Batgirl #2

2.50 USD @ May 2000 (Cover Page and 23 net pages)

Plot: Scott Peterson & Kelley Puckett
Script: Kelley Puckett
Pencils: Damion Scott
Inks: Robert Campanella
Letters: John Costanza
Colors: Jason Wright
Separations: Jamison
Associate editor: Joseph Illidge
Editors: Darren Vincenzo and Dennis O'Neil

Cover page blurb: Please Help Me not to Die

Notable quote(s): "I hope to God you never have to read this. It was the ring on her finger that stopped me. Does that make any sense? It reminded me of your ring, your hand, and I felt I had to do something. Then with the gun in my face, all I could think of was you - not the idea of you, but you as you were - at home, waiting for me, for the food in my hands... and I started to walk away. I am very, very sorry, my love. Some stupid juvenile, comic-book notion of heroism turned me around and now you have to pay the price. All I can say is that I love you, I always have, and nothing they do to me can ever change that. - John"

Synopsis: Some goon in an alleyway was physically harassing an ex-girlfriend. He was accompanied by his armed cronies. A couple that passed was shooed away by one of the armed cronies. Another man holding groceries passed and then placed the bag down and picked up a piece of wood off the street and then turned back and headed towards the scene. He hit one of the cronies and then the goon who was assaulting his ex-girlfriend pulled a handgun, and the two cronies held the good Samaritan, and placed him against the wall. Before the goon pulled the trigger to kill the good Samaritan, Batgirl swooped down and assaulted the three criminals saving the two victims. It all happened so fast that the good Samaritan was suddenly standing in front of Batgirl and three unconscious criminals. Batgirl gave him a kiss on the cheek and then took off.

The next afternoon, Cassandra woke up and headed to the computer room where Barbara Gordon was working. Barbara was surprised and asked Cassandra why she was smiling, and Cassandra just shrugged her shoulders and arms bent to each side with palms up. She doesn't know. Barbara disagreed with her telling her she knew and if only she knew some vocabulary then they could talk about it. A newsflash popped up and the news anchorwoman was reporting the news and a picture of the Good Samaritan that Batgirl encountered the previous night popped up. A cheered up Cassandra Cain was ecstatic to see the good Samaritan. Then the news turned to a crying woman who turned out to be the man's wife. Apparently that morning men came in and kidnapped the good Samaritan. Barbara told Cassandra it was bad news and that it would take her a while to track the whereabouts of the missing man, and told Cassandra to go hit the boxer's heavy bag. Cassandra did so and in no time a ripping sound happened and the sound of sand pouring from the bag to the floor can be heard. Barbara saw that Cassandra split the bag in half with quick repeated punches and kicks. And Cassandra shot her an angry look. She reassured Cassandra not to worry and that she will track and find him. As Barbara looked deeper into the problem she found out the good Samaritan messed with a mob boss's son. And they must be holding him on the coast on a steelworks facility that was originally designed to be a prison.

Cassandra took a cab to go from Gotham City to the coast. Upon arriving on the coast, she noticed the steelworks facility is offshore and it's rocky cliff-like coast can only be accessed by a connecting bridge. Batgirl swam the distance and proceeded to climb the side of the rocky cliff. Inside she captured the son of the mob boss and dragged him silently to one of the prison cells. He was holding a key and threw it outside onto the water. Now they're locked in. He received a swift punch to the face for his effort. The good Samaritan was in the cell and Batgirl tried to help him. But he was worked over earlier and had broken ribs. How were they going to get out, could she pick the lock he asked? As Batgirl tried to figure a way out, the good Samaritan could only think about his wife. With his injuries he lapsed into unconsciousness as Batgirl repeatedly kept hitting and assaulting the wall. The good Samaritan finally woke up to bright sunlight entering the cell as part of the wall to the outside is destroyed. Batgirl carried him along the top wall and placed him down, and proceeded to take out the sentry guards on each watchtower above. He lapsed into unconsciousness and regained it again but was vision was blurry and handed Batgirl a note to give to his wife. And he died as he handed the note to Batgirl's hand. An angry Batgirl was shaking her head. The next thing we know is Batgirl headed on the grounds where the cars were parked and proceeded to pummel the mobster criminals. Some had a chance to pull their guns but were quickly dispatched by the angry Batgirl. One of the cars was going on reverse and the next thing we see is Batgirl's arm with clenched fist breaking through it and connecting on the driver whose face got twisted from receiving the punch. And Batgirl yanked the mob boss's son who was responsible for this whole mess in the first place, and left him on the ground as police squad cars made their way in the background.

Commissioner Gordon walked out of the good Samaritan's widow telling her that her husband was a hero and that the world is poorer for his loss. And she closed the door behind her and was surprised when Batgirl emerged from her curtains holding a note for her. Tears rolled down as she read his letter and she held it in both hands and smiled. Batgirl turned to look at her before leaving out the window. Later that night, Barbara woke up and went to Cassandra's room. There she found Cassandra fell asleep on her desk with pencil in hand and multiple papers with her practicing how to write. Barbara turned off her desk light and thought to herself what brought in Cassandra's interest in learning to write.

Comments: Unearthly. It's a simple story, but the emotions that resonated was cosmic leveled. The illustrations of Damion Scott is a cartoony style, but he has a way of evoking Batgirl's emotions even with her face completely covered behind the mask. I liked that he illustrates Cassandra that can evoke many different kinds of emotions and feelings as she is not yet given any dialogue at this time. I believe she just uttered another word in this issue.

Regular people are not meant to fight crime, as it has devastating consequences. In this case it resulted in death. It's a good parable to show that good deeds can still be done by strangers, but bad things will be the result. You can really feel the anger and sadness that his death caused Batgirl. You felt like you wanted and cheered when she assaulted the mob goons shortly thereafter. At least this event helped propel Cassandra's story forward as it inspired her to start to learn how to read and write.

The scene over the sands spilling from the boxer's training heavy bag showed just how naturally strong Cassandra is, and that she is lethal in hand to hand combat. It showcased again later as she punched through the windshield of a car. This is a menacing Batgirl, and I like the dangerous vibe she exudes in these pages.

The Gotham Central Omnibus came out last month. All 40 issues for a suggested retail price of $99.99.

As Tommy Lee Jones might have said in The Fugitive, "Go get it!"

Batman: Dark Detective #1

July 2005

Writer: Steve Englehart
Penciller: Marshall Rogers
Inker: Terry Austin
Colorist: Chris Chuckry
Letter: John Workman
Editors: Michael Silain & Joey Cavalieri

Synopsis: It opens with Two-Face flipping a coin and after seeing the outcome told his men, they are not going to do anything that night. We then move to Batman in action against some cops who are trying to apprehend him. He defeats them and sneaks inside a hotel where he changes into a tuxedo as Bruce Wayne and moved to another part of the hotel to attend an evening gala for a man campaigning for governor. It's a masked event and Bruce put on a mask of a feline, and worked the room. And the man running for governor, Evan, introduced Silver St. Cloud on the stage. Bruce saw Silver and he lost himself into a memory of her breaking up with Batman citing she couldn't deal worrying about his daily danger. Silver spotted Bruce's masked figure in the audience and seeing him reminded her of Batman and she had a flashback memory of telling Batman that Bruce Wayne was picking her up, and Batman excused himself. Then we 're back in the current time and Bruce removed his mask and greeted Silver. She removed her mask and approached him on the general area and was glad Bruce came so that she can introduce him to her fiancée, Evan, the man running for governor. Then a masked man in a red outfit grabbed the microphone and announced government for sale and that he can raise money faster than a blender. Then he unmasked. It was the Joker.

The sadistic Joker told everyone he is running for governor also and to vote for him or die. Evan Gregory, the man running for governor, went up to the Joker telling him that's enough that he is scaring the people and that the Joker should leave. The Joker said he's going to collect three million dollars from all of them later and held his hand to Evan Gregory and good luck to him. And Evan was zapped with electricity and dropped to the ground. Silver knelt down to her fallen fiancée in tears, and the Joker departed the auditorium. He was hit by a batarang and tied up. He got loose but the Batman was upon him and pummeling him, but the Joker ran towards the exit. He proceeded to run to the open elevator shaft and jumped down. The Batman was in pursuit, and they battled on top of the elevator. Then the Joker remotely activated the elevator to move back up and before they both got crushed by the elevator and the ceiling, the Batman escaped through the open doorway above and the elevator slammed to the ceiling with a splattering of liquid that looked like blood, but turned out to be ketchup. The Joker escaped. Batman had an awkward moment with Silver and then departed. Outside, the Batman in the shadows observed as the police are in a crime scene area where a cop was pushed off the roof. Elsewehere, Two-Face is still flipping a coin when he suddenly kicked a chair. Asked by his henchmen if he changed his mind and if they are going out tonight. Two-Face answered his plans can wait. First, they have to go and kill the Joker.

Comments: The Marshall Rogers cover harkens back to the Batman style of the 70's. The mood is a different atmosphere than what is prevalent in Batman post-DKR era of darker and edgier Batman presented characterization. This is The Detective version of Batman. Not the uber "Bat-god" of the 90's and 00's. It's a breath of fresh air having his character shown like this.

Silver is a woman with depth and presented respectable in these pages. Usually when you see billionaire Bruce Wayne and there's a woman or women in the pages, he usually has some dumb blonde or brunette with him as shallow eye candy. But not Silver. She's a strong woman, who really loved Batman but could not live worrying about him everyday. She's not just some dumb hot chic. It's great to see her in this story.

The Joker is both vicious and sort of funny at the same time here. He's presented not too scary but just enough to show that he is dangerous. He is also crafty and has shown some brilliance outwitting Batman a couple of times during their encounter here. There's a brewing beef between Joker and Two-Face, and I am looking forward in future issues to see how that pans out.

I've read the entire run of Gotham Central. As you would expect, it's solid.

I've read some of it so far and I definitely agree with your sentiments. Then again a Brubaker/Rucka tandem with Lark at pencil duties is one of the best creative teams I have come across.

Unzueta's art like you said here almost made me to do a rare purchase it in 2000 after a recommendation from a dear friend of mine and as soon that I went to my Comic Book Store and glanced at it and in the last minute I decided not to purchase it and your comments above just hit me on the head.

I felt the team up of Johns and Unzueta was too bizarre and weird and knowing that I decided not to buy it and that's why I have problems with Johns in the future and started my beliefs that the older I got the more and more I started to dislike him and this story that you shared here started that downfall.

Johns writes both good and bad stories in his life and this one is got to be the most hardest one to accept and that alone made me wonder about his self-worth as a writer itself.

I wished I could write better but this is the best I could to describe Johns.

Wonder Woman v2 #195

2.25 USD/3.75 CAN @ October 2003

"The Mission"

Writer: Greg Rucka
Penciller: Drew Johnson
Inker: Ray Snyder
Colorist: Trish Mulvhill
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Ivan Cohen

Synopsis: Jonah McCarthy has joined the staff of the Embassy of Themyscira. The story revolves around Jonah's first day and Diana's secretary shows him what happens behind the scenes on a typical day in the Themysciran Embassy. He meets the chef, who was a distant relative of The Minotaur from the Greek mythology legends. He is star struck when Superman just happened to drop by to hand something over for Wonder Woman. The story also shifts to a battle with a brutal African dictator, whose country was not named, then it goes back to the behind the scenes activities in the Themysciran Embassy. Wonder Woman apprehended the Dictator/General without a single cost of life, and brought him to the U.S. military forces. Then the last couple of pages has Wonder Woman back at the Embassy on the other side of the world, and checks on the new staff, and brings him to the roof, and ended the story by flying him around to see the city from her point of view.

Comments: This is Greg Rucka's first issue on the Wonder Woman title. We don't even see Wonder Woman until the last couple of pages. But we are introduced to her supporting cast and the setting of her Embassy. We get to meet some of these people and learn something about the Amazon Princess. We get to learn about the inner workings of her new home base of operations. An interesting note, her chef is The Minotaur, and we learn that the meals are vegetarian. After all if the cook looks like prime beef, would you serve meat? It's a good introduction into the Greg Rucka Wonder Woman universe.

The Adam Hughes cover is great. I like the mirror reflection on the pilot's visor as an approaching Wonder Woman is about to punch a hole through his fighter jet.