Bat Books Issues #27

This is Kevin Connolly, and I am the Goddamn

Batman. Welcome to The Pole Bag. Join us as we

dig out our latest comics and discuss them with

the rotating panel. on the GCRN crew. So sit

back and enjoy this week's Pull Bag. Hello and

welcome to the Pull Bag. This is episode 55.

I am your host TFG1Mike and joining me is Steve

Megatron. Hello. Hello, hello, hello. He got

rid of the guitar, ladies and gentlemen. There's

no more slash. Hello. And you find people might

have realized, hey, this episode was supposed

to be out a week ago. Well, blame DC. Actually

blame the - Mother Nature. Yeah, I was gonna

say - She's a bitch. Yeah, yeah. Blame Mother

Nature because the entire country was in a Arctic

frozen and lots and lots of snow and Steve was

in the middle of most of it. Yeah, they can go

to hell. Other nature, I mean. Yes, I know what

you mean. So last week I released the first Back

Issue Classics where Joe Reed and I discussed

IDW's TMNT Volume 1. So if you find people who

listen to that, leave us feedback, let us know

what you like, what you don't like. In this episode

we're going to be talking about the Bat Books,

the 27 issues, but before we get to that... We

have several things to go over. First of all,

Kyle Higgins has left Nightwing after issue 29.

He now joins Batman Eternal. The article I originally

saw this on was News in Rama, but the article

I have pulled up is IGN, so I'm just going to

read this verbatim. just to let everybody know

I'm gonna do it. Former Nightwing writer Kyle

Higgins has joined the writing team of DC weekly

series Batman Eternal. Higgins departed Nightwing

as of issue 29, which hasn't come out yet, but

you know how these things go, leaving James Tinney

in the fourth to write the series finale in issue

number 30. Yeah, I'll talk about that later.

Batman Eternal is a year -long story by writer

Scott Snyder. Tinian, Ray Fox, Tim Seeley, and

formerly John Layman. After completing work on

the first month's work of issues, Layman left

the project to focus on Chu and his other creator

-owned work, which has allowed Higgins to join

in. A lot is happening for Higgins this year.

He also announced a new series with Alex Siegel

and Rod Rice at Image Comics called Cowl. This

creator -owned comic features the world's first

organized superhero labor union and is set in

the 1960s. um cowl is something that uh i'm very

excited for from kyle because it originated out

of his student film entitled the league so it's

those characters from his 27 minute student film

and i saw that and i was like oh this is pretty

cool because in the lead character um the gray

raven i can kind of see adam west batman and

in the in some of the other characters i can

see other even though they're not Batman vs.

Wayne and all that. I can see his influences

from those characters. I'm pissed off about the

Nightwing thing. I don't know why they wouldn't

just let him wrap it up for himself. Taking him

off after 29, it just doesn't seem like good

business. Not allowing the writer that is Basically

relaunch the title for you. There may have been

another reason behind that though Well, there

may have been but I just I don't like that at

all And we also have the April 2014 solicitations

that came out Extremely late everybody else had

their solicitations up Way more than a week ago

at this point, but DC put theirs out on January

21st for April 2014 I'm going to go through most

of the bat ones here. I'm not going to go through

all of them, but I'm going to go through most

of them. Batman Eternal, number one through four.

This is releasing all April long. 9th, 16th,

23rd, and 30th. So the first four issues of Batman

Eternal all April long. I'm interested. I'm kind

of wondering where this is going to tie in and

don't. You know, I don't know. So issue one says,

Gotham City's best and worst examine the relationship

between Batman, his allies, his city, and the

debut issue, Commissioner James Gordon is caught

in the wrong side of the law. Number two, the

solicitor is an notorious Batman adversary appears

for the first time in the new 52 continuity.

I don't know exactly who that could be. considering

most of them are already here. Number three,

a gang war erupts in Gotham City, but the GCPD

doesn't plan to help Batman stop it, plus the

return of fan -favorite Batman supporting character

Stephanie Brown. I never read her Batgirl series,

so I'll have to go back and read that first,

I guess, because I know nothing about the character

whatsoever other than the fact that she was Batgirl

at one point. And number four is Batman Battles

Batgirl as Jim Gordon's troubles take a turn

for the worse. How excited or not excited are

you for Eternal? I'm kind of on the fence about

it. I'm not really sure what to think. I'm not

sure what timeline either that it takes place.

Yeah. If from the sounds of it, it's almost like

it's picking up part of zero year, but It also

sounds like it's past zero year like in regular

continuity, so it's kind of I'm kind of torn.

I don't really know what to expect I'll probably

check out the first issue regardless Despite

the fact that Scott Snyder has nothing for me

at this point. Well, he has nothing for me when

it comes to what he's currently doing in the

Batman title. Like, if he was writing any other

story other than Zero Year, I might like it a

little bit. Like, I loved it. When I finally

went back and read Court of Owls, I loved Court

of Owls. I thought it was a really well done

story. The art was amazing. Death of the Family,

as we've said many times on this show before

and on the GCR episodes we did for that coverage.

I loved it in the beginning, but as it continually

went on, it just continually disappointed me.

Zero Year is a roller coaster that I want off

of. Oh, I agree. I'm so sick of Zero Year. Zero

Year for me, it started with issue 21. Loved

it issue 22 and 23. It was like the worst downhill

slope ever 24 came back up and I liked it again

25 was okay 26 hit another downward slope and

we'll see what we think of 27 later in this in

this episode, but I I want them to tell stories

in the here and now or tell stories in the future

It just makes no damn. I don't know And part

of Snyder's thing is, oh, well, they said that

we never really gave Batman an origin. Well,

there was the whole zero month where every issue

after all of the series had already been started.

They went back and did zero issues. Batman has

an origin. Batman has a zero issue. So how can

you say you've never really done the new 52 origin

of Batman? I don't know. All right, next up.

One that I'm interested in, Forever Evil Aftermath

Batman vs Bane, number one. This is written by

Peter J. Tomasi with art and cover by Scott Eaton

and Jamie Mendoza. This is a one -shot. It's

on sale April 30th, 40 pages, full color, $3

.99 US, rated T for teen. The title says it all.

Forever Evil is over. Now Batman has returned

to take Gotham City back by force. The only thing

standing in his way, Bane. Get ready for the

grudge match of the year Are you gonna check

this one out? Oh, no Really? No, because it's

another this is another one of those those scenarios

where they're trying to cotton pick another Batman

title and Yeah, let's go cancel Nightwing. Let's

cancel Teen Titans. Let's cancel, you know all

these other lines and then and Superman Unleashed

and all this other crap and They're gonna shove

another Batman title down my throat now granted.

I love Batman don't get me wrong, but and I understand

the fact that it's Batman 75th anniversary year

That's fine and dandy. That's what the Eternals

for Yeah However, I I and I know they're canceling

the Dark Knight or legends of the Dark Knight

or whatever the heck that comic is But in replacing

it with eternal essentially Don't care for any

of these spin -off stories. Honestly, I don't

they're They're a dime a dozen at this point.

They seem to jump ship from one story to another

I think that new 52, although the art is better

and some of the storytelling in some degree is

better Overall, it's more convoluted than the

last 75 years of comics This does say on here

that it is a one -shot it is not so I assume

it's just going to because DC does one shots

really really weird they label them as number

ones Why don't they just call it one issue one

or one of one? Yeah, I don't know I I as much

as it it interests me I I don't care to pick

it up. It's it's another one of those cash grabs

and they're gonna probably charge me at $4 .99

$5 .99 $6 .99 $7 .99 somewhere in that that price

on it is $3 .99 okay it's not outrageous but

it's still not worth my money okay Nightwing

number 30 written by James Tinney and the fourth

art by McGann Hetrick cover by Eddie Barrows

yay Eddie Barrows the original artist on the

book comes back and does the final cover that's

awesome on sale April 9th 40 pages full color

$3 .99 US rated T for teen final issue The Bad

Family is forced to face the brutal aftermath

of Forever Evil, but after everything they've

been through, can they stand together? Well,

I always, most of the time, I finish what I start

and I will be getting this issue and that cover

by Eddie. It's amazing. It's one of the best

covers that I've ever seen. Even though, sadly,

I think I know what it means. um all right here

we go another one of your rants is going to probably

come up after this one secret origins number

one written by tony bedard kyle higgins greg

and greg pack art by palo sequeira will conrad

and others It's on sale April 23rd, 48 pages,

$4 .99, rated T for Teen. At last, the secret

origins of the world's greatest heroes in The

New 52 can be revealed. This new series gets

off to an awesome start with the origins of the

last son of Krypton and Kara Zor -El, Supergirl,

plus the first Robin, Dick Grayson. Okay, I am

only going to pick this one issue up because

it has Kyle's name on it and because it's him

writing Dick Grayson as Robin, but seriously?

What is it with people and in origin stories?

How many origin stories have we had so far? Oh

My god, it's like they've it's like Hollywood

they've run out of things to write about so they're

going back to crap that people have already heard

Yeah, pretty much. I just it's you know, it's

it's It's to the point and I hate to be a downer

because I know I am part of the Problem well,

I'm part of the problem part of the reason for

the the spawning of this I think there's only

going to be two ish two comics. I collect after

this point Yeah, and it's going to be Batman

Beyond Yeah in the trades yeah, I'm not buying

it before that I will do trades And then detective

comics Because I want to steer as far away from

Scott Snyder's crap as possible, and I'm not

saying it's crap I know what you mean. I know

what you mean. Like I mean it is in stuff. I

just that's what I said, but I'm Telling the

listeners um that way I'm not getting bashed

for it later um No, but my my whole beef of it

is we've got zero year The death of the family

was anti -climactic and then we're just getting

more of the same junk from him It's gonna be

that on eternal unless Higgins writes a majority

of it unless I don't really know what they're

gonna do with that it's Well, that's one of those

things. We'll have to wait and see we really

will Because I don't even see his name listed

on the thing on their Their their writers It's

on the solicit so but it's probably gonna be

for Higgins to join Eternal It's probably gonna

be after April because it did say that layman

did the first month's work and Then moved on

so probably the second month that Kyle is gonna

join up I will check out the first issue, but

I refuse to pay Every week for a comic book.

Okay, so Next up not exactly bat related, but

it interests both of us the flash annual number

three written by Robert vendetti and Van Jensen

art by Brett Booth Ron friends norm Rapamond

and live say Color, covered by Brett Booth and

Norm Rapamond, on sale April 30th, 48 pages,

$4 .99, rented T for teen. The start of a major

new arc for the fastest man alive in the future.

The Flash is broken man. His powers have failed

him. Time and time again at a great cost to him

in the city. He has sworn to protect now He is

coming back to 2014 to stop the one event and

that destroyed his life Meanwhile in the present

Barry Allen must contend with thieves trying

to capitalize on the devastation of forever evil

is a tale of two timelines that ushers in one

of DC's most storied characters featuring the

new 52 debut of Wally West It's an annual I'm

only picking it up to see how they introduce

Wally. I'm not going to start collecting The

Flash because The Flash has been for the longest

time Barry Allen and while I like him in certain

animated films, I have zero interest in reading

about Barry Allen. But I will grab this just

to see what they do with Wally's origin. Let's

see what else is down here. superman super girl

batman superman number ten okay here we go batman

number thirty written by scott snider art by

greg capolo and danny mickey cover by greg capolo

on sale april ninth thirty two pages three ninety

nine combo pack edition four ninety nine uh...

let's see here zero year savage city begins this

issue is also offered as wow that's it that's

the that's that's the solicit savage city begins

that's all okay then um like i like we've said

before if if batman doesn't ramp up i will stop

getting that book yeah yeah detective comics

number 30 now this is where the new creative

team comes in written by brian Busilato and Francis

Manapol are uncovered by Francis Manapol on sale

April 2nd, 32 pages, $3 .99. Let's see here.

A bold new direction for Detective Comics as

the flash creative team of Francis Manapol and

Brian Busilato take over the creative reins.

Batman finds himself knee deep in a new mystery

involving a deadly new narcotic that has hit

the streets of Gotham City. Don't know. I mean,

I'm currently collecting detective for the goth

topia storyline. I don't know if I will continue

past that though I know you're really enjoying

detective. So I assume you're gonna stick with

it Yeah, I enjoy detective more and I enjoy The

rest of that travesty of Batman content. Yes

All right. Here's where my fanboyness comes through

bad girl annual number two written by Gail Simone

art by Robert Gill covered by clay man on sale

april thirtieth forty eight pages four ninety

nine is the sort of a new story arc is that girl

must unravel a mystery centered around her former

birds of prey teammates the woman who betrayed

her trust poison ivy okay they must still be

playing with the alternate uh... universe stuff

i guess i don't know and of course bad girl number

thirty gail simone art by fernando passer and

jonathan gladion uh... cover by alex gardener

on sale april nine thirty two pages two ninety

nine uh... an ordinary day takes a turn for the

worse when barbara gordon must find a way to

save her roommate elissa you know from fan favorite

villain ragdoll all the way that's going to be

interesting uh... let's see what other solicits

do we have here uh... you really should start

paying a bad girl I know you're not that interested

with that character, but her storyline from beginning

to now has been really great. Alright, here we

go. Batman Beyond Universe Number 9. Written

by Kyle Higgins and Christos N. Gage. Art by

Tony Silas and Dexter Soy. Covered by Trevor

McCarthy. On sale April 30th, 48 pages, $3 .99.

It's also digital first. The epic Justice Lords

Beyond crossover starts here following the shocking

events of Batman Beyond universe number eight

Wonder Woman is back But where did she go and

why does she seem like she's hiding something?

Find out in the first part of a four -part world

spanning event in both Batman Beyond and Justice

League Beyond Oh boy, that's gonna be interesting

to see where that goes Batman 66 number 10 written

by Jeff Parker art by David Williams and Kelsey

Shannon as well as Eric white a Snowstorm in

Gotham City in the middle of summer only one

man can be behind this that frozen fiend mr.

Freeze and that girl is back You know their solar

story as she clashes with Cleopatra We've also

got some trades coming out Batman and Robin volume

4 and a hardcover edition Batman Detective Comics

volume 4 and a hardcover edition The trade paperback

version of death of the family and for Batman

and Batgirl Overall Like you I'm pretty much

going to cut a lot of DC stuff I Really really

am Because it's just not... They're doing stuff

that I don't agree with. I don't care if they're

gonna bring Nightwing back as a blonde. There

was nothing wrong, and they've done this before.

People have told me, oh, well in the old continuity,

they did this exact same thing. And it's because

the Dio has a heart on to get rid of Dick Grayson.

And I'm sorry, I don't agree with that whatsoever.

He just consistently pissing me off. You know,

it's just one of those things so What? Are you

just waiting and seeing right now before you

make any rash decisions about your comic buying

stuff? No, I'm probably gonna make some rash

decisions Quite on purpose actually I I'm did

the point I don't it's It's almost a moot point

for me to even want to collect comics Just because

I'm sick of the direction that things are going

Yeah It seems like that they're on this runaway

train and nobody knows where the hell it's going.

Yeah Well, I have Out of just looking at at this

I currently have one, it's only a couple issues

for Detective, but Detective, Batman, Batgirl,

Nightwing, DCU vs. Motu, Forever Evil, Batman

Beyond, and He -Man from DC. Now, Forever Evil

and DCU vs. Motu is going to end, Nightwing is

going to... I'll have three titles. Four, if

you count Eternal. And then the rest of my stuff

is other companies, or other properties, like...

It just is I Just don't agree with what DC is

doing whatsoever with the fact that they're You

know, I don't even know if they're gonna kill

Nightwing or if they're gonna I don't know what

they're gonna do. Yeah, but at this point I don't

care what they're going to do because they're

they have in no so many terms and words and Phrases

online and wherever and solicits. They're basically

like yeah nightwing poof gone. I mean they're

they're ending the series at 30 issues You know

Anyway, all right, we're gonna take a quick break

you're gonna hear some audio and then we're gonna

come back with the reviews of the 27 issues after

this happy call me when it's important and not

before we are back and it is time to talk about

the 27 issues first up is batch man number 27

with the cover of some zombie looking monster

coming out of the cowl These covers man, they're

just Way too weird for me What did you think

of the cover when you first saw it of Batman

27? Yeah Um, I was wondering what the hell that

was all about Yeah, I was quite confused to say

the least Yeah Yeah, I just words cannot fathom

So we start this one in Tokyo 1946 With some

chicks singing Again, I don't understand why

but I Don't even think it comes back We then

flashed to Gotham City six years ago Batman is

fighting somebody I like the art I'll say that

and I do like how he's basically cursing out

Alfred damn it cave come in come in I like that

the colors are just too weird for I like the

art but the coloring is just it's too weird for

me it really really is It wasn't necessarily

the coloring I I well I do love Capaloo stuff,

but I Don't I I don't know. It's something something

is weird to me about The way zero years going

I I don't care I mean it's fine if he wants to

get greedy with it. That's you know I understand

that's creative Yeah How he's just doing things

But I... Something, I don't know, something about

it is just, it's rubbin' me wrong. Yeah. The

funny thing is, this story for me read a lot

better than issue 26. I enjoyed the story here

more. And I still like the art. I just like those

scenes on the docks and when Batman is like flat

on his face and like you said, it's a... It's

a form of expression and artistic choice, but

it was just way too strange for me. But I did

like how Batman does escape and who he has to

ask for help, pretty much. Oh, he doesn't ask

for help. The guy offers it up. Says, come on,

you're gonna die. Yeah. You do know that's Gordon,

right? Yeah. Okay. I didn't know if you were

trying to reveal that or not. No, but it's basically

Commissioner Gordon basically says to Batman,

you're a call if you want help. It's not Cap

'lu's art, it's the coloring and the shading

that changes. We've gone through, I don't even

know how many pages of this, but we're up to

the boat scene where Batman's sitting in the

boat and it's... Like a muted white tone and

the pages before were all like yellow and pink

and red and purple and black and It's just the

consistent or inconsistency of color change is

really what what's dragging me down on this So

Gordon tells him the story of the the jacket

basically Which I did sufficiently find that

interesting in the fact that Gordon saves him

knowing that the rest of the cops are crooked

and explaining his falling out with the cops.

So this story, even though it was mostly Batman

getting shot up the wazoo, it was relevant because

they were relating more or less. Yes, and showing

that it's there's more to each character than

just Their sides of the law as it were Yeah And

I did a lot I really liked that part of the story

and I like this, you know the part of the story

when he's back at the cave That story with the

jacket I think it's continued from Detective

25 because Detective 25. I think there was some

part of that where I don't know. I don't know

if it was Detective 25 or if I'm just flashing

to Dark Knight, but I saw it somewhere before

So we've got So we've got Bruce and Alfred going

back and forth back and forth Bruce is doing

research on Gordon and Alfred's basically explaining

to Bruce that he can pretty much figure out everything

by himself he doesn't need help in that area

but he needs help in his basically his crusade

yeah So looking he's looking for a guy named

helfer And he says he knows where he is So he

goes out to look for him and we Eventually, I

believe run into the Riddler Yeah run into the

Riddler Well, because the other guy was just

a distraction the distraction. Yeah And Batman's

pretty much when we get to the end Riddler says

because this is where your part of the story

ends and Batman with his purple glove is basically

sinking into some Green goop and it almost looks

like Joker acid. He's going in the sewage line

Yeah And we have the the credits at the very

last page next a glimpse into the future of Batman

eternal Yeah, don't even get me started. Alright,

so here's the thing. This is issue 27. Originally

issue 28 was going to be the next arc of Zero

Year. But because Snyder wanted to throw in so

many things, he wanted to give Capolo a break,

so Batman 28 is going to be a glimpse into what

we get for Eternal and whatever else coming up

later this year. You're going to, I understand

Capolo, Maybe he's overworked. Maybe he needs

more time to finish pages for 29, because I think

Snyder wanted to add like, I don't know, four

or five extra pages, because apparently 29 is

going to be a giant size issue or something or

other. And I'm just remembering this from what

I've seen online. I'm not actually looking anything

up, so if I'm incorrect... So yay, extra cost.

Yeah, yeah, but see that's the... it's not even

that that pisses me off what pisses me off is

this is issue twenty seven i expect the next

issue to be the beginning of the next park of

this year long event of zero year and it's not

going to be that it's going to be a glimpse into

batman eternal and it's going to be some sort

of future store so there to to take your your

your complaint They end the death of the family

and then they went back six years in time Now

coming up in issue 28 they're going to jump six

months ahead of Whenever the current timeline

yeah, yeah, we're gonna rap bastard the whole

thing whoo Yeah Batman 27 I like the story as

I'm looking back. I'm not really enjoying the

color change. I enjoy the art I enjoy how it

looks. It's just the constant variation in colors

is really what I don't like about that one. Any

thoughts? Any other thoughts on 27? Besides,

I would prefer that they... Anything else? Yeah.

I'm just going to shut up now. Alright, so moving

on we have Nightwing number 27 who pulls the

strings of Dick Grayson's life the Marionette

so this is a Villain that was seen very early

on in Nightwing for a while as soon as he came

to Chicago for like one or two issues and Then

she all of a sudden just disappeared and it turns

out that she's being She was being controlled

by the Mad Hatter and The title for this story

is Curiouser and Curiouser which is a line that

the Mad Hatter uses very very often You basically

have Marionette and Nightwing calling a truce

to find the Mad Hatter and stop him from his

evil plan and this marionette character who her

her name is molly uh... for that's at least one

of her names uh... she just remembers fragments

of her former life and it shows you that uh...

you know some of those fragments she's telling

night wing about about all this uh... and you

know the mad hatter uh... Basically wants her

back because Molly is his Alice since they're

playing off of the whole Alice in Wonderland

thing Excuse me while my nose just decides to

disintegrate itself So you've got Mally and Nightwing

breaking into the place where the mad hatter

is I love the way Will Conrad draws these characters

Simply simply awesome. There's no weird coloring

here. There's no it's a very straightforward

standard Book and it's very very cool. It's it's

interesting to see how well Nightwing versus

the Mad Hatter does go and behind all of this

Dick is having consistent home life issues because

they're closing his window They're moving his

stuff or his roommates are moving his stuff around

and all this and all that so that's that's interesting

And we actually have and this is gonna tie into

forever evil and a few other things Let's see

here You too and so, you know Jen's been great

she's welcome here anytime So this this little

girl was being babysat by his roommates and she

stumbles upon one of why she doesn't stumble

upon she actually snoops and finds Dick's laptop

or tablet or whatever else or she finds something

of his and she draws the version of the Nightwing

logo on her her tablet and it says the next issue

repercussions I still love Nightwing I still

love this book I wish they weren't ending it

Mean come on, you know Next up we have Batgirl

in goth topia this is interesting because We

open up with the This lady named Angela Ramirez

She was the smartest girl in her small small

Baja town She in the periodic table at age 6

uh... goth topia is basically an an alternate

what is supposed to be an alternate universe

or an alternate uh... dimension or whatever you

want to call her somebody's putting the fear

of god into people who knows uh... but it's supposed

to be this utopian society and instead of being

bad girl barbara gordon is bluebell and her partner

is nightfall Except in Octopia, she's not called

Nightfall. She's called Daybreak. Yay, opposite

time. I really love the art in this. Simone's

storytelling is amazing. You've got this Angela

character who basically turns herself into a

female -like Joker and is going to poison people

and children by poisoning ice cream. That's so

wrong. That's more wrong than anything the Joker

has ever done. Yeah. And basically this will

carry on over into Detective Comics 28 with finding

out what's going to happen with Batgirl because

she starts to remember Barbara she sees the uh...

your traditional joker card that you always see

like you know the jokers standard red -black

hat face card that he always uses she sees that

logo as bluebell and she gets a glimpse of new

fifty two joker in his mechanics uniform we see

her as Batgirl so we know that this universe

of Gothtopia isn't exactly on the level and it

says next bat bloodsuckers in Gotham does Batgirl

escape Gothtopia read Detective Comics 28 to

find out overall I enjoyed the story I thought

it was great I think it's really cool that they're

using ice cream as a weapon to kill people i

don't think that's cool but it's a different

it's not your average everyday thing hey i'm

gonna go out and murder people by shooting them

you know yeah so there is that and finally we

have detective comics number 27 now there were

like six covers for this thing You and I both

have the cover where Batman is standing on a

gargoyle looking at the bat signal. But they...

I think there was a blue cover, there was a red

cover, there was a full -out, flap -out, wrap

-around cover with Catwoman. I don't know why

Catwoman, but... It didn't make any sense to

me either. I really and then this is gonna sound

strange to most people this Book was eight dollars

since it's a mega size issue. It was eight dollars

you have One two three You know seven stories

in here you have the case of the chemical syndicate

written by Brad Meltzer You have Old School written

by Greg Hurwitz, Better Days by Peter J. Tomasi,

Hero by Francisco Francivilla, The Sacrifice

by Mike Barr, Goth -Topia by John Layman, and

27 by Scott Snyder. I only bought this because

I wanted to find out what was going on with the

Goth -Topia storyline. I will say that reading

through this from beginning to end, I did like

some of the other stories. I specifically like

I think it was the one where it's It's better

days I think is the one because it's pretty yeah

Let's see here yeah, it's yeah better days because

it pretty much shows you a new yeah better days

pretty much shows you a New 52, old Bruce, with

the rest of the family. Yeah. And it is really,

really well written. It's basically on Bruce's

birthday and you have Nightwing and Barbara who

looks like a older but younger version of her

commissioner self because I believe she actually

is the commissioner in this story, or she will

be. You've got Tim Drake, Jason Todd, Damien,

and you've got Alfred. Poor Alfred in a wheelchair.

And this is basically, I love this art style

for this future story. I think it's really, really

cool. You've got Batman, you've got Bruce, realizing

he's an old man. Yet he wants one more adventure.

So he goes out as Batman and there are reports

of Batman everywhere Did you see the The page

where it looks like the party's back on you see

all the vehicles Vehicles are so cool. I Don't

know if I noticed that or not. Yeah, they've

got two bat cycles In a very It's kind of like

a cross between a 1930s Batmobile and like a

BTIS Batmobile But it's it's just a really really

cool cross And it basically ends with all of

them coming back and and telling Bruce about

about this story here and I liked it, I thought

it was really cool. What did you like about these

first couple of stories? Well, I liked the one

with the old man, Bruce. I liked that. I don't

know, there was a lot of differences in the types

of stories that were in the actual issue. I liked

the retelling of the original comic. Which was

in there. I don't know, most of the stories,

I liked the fan nods that were in there and the

nods to Batman himself. But I don't know if it

was really worth it. The cost of the colors.

Yeah it I mean don't be wrong the arts great

the The storytelling in some regards is nice.

Yeah but realistically trying to Rewrite the

original detective 27 Yeah, it kind of I don't

know I I found myself more confused reading that

than reading the separate individual stories

And I think it's because they tried to modernize

it yeah, whereas if they would have just left

it alone and then the I Will or I was or I you

know all the constant I in there was driving

me nuts So I am happy with the homage more or

less, but it's It ultimately I don't know some

of it. It really wasn't worth eight dollars.

That's That to me is like a five dollar issue

But it was nice seeing all of the people come

back Yeah whole circle Yeah, I wish what they

would have done with this is since The goth topia

storyline part one is in this issue I wish they

would have reordered the stories and put the

goth topia story first since that's what's going

on in detective right now Then you could have

the other ones follow it, but goth topia is like

the second to last story And I liked goth topia

it was a little strange, but I liked it I Find

it really strange that his sidekick in this is

catbird Selena Kyle aka catbird so you basically

have a combination Robin and Catwoman yeah, I

noticed that and I was kind of unimpressed They

should do that with that Harper Rowe rather than

creating a new Robin or Catwoman yeah, that's

true Yeah, I mean I'm I wish I wish this issue

was just Goth -topia, honestly. The other stories

were fine. Has DC... Well, yeah, DC does this

all the time. Why couldn't they have made the...

I know they wanted to celebrate Detective Comics

27 because it's celebrating the original run

or the original first issue of where Batman premiered.

Why couldn't they have just put these other stories

in like a point one issue or Detective 27 alternate

or something else where you could just be able

to buy a $3 .99 issue for Goth -Topia if that's

all you really want. And don't get me wrong,

I love the other stories, I love the homages,

but holy crap. It's just crazy. So, we are...

Do you have any other thoughts that you want

to convey? Um, not really. I mean, if... Anything

else I mean I would more so nitpick more but

I I'm at least happy that they did something

To remember Batman Yeah By getting all of these

people that have written for him in the past

That only made sense to me to have that happen

But I Yeah, I mean it was good, but I wouldn't

again like I said before it's it's not eight

dollars good All right, so I think that's gonna

do it for us here in the pull bag There's going

to be several things hitting the pull bag before

we get to marvelous March Coming up next we have

superior spider -man issues 20 21 and annual

number one And starting in February we have Spirit

of Carnage 1 -5, Spirit of Spider Man 22 -25,

Beast Hunters, Transformers Prime Beast Hunters

5 -8, and more stuff as well in February, so

keep it here. You got anything else you want

to pimp out before we close? No, I think we're

good. Alright, we will catch you next time. Make

your great escape into comics. So let's say you're

looking for a podcast of your favorite 80s comic

books. G .I. Joe, Transformers, Ninja Turtles,

He -Man, etc. Where are you going to go to find

us? Welcome to Star Joe's Podcast. I'm your host

Ryan. And I'm Chuck. That's right everybody,

we're the Star Joe's. We host a podcast called

Star Joe's Podcast. where we talk about your

favorite comic books, your favorite toys of all

the 80s properties. Star Wars, G .I. Joe, Transformers,

Mask, Thundercats, Voltron, you name it, we cover

it. If it's in the 80s, we will cover it at some

point. Yes, so what you want to do to find us,

you can go to iTunes, you can go to www .starjoes

.com. And remember, the Force will be with you.

Because knowing us is half the battle. the latest

episode of the pullback GCRN's comic book review

podcast. There are several ways to get in touch

with us and need feedback for the show. You can

visit the website geekcastradio .com where you

can comment on the episode and all of our different

podcasts. You can read our show on iTunes. Be

sure to leave us feedback. Call the voicemail

line 502 -526 -5821. Please remember to tell

us the show you're leaving the message for, and

your name. Become a fan of us on Facebook by

searching Geekcast Radio Network. You can send

us an email, feedback, at geekcastradio .com.

Follow us on Twitter, at Geekcast Radio. So until

next time, unleash the geek in you.