So you can see I am a fan and the show itself has me engaged enough to blog about it. What I think happened was they need to edit it in to the right length for an episode and ended up editing too much. Or, they did not think through how Rick ends up killing Shane twice. Since it is about zombies, or walkers, and end of days type stuff you have to think they would get a bit hokey. As long as people are watching, talking, blogging, tweeting and discussing it, they must be doing something right. Especially since I cannot miss an episode.

Regardless, I really do love this show and for as much as I am trying to rationalize a world full of zombies, the writing is top notch. How are they going to replace a main character like Shane? Are they going to promote Daryl or T-Dog to be a more prominent part of the team? Will they pick up another person along the way? How will the Shane/Zombie story effect Lori and Carl and their relationship with Rick? How are they going to survive the next episode with tons of walkers coming after them, making it through the barb fence and attacking them all? And most importantly what is up with the the dead characters becoming zombies without being bit? Has the virus mutated? Is it airborne or in the water or food supply? Are their carriers who and not infected until their heart stops and then it manifests? So many questions and I have so few answers.

So I leave you with this image…RIP Dale.

Tell me what you think…I am dying to hear it.