#rereading zdarsky's run for personal reasons

[marsupialmenace]

Putting aside Bruce's horrific "you're the 'parents' that the family needs" dialogue (not a personal fan of that), I love that what he did to Jason was the final straw to the seeds that Zdarsky was sowing all the way back in the beginning of his run.

(There are also panels where Bruce is just wishing that his family could find the happiness he'll never have, which when put aside Gotham War where he realises he's the one causing the unrest :chefs_kiss: ugh, I'm unwell)

Panels from: Batman #129 and Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War - Scorched Earth.

[zahri-melitor]

Some more coherent thoughts about Gotham War, now it's settled on me.

(Spoilers below cut, for length and as it's still only Wednesday)

It's not a huge surprise, but Selina's whole 'train henches to steal from the rich non-violently!' ended up being a complete side issue that only existed to get the plot moving. Nobody's conception of this plot, in two years time, will really include this detail, despite the thousands of words spent arguing how ridiculous it was.

Yes it remains a poorly thought out plan on Selina's part (she's never heard of earning money legally) but the narrative also frames it as long term ineffective from the very first issue and knocks it down on multiple occasions.

DC editorial definitely tried to dress this up as a full family event, but realistically it was a Bruce, Selina and Jason event, written by their three current writers, with solid bit parts played by Tim and Dick.

Vandal Savage remains ridiculous and ready to sacrifice anyone and I appreciate that about him. As a villain he was just the right level of stakes for this event.

I enjoyed getting to see Scandal, even if her fans would say she got done dirty here. Scandal usually has enough sense not to believe anything Vandal says, and I admit I was somewhat waiting for some level of twist here as to why Scandal was all for immortality at this point in time, but it never came.

I still agree it felt a lot like three separate plotlines intersecting, but I think they managed to land the event successfully (while leaving some nice loose threads). I actually appreciate they didn't overreach in their goals.

It still finished out with two separate plotlines: Bruce and Selina and Jason; and Dick and Tim and the rest of the family. Structurally this again reminded me as much of Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul as Batman #138 did; the main plot and then the far more interesting Dick & Tim sideplot which is what I go back to reread. (Chip Zdarsky is clearly also a fan)

Also promisingly for an event yes, it did actually shake up the status quo and push the participants off in new directions.

So Bruce is now doing the Loner Batman thing (in that he's locked out of the fam computers/comm lines), Selina is officially 'dead' (what is with all these fake dead people with titles, Penguin is too right now), and Jason has what's effectively permanent fear toxin response to stressful situations. Also, apparently, we are getting Dick and Barbara back 'running' the Batfam while Bruce is on the outs.

As far as Bruce goes, what has been really notable in this event is how much Chip Zdarsky loves early 2000s Bat comics and their dynamics, and particularly Joker's Last Laugh. There's a lot of structural things about how this event was shaped, what specific characters did, and emotional beats that feel very JLL as someone who's read it at least half a dozen times. It's not the only influence, but it's a pretty prominent one.

Bruce ending the event in a position where he's effectively not working with most of the other Bats actually tracks reasonably well over to Batman & Robin, to my surprise. It makes sense that it's just Bruce and Damian and they're focusing on homelife and domestic relationship details between the two. It gives Bruce an excuse for why he's closely focused on Damian there.

I will admit I have not been reading Catwoman, but from the event it seems they're spinning her off to keep moving her back into a more antihero position. Tini Howard clearly has a direction she wants to take Selina.

I actually think this has pretty interesting storytelling potential for Jason. It means that he has to stay calm, or has to overcome his own fear to achieve things. It gives him a goal? Matthew Rosenberg clearly seems interested in using it for his Jason storytelling and he's got Jason right now, so...

I'm personally delighted by how much Tim Zdarsky wrote into this storyline. He used the space more to show off Dick and Tim's brotherhood and what Tim is good at, rather than push the Tim side of the Zur story we're all expecting to occur (there's that waiting Zur-Robin costume). Means he's planning it for Batman as a title itself rather than getting it tangled up here.

"It was the only way to become the second-best Robin". Yes, this is Tim getting to show off his core competencies - he probably is the only Bat other than Bruce who would have extensively studied all the trophies. Dick would remember a lot of them simply because a lot of the trophies are from old adventures, but pretty much all the others are not particularly retrospective, respect the past sort of members of the group, while Tim has always been surrounded by the shadows of the past. I loved this note.

I haven't talked about Babs yet! She's in green, in glasses, sitting down at her computers with a novelty mug, directing everyone, answering to Oracle. That's her! That's my Oracle!

I do think Bruce expecting Dick to take over running the Batfam right now is a big ask, given he's also running the Titans as the main superhero team on the planet and handling Bludhaven, but Tom Taylor's writing both those books so I don't expect to see the stress catching up with Dick there. Benefits of writer choice right now, I guess. Also personally 'Babs and Dick organise everyone while Bruce has a breakdown elsewhere' is one of my favourite Batfam dynamics so you know, I'm pretty excited if we actually get to see this play out.

New Lazarus Pit in Gotham! This won't be a problem at all.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

The Zdarsky run is driving me up the wall because I really don't like it. It's trying to explore the recurring themes of Batman, but it keeps rehashing older ideas with a bad case of janky event pacing and some really rough tone problems. Also, "Bruce's secret contingency plan backup personality is connected to the multiverse" is stupid, and putting a creepily realistic drawing of Michael Keaton in a comic makes me want to stop reading so I never have to see him again.

...but then I see people's takes about it and they're being haters for the wrong reasons. Bruce would absolutely do this shit. That's not the problem here. The problem is that rereading Murderer/Fugitive for the millionth time is more interesting.

oh here we go! finally, some good fucking critique! Batman comics aren't bad because Batman is a maladjusted bitch, Batman comics are bad because DC editorial is in shambles and wants every ongoing written with an eye on out of context panels being posted on twitter

[astromechs]

I would like to start reading the guardians comics, where should I start? Do you maybe have some sort of reading guide?

hey, anon, i’m glad you asked! what i’m going to provide here is a little bit of my own personal reading guide, and what that means is that this is going to reflect some of my personal taste. the good news is that the cosmic side of marvel is actually pretty easy to follow, especially as compared to other areas of marvel, so i think you should be able to jump right in!

i’m going to put this under a cut for length. so, without further ado:

start here:

annihilation (2006) – event

this event really birthed marvel cosmic as we know it, and i think is the best place to start with anything related to this lore. peter, gamora, and drax play a role in this saga, plus there are other characters like phyla-vell and richard rider (nova) who are intertwined with the guardians quite a bit.

basically what happens here is that there’s annihilus, a guy from the negative zone, who’s launching his forces on this universe. it’s in the guise of a territory war (our universe is expanding, causing the negative zone to contract), but really annihilus just wants to wipe people out. fun stuff!

recommended reading order: annihilation: prologue by keith giffen, annihilation: nova #1-4 by dan abnett and andy lanning, annihilation #1-6 by keith giffen. the ronan spinoff has gamora in it for a couple of issues, so you can check that out too. you don’t really need the silver surfer or super skrull spinoffs to understand the core story, imo, so you can skip those.

then:

annihilation: conquest (2007) – event

this event comes on the heels of annihilation, and is what brings a lot of the modern guardians together. i definitely think you need annihilation first, though, in order to understand this, which is why i recommended that. this event chronicles the invasion of the kree empire by the phalanx, a techno-organic race who assimilate people like the borg from star trek. it’s a fun event, and peter plays a really big role in it.

recommended reading order: annihilation: conquest prologue by dan abnett and andy lanning, annihilation: conquest – star-lord #1-4 by keith giffen, annihilation: conquest #1-6 by dan abnett and andy lanning. these are the main stories of interest to guardians fans (and i think what you need to get the gist of the story), but there are also quasar and wraith tie-ins.

dan abnett and andy lanning’s nova vol 4 overlaps with a lot of the events of annihilation: conquest, and the phalanx arc (issues #4-11… i…think… someone correct me if i’m wrong on the issue numbers, i need to reread this series) heavily features gamora. as a rich rider/nova fan, i recommend it in general anyway, because it’s just a great series overall, but if your primary interest is the guardians, i can understand you not wanting to read the whole thing.

next:

guardians of the galaxy, vol 2 (2008-2010), #1-25, by dan abnett and andy lanning

the run on guardians that’s considered seminal and iconic by most fans, and it’s for a reason. the writing is good, the character interactions are really fun, and i really enjoy the plot. i spent like $50 on the omnibus for this and i regret nothing; it’s just a great book. if you don’t read another guardians comic, read this one!!

the thanos imperative miniseries, also written by abnett and lanning, directly follows the events of their gotg run and is also just a really fucking great story. read thanos imperative: ignition, then thanos imperative #1-6. i cried at the end.

after this, i’d frankly skip most of bendis guardians and humphries star-lord. both have their moments, but a lot of the writing/characterization is pretty bad. you’re not missing anything by avoiding it. the only thing you need to know is that during the events of civil war ii, the guardians come to earth to help captain marvel, and in the process, carol tells peter that they’re keeping thanos on earth – which is something he keeps from gamora and drax, in order to prevent them from losing their collective shit. well, of course gamora finds out anyway, it causes a huge fight between the guardians, and now they’re not only stranded on the planet because their ship’s busted, they’re also not speaking.

which sets the stage for:

star-lord, vol 2 (2016-2017), #1-6 + annual, by chip zdarsky

i love this comic so much; it’s literally my favorite peter quill story. it’s short and it’s mostly a character study, but it revolves around with him dealing with being back on earth, as well as a lot of personal revelations about his life. can’t rec this one enough!

gamora (2016), #1-6, by nicole perlman

this one has no set reading order, since it’s intended to be a prequel comic for her, but i just love it a lot. another great character study, and highly recommended!

also, if you want another backstory comic about gamora, i’d recommend the currently ongoing thanos miniseries by tini howard. we’re only two issues into it so far, with the third one coming out this month, but it’s actually pleasantly surprised me quite a bit.

you can pick back up with the guardians with:

all-new guardians of the galaxy (2017-2018), #1-12, #146-150 (it goes back to legacy numbering here, #146 is essentially issue #13) by gerry duggan

people have mixed feelings about this series, and i kind of do too, but it’s fun enough for me to rec. it’s got some good character interactions, and sets the stage for things you’ll need to know if you want to read the current guardians ongoing.

this feeds into: infinity countdown, #1-5, and infinity wars, #1-6, also by gerry duggan. i am Not A Fan of infinity wars in particular, but you’ll need to be aware of those events for what’s going on currently. which is:

guardians of the galaxy, vol 5 (2019), #1-ongoing by donny cates

we’re only a few issues into this so far, but i like it overall! i like how peter’s written in it, in particular, and we’re back to some fun character interactions. the annual that just came out last week brings in some really potentially interesting story threads, too.

so – that should bring you up to speed with what’s going on with our favorite space team!