Comic Book Resources

I don’t have an exact ish number, but that’s an homage to an old Invaders cover with The Red Skull, Hitler, probably some rat like Japanese guy, pointing down onto Cap, Bucky, and Namor. Probably.

Is the writer Don McGregor? Clue #3 is my best guess.

I wish they could retcon Catwoman turning into a female Daredevil and having a baby. Catwoman should be the Femme Fatale that Batman wants but can never have.

Batman retcon
Jason todd would never have returned in any shape or form–real or unreal.

or

Joe Chill DID kill Batman’s parent’s

What ONE thing would you retcon in the current Batman continuity?

I’d go back to the post-Zero Hour origin where they never catch Joe Chill. I don’t need Batman to be absolutely bonkers and constantly obsessing over his parents’ murder all the time, but I don’t want him getting closure, either. For god’s sake, the guy dresses up in a giant bat suit. It’s clear he’s gotta be a little nuts, right?

For reading habits: I don’t have any special ordering ritual, I just dive right in like it’s a big bowl of candy. Whatever comes first comes first.

I think I’d retcon away all that Leslie Thompkins nonsense that Bill Willingham wrote a couple of years back.

I love that Avengers splash! John Buscema was the bee’s knees, and maybe my favorite Avengers artist, although it’s a tough pick between him and Perez.

I personally read my comics in order from heaviest to lightest… i.e., the things that take the most thinking and attention, like Casanova, come first, and something light like Ultimate X-Men is read later.

I would retcon the Joker injuring/killing any member of the Batman supporting cast (actually that’s 3 incidents, Babs Gordon, Godron’s wife and Jason Todd, so I don’t know if I can get away with calling it one thing). That trend of Joker killing and maiming supporting cast members really made the rivalry way too personal and messed up their traditional chemistry.

Is the creator in question Bruce Jones? The clue that gave it away was Green Skinned character and recent exclusive.

I would guess the cover is hommaging JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #29, “Crisis on Earth-Three!” but the mise-en-scene isn’t exact. It’s the same principle, though, a group of heroes watching another hero in crisis through a crystal ball-like device.

I tend to read the stuff I’m most looking forward to first, just so I’m not rushing through the other stuff to get to it.

If I could retcon one thing in Batman history, it would be Leslie Thompkins: Child Killer. Way to screw up one of the best characters in the mythos, guys.

And my guess for this week’s ‘Who Is It?’ is Jim Starlin, even though I’m almost certain that’s wrong. I decided that on the first clue and just refused to shake it.

AVENGERS v1 #73. And I have that issue, so it was just a matter of checking around online to confirm it. Yes, Monica…the Panther is a “soul brother.”

I get all of my (small stack) of comics once a month now, along with some trade paperbacks. So I order my small stack much in the way that you do – putting the ones I MOST want to read at the bottom and the ones I’m LEAST looking forward to on the top (though with the few titles that I get, I generally look forward to all of them and I’m no longer tired of reading comics by the time I get to the bottom of the stack). For trades, I tend to do the opposite – glom onto the one I’m most interested in reading first, then move on to the others.

Current Batman mythos retcon – Stephanie Brown did not die, and all of the repercussions of that (including Dr. Thompkins – Child Killer) would not have happened. She could be put on a bus and sent out of the book, or used as a supporting character again, but either way her death was stupid and the resulting storylines didn’t make it any more worthwhile.

And I disagree wholeheartedly with moose n’ squirrel about getting rid of Joe Chill, though – that’s part of the mythos! The Joe Chill stuff stretches back to 1948, so its not like its some kind of new addition. I think that what you gain by deleting it pales in comparison to what is lost by getting rid of it. Plus, its a great little Golden Age story, if a bit trite (like a lot of GA stories are).

I usually read the comic I’m most excited about first, and then I alternate the ones I’m excited about with the ones I’m not as excited about. Or sometimes I alternate by tone, following something serious with something lighter or funnier. I usually save the stuff that will take longer to read (text-heavy stuff like the recent Vault of Michael Allred, longer issues like Solo, graphic novels like Pride of Baghdad) for last.

Is this week’s “who is it” Bruce Jones?

I’ll usually read the comics that I can’t wait to read first. Sometimes I’ll even read them in the car, still parked outside the comic shop.

I tried reading them in the car on the way back from the comic shop a couple of times, but the results weren’t pretty.

I used to read the comics I was least looking forward to first, then moving it up to the ones I was most looking forward to. Then I asked myself, “If I’m not looking forward to these comics, why am I buying them?” I cut about half the comics from my buy pile, never missed them, and now I tend to read them in any random order because they’re all ones I really like.

I’d be tempted to resurrect Stephanie Brown, but I’d also throw in (in the classic “double-whammy” wish trick) that her friendship proved to be the lifeline Cassie Cain needed to not turn into bats**t-crazy assassin girl. So Steph is still the Spoiler, and Cassie is still Batgirl.

The who is it is John Byrne, I think (the green-skinned character being She-Hulk not Hulk).

I thought the cover was an homage to an Avengers issue, round about 90 or so, but I can’t find it so I’m probably wrong

When reading my new comics I tend to start off with the one that I’ve been most waiting for (Daredevil most recently) and then move on from there putting the next one I’m looking forward to on the bottom and trying to switch between DC and Marvel while I work down the pile.

Couldn’t be Byrne, one of the clues was

2. This creator became a writer almost exclusively during the 70s.

Oh, and when I finally read that issue with the Vision crying, I thought that was the most over-hyped scene ever. So he cries, big deal. There is no real lead up to it, and none of it is really that emotional. The story doesn’t even make all that much sense.

Bruce Jones – 90% certain on question 3, 99% certain on question 4. (I’m saying 99% because I know I could still be wrong!)

I tend to apply several principles with respect to the order in which I read my comics. (1) I tend to read light, entertaining comics before I read “heavier” material. This is because I often read comics just before bed, when I can be too tired for deeper, more complex stuff. (2) I give priority to reading new(er) series that I haven’t yet decided whether or not to follow. (3) I give priority to comics on which much “current continuity” hinges, or for which I expect to find rampant spoilers on the Internet. Principles (2) and (3) arose from the fact that I fell way behind in reading comics when completing my doctoral dissertation and still haven’t caught up. That also explains, in combination with principle (1), why I still haven’t finished reading Promethea!

I agree with almost everything everyone else said about Batman retcons (I think Jer misinterpreted moose), though I’m confused by Stephen Cade’s comment about Joe Chill: Isn’t Chill still the murderer of Batman’s parents? However, I’d suggest an additional retcon: It seems like Alan Moore’s version of the Red Hood origin of the Joker has made its way into canon. As I once wrote in a published letter to (I think) Legends of the Dark Knight, I don’t think the Joker should have a clear, fixed origin (and if anyone wants to look it up, they’ll know my secret identity!). As Batman once thought (via the pen of Steve Englehart), “Ever since that burglar stepped out of that alley, my world goes crazy sometimes!” (I’m (mis)quoting from memory here.) I think the Joker is the embodiment of that craziness, that chaos of the world. And as such, he’s not a person so much as a force of nature – an origin would bring him too down to earth.

I usually read them from order of how much I want to read them to how little(though if I bought it, then of course I want to read it a good deal, just not as much as others).

The exception would be “Difficult comics.”

Certain comics take more time than others and generally come last, usually a few days later.

Priest’s Black Panther, Gotham Central, Seagle’s The Crusades, and Checkmate all fall under this catagory. I’m sure a bunch of others would too if I stopped to think about it.

Batman retcons?

His parents were killed by dinosaurs, Harvey Bullock has a pet monkey, and Alfred used to be a pirate.

And I’d probably work the first Batwoman and Batgirl back into continuity, somehow. Always did like them.

I agree with Stephen Cade. Although i didn’t know Joe Chill ISN’T the real killer of the Wayne parents. Who is it now?

I don’t think we know yet. We know post-IC that his killer was caught, and I’m just assuming he’s Joe Chill, but I guess he could have been someone else.

I read my comics in alphabetical order. With rare exceptions for the stories that I absolutely must read right away.

I wouldn’t retcon away Spoiler’s death, because it’s the only thing that finally got writers to leave the poor girl alone. I’d probably make Leslie not directly responsible for it, at least. Can Superboy punch that away?

If it turns out that Cassandra Cain really IS evil, and this isn’t just some scheme or temporary thing, then I’d get rid of that. Such a dumb idea.

Speaking of the world going crazy sometimes, I think it made more sense that Joe Chill wasn’t the one who killed Bruce’s parents. The name of the man who killed them is less important, in the grand scheme of things, than what size boots Bruce wears (though I know there are people who would care about that, too) “Joe Chill” doesn’t matter. The notion that the real killer was still out there in the world somewhere was possibly the best thing to come out of Zero Hour – but if that’s what has to be sacrificed to make Batman a team player again, I can accept that…