InstigatorGIRL's Rant & Review of Brightest Day #0

good review. I wonder what's gonna happen next. It seems like 52 part 2,were gonna be following a select group of heroes rather than the entire DC universe

good review. I wonder what's gonna happen next. It seems like 52 part 2,were gonna be following a select group of heroes rather than the entire DC universe

Loved Blackest Night as well, and I'm also wondering about Ted Kord. I like Jaime Reyes, but there's nobody like Blue Beetle II. I met Johns at the Emerald City ComicCon and he was very excited about everything coming up with Brightest Day and Flash, and Green Lantern. Makes me feel like I did when I was a kid, somewhat giddy about the awesomeness that is to come. I haven't really enjoyed comics since I started, that is until Johns popped on the scene in DC. His Marvel stuff was okay, but the way he treats DC characters is awesome. Met Peter Tomasi as well, and he's a very cool guy as well, and a talented writer on GL Corps. Other than the price of comic books, it's a good time to be into them, especially if you're a DC fan.

Ooh! Did they kill Robin? And will he stay dead?

pleasesayyes, pleasesayyes!

What!? There's more than one Robin now?!!!

Why? What are they thinking? What has the world done to deserve ANY Robin, let alone multiple...

Red Robin? Seriously? Pfwah-haha-hahaha!

Lame. So lame.

As long as there's a Robin, DC will always be a little bit of a joke. Sorry, but it's true.

The problem for me, Anil, beyond just the utter naffness of the Robin character himself (my mind will never be changed on that, sorry), is the fact that The Batman should never have a sidekick. Period.

Associates and contacts are fine (if Robin never existed and he occasionally liaised with some other hero called Nightwing, I wouldn't have a problem), but the very idea of a kid sidekick for such a supposedly dark, driven and adult character is just so anachronistic that, for me, it just doesn't compute - it fundamentally doesn't make sense on a deep character level.

Sure a writer can write anything to MAKE it make sense, but I still think they're fudging. It's like ignoring the fact that Superman is letting people die when he's playing Clark Kent. It's an issue. You can pretend it's not an issue, but it just is to any reasoning, intelligent thinking person. I can't read Batman if Robin is even mentioned, let alone actually there, because Robin breaks my suspension of disbelief in a really bad "oh come on" way.

My Robin story would go - Bruce at circus, sees the Graysons murdered, empathises with young Dick, finds him some nice foster parents and ensures he gets some good therapy. The end.

The only time Dick ever wears that ridiculous costume or takes on that ridiculous persona, in my story, is at the Circus performing. But after his parents death, he's so thoroughly traumatised he never wants to put on a silly costume ever, ever again. Voila, Robin done and dusted. Move on. Grow up.

As Tom Clancy said, "The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense". If you want to dismiss it as "just comics" that's fine I suppose - but as someone who wants to see the medium raised to slightly higher standards than throwaway childish rubbish, then I think it matters. I've no problem with comics being "pulpy", but I do have a problem with them just being silly, childish and crap (even if they're meant for younger audiences - I know I didn't want to be spoken down to when I was a kid). I always hated Robin (well maybe not until I was about 5, but ever since for sure).

They do these big shake-ups every now and then, but sometimes they're too afraid to REALLY change things and do a proper clear out of their higher profile crap because they're so tied to their traditions, even if they're just downright cheesy and outdated. And DC doesn't seem to want to update their stuff in the same way that Marvel have constantly been able to do. In DC-land, we're still in the 1950s in many ways.

The recent debate about Superman and his trunks is a good example - but whereas he's the #l, the daddy of them all, Robin's no Superman.

Don't get me wrong, I like some of what DC does, and you can tell from my avatar that I'm a fan of their Vertigo stuff, but the old, cheesy hang-ons from the past are holding the company back from really moving forward imo - Robin being the #1 poster boy for that problem. Pants on the outside are another hold-over - Superman aside, it's just not on anymore. Change DC. Aquaman looks stupid. Just change.

I say get rid of Robin for good - wipe him out of history, make it so Batman never had him as a sidekick. Take Batman back to the dark, driven, serious, self-reliant detective noir hero he should be without the homo-erotic, semi-paedophiliac relationship with a teenage boy in tights.

Where's the Anti-Monitor when you really need him?

Ima start a petition. Robin MUST die!

(only kidding about the petition part, but not the rest)

Edit: You say Dick BECAME Batman? That's a mockery. An insult. Terrible, terrible idea.

Check out a few quotes from this rather good article on wikianswers which gives a few good reasons why nobody else can be Batman. Ever.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_would_win_out_of_batman_and_superman

Why is Batman the only person Superman really fears? The person he describes as "the most dangerous man on the planet"

and this

Why did he (Superman) feel a man with no super powers was the right person to safe guard Lex Luthor's Kryptonite ring? Why did he also do so with the explicit reasoning that "he was the only one he could trust to take him down" should the need ever arise?

and one more:

Batman is a human being.

However Batman walks with the Gods in the JLA. He walks with the Gods and he scares them. A human being amongst beings who can literally turn a man to dust with just a thought and they are scared of him. Why?

Tell me Dick Grayson, or any other being is fit to even pretend to be The Batman.

If he dies, you put up a [frick]ing statue and don't even think of sullying his name by believing you can replace or succeed him. I'm shocked at the sheer impertinence. I'm seriously considering going into an apoplectic fit of indignant geek rage. I may have to make a cup of tea and have a lie down until it all blows over.

P.S. I think my Geekometer just broke.

Well first of all most of the black lanterns didn't die if you read blackest night and look where nekron sends Anti- monitor back to qwaud, some of the lanterns disapeared with him so they are still alive. 2) The white light was sent by someone that the heroes know so that means that there is a master mind behind this