#batman no man’s land

[lemonlimestar]

not haunted, infested (helena u will always be a batman to me…)

[weirdo-from-bonesborough]

I’m reading no man’s land and i am enthralled by this particular hairstyle

[doesithavetobeaspider]

Speaking of Cassandra Cain I recently read the No Man’s Land novelization by Rucka

[nefarious-616-necromancer]

[vlueberries]

You should read Greg Rucka's No Man's Land novelization for more DickHelena/NightHunt!! Their subtle pining and wistfulness and regret in that arc hits so hard... I like that they consider each other very close friends by the time Dickbats happens and he's seen relying on her a lot in Streets of Gotham! Also this is one beef I have with Dixon and Winick - they say Dick regrets the relationship and it was a mistake and blah blah, and I can see Helena thinking that at first, but imo it's OOC for Dick because he considers everything a learning experience especially at that part of time and he really did care for her beyond that stupid one-night fling, like they've been inadvertently working with each other since Helena debuted as Huntress in one comic or another! That's why I like their NML New Year's kiss that functions more like a goodbye kiss, because even though it didn't work out between them, it's like no affection however brief is ever wasted, and that was Dick's way of telling Helena that despite everything he doesn't consider meeting her a mistake :') I think for Helena, who has found herself always abandoned when she doesn't fulfill other people's expectations and wants from her, that would mean a lot, and it would explain why she values Dick and Tim so highly at the end of the day!

I LOVE No Man’s Land!! THE comic book event of all time!! Helena-focused storyline and Leslie and Bruce moral arguments and Cass introduction and Bruce and Gordon’s weird divorce arc and Helena as batman and Jean-Paul Valley still being considered a core batfam member and lots of 90s bat drama!! It’s so so so good!!!

I love your thoughts on Dick and Helena, anon!! And I have so many thoughts of my own but I fear they’re controversial and deserve a separate post. I think about them a lot actually <3333

[bamboozled-distress]

reading Batman cataclysm and why is Tim such a jumpscare oh my GOD 😭

[white-elordas-nerdy-lifestyle]

28th December 2023

I’ve been reading a lot of Batman novelizations recently, and I really enjoyed this one!

[spiritleigh]

Absolute steal at the antique store yesterday

Only 8 bucks

[annah-kitathryne]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Gotham City & Gotham City Residents Characters: Gotham City, Gotham City Residents Additional Tags: No Man's Land (DCU), Earthquakes, Natural Disasters, Wordcount: 500-1.000 Series: Part 5 of Annaki's DC work collection Summary:

7.6 isn’t a large number on most scales of measurement. It is a large number for an earthquake and a rotting city.

[jeandejard3n]

Batman Begins: Incorruptible Symbol

[davidmariottecomics]

Not So Evergreen: A Perennial Problem

Hi there, 

Wouldja believe it, this week I was thinking about comics? 

I know, it's hard to imagine I've had time around Valentine's Day and preparing for our impending nuptuals (which you can contribute to if you're so inclined!).

Or around the continued bullshit that is KOSA, which you might've noticed is NOT actually fixed--and still needs to be stopped. Or, as long as we're talking about regulation and the internet and what can/should be regulated to try to make it a better safer place, all the latest "Generative AI" nonsense (not linking anything in particular here, but there're new stupid developments every day). 

Or while keeping track of what's happening in Gaza and, specifically, in Rafah, where Palestinians were told to evacuate to and that is now under bombing, or as they continue to attack hospitals and kill civilians. Sharing up top some recent resources I've seen, including a nice list of places where you can donate (you may also notice the PCRF on our registry and thanks to the folks who've already given there) and a nice collection of Palestinian cultural reading and listening and cooking you can do. There continue to be demonstrations and actions--with a lot in the past week being organized to keep hands off Rafah. Call.Fax. Email.Contact the White House. Keep an eye out for actions from organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine, BDS, and the Democratic Socialists of America, or whatever local organization is making efforts near you. If spending money brings you any comfort and you feel a need to put something into good practice, the Cartoonist Cooperative's page still lists a ton of resources for E-Sim cards. 

But despite the many other things that should and do reasonably take up my time and brainspace--the good and the bad--it is my job to make comics and I do have to spend some time thinking about 'em and something I've been thinking about this week is the strange state of "evergreen titles." 

A Perennial Should Standalone

In particular, I was inspired by seeing some random young person somewhere online say a fairly common refrain, something along the lines of "I tried Western superhero comics, couldn't see myself in them, other than one (now) 35-year-old Vertigo series, and found a lot more in manga for me."

This is one of those things I've talked around every part of in the past, I think. I've talked, fairly recently, about how it is strange to me when people cut themselves off from or don't give themselves the opportunity to continue to explore a format or genre of comics entirely as if they're homogenous and how I think that can make you lose out on some of the contextual history of the medium and how storytelling can work within it. I've talked about how manga is just another word for comics and how I think some of the separation of manga and "Western" comics is more artificial than people realize. I've talked about continuity and how it can be a real turn-off for people, but also how even when it does matter, it maybe kinda doesn't matter, and even earlier than that, I talked about how they say every comic is somebody's first comic and the strange balance of serialized storytelling and accessibility. And just last week, I was mentioning how I think N.K. Jemisen's Far Sector is a really great example of a modern "here's how cool superhero comics can be" book. Now I want to pull it all together and talk about how we've maybe canonized a lot of comics that require a higher bar of context than they're often given. 

Now, last bit of business before we dive in, just in case, what do I mean when I say perennial or evergreen title? They are a little different, though I'm largely using them interchangably here. There are certain comics that have been canonized (not meaning made canon to a in-universe continuity, but the older definition of added to the historical register as a work of significance) that you can pretty much always find, and that has grown even more with the increased importance of the book market to comics sales. To use a very important example, you can walk into *most* any comic shop or bookstore that carries comics and is not specifically a specialty shop (like not Silver Sprocket probably, but also, shout out to them for joining the PACBI) and find a copy of Watchmen. Doesn't matter that the book is nearly 40 years old, it has been kept in print constantly (which... if you aren't familiar, is a story unto itself) and y'know, still sells. New people discover/buy/upgrade their copies of Watchmen every year and DC always points to it as an Essential title in their annual catalogs. 

DC in particular is actually pretty good about promoting their evergreens. They release an annual catalog to comic shops (and some book stores) that's like a free 80-ish page thing about like "if you want to read DC comics, here are titles we recommend." And if you're even halfway immersed in American Superhero Comics, you could probably name a good half-dozen of them off the top of your head. Watchmen! The Killing Joke! Sandman! All-Star Superman! Batman: The Long Halloween! Batman: Hush! Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth! Kingdom Come! Dark Knight Returns! Other titles written 30-40 years ago by a White British person! Any title from the past 7 years written by a guy named Tom! Etc! I'm being a little flip, and generally, like a lot of those books, but it's true, those tend to be what gets platformed in that way. And, credit where it's due, I know the last catalog also included things like Far Sector and Wonder Woman Historia and Nubia: Real One and the Kami Garcia/Gabriel Picolo Teen Titans OGNs.

But what I find complicated about a lot of those decisions is that a lot of those books may be self-contained in that you can read a single volume or single series and get a pretty complete story without a lot of continuity fluff or cross-reading or whatever, but I think a lot of those books benefit from having existing grounding in reading superhero comics that can get lost when they're being presented not only outside the context of what they were originally in conversation with, but as books of high accessibility or jumping on points. 

I could probably go on about most of these, but I'm going to use Killing Joke as an example because it's a really clear one. It's famously a "read this book" kinda book. I think it's still in the DC 25 Essential titles list. It's also a book that is STEEPED in important context that it usually isn't presented with and that I think does really change the reading experience.

Like, when Killing Joke was originally released, it was part of a big push of the Joker at DC. In early 1988, Killing Joke comes out, followed a few months later by A Death in the Family (the one where he killed Jason Todd Robin) and the year capped off with a Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told collection that didn't include either of those stories because, y'know, they were both too new. And modern collections (the 75th and 80th, respectively) both include, interestingly, 1 issue each of A Death in the Family (and different ones at that) and only an excerpt of Killing Joke because they usually don't like to collect it because it can take up a lot of pages for a book that most people own as an individual volume (though... interestingly, the 80th does include Mad Love). Sorry, getting a little distracted. But you know what the Greatest Joker Stories does include? A comic from 1966 that came in a box of PopTarts. Pre-'88, he had gone through cycles of being serious, silly (not even connected to Batman '66, the Joker's many boners story was from the early '50s!), and serious again when he returned in the '70s, but it was never to the extent that Killing Joke went to and that was solidified by the next year of publishing. And, even then, the next year brought some very different Jokers: Jack Nicholson's live-action version who is very much not the Killing Joke Joker and the Joker of Arkham Asylum, who again, is also violent, but in a very different way. 

As you start looking at the long-tail, you see the Killing Joke interpretation more in the Batman: The Animated Series version of the character (though, obviously, toned down somewhat for the audience) and that continues to resonate through each version of Joker that happens after across media (except maybe Batman: The Brave and the Bold, because that series is so Silver Age-y). You get Oracle going from a somewhat unexpected character in Suicide Squad to being a major part of the Bat-family and really evolving as a character as Birds of Prey took flight in the late '90s (pin in that for a sec). There are stories that directly reference it, like that Booster Gold issue where he keeps trying (and failing) to change the past because Rip Hunter (almost wrote Rip Torn, who would've made for a very different Booster Gold book) lied to him. There are whole projects that are inspired by it, like the One Bad Day books from 2022/23. There are real world effects, like the things I mentioned earlier with it becoming an evergreen title and one of the first big DC tentpoles to have as a constant at comic shops and in bookstores (especially as the book market has become increasingly important). 

Looking at the sort of joint in continuity and publishing history leading up to Killing Joke, it's important to know that Joker and Barbara Gordon had been sort of in-and-out of the comics. Joker hadn't had a major break in a while--also an influential factor on Killing Joke, another darker '80s Joker was in Dark Knight Returns just a couple years prior. But he had been a character who kinda disappeared out of the comics in the past--I think before his return in Batman #251 in '71, he had not been in a comic in like 4 years. And, speaking of not being in comics in 4 years, Barbara Gordon had largely retired as Batgirl before Crisis on Infinite Earths in '85 and was basically a non-character in DC comics post Crisis until Killing Joke. It's part of why the story got approved with her in it and part of why she got taken over to Suicide Squad afterwards... there weren't any plans for Batgirl otherwise. 

And all of that is before we're even talking about stuff like the fact that it was recolored and the recoloring really changes the reading experience (TBH, I am not a fan) or that it's a book that if you are recommending it to someone, you should tell them that it's a book with a heavy trigger warning for sexual assault. It's not talking about it as an Alan Moore project and his publicly bad relationship with DC/Warner (see, among other things, that earlier Watchmen article). 

So many of these books have that sort of important contextual elements that change the way they're read. I think it's important to know that Sandman is a DC universe book and at least something about some of the DC characters who get featured (like Prez, Element Woman, and Dr. Destiny). All-Star Superman is in conversation with Superman comics of the Golden and Silver age and I think in particular dialogue with Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow (and, hey, again, probably helpful to know that Grant and Alan have their issues). 

How to Contextualize, Or Find New Evergreens

Okay, brief note: Becca and I went and saw Madame Web and this was left unfinished when we did. Madame Web was great. It was genuinely bad. It was the Cats (2019) of superhero movies. I've never seen a movie where literally all the content was in the trailer and the rest of the movie was deleted scenes. Anyway, after it was over, we went to the Barnes & Noble next to the theater and listened to this couple talking in the comics section and literally every book they gravitated to was one of these sorts of evergreen titles--Sandman was mentioned, Watchmen and Before Watchmen, V for Vendetta, etc. It was clear they weren't really readers, they seemed to be shopping for someone else, but that their primary frame of reference was TV shows and movies, which also goes to the whole "what makes it evergreen" argument and is really interesting because through adaptation, some of the importance of how these things work in the comics medium is lost. And by the end of it... I think they just didn't pick up a comic. Anyway, was just kinda funny to have a real world example of this exact phenomenon I'm talking about happen mid-blog. 

Only other thing I want to say before getting any further. Obviously, I've focused a lot on DC titles. The reason is DC makes it easy. Like I said, they literally put out a catalog with their "here's what we think is most essential from our library" every year. DC's also got a long track record of these types of titles to examine and particularly because the initial comment led me to think it was more about American Superhero Comics, it was a clear focus. Every comic company does have their evergreen titles and I think evergreens are a good thing! When positioned properly, they are supposed to be new reader friendly and a great way to get into the medium. I'll talk a bit about Marvel in this section, but I'd also like to acknowledge that one really smart move that Image made (not entirely sure if they're still doing this, but props where it's due) is they made the first volume of multi-volume series--particularly the ones that seemed ripe for perennial status like Saga--$10. I think making these titles at an accessible price point is a good way to help prop up the things that can help secure a love of the medium and drive further visits to comic shops and bookstores. 

More generally, I think there are two things that would both be rad if they were to happen because I think they'd be really helpful for onboarding new readers. The first is I wish there were more international approaches that were like the partworks collections. If you're unfamiliar, there've been a few of them from the UK, including Marvel, DC (who started with Eaglemoss and actually got picked up by Hachette later on), Transformers, Star Trek, and Judge Dredd, wherein significant arcs were released periodically with connecting spine art so they looked really nice together on a shelf that featured additional material like introductions and contextual writings on the reason the arc is significant and the featured character(s) and the creators and really provided at least a starting point of context. The other kinda interesting thing is for the Hachette ones at least, they were released with two numbering systems: one by release of the partworks collection, one by (relative) release order of the original story relative to the other partworks releases. It's almost like when you used to buy an encyclopedia set and every however often the new volume would be ready and you'd have to buy that. I think that's a really cool approach to bringing comics backlist to new and lapsed readers and particularly with the contextualization element, gives you reason to understand why these stories are evergreen. It's exciting to look at partworks as almost a curated greatest hits collection. 

The other thing, and again, I think this is already in progress with both what DC is doing generally with their Essentials catalog and specifically with a lot of the stuff in their middle grade and young adult OGN space (and to a lesser extent with Black Label) and with the more recent additions to the Hachette Partworks--is I think that the "canonical" books need to be updated. And, of course, I have a lot of thoughts on what should be on those lists. I've said it before, but Far Sector would certainly be on my list. As would Superman Smashes the Klan. Just to throw out a couple of others: Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon, Batman: No Man's Land, Young Justice: Sins of Youth, New Frontier, GL/GA: Hard Travelin' Heroes, (when it's collected, the first arc of the current Birds of Prey series), no longer a big two series, but Astro City (honestly... any volume), Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt, X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga, Marvels, Shadow of the Batgirl, Wednesday Comics, Gen13: Meanwhile (hey, that collection slaps), Mr. Majestic (the '99 run), Starman: Hell and Back, uhh... can we just collect all the pages where the Legion of Superheroes wore outfits designed by kids and fans, and probably a lot of other dumb stuff. But besides being the books that I really like and feel like are deserving of a place in more readers minds, I think the important thing is that we expand from books that may've had a splash outside the medium's traditional haunts (be that in films & TV or literary circles) or that we as comics people recognize for their artistic merit or internal cultural significance to books that celebrate and capture how fun comics can be! Also... and I realize what my own list looks like as I say this, but... fewer comics by white guys, please. 

And now, our regular features. 

New Releases this week (2/14/24): None

New Releases next week (2/21/24): Godzilla Rivals: Mothra vs. MOGUERA (Editor - IDW, post-leaving)

Announcements: Happy Black History Month! This week, I want to spotlight writer/editor Joseph Illidge! He's one of those guys who has been everywhere--Milestone/DC, Valiant, Heavy Metal, Lion Forge, etc. He's got irons in a few fires right now, from Noir is the New Black to teasing a new Image project coming to doing more editorial work to doing some pretty good articles of his own on the current and historical state of the comics biz. Among his many editorial credits is one of the books I mentioned feeling like should be treated more as an evergreen title (though... given it's complexity and just how many titles it ran through, I do understand that it's a bit harder): Batman: No Man's Land. But he's on all the socials and always has something cool brewing, so throw him a follow! 

Sorry that Patreon is still behind! I've sent in a help request and once it's all sorted, blogs will be going back up regularly! As mentioned above, we're getting ready for wedding and travel and expenses around all that, so please also check out my webstore, my Kofi, my eBay, and Becca's site for additional ways to support us and get a little something for yourself!

What I enjoyed this week: Nancy (Comic), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Links (Video Game), Baldur's Gate III (Video Game), Blank Check (Podcast), Solve This Murder (Podcast), The City We Became (Book), Blade Runner 2049 (Movie), Madame Web (Movie), Witch Watch (Manga), One Piece (Manga), Dandadan (Manga), Lore Olympus (Webcomic), Death to Smoochy (Movie), Dungeons & Daddies (Podcast), and big thanks to everyone who has already given us a little something for the wedding! 

Pic of the Week: Nadja made a new friend (?) and his name is Optimus Prime. But she HATES that Sonic. 

[chasing-caws]

Man I’m gonna start bawling over this

[weirdo-from-bonesborough]

Azrael’s so powerful and awesome dc knew they had to gatekeep him behind the most annoying text possible

[thewaragainstapathy]

@umbrellacam @scintillyyy HOW AM I JUST NOW FINDING YOU?! I LOVE No Man's Land! It's such a unique event in comics. But ugh, I could have done without Nick Scratch. The Azrael issues could have been left out of RtNML with none the wiser.

The Greg Rucka NML novelization did a great job summarizing *why* everyone was content to leave Gotham to rot. (We still need some suspension of belief, but hey... it's comics.) Between the Contagion, the Cataclysm, the parade of costumed villains, and Gotham leading the country in crime? "Why waste the money when we can move everyone for cheaper" was a convenient battle cry. Sucks for them; the loss of Gotham affected business all over the world.

(Btw, have you listened to the Graphic Audio adaptation? It's what drew me into NML to begin with when I found it on YouTube. It's not there anymore but someone did put it up on Internet Archive!)

*steeples fingers and stares at my tablet with gimlet eyes*

so. Road to NML. You mean to tell me that the reason the rest of the country, Congress, and the President himself decided to write Gotham off, blow the bridges, and isolate everyone left - all criminals and asylum lunatics and 'undesirables', of course - was in large part due to *checks notes* a satanic rock star's unnatural, irresistible charisma and cult-like media manipulations aimed at dooming the city for his own benefit?

and that in order to find out what actually happens to this villain, who disappears from the Batman and 'Tec storylines...I'd have to *checks notes* read Azrael's event issues?

....yeah, PASS. I only included JPV's book on my reading list when I absolutely had to (*cough* whenever Cass pops up *cough*), so it's off to the wiki summaries for me!

...but okay, on the one hand I find it very funny how thoroughly fandom has excised this demonic media influencer aspect from the collective consciousness of NML - or at least it had never made its way to me via either fic or fandom posts. I know how few people read comics in general in this fandom, and even for those who do, NML is a Beast that only a percentage have tackled (see: me just starting to pick away at it!), so honestly it's not that surprising.

and like it can easily be left out of the story and still leave it coherent lmao!! One can certainly argue things are in fact neater that way; certainly it's not something that would ever be kept (or at least not in the same form) if NML were adapted to another medium, except as perhaps a normal media demagogue (or a montage of them).

but on the other hand...hmm. Thinking about Hurricane Katrina hitting all of six years after the NML storyline played out. And the debate over whether funds should be used for reconstructing New Orleans and other massively damaged areas. And people around the country wondering if New Orleans would or should be rebuilt at all. Or if a vibrant, historic city would just be basically wiped off the map.

I know this is a conversation that happens everywhere and every time a major disaster wrecks a city. There are always huge fights over disaster aid and funding allocations of any kind.

but man. It's something to see this fictionalized depiction in such close proximity to a real life disaster that paralleled it so strongly, and to know that - yes, there are always people who Do Not Abandon Their Homes and work to reclaim them. Yes, massive amounts of aid (federal and otherwise) and federal reconstruction funding did get dispensed. Yes, people cared, and yes, we rebuilt.

so...maybe we do actually need the demonic social media influencer's evil powers in order to comic book logic explain how everyone in the country turned their backs on Gotham and created No Man's Land.

like - no, it's not necessary. the narrative would work without it. and yet...

the premise imagines - requires? - a significantly more callous, selfish populace. Still plausible and compelling! Possibly even stronger as a story since the turnaround for No Man's Land still hinges on winning the country over to open Gotham back up, let aid in, and rebuild. But. You do have to start from - kind of a bleaker take on humanity?

it also kind of reminds me of what scintillyyy pointed out a few weeks ago about Dick killing the Joker, and how actually there's an important comic book superpower interaction going on there, too, with Rancor present massively amplifying Dick's hate and anger to push him over the edge.

but so few people ever notice or remember that and it certainly isn't one of those things that gets transmitted via fandom osmosis. (It was news to me!!) People focus on Dick breaking down and letting loose solely due to being pushed too far.

and that's extremely compelling on its own! It is! Just like the no-satanic-Nick-Scratch NML.

just thinking about fandom's tendency to ellide the supernatural or powered influences that are canonically affecting a situation, in order to explore/focus on more purely humanistic explanations or motivations...that actually end up being darker than what we might reasonably expect from real life, or from a character's typical values.

like it's part wanting to brush off comic book nonsense, part wanting to dive into gritty realism (that's not always realistic), part not having all the information because of learning things secondhand so you construct the most reasonable explanation...idk it's just interesting.

anyway.

more importantly: Dick and Tim are adorable in 'Tec 727-729!! Especially love them trading off yelling each other's names in fear/alarm, and also trading off protecting each other - Dick's "You hurt that kid and you're gonna be eating through a tube!" and Tim's clever solo rescue of a thoroughly captive Dick via clever use of a voice modulator and a two-way radio. The Boys 😊

[theresistanceneverquits]

My current favorite Catholic disaster

[sporkberries]

Robin(1993) is a comic where things happen