The Fate of Batman

[anarky]

Agreed. I've never been a fan of Dick as bats, what with it shitting all over Prodigal and all, and me liking that, even if more for what it represented than the actual story. However, once you let that genie out, it doesn't go back easily.

[Tom Foolery]

DC is becoming the Batman and Superman show. Incredibly, even more than they already were. Every one of their 'New 52' books that does dismal sales seems to get replaced with a Batman title, a Superman title, or some combination of those two. Even the Green Lantern train is slowing down, thanks to a horrible film and Johns leaving the book. Even though there's like 5 or 6 GL related books right now, I bet that number goes down to Two by the time DCs next big Gimmick Month rolls around. Probably replaced by a Batman/GL book, and a Superman/GL book.

The only way they cut down to just Batman and Detective is if BOTH of those books become weekly titles.

[anarky]

And now there's an alternate-reality crossover event coming up? Isn't the DCnU dipping really heavily into these parallel worlds and alternate realities for such a new universe that still doesn't quite seem to have its ducks in a row? There's the books that take place on Earth-2, the crossover where the Injustice League or whatever replace the Justice League, and now this. Not to mention that the whole thing spun out of a parallel universe story about two (?) years ago and an awful lot of readers still consider it to be an extended parallel universe story itself?

These stories can be fun every so often, but, holy shit, even one per year is a bit much, so they've gone way the fuck overboard.

[Tom Foolery]

Is that what "Gothtopia" is about? I didn't even bother to click on the story, I care so little about DC right now.
And Gothtopia sounds like a store in the mall where kids go get their ears pierced and buy ironic t-shirts. Like Spencer's or Hot Topic.

I also saw Stephanie Brown is finally making her New52 debut. But as with all New52 characters, she's a blank slate so there is little cause for celebration. She might be Bruce Wayne's meth head teen babymama for all we know.

[anarky]

They haven't said specifically, but, based on the descriptions, it would almost have to be. Selina Kyle as Batman's sidekick, Catbird? C'mon, no way is that happeni... wait, this is the same fucktard company who has had three different new Lobos, with the latest being so far from what makes Lobo Lobo that it might actually be canon.

[Diabolical]

More and more, I see the need to scale down my Bat books. They're doing the same thing that killed my X-Men interest in the 90's - crossover/event tie-ins every few months.

[Diabolical]

At Detroit Fanfare back on Saturday, I finally got to meet the man: Norm Breyfogle.
Great guy, really friendly and appreciative. I talked to him for probably 10 minutes, mostly about Batman.

I got to thank him for all his great work on Batman, and told him he was the main reason I got into comics. Sure, the Tim Burton Batman flick got me interested in Batman, but it was his (and Alan Grant's) work on Batman that really got me into comics.

We talked about their lasting contributions to the Batman legacy (Zsasz, Anarky, Ventriloquist, Robin, etc.) and he told me he and Grant recently filed paperwork with DC to get what basically amounts to a royalty check (not the word he actually used, I forget what it was) whenever DC uses one of their creations. Back in the day Denny O'Neil did one for them for Zsasz, but Norm had no idea that was an option for all their creations until recently. Any time the character appears in any form: comics, movies, toys, etc, he'll get a check.

I told him how I was disappointed that DC seems to refuse to reprint their work and he said he's heard rumblings that it will finally be collected within the next year to year and half.

I would have loved to get him to sketch something, like one of the blank covers, but he was alreay pretty busy with other commissions.

I did buy a pretty bad-ass print he had available for $5 which he signed.
I'll attach a really shitty quality pic for now. Both of our cameras took a shit recently, but I'll have a new one on Sunday and I'll get a better pic then.

[anarky]

You are a lucky man.

I have to wonder, given how shitty the Big Two are toward creators, if the royalty thing might explain why Anarky and Ventriloquist were both replaced, and Tim Drake was never Robin in the DCnU. I could easily see Warner saying, "Oh no, no check for you, because this is a different Anarky we've used as the main villain in Red Robin for the last year. Oh, and that word 'Red'? No check for Robin, either."

[Tom Foolery]

The term, I believe, is "equity participation" wherein the creators get a profit sharing on any characters (and sometimes concepts) they created at DC. But it's up to the creators to file for it. If they don't speak up, DC won't let them know their creations are being used in movies, video games, toys etc.

I think Len Wein has stated he's earned more from creating Lucius Fox than he's ever earned for creating Wolverine.

[Diabolical]

The term, I believe, is "equity participation" wherein the creators get a profit sharing on any characters (and sometimes concepts) they created at DC.

That's it. Gracias.

Norm said DC didn't exactly publicize the equity clause to any of the creators, so he didn't know until recently. I didn't ask him, but I doubt there'll be any retroactive pay.

You are a lucky man.

I have to wonder, given how shitty the Big Two are toward creators, if the royalty thing might explain why Anarky and Ventriloquist were both replaced, and Tim Drake was never Robin in the DCnU. I could easily see Warner saying, "Oh no, no check for you, because this is a different Anarky we've used as the main villain in Red Robin for the last year. Oh, and that word 'Red'? No check for Robin, either."

Norm said it didn't matter who was under the mask, as long as it is a version of that character, he'll get a check. New chick Ventriloquist or a different Anarky? It doesn't matter.

But I doubt he'll get anything for Tim Drake Robin, since Grant/Breyfogle didn't create Tim Drake or Robin. They only introduced his as Robin.

[Diabolical]

What about the fate of Nightwing?
With Nightwing being cancelled there are rumors Dick Grayson will die.

Will Dick Grayson die? Nightwing series ending with issue #30!

There has been a great deal of speculation about whether or not Dick Grayson will survive the latest DC event titled “Forever Evil.” To begin with, it has been known for some time that co-publisher, Dan Didio, wanted Nightwing killed off during another event called “Infinite Crisis.” Then when Forever Evil began, Didio said ”One of our major recognizable characters will be affected in a very dramatic way.” This was soon followed by an ad campaign for Forever Evil that featured Nightwing’s symbol coated in blood.

In the first chapter of Forever Evil, Nightwing was captured by the Crime Syndicate and his secret identity was unveiled to the world. Not much has happened in the issues since, but it definitely looks like something major is on the horizon for the former sidekick and it’s going to be big enough and bad enough to shut down his own comic book. If we look to an ad and the first cover for this April’s Batman: Eternal, we see that Nightwing is missing in both images (or perhaps that’s him with blond hair enjoying “Batsgiving”).

[Tom Foolery]

I don't think they have the sack to kill him off. I think he'll fake his death since everyone knows his ID and get a new hero identity like WingKnight or BatDevil or some shit.
Then he'll get a glorious return in some future Event and they'll recon the fact everyone knows he's Grayson and the obvious connection to Bruce Wayne.

[Diabolical]

Then he'll get a glorious return in some future Event and they'll recon the fact everyone knows he's Grayson and the obvious connection to Bruce Wayne.

He'll make a deal with the devil and everyone will forget and there will never have been any connection to Bruce Wayne.

Nah, no company is dumb enough to do something like that.

[Tom Foolery]

Finally got back to the 'A-B' box I was reading thru before Christmas. I skipped over the Aquaman and Azrael runs since I have holes in those and went to the Batman stuff. Here's what I read.

Untold Legend of the Batman. 3 issue mini from 1980(Actually one of the first 'miniseries' ever) by Len Wein and art by Byrne and Aparo(yeah that combo is as awesome as it sounds!). Somebody has broken into the Batcave and stolen Bruce's father's original bat costume and is taunting Bruce about his secret ID. So, the story is a series of origin tales of Bruce, Robin, Alfred, etc trying to piece together who knows Bruce's secret. Eventually it's revealed Bruce had a concussion from an explosion earlier in the week and he'd done it to himself. Dumb ending, but overall a classic series.

Shadow of the Batman. A 5-issue mini from 1985 that reprinted 10 classic Detective Comics issues on Baxter Paper. The 10 issues were the Englehart/Rogers stories, with some help from Walt Simonson and Len Wein. Highlights from the short run include the reintroduction of Hugo Strange where he discovered Bruce's secret and tried to replace him as Batman, the reintoduction of Deadshot in his modern costume. The introduction of Silver St. Claire as Bruce's GF, the infamous Joker Laughing Fish story, and the introduction of Clayface III, Preston Payne. Superb stories all around.

Annual 19. A Year One origin story for Scarecrow. Had some good art by Bret Blevins and Mile Manley. I feel like this is the fifth different version of Scarecrow's origin though.

Annual 21. A 'Pulp Heroes' tale of a Chinese mobster in Gotham's Chinatown and some guy who stole the soul of a dragon. It had some niorish, moody JH Williams art, but the story was boring.

Annual 24. Part of the 'Planet DC' Annual event, Bruce and Alfred head to Scotland and some little girl has an imaginary friend called Boggart. Some of Jim Aparo's last work ever. But a fairly tepid story by Ostrander.

Now, I've got LotDK and Shadow of the Bat runs left. I stopped reading Legends with issue 66, and I've since found the majority of the rest of the run from 67 to 210, but I'm still missing about 35 issues. Likewise, I stopped SotB with issue 34, and have since found the most of the remaining run from 35-92, but I'm 10 or so issues shy of a full run. I think I'll dive into Shadow first, and then do Legends after, which is comprised mostly of self contained arcs.

[anarky]

Untold Legend of the Batman. Dumb ending, but overall a classic series.

I loved that miniseries! And I think that sentence sums it up better than any other statement could.