#hadiyah dc

[clay-cuttlefish]

I'm finally done. 738 issues in mainline canon, and they're all sorted. My great burden is off my chest.

Except for the roughly 150 issues outside mainline canon, fiftysomething episodes of TV, handful of youtube videos and animated shorts, six movies, and two podcast seasons.

Then I'll be free.

Send help.

Batman: Urban Legends #14

This is, imo, the best take on conspiracy theorist Vic. He's goofy and overdramatic, but he's doing it to get a reaction out of Bruce.

It's short and silly enough that it doesn't get grating.

Choosing to believe that he found out Bruce's identity because Ollie forgot that he can't firstname Bruce in Checkmate meetings.

I Am Batman #11-14

It's really fucked up that Renee's both a cop and the Question, actually! That's not any better than her being a cop! I do not get why this story doesn't see that!

It keeps laying out the reasons that policing is fundamentally broken but then walking it back to go "oh but Renee's a good cop" when she's not! She's not even the mythical Good Cop! The entire reason she's the Question is because she was not a good person on the GCPD and she wasn't able to fix the system!

Renee using her understanding of how the police protect themselves to push back against them is a good idea, and then nope never mind the anarchists are the murderers actually. Cannot believe Lonnie died for this shit.

This handoff sucks so much. Vic and Renee got an entire series to explore what Renee and Hadiyah do in two pages, and while I actually quite like the idea that Hadiyah's a closely guarded enigma with connections to people she really shouldn't know, two pages? Really? The event tie-in is more important? Couldn't have spread this out even a little bit more? Also Renee's motivation sucks but what else is new.

GCPD: The Blue Wall

This wants to be Gotham Central. It's not.

I'm being unfair. There's worse copaganda on the list, and Gotham Central is absolutely copaganda that fails to meaningfully engage with a lot of these elements, but it just keeps circling back to Gotham Central while dodging that Renee knows how she handled policing making her a worse person: she quit, and she started looking for the truth.

Look I have a lot of very complicated feelings about this, but the commentary on a spreadsheet assembly readthrough is not the place to do it.

From a strictly Renee perspective: it hauls her development all the way back to where it was right after Half a Life, has a police officer who's realized he's a bastard working for a corrupt system go evil and kill her brother, and has her acknowledge the futility of reform from the inside but doesn't actually have her quit.

Batman: Urban Legends: #21

I don't know how the hell you can write a comic about Renee's guilt over the lives she ruined while a police officer and the way the police system makes people worse and prevents reform from the inside, then end it by having her decide to become the commissioner. The argument for why that doesn't work is on the page.

I Am Batman #15

What did Dark Crisis even do? I thought the multiverse was already back? If not, the fuck was going on in Lois Lane???

I Am Batman #16-18

NOBODY!!!

I really love Nobody as a name. Extremely in the spirit of the Question for her to see one opportunity for a quip and latch onto it forever.

Yes it makes talking about her prone to devolving into a shitty Who's on First bit but so does Question and I think that's funny.

I like that Hadiyah's out there doing her own mysterious Question-flavored thing. Sure, I wish Renee didn't push the mask onto her, but reinvention after rough origins is kind of the Question's thing. Maybe she'll turn it around, or fade into obscurity until a different author picks her up, or become a recurring side character, or DC'll implode again and she'll get caught in the canon reshuffle. Who knows! Nobody does!

She's got a cool design and a few solid hooks - I'm interested to see if she sticks the landing in the next couple years.

Lazarus Planet: Legends Reborn

I still don't like her being the Question and a cop, but it's less bad when she's using her Question skills to chase a horrifying magic apocalypse monster.

It's solid. Not a fantastic characterization, but this is recognizably Renee as the Question.

Detective Comics #1069

Ram V. Please. Make this pay off. I beg you.

Aside from Renee looking at her Question mask, there's a blonde guy in a blue suit jacket who punches a soldier and then gets his shit wrecked, so maybe that upcoming Tec Question story is actually about how Vic's full of demons.

Detective Comics #1072-1074

Nocturne is worth reading for its own sake, it fucking rules, and this is so promising. Cmon, Renee! You can do it! Get out of the character reversion black hole!

DC's Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun

A good little Halloween-themed Question adventure. She solves a mystery, gets a cape, it's cute and charming. Sort of kiddy but in a good way.

I'd call the art adorable but I think that's the wrong impression. There are some very cute panels, but also some excellent detail work and a great sense of movement. I really like it.

I love that her internal monologue is marked with a hat.

You know what? Things are looking up. It's easy to get depressed about the state of Renee, but it's only actually been about two and a half years in the Bad Zone, and that's... not that bad by DC standards? Sucks to live through, but as far as I can tell there was only one author actively invested in regressing her characterization, everyone else was just going along with that. With Ram V writing for Tec, I'm not enough of a fool to be confident, but I think the odds are decent that the worst has passed.

[nitpickrider]

...Yea sure I'm down for this.

[fungi-maestro]

Talking about Haydian because Renee chose her to be the next question

OH MY GOD I JUST SAW ☹️

This Twitter thread goes into why this is a strange idea from DC if it's what they seem to be trying to do. TLDR: DC may have just implied that the mantle of The Question is being passed to a character named Hadiyah, and in doing so they have proved how little they care for both of these characters. For Hadiyah, this undermines the character arc she's started. For Renee, this is just one more act in the circus performance DC has been making of her story.

This is so not a great plan... With how bad they've been writing the other two Questions lately, the last thing they need is a third one to ignore and mishandle. As for Hadiyah, I haven't read the series she is in, but this is not the hand-off she deserves if she is taking up the mantle, and it has not been set up to properly prepare her for it.

If DC is doing this, then they need to do it well. They've already shown that they can't handle the characters they already have in this role. I'm hopeful, but not optimistic.

[hawkgirlz]

jace has always let hadiyah's words influence his decisions, I am a sucker for ships like this

[esonetwork]

The Earth Station DCU Episode 291 – The Jurassic League

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/the-earth-station-dcu-episode-291-the-jurassic-league/

The Earth Station DCU Episode 291 – The Jurassic League

This Week on Earth Station DCU! Drew Leiter and Cletus Jacobs travel back to the age of dinosaurs to witness the birth of the Jurassic League. The Bat Walker hunts Jokerzard, Supersaur helps the humanoids, and Wonderdon flies away from her island on a new mission in The Jurassic League #1. The Justice League and Legion of Super-Heroes members are scattered throughout time in Justice League vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes #3. Naomi teams up with Cyborg to search for Dee in Naomi: Season Two #3. Hadiyah gives Jace a unique perspective on his new adversary and renews his mission in I Am Batman #9. Babs is a prisoner of Spellbinder while the other Batgirls take on Tutor in Batgirls #6. When Batman tells John that Jay Nakamura is connected to a group of violent Extremists, John confronts Jay about it in Superman: Son of Kal-El #11. Diana learns the truth about Altuum and Dr. Cizko makes his first move in Wonder Woman #787. All this plus, DC News, DC TV, Shout Outs, and much, much more!

————————

Table of Contents

0:00:00 Show Open

0:01:17 DC News

0:14:21 The Jurassic League #1

0:18:34 Justice League vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes #3

0:22:49 Naomi: Season Two #3

0:27:46 Batman: Urban Legends #15

0:39:10 I Am Batman #9

0:44:32 Batgirls #6

0:49:14 Superman: Son of Kal-El #11

0:54:02 Wonder Woman #787

1:07:35 The Flash S8 Ep16 – The Curious Case of Bartholomew Allen

1:18:06 Superman & Lois S2 Ep12 – Lies That Bind

1:33:19 Show Close

Links

The Jurassic League #1

Justice League vs. The Legion of Super-Heroes #3

Naomi: Season Two #3

Batman: Urban Legends #15

I Am Batman #9

Batgirls #6

Superman: Son of Kal-El #11

Wonder Woman #787

The Black Monday Murders Vol. 1 (Cletus’s Read More Comics Pick)

Earth Station One Tales of the Station

Earth Station One Tales of the Station Vol. 2

The Chameleon Chronicles: Colors of Fate

The Chameleon Chronicles: Sisters of the Thorn

American Hauntings

Season 5 Ep13 The Black Dahlia Murder Part I

Season 5 Ep14 The Black Dahlia Murder Part II

True Crime Garage

Black Dahlia Part I Episode 44

Black Dahlia part II Episode 45

Black Dahlia Part III Episode 46

If you would like to leave feedback, comment on the show, or would like us to give you a shout out, please call the ESDCU feedback line at (317) 564-9133 (remember long distance charges may apply) or feel free to email us @ earthstationdcu@gmail.com

[clay-cuttlefish]

Into Infinite Frontier. It's bad in here.

The Next Batman: Second Son

I really don't like the direction this takes Renee, it's a nasty piece of character regression, but I like Jace and the Fox family drama enough that it's not too bad of a time.

Jace gets deadnamed constantly. He's not trans, but he's repeatedly referred to by his birth name in order to upset him and because his family won't make an effort/think he's making a big deal out of nothing, so...

It starts almost promising, like Renee's seriously considering if she's willing to put herself back into policing to prevent whoever else might become the Commissioner from doing something worse, but nope. She's just On Board With Cop Shit again.

Sure, she's ~conflicted~ about being the Commissioner, but it always feels like either a worse version of how she developed in Gotham Central or like a completely different character wearing her face.

Hadiyah my friend Hadiyah. She hasn't had much room to breathe, but I have a lot of thoughts about how she could develop, ideally once Renee gets her development back.

Batman #107-110

It's frustrating. This is meant to be a rough patch for her, Bruce tells her not to forget how to ask the right questions and she's obviously conflicted, but that never gets developed properly. She just gets More Cop about it.

It hasn't actually been that long, but two years where she's regularly showing up and it sucks feels a lot worse than two years mostly offscreen.

DC Pride 2021

I wish I lived in a world where this story had an impact on canon. A former defence attorney turned city councilwoman is exactly the kind of love interest who could anchor a longer Question story.

I Am Batman #0

Hi Hadiyah <333

Justice League #68-71

Genuinely what the hell is Vic's job in Checkmate, other than Oliver Queen nepo hire.

He talks but he's barely a character. Literally just hanging out.

I Am Batman #2

This is the moment where Renee goes from "a bad job at following up on her character development being restored" to a full on "she would not fucking say that".

Fear State

God it's just so frustrating. I don't know what else to say. It's frustrating and miserable.

"You don't know how to turn the clock back, and you're too afraid to let it tick forward." Scarecrow means this as a criticism of Renee the person, but I think it's a better criticism of the writers. She had a way forward, she had connections and places to go, but no.

I Am Batman #4-5

I Am Batman is at its best when it's doing soap opera drama. The cop shit sucks, the action scenes are solid but not super notable, I am here for the Fox family imploding while Jace rams headfirst into danger.

This is an unhinged sentence but I wish Lucius had spent more time conflicted about saving his kid? He's a massive hypocrite when it comes to Jace, so I buy that he'd be quick to pivot from going along with murder to backing Jace's efforts, but it's so quick.

I Am Batman #6-10

I like the angle that Jace is a city employee a lot. He lives in a world where Gotham nearly implodes constantly, every spy agency in the world turned evil a couple years ago and it hasn't been fixed yet, and the multiverse is real and frequently in danger, so fuck it superheroics are legal.

Look, I get what they're going for with Strike Force Bat, but the ragtag group of unpopular cops worked for Gotham Central because they were all decent people (by cop show standards).

Hadiyah's been doing the thing where she drops the word Question into every appearance so far, but it's particularly obvious here.

Honestly the thing that keeps me from being completely sold on Hadiyah (aside from how bad the handoff is) is that she's already good at Question things. She's reflective, good at investigation, aware of her relationships and how they affect her, etc, which means there's less room for her to grow and find meaning. I think there are a lot of good angles for how wearing the mask will change her, but I'm not sure the story has one yet.

[nitpickrider]

Tanya, she's literally wearing the same colored hijab as always. How many women do you know who wear yellow-beige hijabs? There's no way you don't know that's Hadiyah, I refuse to believe it.

[nitpickrider]

Oh please, bulletproof trenchcoats and good smoke bombs are some of the first things we figured out in this business.

[fungi-maestro]

Haydiah Just took the question mantle she's called nobody

Hm... I still maintain that the way they set that up was more underwhelming than either character deserved. There was a better way they could have come to that wouldn't have felt so shoehorned in. Also, Nobody? DC is continuing their tradition of having at least 3 unrelated characters with extremely similar names, I see. I guess they just didn't want to add another Question. Sigh.

Hadiyah seems like a really interesting character. I caught up with her after the issue where she took the mantle released, and she genuinely seems like she could have a compelling arc. As the Question? I don't know. The relationship between her and Renee wasn't anywhere near developed enough for me to make that call. As "Nobody"? Sure, I guess. She has that sense of lost self that I think could make a good Question, but only if she was shown to actually have rapport with the others. A similar hero seems like the way to go in this case.

I feel like Renee telling Hadiyah to step up shouldn't be considered "passing on the mantle", as DC has tried to make us believe. There's just no way that this is legitimately how they wanted to do that. I think more likely, Renee is an inspiration for Hadiyah to start her own ass-kicking & identity-finding journey, separated yet still parallel to that of the Questions. I wish her the best of luck, but I hope DC doesn't use this as an excuse to fridge the others or ignore growth Hadiyah goes through.

[hawkgirlz]

jace getting the motivation to become batman thanks to hadiyah's words, I have found a new ship