Batman 300 and up (reviews by shaxper)

[foxley]

Also, in terms of where to start with Batman, I find myself regretting that I didn't start these reviews with Batman #217 (the issue that transitioned Batman into a more grounded, street-level approach to storytelling). By beginning with #300, I missed out on at least two legendary runs that followed this transition (O'Neil/Adams and Englehart/Rogers) as well as a wealth of renowned individual stories.

Probably my two favourite runs.

And by starting at #300, you began in the middle of David V. Reed's run as writer, which I really wouldn't recommend to anyone.

[shaxper]

Probably my two favourite runs.

And by starting at #300, you began in the middle of David V. Reed's run as writer, which I really wouldn't recommend to anyone.

Well it was really the very end of that run, and the nice thing about that was it caused me to set my expectations low and REALLY enjoy everything that came after in contrast

[shaxper]

Detective Comics #610

"Snow and Ice, Part One: Ode to a Penguin"
writer: Alan Grant
pencils: Norm Breyfogle
inks: Steve Mitchell
colors: Adrienne Roy
letters: Albert De Guzman
assoc. editor: Daniel Raspler
editor: Dennis O'Neil
with thanks to George Cordeiro
created by Bob Kane

grade: B

Let's face it. At this point in time, Batman's rogues gallery had grown incredibly stale. In the entire span of this review thread (which has now covered more than ten years of Batman comics), I've seen two classic Batman rogues handled well (The Joker by Mike W. Barr and Catwoman by Len Wein). The Secret Origins Special focusing on the rogues gallery tried to cast the rest in a more compelling light, but it failed.

So now here are Grant and Breyfogle taking arguably the least interesting of Batman's classic rogues and recognizing within him his potential as a more grounded, realistic villain for Batman's increasingly grounded and realistic stories. This understanding of the character is a brilliant one, and so is their method for reintroducing him. Rather than show us the Penguin in action, they allow his absence to speak for him, as the issue begins with his presumed death. Here Penguin is depicted as a major crime boss in the Gotham Underworld, deeply conflicted with the mob families, and a constant thorn in both Batman and Gordon's minds. His extravagance, greed, and selfless love for birds are played up as well, painting a comprehensive portrait of a fully developed character, even without him uttering a word on panel throughout the issue. Very nice touch.

I love the depiction of Mortimer Kadaver here. I am new to the character, but his obsession with death is almost charming. Grant knows how to write his sickos.

It's also nice to see The Ventriloquist return, somehow orchestrating at least part of what is occurring in this story.

Ultimately though, this story confused me. I have no idea what was happening at the Penguin's wake with the snow, the ice, and the crime boss suddenly being so generous, and I have absolutely no idea what Batman's last line meant: "Snow...ice...and a penguin. Does it mean?" Did De Guzman leave out a "what" or a "..."?

My only minor squabble with this story -- I really can't see Batman throwing open the casket to inspect the body in the middle of the funeral service. Surely he would have inspected it beforehand in the mortuary when no one was around, and then he would have realized Penguin wasn't really dead.


Minor details:

-- The letter column for this issue is printed backwards.

-- The entire creative team has their names appearing on tombstones on the front cover. Creepy.


the plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Penguin is dead, Batman can't believe it, two thugs attempt to dig Penguin out and reanimate him with a specific phrase but it does not work, they break Kadaver out of prison while it's suggested that The Ventriloquist is somehow involved, Kadaver reveals that he placed Penguin in a trance and possesses the correct phrase to reanimate him, he does so, Batman and Gordon attend a wake for Penguin where snow and ice rain down as it's announced that Penguin left his money to organize a charity for penguins and he wants others to donate, a rival crime boss donates generously, and Batman is confused by all of this (as are we).

A pretty confusing story, but I really appreciate what Grant is trying to do for the Penguin's character.

[foxley]

Ultimately though, this story confused me. I have no idea what was happening at the Penguin's wake with the snow, the ice, and the crime boss suddenly being so generous, and I have absolutely no idea what Batman's last line meant: "Snow...ice...and a penguin. Does it mean?" Did De Guzman leave out a "what" or a "..."?

I suspect it was supposed to be "Does it mean...?" and the ellipses were left out.

[shaxper]

Legends of the Dark Knight #3

"Shaman, Book Three"
writer: Dennis O'Neil
pencils: Ed Hannigan
inks: John Beatty
letters: John Costanza
colors: Richmond Lewis
asst. editor: Kevin Dooley
editor: Andrew Helfer
Batman created by Bob Kane

grade: B-


There's a lot I liked about this issue and a little I didn't. Though I absolutely feel this story could have easily been told in two issues instead of five, O'Neil fills much of the space with rich banter between Bruce and Alfred, and Beatty and Lewis do some truly impressive work over Hannigan's pencils to at least make the void feel rich. I also give props to O'Neil for providing a situation in which Batman appears knocked unconscious until the absolute last second and explaining in totally rational terms why Batman does such a thing (not just for dramatic flair). Add to that the newly begun Batcave and Bruce gloating about new tricks he's figured out while out in the field, and there's an energy pertaining to new beginnings in this issue that seems to have been borrowed heavily by Batman Begins. As for O'Neil's message about how our culture corrupts indigenous tribes for profit, I still can't decide if it was a courageous decision or a tired cliche. Maybe it doesn't have to be either.

As for the drawbacks, how many frickin' times can someone get killed JUST as they're about to tell Bruce Wayne something? As excellent a job as this creative team does with filling the void, there most certainly is a void left in this issue because the pacing is far too slow, all while our murderer conveniently takes out informants each time so that Bruce can't move the pace ahead any quicker and resolve this thing in one or two issues.

And really, we know Spurlock was evil, just as we know the investment banker showing up in this issue and the reformed preacher from the previous one will both turn out to be involved somehow. The mystery here isn't particularly enticing. Instead, this story feels like waiting on a really long line to go somewhere you don't particularly care to go, but being given some pretty impressive entertainment while you wait.


minor details:

- On page 14, Bruce intends to force information out of Spurlock as Batman, but after being told to get sleep by Alfred, he instead visits him the next day as Bruce Wayne with a cover story as to why he needs the info. Surely, he could have waited until nightfall and confronted him as Batman the next day. This change of attack plan, instead, suggests a Batman who is less sure of himself by this point, unsure of which is the better path to take. I appreciate the subtlety of this portrayal.

- why do two seemingly related variables always have to be connected in the mind of this Bruce Wayne? An Inuit woman from Otter Ridge Alaska is the target of a killing and the Bat Mask from Otter Ridge Alaska shows up in Gotham at the same time, and Bruce decides that there has to be a connection. Sure, the coincidence is unlikely, but the point of origins aside, there really isn't anything suggesting that these two events are in any way related. A good detective should look further just in case, but asserting that there has to be a connection is a little much. Maybe O'Neil is attempting to portray how green Bruce still is at this point?

- Why is Bruce still questioning whether or not he should continue to be Batman?

- Why would he wonder why he'd even need to bring the costume with him to Alaska? Isn't the entire purpose to learn more about the gang and mysterious antagonist creating all this trouble in Gotham?

- Bruce gets off the plane and, on a beat, immediately sees the Shaman from the first issue. A bit much of a coincidence? In a story as badly decompressed as this one, couldn't he find him half a page later?

- How did Spurlock manage to westernize the entire tribe to the extent that they now have a small town and airstrip??? Certainly, he wasn't bringing enough people with him to warrant all that, and the tribe doesn't appear to have anything of value to outside traders.

- Probably the most notable aspect of this issue was the article written by EIC Jenette Kahn on the inside front cover explaining how she, O'Neil, Wolfman, and Grant met to plan out the coming Batman stories for the year. I suppose this was in reaction to the numerous instances of bad continuity occurring between books prior to this point, or possibly more specifically Grant ranting about the fact that he was trying to set up Anarky to be the next Robin while Wolfman and O'Neil were bringing in Tim Drake without his knowledge. Either way, I'm glad that there will be more careful and purposeful continuity between books in the future, as well as the fact that they apparently resisted the decision to create any more major story arcs or crossovers for the coming year, even while planning on the return of The Joker (which, if I recall, was planned incredibly well and even poured over into Wolfman's New Titans). There's also mention of them touching base with Warner Brothers in anticipation of future Batman films and, suddenly, out of left field, Kahn's assertion that they all feel Penguin is Batman's second greatest villain and will therefore "Eager to cast the new and formidable Penguin into a starring role, we agreed that he will be the centerpiece of at least five comics in 1990." Who are we kidding? They heard the pitch for Batman Returns and have been pressured by Warner to do this, going so far as to make his "recreation" the centerpiece of the Secret Origins Special a few months back.



The plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence:

Bruce is reintroduced to Carl Fisk (a little too similar to both the baseball player and Marvel's Kingpin), a banker looking to buy up some of Bruce's properties, Batman breaks up a drug deal but then narrowly escapes from a villain wearing the Shaman's bat mask, he tries to get some information out of Dr. Spurlock, but Spurlock is killed by the same villain at the last second, Bruce travels to Otter Ridge to learn more from the tribe that once nursed him back to health, but Spurlock has used tricks and drugs to Westernize the tribe and steal its secrets, leaving the Shaman to become a drunken fool and his daughter to resent Wayne for funding Spurlock, and just as he's about to learn from the daughter about what Spurlock's assistant was going to tell them, someone drives into their car, leaving them to drown in an adjacent river.

[Polar Bear]

Also, in terms of where to start with Batman, I find myself regretting that I didn't start these reviews with Batman #217 (the issue that transitioned Batman into a more grounded, street-level approach to storytelling). By beginning with #300, I missed out on at least two legendary runs that followed this transition (O'Neil/Adams and Englehart/Rogers) as well as a wealth of renowned individual stories.

I don't know how spotty/complete your collection is, but I'd personally love to follow a "Batman 217-299 (reviews by Shaxper)" thread, even if that ends up being a couple of years in the future. Heck, make it #217-266 and leave out the David Reed issues if you want. I understand those giant-sized Detective issues from the 1970s are amazing.

[shaxper]

I don't know how spotty/complete your collection is, but I'd personally love to follow a "Batman 217-299 (reviews by Shaxper)" thread, even if that ends up being a couple of years in the future. Heck, make it #217-266 and leave out the David Reed issues if you want. I understand those giant-sized Detective issues from the 1970s are amazing.

I'm planning to do a Batman Family reviews thread within the year. Beyond that, I haven't made any decisions yet. I have every Batman issue going back to the early 100s, but I'm missing a lot of Detective issues. I could see myself starting a new thread at #217, or going back further to the beginning of Schwartz's editorship in order to better appreciate the shift that #217 was, or maybe even going back to the very beginning via the Chronicles reprints. Whatever the case, I'm not really sure I'm up for maintaining TWO major Batman threads at one time. I'll have to give it some thought.

[foxley]

I don't know how spotty/complete your collection is, but I'd personally love to follow a "Batman 217-299 (reviews by Shaxper)" thread, even if that ends up being a couple of years in the future. Heck, make it #217-266 and leave out the David Reed issues if you want. I understand those giant-sized Detective issues from the 1970s are amazing.

Reed was an amazingly spotty writer. There are some real gems buried in his run, as well as some absolute stinkers. Unfortunately the stinkers outnumber the gems.

[shaxper]

Batman #444

""Crimesmith and Punishment"
writer: Marv Wolfman
pencils: Jim Aparo
inks: Mike DeCarlo
letters: John Costanza
colors: Adrienne Roy
assoc. editor: Dan Raspler
editor: Denny O'Neil
creator: Bob Kane

grade: A-

Once again, I feel that Wolfman is spending most of this storyline working to "rebuild" the post-Crisis Batman, attempting to define who he is and how he does what he does.

In terms of who he is, Wolfman is careful to define this character as being different from Frank Miller's sociopathic hero and having grown/healed since being the sadistic, vengeance driven character Starlin gave us. This is most apparent when we see Batman take his unintended role in the death of the criminal from the previous issue quite hard; so hard, in fact, that the detective who arrives on the scene feels the need to reassure him, and we're then given a panel of him simply standing and staring in the Batcave before the main action resumes. Finally, the clearest signal we're given that healing has begun for this character is that he starts taking an active role in training Tim, even going so far as to attempt to offer comfort after learning that Tim's parents are having marital difficulties. This is no longer the dark, hardened, aloof Batman we've been served for the past several years. Instead, just as with the new focus on Waynetech, Wolfman is taking Batman back to his Bronze Age roots, putting the character back where he arguably thrived best. Of course, DKR, Year One, and Lonely Place of Dying made a lot more waves and got a lot more attention than this story will, and so later writers will largely miss this revision and continue with the darker Batman on the edge approach. Oh well. I really enjoyed Wolfman's efforts here, just the same.

And, in terms of defining how Batman does what he does, I found this little narrative, taking us through Batman's preparations for going out on patrol, immensely rewarding:

"The shirt is reinforced with an armor plate sewn beneath the golden shield. He slips it on and feels at home now.

The cowl is both soft and solid to his touch, its crown and back reinforced, it's face form-fitting and tight.

He exhales smoothly as it fits into place and locks under his chin. His breathing quiets with anticipation.

The utility belt has its rope, medical kit and radio already in place. He studies the shelves to determine what else he might need.

The ritual is somber, never broken. Preparation must be thorough. There must not be a single mistake. And it is over.

He takes one long deep breath.

He's ready


Great snapshot of the character.

Beyond that, this was a fun issue, full of solid detective work, intense action that Batman must think his way through, and while the enemy ended up being the very same scientific consultant working for him (what a coincidence, as well as a disturbing replay of what's happening in Legends of the Dark Knight right now), I liked the surprise reversal of having his secretary/assistant be the true mastermind who was calling the shots.


Minor details:

- We now learn that Tim's parents are often away for long periods of time, but this doesn't explain how Alfred is able to continuously get Tim out of his boarding school without consent/knowledge from his parents.

- Wolfman gives such attention to Batman meticulously selecting what goes into his utility belt, but then where did that mirror come from that he used to deflect the lasers at the last moment? Surely, the evidence at hand never suggested that he'd be dealing with lasers on this mission, and the mirror was never mentioned nor shown (even from a distance) when Batman was equipping the belt.

- This is the first appearance of Detective Dana Hanrahan. No idea if she'll end up playing any kind of important role down the road.

- Roy's use of color on page 11 is striking. Bathing Batman in muted purples to capture darkness illuminated by faint lighting is gorgeous.

- On the other hand, Aparo's depiction of a mad Bruce Wayne on page 9 looks ridiculous. Who uses lines coming out of someone's head to depict shock in 1990?

- Great letter published in the letter column this month:

"Dear Batman,

I love you. I wish that I can see you in real life. I saw you in the movie. I think that you are cute. I had a dream of you. It was when you were my dad and you came back from a place and hugged me. I could not marry you because I'm only 8.

Love,
Sarah Heller


I seriously want to look this girl up and meet her now.



Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Batman gets a wallet from the criminal who spontaneously exploded last issue while feeling responsible for his death, Detective Hanrahan tells him it's not his fault, Jeffrey Fraser is hired as the media consultant to Wayne Tech, the GCPD crime lab determines that the spontaneous combustion was caused by a remote trigger in the criminal's neck and that it only could have been developed by someone adept in explosives, micro-circuitry, chemistry, and physics, Bruce spends some time training Tim, they pull up a list of scientists capable of having created the remote explosive and find Jeffrey Fraser on the list, Bruce compares a map generated by the Crimesmith that was in the criminal's wallet to a printout Fraser gave to Bruce Wayne and finds the same smearing/ink laserjet ink signature on both papers, he becomes Batman and goes after the Crimesmith, the Crimesmith ends up being both Fraser and Maya, his assistant, who also turns out to be his cold-hearted lover, as it becomes clear that Batman is going to capture them, Maya runs to save herself and shoots Fraser dead before he can give up any information; she gets away for the time being.


All in all, another solid issue with its priorities in the right place in terms of establishing Batman's persona and premise for the post-Crisis readership. Unfortunately, in spite of all his efforts, it won't be enough to turn Batman away from the path that the fans are craving -- dark anti-hero teetering on the edge.

[shaxper]

Detective Comics #611

"Snow and Ice, Part Two: Bird of Ill Omen"
writer: Alan Grant
pencils: Norm Breyfogle
inks: Steve Mitchell
letters: Todd Klein
colors: Adrienne Roy
assoc editor: Dan Raspler
editor: Denny O'Neil
creator: Bob Kane

grade: B

A generally satisfying conclusion to this short storyline with Kadaver getting in a lot more fun characterization before being killed (WHY??? He had such potential!), the Penguin proving to be a formidable rival (both mentally and physically), and (of course) solid Breyfogle art.

However, I'm ultimately disappointed with the direction Grant took with Penguin, making him view his crimes more as a form of art than a business transaction, and thus feeling compelled to leave Batman clues. This is the kind of Silver Age nonsense I thought we were finally doing away with. Secret Origins Special (also written by Grant) worked hard to establish the Penguin as a more grounded, believable antagonist, and here he is pulling cliche Batman rogues gallery stunts all over again. Could a criminal so obsessed with helping his pursuer ever successfully run an underground criminal empire as Penguin is said to have done post-Crisis? And, quite honestly, the "Snow and Ice" clue wasn't all that clever. Sure, cocaine and diamonds, but when, where, and how?

This issue marks the first appearance of "Otto," the Penguin's umbrella and equipment maker, and apparently a former Nazi in hiding. Not sure whether Otto will be brought back after this. If memory serves, we'll be meeting Harold the Hunchback pretty soon, and I recall him serving pretty much the same role for Penguin.

This is also the first time we clearly see the hologram guarding the entrance to the Batcave, though Breyfogle has shown us the same basic area before (I swear one of the signs used to say "Poison Ivy Keep Off" as opposed to "Keep Off Poison Ivy" -- the first makes a more obvious double meaning).

I still find it interesting that Grant has Scarface/The Ventriloquist orchestrating the cocaine business from prison. He's clearly committed to making the character stick around. I wonder if this is the first time Batman's put away a crime boss who has proven to remain dangerous and at large from behind bars. In real life, you'd expect that to be the case more often, but Batman tends to put these guys away, and suddenly you never hear about them again.


minor details:

- I wonder if this is the first time DC has ever depicted a character on the toilet. Granted, Penguin is still fully clothed, but still. Even just the acknowledgment that a DC character might need to use the bathroom from time to time seems shocking.

- We're reminded that Penguin is in deceptively good shape and is dangerous in one-on-one combat.

- In the letter column, Dan Raspler (or whoever answers these things) explains that the primary reason DC is not considering doing a new Brave and the Bold series at this time is out of concern for how to police continuity in a cross-over title. Wait -- DC is concerned about the logistics of overseeing continuity? Then what the heck has been happening in the Batman titles for the past three years?!


Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Kadaver suddenly wants a share of Penguin's new crime spree, Penguin attempts to kill him, Kadaver proves that he has planted a subconscious suggestion in Penguin's mind that he can activate with a whispered phrase, turning the Penguin seemingly dead again, Penguin begrudgingly cuts Kadaver into the action, we meet Otto, Penguin's equipment man, Penguin's men intercept a drug sale for the Ventriloquist's gang, they rob a museum of rare diamonds yet and misdirect Batman for a few moments, Penguin sneaks off to a bathroom to stuff his ears with toilet paper so that he can't hear Kadaver and then kills him, Batman intercepts Penguin, they fight one on one, and Batman (obviously) wins.

[LEADER DESSLOK]

Probably my two favourite runs.

And by starting at #300, you began in the middle of David V. Reed's run as writer, which I really wouldn't recommend to anyone.

A pox on both your houses...

Lessee, we have Batman faces Dr.Phospherous--who has morphed into a rip-off of the Molten Man.

Or how about Batman facing Deadshot who's greatest claim to fame was to steal the Penguin's monocle?

Or how about the writer who expanded on his Arab bashing with a villain called The Sheik--who was really a couple of American oil-men trying to screw their fellow Americans?

Or maybe the story about the fatman who was still pining away for an opera singer who turns out to be Bruce Wayne's cleaning lady?

I could really lace into more of these "legendary" stories just as you've done with Vern Reed's work but I didn't hold on to a lot of these "winners"...thank goodness.

[foxley]

And none of those are as stupid as Dr. Tzin-Tzin (who Reed for some reason decided should be Batman's greatest foe) attempting to levitate away Gotham Stadium with the power of his mind.

[shaxper]

Legends of the Dark Knight #4

"Shaman, Book Four"
writer: Dennis O'Neil
pencils: Edward Hannigan
inks: John Beatty
letters: John Costanza
colors: Richmond Lewis
asst. editor: Kevin Dooley
editor: Andrew Helfer
Batman created by Bob Kane

grade: C-


I've gotten to a point where I just don't care. When I last had the patience to put up with a chapter in this story (two and a half months ago), I noted that it felt like a massive orgy of decompression, obnoxiously stretching a one or two part story into five chapters. This is still the case, but, worse yet, we're now starting to see that the basic story, itself, isn't all that well done.

This is the chapter in which Bruce starts connecting all the dots and unraveling all the mysteries, and it's pretty disappointing. We knew the key details two issues ago -- who the true bad guy would be and how the story would end. But, as the minor connections are worked out in this issue, they are 1)confusing and 2)arbitrary/impossible for anyone (including Bruce) to have deducted. For example, Bruce is told that one person other than he heard the story of the Bat two years back, and he automatically deducts that it MUST have been the killer he'd been tracking at the time (who must have survived his fall off the mountain, and even the story describes this as a "one in a million chance") and that said killer MUST have assisted the true bad guy of this story (Dr. Spurlock) and MUST have turned against him to become the mysterious assassin killing him and his associates.

So what's revealed is pretty absurd, we called the ending ages ago, and (let's not forget) the chief antagonist has been dead since the third chapter; all that's left is a random crazy guy thinking he can kill Batman, and I think we all know where that's going, especially as he so obviously misjudges Bruce at the end of the issue, assuming he's ignorant to the murderer's presence and will obliviously walk up to the front door.

All that's keeping this book going at this point is the stunning art (great use of the Baxter Paper format) and O'Neil's amusing characterization of Alfred. Beyond that, this story has grown both tedious and stupid at this point.

minor details: Why did Batman go through the elaborate ruse of getting himself caught in the banker's office so that he could return to infiltrate the office as a security specialist the next day? HE WAS ALREADY IN THE OFFICE undetected; now the banker is more likely to suspect the security specialist that he never hired!

minor details:

Bruce references the training he received by both Willie Doggett (LotDK #1) and Harvey Harris (Detective Comics Annual #2). O'Neil seems dead set on continuing to give attention to this aspect of Batman's post-crisis continuity, even while so much of the rest of his continuity (including time frames, as complicated by the Year 3 storyline) remains in shambles.


plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence: Bruce survives the car crash and rescues the shaman and his daughter, the shaman tells him that he must tell the girl the story of the bat in order to save her, he does so and somehow finds new purpose/identity by wearing the Batman cowl as he does so, he visits the daughter in the hospital and quickly/arbitrarily pieces together the details of the mystery, we learn that the guy who ran them off the road last issue was just a reckless driver (who is arbitrarily given far too much attention in this issue), Bruce visits an office presumably belonging to the banker we met in an earlier chapter (this is intentionally kept obnoxiously vague), finds their secret hiding space where he keeps the shaman costume (revealing that this is presumably the leader of the Santa Prisca drug cartel), gets himself caught so that he can return disguised as a security expert, sabotages the costume, visits the random careless driver from earlier in the issue and scares him into confessing, reflects on how lonely he is around Christmas time, and comes home, fully aware that the insane guy who's been killing everyone is inside with Alfred tied up at knife point, presuming to catch Bruce unaware.

[shaxper]

Suicide Squad #38

plotter: John Ostrander
scripter: Robert Greenberger
layouts: Luke McDonnell
finishes: Geof Isherwood
letters: Todd Klein
colors: Carl Gafford
editor: Dan Raspler

grade: n/a

note: this issue is included in this thread solely because it contains one page that is not a part of the main plot and that provides a significant development in Batman continuity. This review will discuss the relevant page, and not the story as a whole.

The mysterious character of "Oracle" was first introduced a year earlier in Suicide Squad #23. Initially implied to be an artificial intelligence, it seems understood, by this point, that Oracle is, in fact, a person, though the identity of that person has remained a mystery until this moment...kind of.

On page 11 of this story that is otherwise irrelevant to Batman continuity, Oracle is informed by Amanda Waller that Flo has died, and the scene then cuts to a red headed woman in a wheelchair crying at the keyboard, a Batgirl doll on her desk in secondary focus. This should be the big reveal that Oracle is, in fact, Barbara Gordon (paralyzed during the events of The Killing Joke).

...except that it isn't.

In Batman Annual #13, published 10 months prior to this issue, the Who's Who section in the back provides an entry on Batgirl which outright indicates that Barbara Gordon is now operating as Oracle.

Was this an error? Did anyone catch it at the time? Was this common knowledge for some reason, though not yet revealed on the comic book page? I can't reconcile the big reveal in this issue with the fact that the beans were so unceremoniously spilled ten months earlier. What the heck?

Anyway, if a reader hadn't caught the spoiler back then, this would have been one powerful page. McDonnel and Isherwood do a great job of executing the reveal with powerful emotion and solid pacing, all without offering a single word of explanation, and giving just enough of a hint that you know who this is without being hit over the head with it.

Excellent work.

[foxley]

Speaking as someone who was reading Suicide Squad at the time, it was indeed a beautifully done revelation.

Suicide Squad is one my all-time favourite comics and I'd love to see you do a review of it, shax, starting with Legends and running through to the end.