What Happened: Batgirl(Stephanie Brown)has tracked the Scarecrow's henchmen back to Scarecrow's lair, and against the wishes of Oracle(who is communicating with Steph via an earpiece)charges in. Eventually Steph finds Scarecrow, who is offended that all the Bat-family deemed him worth of was Batgirl... HA! Scarecrow gasses Steph with his new fear gas variant, Thrill, which causes Steph to hallucinate that Scarecrow is both Red Robin and herself(as the Spoiler). Before Scarecrow can deliver the killing stroke to Steph, she manages to snap out of her drug induced haze and breaks Scarecrow's ankle before knocking him out, just in time for the police who arrive soon thereafter. This issue ends with Oracle giving Steph her the OK to continue to wear the Batgirl costume.
What I Thought: I enjoyed this issue and this first storyarc a lot. It did everything the first storyarc of this series needed to do. It established Steph as Batgirl, it gave us Oracle as a supporting character, and it delivered a classic Batman villain, the grossly under appreciated Scarecrow. I really don't have any complaints to voice at all. Scarecrow wasn't completely incompetent, which was a nice change, and Steph and Babs both acted as I would expect them to. Everything here was perfectly acceptable.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
I have to say, I got a kick out of Scarecrow's disappointment at having to face Batgirl as opposed to Batman or Robin.
Wow, Steph is tiny. I forgot how short she was in that panel. See..even when she hallucinates Scarecrow as Jinx he led to to the downfall of Scarecrow.
ReplyDeleteHa! I didn't even notice that. If only Scarecrow knew about the terrible powers of the Jinx...
ReplyDeleteSadly some guys just never learn...Hell if scarecrow was smart he'd harness the Jinxibillity and everyone would be afraid to cross him.
ReplyDeleteAh, but the jinxability is not that easily harnessed. Much like an alien symbiote, it attaches itself to you and then refuses to let you go.
ReplyDeleteHm...touche' sir, so if Tim drake were to get the Carnage or Venom Symbiote what would happen to those around him? Besides their inevitable deaths of course.
ReplyDeleteThe symbiote would probably die immediately due to Tim's jinxability disease. Anything that gets near Tim, whether human or alien, suffers the same dread fate thanks to the unholy power of the jinxability!
ReplyDeleteWhat I wanna know is...how in the hell has Gotham just not exploded when it was under both Bruce and Tim's watch. You'd think two Jinxes of that caliber would have wiped that city off the earth a LONG time ago due to a stray asteroid.
ReplyDeleteJust look at all of the bizarre super-villains prowling the streets of Gotham. If you ask me, that's a fate far worse then a stray asteroid! I blame the combined jinxability of Tim and Bruse for the unusually high number of costumed nutcases running wild in Gotham.
ReplyDeleteGood point the reason Gotham is so bad is because they both operate there. In Red Robin he's in France and STILL attracts villains.
ReplyDeleteSee, the Jinx is a villain magnet, due to his jinxability. The same is probably true of Bruce, where ever in time he's ended up. He's probably battling costumed dinosaurs or something...
ReplyDeleteLol at costumed dinosaurs. All Hail Ty Rannosaurus and the Tricerotop Trio. So what do you asuume bats is eating? The guys skilled but I don't know if he's kill a dinosaur, skin it then eat it skilled.
ReplyDeletePfft, it's Batman! I'm sure he's not only killing, skinning and eating dinosaurs, he's probably domesticated a bunch of them as well!
ReplyDeleteLol I immediately thought of the Old picture with the Dogs playing poker just having Bats and random dinosaurs. I wonder if he dies before he's born...can he be born again? Time traveling confuses the hell outta me.
ReplyDeleteI actually had a conversation not long ago about a similar sort of thing. Since Bats was sent back in time, it makes sense that as of right now, he's LONG dead of old age. So, shouldn't Black Hand be able to bring Bruce back as a Black Lantern?
ReplyDeleteHe should, although you gotta wonder if Bruce wasn't dead at the time that skeleton was produced who's is it?
ReplyDeleteThat skull has a huge story to tell still, I just know it. Let's face it, that can't be Bruce's skull(Darkseid shunted Bruce to the past, he didn't kill him from my understanding), so the big question is whose skull is it? I'm guessing Geoff has a big reveal down the road with that skull.
ReplyDeleteHe's gotta, what I find weird is sometimes the Skull has like, little Bat ears I wonder if that's just for promotional stuff so you know it's potentially Bruce's skull. I'm really excited to see exactly who's it is. And why he separated it from the body.
ReplyDeleteI always thought they put the bat ears on the skull to let people know that it's supposed to be Batman's skull, kind of like when Bruce Wayne's shadow looks like Batman.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good answer. Verrry Good answer. But the thing that threw me for a loop is why he needed the skull but not the body. Because if that WAS Bruce, who better to lead a group of Black Lanterns.
ReplyDeleteYeah, exactly. That's what I don't understand either. Why does Black Hand need Bruce's(or whoever that skull belongs to)skull to begin with? That part of the story thus far is pretty strange...
ReplyDeleteI'm really hoping we get a few answers in the next issue. I'm trying to thunk of who's died and who's skull that would be. Because something with that HAS to be pivotal to ending the Blackest Night. Probably whatever it was with Dove that wouldn't cause him to rise.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was thinking the same thing, the skull and Dove MUST have something big to do with the way Geoff ultimately decides to end this x-over. I was going to place a comic book order today, but since BN #5 is due out next week, I figured I might as well wait, I can't wait to get my hands on that issue!
ReplyDeleteNeither can I man...I know it's gonna be awesome. Also...Etrigan is also a guy who had that white Aura...so what do Etrigan, Dove and possibly Bruce Wayne have in common with one another?
ReplyDeleteWasn't the thing with Etrigan the fact that the Black Lanterns were confused by him because he didn't have a heart? I remember in BN Batman the BL's would look at Etrigan and instead of seeing an emotion(like rage or willpower), they'd only see squiggily lines. Of course with my comic reading so backed up, I could def be wrong.
ReplyDeleteYeah, they saw squiggly lines...hm...I may be saying too much, I forgot you haven't gotten certain comics due to the post office. I'm still curious as to what those squiggly lines meant...it's gotta be something because White seems like the only color to cancel out the Black Lanterns.
ReplyDeleteHahaha! That DAMN post office! Now you can't even tell me stuff out of fear that you'll be spoiling something! Oh...
ReplyDeleteI think I'll be reading spoilers for the books that haven't arrived yet just so I can be relatively up to date on stuff.
At this point I don't even blame ya man, I can't believe this has been going on for a month and you still haven't heard anything. Maybe one of the mail people is a comic fan.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I can see all the post office people passing my books around the mail warehouse(or where ever it is the go through the mail!). As I'm sure you can guess, the most annoying/frustrating thing is the fact that nobody can give me any new news. I just want to hear SOMETHING positive, you know?
ReplyDeleteYeah you wouldn't think it's that hard to recover mail at the mail center...I could see if it was lost on the way of delivery or something. Truly does suck.
ReplyDeleteThat's the thing that really blows my mind. There must be some way to track the package(it was the tracking number that alerted me that something was wrong), if I have access to the tracking number, shouldn't the post office? You'd thing the postal workers can just look at the tracking number on my package and say, "Oh, this package is supposed to go here", and send it on its way.
ReplyDeleteExactly...it's so dumb that it's confusing me. Hell you could walk into the center where it is with the tracking number and find it yourself. I can't believe the postal workers can't.
ReplyDeleteHa, yeah exactly... I could have done a better job of finding my frigging comics! Leave it to Philadelphia...
ReplyDeleteYep, Home of Cheese Steaks, the Eagles and horrible mail services. God Bless Philly
ReplyDeleteIf it wasn't for the cheese steaks, they'd have NOTHING good down there! Sorry, but being born and raised in NYC, I've been bred to hate all things Boston and Philadelphia! It's in my blood.
ReplyDeleteI sent out yet ANOTHER e-mail to the USPS this afternoon, so I'll see if they get back to me. If not, I'll send them another one after the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm going to make myself into one hell of a pest!
Lol well until you watch Always Sunny In Philadelphia I'll let you believe that statement. Ahh you New Yorkers with your hatred and um... stereotypical rudeness. And the way some of you pronounce word with Hard accents!!! New Yorkers are awesome in my book lol.
ReplyDeleteI can't say I blame you man, their gonna remember the name of X-Man! Well your real name anywho. I hope ya hear something back from them today.
Yeah, we New Yorkers are a hateful and rude lot of people, I can't even disagree with that statement! Funny story, everyone knows what a New York accent sounds like obviously, and just so you know, people from other parts of NY state DON'T talk with that accent, only people from the NYC area have the accent. Anyway, when I first moved upstate to Binghamton NY, EVERYBODY thought I was from either England or Australia! For some reason, my accent comes out more British then New York... Go figure.
ReplyDeleteHm...That's odd. I like how people don't realize they have accents until someone points it out. So pior to moving to Upstate NY, you lived in NYC for ya whole life?
ReplyDeleteI'm an odd person. Yup, I was born and raised in the Big Apple for the first 25 years of my life. While I do enjoy alot of things about living in Binghamton(you don't realize how rude people from NYC are until you leave the place!), I think I'll probably always consider NYC my home.
ReplyDeleteThats cool, I've been a Detroit native for all 19 years of my life. I wanna go to NYC, but before I do I gotta ask do people really get mugged and stuff as much as it's claimed? Like have you ever been mugged, seen a mugging or whatever? Or does that mainly happen to tourists and not New York locals?
ReplyDeleteAh, the crime question! Besides the shootings/drugs/blood I always saw around the school I used to work at, I can say I was successful at avoiding the more unsavory side of NYC. I grew up in a really bad neighborhood, so I learned from an early age to keep my nose clean and to watch my back. I guess that lesson prob holds true for anybody who grew up in a rough neighborhood though. The city was really bad in the early 90's, but after Mayor Giuliani terms, drugs/crimes in general took a pretty major downturn. For its size, NYC is a pretty safe city. As long as you're not running around taking pictures of buildings and acting like a tool, you'd be fine visiting the Big Apple.
ReplyDeleteI should be cool then. I figured crime was the same thing there as in Detroit, if you keep a look out and aren't doing anything dumb you should be cool. Sounds awesome though. Anything I should know before visiting NYC? Where to go/not to go and etc.?
ReplyDeleteYeah, any big city has it's fair share of nutjobs, it's just a matter of keeping an eye out for them.
ReplyDeleteMost people who go to NYC go to Manhattan. Me, I lived in Queens. Manhattan has the big buildings, Times Square, the Empire State Building and a few cool museums, while Queens has as many people as Manhattan, but none of the cool stuff! If I was going to the City, I'd just hang out in Manhattan, they've got everything you could want to find there. As for what to avoid, I guess the slums and stuff. Definitely don't go to any of my old neighborhoods! That's a surefire way to leave NYC with a bad taste in your mouth!
Hm...Thanks for being my virtual tour guide to the great city of Spider-man. Whenever I do go I'll hit you up and see if there's some X-Man recommended places to eat, and grab some good pizza of course.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, the only reason you should head into Queens would be to check out some of my old pizza joints! I guess Queens does have some good stuff after all!
ReplyDeleteHm..I'm immediately reminded of King of Queens but I'm sure you don't watch that show either. I'm really Jonesing for some pizza, it's times like now I wish I could pull a Wally West or something.
ReplyDelete