Detective Comics #524(March 1983):
Well this was a rather brisk comic... It was only 17 pages long... Whatever, let's get to it. We pick up from Batman #357(which was BRILLIANTLY reviewed by yours truly a day ago) with Batman having been tossed into a fish tank with a squid by the Squid. Yeah, I know... Lame, but I MUST soldier on and complete this post! Calling upon his vast knowledge of lame deathtraps, Bats manages to break free of the squid's death grip(that's squid with a lowercase “s”, not Squid with an uppercase “S”) and escape the aquarium and the Squid's warehouse, with only Killer Croc noticing Batman slipping away. The Squid is shocked(shocked I tell you!) that Bats managed to get away, and Killer Croc, thinking what any sane homicidal maniac would be thinking in this situation, tells Squid that he wanted nothing to do with him.
Hot DAMN is that one fugly bastard!Meanwhile, Dick Grayson throws a party at Wayne Manor and invites clowns and stuff to celebrate the Flying Todds circus act. Oh, and for some reason, Commissioner Gordon is there... You'd think he'd have better things to do with his time, but apparently not. Anyway, while Dick is introducing the Todds to the guests, Bruce Wayne sneaks in and motions to Dick that he needed to see him... Alone... Uh-oh! Get the bottom lotion ready!
And this ladies and gents is Jason's ONLY appearance in this issue... Standing mutely behind his parents... Yeah, THIS was WELL worth whatever it was I paid for it...Dick and Alfred go to check on Bruce, who decides to disrobe in the room RIGHT next to the party, holding his Batman shirt in his hand while Dick and Alfred tend to Bruce's squid inflicted wounds. Yeah, I bet that's not gonna come back to bite Bruce in the ass... Oddly enough, Alfred tells the gang that he'd seen similar wounds before on a sailor in England, making England that much scarier to me... I mean are there widespread squid/octopus attacks happening all over England?! Anyway, Jason's mother Trina bumbles into the room while Alfred is patching Bruce up... Whoops! Dick spirits her out of the room, but unless she's a blithering idiot, she's probably figured out one of Bruce's many dirty little secrets.
If I had just blown the secret identity I'd held for YEARS to some woman I didn't know, I think my reaction would be a bit stronger then, “Oh.”...While Bruce is busy sitting around slack jawed, Killer Croc is busy doing what I've wanted to do since I first saw the little creep, blowing the Squid away with a high-powered sniper rifle... Yes, I DID so want to sniper the Squid the moment I saw him!
So long fatboy!!! BWA-HAHAHAHAH!!!!This issue ends with Bats and Commissioner Gordon investigating the scene of the Squid's “tragic” killing. And no, I'm not posting a picture of their conversation because it really wasn't that interesting.
Final Thoughts: Yeah, I'm sure glad I brought THIS comic... So in Jason Todd's first two appearances, he's said a grand total of NOTHING, and appeared in THREE panels... In TWO comics! Well I will say this much, if you were reading these Batman books back in the day, there's NO way you'd ever think Jason would become the character he is today unless you were a) the guy writing these comics, or b) had access to a time machine and traveled forward in time. All I know is this, Jason had BETTER have some major face time in the next Batman comic I read! Dammit!
So you KNOW... Pink Flamingo is gonna end up being The Squid right? Think about it! And yeah, I can't WAIT for Jason Todd and The Outlaws. I see why people are pissed about Babs, I'm a fan of her walking but not being Batgirl and possibly bumping Steph for no reason since she's a great BG, but yeah, I'm looking forward to the Nightwing and Red Hood and the Outlaws comics so far.
ReplyDeleteI was sort of hoping for a Squid/El Sombrero team-up myself actually... :P
ReplyDeleteI really liked the way Babs character developed after the paralysis. It made her different from like 98.978% of the other characters in comics. Even though she had this handicap to deal with, she was STILL doing whatever she could to help in the battle against crime. Now what? She's just gonna be ANOTHER boring, cookie-cutter hero. Plus if Dick is Nightwing, why the hell is she still operating as BatGIRL? Yeah, I'm REALLY hoping this is a bit of misdirection and it's actually NOT Babs under the Batgirl mask...
Well Gail has announced that Batgirl IS Babs. I'm thinking it's more of a Batgirl's thing, with Babs, Cass and Steph? Also, I noticed we've seen Canary on these new Birds of Prey, we've seen Babs, where's Huntress? She'd be a perfect fit for Hood and his Outlaws.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess I won't be picking up the new Batgirl series. Sorry, I couldn't be less interested in reading about Babs as Batgirl again. Quite frankly, that destroys her character for me and make her about as uninteresting as humanly possible.
ReplyDeleteHuntress would work on the Jason Todd team SO much better than Starfire would! I mean it's two street level heroes in Jason and Roy, and then Starfire, an alien... She just doesn't fit there at all!