Bat Books Issue Review and Contest Winner Announcement

Alright, ladies and gentlemen, it is Wednesday,

December 11th, 2013. It is time to reveal the

contest of EVIL! So... I think it was a special

little note we had put out in between a couple

of the Punisher episodes back in November of

2013, where we announced the contest of Evil.

All you had to do to win a DC Villains Prize

pack, which includes the DC Necessary Evil DVD

and trade paperback, was email me and tell me

who your favorite DC villain is and why. Between

the time that little update went out and This

reveal I pimped that contest post up so many

times over the last Probably month we only got

two entries Yeah, we only got two entries so

apparently people don't like winning free stuff

from the eat cast radio network So we got two

entries, I'm going to read them both. And one

is going to be a grand prize winner, the other

is going to be a runner -up. Both will get prizes.

Not the same prize, but they'll get prizes. So

the first one came from Twitter user Scanner51.

He's been a fan of us on MWIRE and other stuff

as well. He writes in... It is easy to pick the

Joker, but I'm going to pick Lex Luthor. My favorite

version of him is, of course, the DCAU Lex, with

Glancy Brown's voice. He is a man, the smartest

man some say, Metropolis's favorite son. He built

half of the city, employs, according to him,

half of its people. He was at the top. And then

enter a guy who is faster, stronger, and an alien

no less. He is now unseated as the favorite for

another. And what does he do? Plots to get rid

of the new guy. I'm going by DCAU, so in my mind,

they didn't know each other as kids. This is

going to sound crazy, but it is almost a David

and Goliath story. Little human against near

-god alien. The classic mind versus bronze story.

Plus, for some reason I have a soft spot for

a man who comes from nothing and arrives with

nearly everything. Nearly everything. He'll always

be second to an alien. Thanks for reading, Scanner

51. I gotta agree with him. I've always loved

the DC Animated Universe version of Lex Luthor.

because not just in Superman the Animated Series

but what he eventually evolved how his story

evolved through Justice League that was pretty

damn awesome and sometimes pretty creepy yes

all right so the other contest entry we had was

by a longtime fan of ours Mike Carvalho I wonder

if he's related to David Carvalho who I knew

in kindergarten and David's mom was my second

grade teacher anyway First off gotta say great

job in the podcast. I'm having fun listening

to the different shows on the network It's great

because you don't take too seriously or formally,

but just go out and spill your egos all over.

Oh No, wait, I misread that But don't just go

out and spill your egos all over Okay, my favorite

DC villain has to be either Bane or the Joker

But for the sake of the contest, I'll go with

Bane. He had no reason to exist initially, and

as he was solely created to break Batman's back,

and I hated him for that, but they came up with

a character that had genius level intelligence

okay, he's no Lex Luthor, and incredible strength

coupled with a deadly ruthlessness. But in the

proper hands of someone like Gail Simone, he

has become so much deeper, As at the heart of

it, he is still human with human needs. In the

comics, Batman has almost never defeated him.

Batman was lucky to just stop him when they have

met due to his genius and strength. Sorry for

the length of that, I could go on. Love to talk

comics, and again, great job with the podcasts.

Okay, um... I'm just gonna put, uh... No, I can't

do that I was gonna say I was gonna put two Puggles

in a bag, but that won't work I don't know. Which

story did you like better? Hmm I'd have to say

Probably the first one All right I'm in agreement.

As much as Steve and I are both bad whores, Scanner

51, you're gonna get the DC Villains prize pack.

And Mike, you are going to get some other prize

I will have to come up with at a later date.

I do have prizes, they're just not in front of

me. These prizes will be mailed out to you all

probably after the first of the year. Thank you

to both of you for entering the contest. Thank

you for supporting the GCRN It's it's been a

fun ride there will be more contests for the

pull bag in the future. Hopefully more people

enter but yeah, you guys both get free stuff

and Send me an email with your addresses and

we'll talk shop later. So, Scanner, you get the

DC prize pack, the villains, superhero, or supervillains

of DC Comics, DVD, and Trade Paperback. And Mike,

I've got other stuff that I can get for you,

so just shoot me an email with your all's addresses

and we will go from there. Now, on today's episode

of The Pull Bag, this is our 50th episode. Welcome

to The Pull Bag. Join us as we dig out our latest

comics and discuss them with a rotating panel

of the GCRN crew. So sit back and enjoy this

week's Pull Bag. Well, we had the contest real

at the beginning of this episode of The Pull

Bag. This is episode 50. I am your host, if you

don't mind joining me as Steve Megatron. Hello.

Hello. How are you? I'm good, sir. Yes, we're

going to cover a couple of news stories in the

intro, and then we'll get into the reviews. In

the closing of the show, we're also going to

go over the solicitations for the 26 issues,

and we will discuss briefly about other just

overall reviews for other books, other DC books

we've been reading that relate to Batman, obviously,

since this is the Bat Books 25 issue. Okay, first

news story. Batman 28 moves back to 29. Harper

Rowe's future revealed. Spoilers. Thank you,

Joker, for those spoilers. Um, okay, yeah, as

Joker said, there will be spoilers ahead, so

if you don't want to know about this, fast forward

about five or ten minutes or so. Okay, so...

Batman writer Scott Snyder announced today via

Twitter. This was the story was December 10th

The final chapter of Batman zero -year Dark City

will be delayed a month no longer appearing in

Batman 28 Pushing that story originally solicited

for release on February 12th back a month to

allow for an expanded issue Number 28 will instead

be a story set six months in the future of the

current continuity teasing the major Batman Eternal

and Bat Family events of 2014. Oh boy. As I,

and this is Snyder quoting here, as I was finishing

Batman 28 last month, I started to feel that

the issue seemed very cramped. There are a lot

of big moments in it. Superstorms raging, Bat

vehicles whirling, and I was compressing everyone

into a multi -panel page. Snyder wrote, still

to extend the issue would be pressure on Greg,

and with an issue that has key crime alley scenes

and core moments, I didn't want him to have any

pressure. No one is as maniacal about staying

way ahead of his deadlines than Brother Greg

is, and I just thought it'd be cruel to saddle

him with extra pages, especially now with the

holidays. Believe me, if I gave Greg extra pages,

he'd finish them ahead of time no problem, but

why put extra work on my partner and my friend

for being ahead? So he wrote he got together

with the other Gotham writers and started to

brainstorm a standalone tale that could be big

enough to justify putting Zero Year on hold.

The result will be a story written by Snyder

with James Tinney in the fourth, and drawn by

Dustin... Nijin? I assume that's how he says

his name. I don't know. Which will show off a

number of future events including a character

seen right... who appears to be Batman supporting

a character, Harper Rowe, in a version of the

Nightwing costume. And believe me, the issue

will have a lot of surprises. After all the support

you've shown us on Batman and on Zero Year, especially,

we owe you big. Yes, you do. I don't think this

is the way, though. New big like a debt we can

never ever ever repay big with the issue But

with this issue will try very hard to fill the

pages with thank -you spoilers wrote Snyder Since

his identity was revealed during the first issue

of forever evil There has been some speculation

that Batman's adopted son Dick Grayson is in

danger of dying during the event Nightwing writer

Kyle Higgins has resisted fan inquiries about

the future of the character and the title, even

though, while rumors place Grayson in Batman

vs Superman and theoretically suggest that the

character is safe in the long term in the comics,

Roe meanwhile appeared at the start of Snyder's

Batman run and has been widely speculated as

a potential replacement for Damian Wayne, who

recently died as Robin. Snyder has said that

she wasn't designed for that reason, but that

she is a big part of his personal Batman mythology.

Okay, yeah. putting off zero year no no no no

no no just no i'm one i've never cared for this

character like there's no need to create another

sidekick we've already had four i mean honestly

i i just i don't care um two Why revamp a character?

I understand that the forever evil thing with

Dick Grayson But Even if they reveal his identity

and gouge out his eyeball and make him just regularly

Dick Grayson fighting crime Like every other

continuity they've done so far of Nightwing Why

are they having Nightwing's Costume and personality

switching over. That's like kind of a staple

of his flying Grayson's thing Yeah What the hell

does she have to do with it? Like honestly, I

don't Either create a new identity for her or

Don't have her like Batman I thought the entire

and I'm not gonna get into an entire tirade because

that'll be a fun Conversation later. Yes Don't

see the need for Batman to have a sidekick when

they spent the entire death of the family story

arc Proving that he doesn't need a sidekick You

know and having him being alienated from the

rest of them There's Have Batman on his own for

Christ's sake for once I mean, I don't care about

these side characters Yeah Well, just so you

know, they did go ahead in forever evil. I think

it's forever evil number one. They have basically

exposed Grayson's identity to the world so it's

out the secrets out everybody knows so so wouldn't

they think that Bruce Wayne is Batman? Yeah,

let's hope. And this, I don't know if this is

the final design. I don't know if this is a DC

artist that did this, that's in this news story,

which will be in the post. I'm not sure, but

it's basically Harper Rowe mohawked up with a

leather jacket and some nightwing armor under

her small -ass leather jacket. I don't like this

design at all. This can't be proper. Don't think

it's proper anyway because she has guns Yeah,

that's true. So yeah All right, so really quickly

the other news story is DC Comics jumps forward

five years with weekly the new 52 futures and

When free comic book day hits in May 2014 DC

Comics will take advantage of the industry's

annual celebration to launch readers of its new

52 titles five years into the future. The new

52 futures end is a weekly series written by

Jeff Lemire, Keith Geffen, Brian Azzarello, and

Dan Juergens. According to Lemire the title which

launches with a zero issue on FCBD and with the

number one arriving in stores later in the month,

will explore not only the future of the DCU,

but its past and present as well. Really what

we're trying to do with this book is to explore

the nature of what a hero is, and we're doing

that obviously by playing with the future of

the New 52 timeline, Lemire told the AP News.

Past, present, and future all colliding in this

storyline. DC has been dropping hints of its

five years later plan for several months now.

The most blatant being a shot of co -publisher

Dan DiDio's whiteboard in an episode of DC All

Access, featuring a look at several logo treatments.

The whiteboard also featured what appeared to

be a sketch of the Batman Beyond version of the

Dark Knight. With today's announcement, we see

that it was part of Ryan Suke's cover art for

the Zero Issue. Artists on the weekly series

will include Ethan VanSkyver, who kicks things

off with the Zero Issue. Jesus, Marino, Aaron

Lopresci, and Juergens with more artists coming

and going as the series progresses. What do you

think of jumping into the future? I don't mind

the jumping into the future thing. I just wish

that they'd stop jumping around. Yeah, I can

agree with that. And again, I'll get into a further

tirade later on, but this... You know doing zero

year forever evil Arkham war the future end,

you know, it's It's so convoluted already like

It's it's only been around two years It took

them 70 years to get convoluted in the other

series. I Mean, I mean seriously, it's it's I

while I do love the new 52 the art and the stories

and everything wish that they'd stop trying to

tie everything in with a major event or or try

and have you know six issues of Batman and or

six different series of Batman and having you

know small repercussions ripple into other issues

and It's just have some standalone shit and just

stand by it Yep All right, we are gonna get into

the reviews after this word I'm sorry, your answer

must be in the form of a question. Thank you

for playing. Wait. I have a riddle for you. For

me. Really? Tell me. I see without seeing. To

me, darkness is as clear as daylight. What am

I? Please! You're as blind as a bat! Exactly.

Alright folks, the moment you've all been waiting

for, we're gonna talk about the zero year tie

-ins. Good lord. We have those? Yes. So... For

the 25 issues for a lot of the 25 issues They

DC did zero -year tie -ins we have We have four

times that we're gonna talk about and then we'll

actually talk about Batman 25 the first step

of those is red hood and the outlaws What dark

figure controls the destiny of Jason Todd? oh

it's so obvious oh yes but think of the fun what

fun uh so this issue this was the last issue

i read because it was the last to come out when

the 25s were coming out Um, I only picked it

up because I was curious to see how they were

gonna handle a Jason Todd origin in the new 52

And they handle it pretty good and they handle

it very creepy Especially with the Joker Because

it looks like he pretty much has no face Whatsoever

It's it's a pretty cool issue and I was pretty

surprised when the Full -page man of steel had

popped up. No, I'm sorry I'm pretty surprised

about who the woman is and I Like the story I

think it's interesting I like seeing Jason on

kind of like a mission of his own I like the

implication that the Joker is behind the scenes

kind of directing traffic but that Jason's friend

actually said hey we can be Red Hood 3 and Red

Hood 4 from the Red Hood gang from zero years

so that was an interesting way to to get Jason

to put the hood on the art I really love the

art looks really really cool what did you think

of did you read Red Hood and Outlaws? No, but

now that you mention that, I might want to pick

it up. Yeah. But it's very, very cool and very,

very interesting. The art is all very well done.

And yeah, I mean, it's a shocker when you read

through it because throughout the entire issue,

Might get an inkling of who the woman is that's

that's facing off against Jason and his friend

But you don't really understand until the very

last page Of the book when you see race show

up Nice but it was it was pretty awesome. All

right, so I Wrote a written review of this and

I wrote in the written room. They'll be like

I wrote something in effect of, you might be

asking, but why TF2 and Mike are you writing

a written review of a comic series you don't

even read? When I heard that Detective Comics

was going to do a zero -year issue origin kind

of of Jim Gordon, I have been clamoring for them

to do something like, I haven't even read Gotham

Central yet, but I know what it is. It basically

focuses on the GCPD. I have been clamoring for

them to do something like this on television,

which supposedly Fox will be doing soon. Let's

not go down that rabbit hole. But yeah, Detective

25. It's got Batman in the background, Jim Gordon,

and the GCPD. The corrupt GCPD basically going

against him. I loved this issue. Hello? Yes.

Okay. You did grab this, right? Detective 25?

Yes. Yes. Okay. It was quite good seeing Gordon

whooping ass. Yeah, on the corrupt GCPD. Yeah,

I mean, and then you get to see, you know, the

Black Mask gang and the Red Hood gang and certain

elements of that, which you kind of get to see

in Arkham Origins, too. But a lot of this stuff,

if you've seen Batman Year One... Yeah, it's

very similar. A lot of it's, like, verbatim.

Yeah, it's very similar. The coolest thing...

I nearly... I nearly lost my... I nearly lost

my shit when it happened. But it's a monologue

between... it's a monologue... internal monologue

with Jim. There's no way I should have survived

that fall. But I signaled for help. And somehow...

I just knew. I knew what was coming, but just

that one pause. Somehow help came. And... The

whole thing about... I knew as soon as he pulled

out the flashlight... in the first part of the

book, I was like, yeah, he's gonna have a minibad

signal. And then he goes on to say, next time

I'll get a bigger light. I freaking love that.

Because it's so nice. It really is. I love Batman

just as much as you do. But I love it when he's

more subtle. When it's not focused on him. Or

when it's not focused on what Rich kid issues

Bruce Wayne has this week But yeah detective

25 it was simply awesome I absolutely loved it

the art by by fae book Jason fae book was amazing

John Lehman as the writer It's if I was doing

an award show for 2013 for comics detective comics

might be the story of the year for me It was

that damn good Did you have any other thoughts

on detective um my main complaint with it And

I liked it don't get me wrong. I liked it all

until the very last few pages What the hell is

DC's infatuation with the goddamn man bat I Know

I don't get it like I think that that is the

worst freaking character And they have it interacting

in every line. It's in Batman. It's in Detective

Comics. It's in Batman Beyond. Oh, so you read

Chapter 9, did you? Yes. I was not pleased. I

freaking hate the Man -Bat. I agree with you

to a certain extent, although because... and

we'll get in... I agree with you to a certain

extent. In the core of New 52, I agree. Yes.

Don't use Manbat. However, in the DCAU, especially

where the continuity is for Beyond, I want to

see where that's going to go. But we'll talk

about that at the end of the show. All right.

Now, this was the biggest one that I was like,

I'm not sure about this. Batgirl 25. It is not

written by Gail Simone. It is written by Marguerite

Bennett with Fernando Pasteren and Jonathan Glapion

on inks and colors and pencils and all that.

As soon as I saw this, that Gail wasn't writing

it, I was like, oh, guess I won't be reading

Batgirl 25. and then i read which this these

links will also be in the in the in the post

so people can go read them or go look at them

i saw two interviews online with marguerite bennett

uh and i read those and she basically said that

she wanted to you know write something free get

the start of gales run but still be True to the

character that Gale created for Barbara and background

25 really does that I mean it's It's basically

Barbara before she puts on the cape and before

she ever even meets Bruce Wayne The art as always

is amazing what I love about this what I love

about these first piece Even in Batgirl, the

first issues of Batgirl, even in Batgirl Zero,

they pretty much tell you James Jr. is a psychopathic

murderer, or he will be, he will become a psychopathic

murderer. They basically tell you that day one.

And you see Barbara interacting with him and

with Jim, and Jim's whole thing is, because this

takes place right after the blackout in Zero

Year, So right after Riddler turned the lights

out, Jim has to go to work. And he's telling

Barbara, you have to protect the homestead. And

it's simply, simply awesome. The art in it is

fantastic. The story is very well structured.

Absolutely love everything about it. Basically,

they are forced out into the storm. They basically

can't... They can't stay at their house anymore

because it got flooded. And the title of the

story is called Homestead because Jim tells her

to protect the homestead. As the story progresses,

she realizes Gotham City is the homestead that

he was telling her to protect. So yeah, it was

very awesome, very interesting. I absolutely

love it all around. Had you looked at this one?

Uh, no. Yeah. It's a really good, well -structured

story. It's very believable. There were a couple

of times that the bad guy in this that I thought

he was going to turn out to be somebody else,

but it didn't happen. Yeah, Batgirl 25 was simply

awesome. And now we get to the adopted son of

Bruce Wayne. Oh boy. Nightwing 25 has the best

and most misdirected beginning I have ever seen

to this point in my almost two years of reading

comics. The cover is basically... young Dick

Grayson with a red mask over his eyes and it

basically starts off people are always saying

people are always saying when they read new 52

oh the Nightwing suit it's red I don't like red

go back to blue blah blah blah blah blah shut

up you stupid people in the very beginning you

see a giant scene with all these characters and

one of them has it's not the Nightwing costume

directly but it's an homage to it that's very

cool the title of this one is One Dark City Night

and this first page you're wondering wait a minute

where's Nightwing where's Batman what's going

on here and then you turn to the second page

you pull back Dick Grayson having a night at

the movies oh man I absolutely love this this

is such a cool story and eventually what happens

is he The lights go out in the theater, and everybody's

like, hey, I want my money back. Oh, no, the

movie. Fix the projector. And they're like, my

cell phone's out. Mine, too. Mine, too. So they

realize that it's a blackout because the blackout

happens as the movie's playing. They realize

it's a blackout. And Dick Grayson finally gets

home. Or we then transition to three hours earlier.

So they have the whole blackout thing and the

mass panic and then we transition to three hours

earlier where we see Dick doing the Trapeze Act

with his parents who are alive at this point.

I was kind of skeptical about this and my only

real knowledge of John and Mary Grayson is when

Two -Face killed them in Batman Forever. So I

was really excited to see in this zero year how

Kyle Higgins was going to handle these characters.

And it's pretty much your average parents. I

mean sure they're circus performers but... You

know, Dick did something wrong, he kind of abandoned

his friends a little bit or disrespected them

and his parents are like, look, you need to make

up for this or you need to, you know, take care

of this and do the right thing. So he, he still

doesn't at first, he goes out on his own and

that's how we got to the theater. But then he

runs into these three other kids and this giant

Monster looking thing and they have to basically

escape it. It's It's a pretty cool cool thing

and it comes full circle where You know, they're

like, you know his his friends that he was with

originally They're you know, he's like look,

I'm sorry you guys I you know cuz cuz their whole

thing is oh, it's Dick Grayson He's the star

of the circus. None of the rest of us get any

spotlight cuz that the friends are Raymond and

Raya and they you know he's you know he he acts

like a in this issue he's acting like a spoiled

rich kid pretty much because he's the star of

the basically take any Hollywood actor that has

an overinflated ego that's what Dick Grayson

is acting like in this issue And by the end of

it, he's like, hey, we can be a team. We can

be this. We can be that. It doesn't have to just

be me. And he makes up with his friends. Overall,

really, really fun issue to read. Has a lot of

nods to Batman's or every now. The damn thing

opens in a movie theater. If that's not Bruce's

origin. Before his parents die. I don't know

what is All right, it's time to get to the meat

of this podcast episode No potatoes no potatoes

damn That man in black because I can't Well,

sometimes I love and I loathe DC, but they did

something really interesting with this. Not only

is the Batman 25 cover embossed, it is entirely

blacked out. The only thing you can see on this

cover is the UPC That is printed on the cover,

but like I had to actually hold it up to my face

to see DC Comics 25 499 Scott Snyder, Greg Cabello,

Danny Mickey. So they basically blacked everything

out. I think that's really cool. Yeah, I mean,

I I'm. I like the cover, yeah, it's it's interesting

to say the least. Wish they were to blacked out

the back of it, too Yeah, I'm just nitpicking

it's I agree I wish there wasn't an ad on the

back for some James Dashner novel or whatever

it is But no, I mean, it's it's a really inventive

cover. I've never seen anything like it. Honestly,

it's it's actually quite neat I love the embossing

on it and the fact that none of it stands out

very much Yep, very very very cool So we open

with a fleet of Megatrons Steve no that was That

was a bad dark in the moon joke Again no being

a trucker you dumb truck Nice way around that

bomb So we have this this trucker scene out in

the desert somewhere and I Don't I don't know.

I'm not exactly sure what the heck is going on

in this first scene I Mean outside of the holy

door in the floor. Yeah I'm unsure Yeah, I'm

very unsure I do like the title page of zero

year dark city with what looks to be Gotham on

fire And then you see an eyeball with the state

kind of I like that visual. I think that's really

cool And then we get the Commissioner and the

deputy mayor Not sure who that is We get this

whole scene it reminds me if there wasn't some

weird blimp a blimp that the commissioners in

if that wasn't some weird -looking blimp or If

it wasn't a close -up on the on what the blimp

cockpit looks like this middle part of the panel

almost reminds me of BTIS All I know the the

art Yeah, the art and colors actually throughout

most the issue almost reminded me of btas like

the the the new adventures Yeah, yeah the red

sky So let me turn the page and we see the zero

-year Batmobile I Don't like it in a black. It's

blue with flames It's blue with flames and optimus

should be ashamed I Just I don't like it I'm

trying here, dude. I'm trying this thing looks

like It looks like a cross between a 1920s car

the tumbler and I don't know what else because

that next page where it shows it doing its jump

of magnificence, it's just frickin' weird. Um...

Boing? Boing? It's clinging! Clinging to what?

The wall. Uh... I know you want to make that

comment. Which one was it? Yeah, it was, yeah.

That Batmobile's gonna stick there forever, you

know that, right? I thought you were gonna do

the chameleon to the wall. Oh, no, no, no, no,

no. Tito does not get a Batmobile. So then we

go to Jim Gordon, who is at some... See, this

is where Zero Year kinda nose -dives for me.

I have no... no idea even though i read this

and i understood the story just looking at the

images looking at the art i have no idea what's

supposed to be going on just based on that um

but they're at some crime scene i guess and the

next page the top of the next page where it says

a terrorist just crippled the city the whole

thing from looks at it There's a major storm

bearing down on the area. Renee, according to

the pretty people on the news, old Renee could

even be a super storm. That panel right there,

I love Batman Shadow. Yeah, so awesome. So very,

very awesome. Yeah, I gotta say, unless it's...

Gordon going against Wayne or vice versa this

whole I guess it's dr. Death or death or something

or this whole guy this whole creepy guy in this

hood with this Weird -ass looking face and body

and these claw. It's basically monster of the

month. I Don't know I don't get it It's too weird

for well they Yeah, I don't like these new ones

but They introduced Isley in here. I think it's

also interesting that Gordon actually found the

Batcave. And then Lucius Fox is a douchebag.

Yeah, I It's like commissioner you rang When

first pops up, I thought that was so awesome

He doesn't actually doing here. I'm investigating

you Yeah I'll let you in my back cave I'm gonna

drop that Yeah, why don't you take a look go

on? It's fine Alfred. He wants to see let him

All right Look look look presses a button Queen

but now I do like that image That is pretty cool

all the bats flying out in front of goodness

Gordon's face. I like that yeah, and then Lucius

loses his shit and I get this is supposed to

be a zero year and it's not supposed to be the

Lucius we all know and whatever else, but Lucius

looks weird to me. He doesn't even look Morgan

Freeman -esque in this. Well, he's also supposed

to be bad. Yeah, there is that. God, he looks

like Baxter Stockman from the Turtles comics.

He does. So yeah, we get the... We get this...

death character thing. I don't like it. I don't

like it. It looks goofy. It just... I don't like

the directions. Like, I don't like the directions

Zero Year's going in. This is too weird. And

I'm gonna say this coming up in Pullback Episode

52 as well whenever we get around to recording

that next week or so. because Batman 26 builds

on what happened here and I just don't I don't

know man it's just weird because you see death

and then we cut back to the trucker scene which

I have no idea why the trucker scene is it because

that they the the holy door in the floor is that

where death was so they released him is that

kind of what this is supposed to be i don't have

a clue i i honestly don't have a clue what the

hell's going on here i don't have a clue either

and um and as far as the backup story i i didn't

read it i'm sorry like this this was a double

i i think this was a double size issue and for

five dollars It was expensive. The only interesting

thing for me, I like a lot of the nods, like

the nod like, holy darn the floor and the different

nods to the different Batman mythology. The only

good thing about this issue for me is the cover.

Yep. Yep. All right, we're gonna take a quick

break and then we're gonna come back and briefly

go over other issues that we've read and also

some Solicitations for the 26 issues. So we'll

be back after this All right, we are back and

So I'm gonna talk about some issues that I've

I've picked up but I'm not gonna give a full

review on Batman and two -faced both the 24 and

the 25 issue I have tried reading them. The 25

issue has an awesome cover, which it's very BTAS

style. It basically uses the Harvey Dent coin

to cover up what I assume is Kerry Kelly's face

or something. I don't know. I've pretty much

lost all interest in the Batman and series because

Peter J. Tomasi had it set up for the next arc

where you had to have read parts of Two Faces

Villains Month episode... Well, you had to read

Two Faces Villains Month issue, which I did,

and I liked it. I thought it was cool. But then

he also wrote into Arkham War and how that plays

out, and that is supposed to carry over into

this and... I'm just not interested in the story.

As much as I like Two -Face and as much as I

like Batman, the art is amazing, but the story

itself, I'm just not that into it. This wasn't

going to be full coverage on the show because...

I don't know... Wanted to try it out, but I'm

not gonna pick it up as a monthly But Harley

Quinn has gotten a new monthly ongoing and I

had picked up number zero it is written by Amanda

Connor and Jimmy Palmiotti and it has Harley

says it herself on the cover 17 artists all telling

me how good I look eat your heart out putting

I like Harley It's an interesting issue, but

it's basically a Ferris Bueller issue if Ferris

Bueller was an evil clown wench is really what

it is because she constantly The entire issue

she makes nods to real -life people she mentions

Dick Sprang she mentions a bunch of people and

it's a bunch of stories and a bunch of different

art styles and I just For a zero issue, I would

have rather they had done something like a Harlequin

origin or something. Something other than what

we have. Yeah, that's kind of the same agreement.

Yeah, so I won't be... I'm sure people will love

the Harley ongoing. I'm not one of them. And

we've got the final one I'm going to talk about

is... Batman Beyond universe number four this

collects This collects Justice League stories

and it also collects the Chapters is it for Batman

Beyond? This is why sometimes I don't like getting

the print issues for this series because It will

put one story ahead of the other and the but

for me the Batman Beyond story should always

be the first story since that's the name of the

dang book I mean So for Batman Beyond this is

I believe chapter Seven six and seven maybe Or

seven and eight. I don't remember off top man.

I think it's seven and eight but Basically what

happens here is you've got more of rewires plan

you basically you have the the GCPD Batman and

all them trying to plan to capture rewire Oh,

I know, I know, I know where this picks up. You

got GCPD along with Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson

trying to figure out how they're going to capture

Rewire. In the last issue, we had Terry floating

down the river. Well, he lands back in the Batcave

because the suit autopiloted to... that's where

it's supposed to go whenever something really,

really bad happens. So we see the cave for the

first time in a long time We see that Bruce basically

figured out the entire story that Rewire is Davis

dusk who is the mayor's son the mayor died the

mayor Davis dusk killed his father in the first

issue of this series We get a really really cool

shot of Bruce and ace and Terry's flying off

in the background Because Bruce repaired the

suit and all that We get a cool Couple of cool

scenes with Terry and dick and and all that and

Barbara with the the the vent the now mayor and

then we get scenes with rewire and Batman and

it's basically rewire and Batman round two and

Batman pretty much cleans his clock for the most

part and they trap him I'm liking Batman Beyond

Steve and I I'm sure down the line We will go

the Batman Beyond stuff will be covered more

in depth in Future like separate episodes from

the bat books. Oh, yeah, I'm telling you guys

You really need to pick this series up. It is

damn good It really, really is. I really suggest

picking up the digital chapters over the print

issue. I know it's nice to see the stuff in print.

Again, my only problem with the Beyond universe

is that they include both Justice League and

Batman Beyond in the same book. But other than

that, that's it. Before we close out the show...

I'm going to read the Solicits for the 26 issues

for The Bat Books, which will appear in episode

52 of The Pull Bag. See what I did there? See

what I did there? 26 and 26 is 52. Ha ha ha!

Anyway. Batman 26 zero year continues with Gotham

City thrown into total chaos by the Riddler Batman

and Jim Gordon must learn to work together. This

issue is also offered as a combo pack edition

Yeah, well Batgirl 26 the shocking conclusion

of the Batgirl wanted can Barbara save her father's

life without compromising the truth about her

brother's death Nightwing 26 with the events

of forever evil looming Nightwing enters the

final stages of his life as he knows it Detective

Comics 26 Batman works to contain a swarm of

genetically altered killer bats as well as Shebat

and other humans who have mutated into bat people

I'm guessing you're not gonna like that nope

Alright, and Batman Beyond Universe number 5.

In the fallout of Rewire's attack on Neo Gotham,

one of the original Batman's foes makes a shocking

return. Dun dun dun. My bad. Yes. But that isn't

what the greatest part about that issue is actually.

Alright, so any final thoughts before we close

this out? I know I think that sums it up. Alright,

for now I am TF2 and Mike with Steve Megatron

Phillips. Make your great escape into comics.

Join us next week when we go sewer surfing. Give

me a triple. Now. You just heard the latest episode

of the Pull Bag, GCRN's comic book review podcast.

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