Donomark

I'm with you on that. I torrented the issue, 10 bucks is outrageous. I've been filling the holes in my Robin collection. I've nearly everything Chuck Dixon wrote for Tim Drake (his miniseries and nearly every one of his first 100 issues), so I'm finally going after the post-Dixon stuff...when it began to suck. The "To Kill a Bird" story by Willingham (which I never knew was collected) picks up soon after Tim and Batgirl move to Bludhaven after War Games and Identity Crisis. The stories are decent, but I cannot get into Willingham's voice for Tim. He writes him like Spider-Man or Nightwing, making way more jokes at his enemies expense and in his head than I've ever seen the character do. I get the feeling that Willingham just wrote his idea of a teen sidekick, and wasn't familiar with the inquisitive, more soft-spoken personality that Tim's had ever since his title started. It's seriously jarring. The OYL Adam Beechen run is way better. It fiercely deals with Bruce adopting Tim as the forefront of the character's status quo change. Beechen writes Tim a lot more recognizably in character than Wilingham did, and even makes him seem appropriately older. He's about the same age as Dick was in those old Batman Family comics/Jose Luiz Garcia Lopez images from the Bronze Age, and it feels right. Batman's relationship with Tim in this era is almost surprisingly paternal, given that their partnership up to that point was hardly as close as either Dick or Jason's for the simple fact that Tim didn't live with him. It's logical though given how much crap this character had gone through in the past couple of years with almost everyone important to him dying. It's way better than I remember it being at the time it came out. The turd in its punchbowl is the notorious treatment of Cassandra Cain, which I understand Beechen was under orders to do by Didio. It's still appalling bullshit, and every time it's brought up it throws the stories off wildly. I can't bring myself to own the first Beechen Robin trade because of how Cass is brought back, and she wouldn't be written anywhere close to in character until she became Black Bat around 2010. It's really unfortunate, because Beechen's handling of Tim is so immensely good. He's not uber-serious like Geoff Johns wrote him in Teen Titans, but he's not a dime-a-dozen sidekick like Wilingham sort of wrote him for a few years. I'm loving these issues.

I'm with you on that, I think Crisis on Two Earths is amazing. It's basically a really well done Justice League episode, which is no small praise. I loved the fight scenes, it had interesting subplots and the character of Owlman alone was just amazing. This is when the DC DTVs got good for me, after being fairly blah for a while after New Frontier and Wonder Woman. Saw Viva Las Vegas the other night after work. Thought Ann Margret completely stole the show. She was funny, gorgeous, and as shown in the film could dance way better than Elvis.

Having already mentioned that Aladdin is my favorite Disney film...I'll just say it again and nominate that one.

After hearing complaints that he, like Dan said, leans on a certain flavor of acting too often, I can understand the reticence more...but I still am fucking stoked. I only hope the guy doesn't get burned out. He's gettin' married soon, he'll be shooting more Sherlock which he recently said he has no plans to give up. I really hope this is all decisions to lead in things he truly is interested in and wants to do, rather than rolling the dice for career moves like I think Ben Affleck may've done with Batman.

"Christopher Waltz plays Bond's ski instructor..." That alone makes me LOL

I love the fact that he invoked the idea that the Bond films are "family movies". Reminds me of the whole k.d. Lang controversy you guys mentioned back on FYEO.

I've never seen an episode of Arrow until now. But seeing Green Arrow and Speedy (or Red Arrow or Arsenal) leap into action against Captain Boomerang, with the Flash saving their ass...OMG, such an awesome feeling. I'm really loving these shows. I have to start watching Arrow now.

Reminds me of a gag from the Spec Spidey cartoon.

Awww, I bought that when it first came out as I'm a big Murakami fan, but I've yet to start reading it. How doe it compare to his previous works?

Okay now this episode was fun. I mean, I think they've consistently been fun, but everything that built up to the Marvel Team-Up at the very end was great.

I'm now a freelance writer for the Comics blog The Hooded Utilitarian, and have started my contributions with a short essay relating Superman to Atticus Finch from "To Kill a Mockingbird". Check it out! http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2014/12/superman-and-atticus-finch/

I'm not going to defend breaking the law exactly, but there are times like these where the feelings of anger resulting from the sense of abject societal and government oppression throw away any sense of consideration for one's business, even if it's in a shared community.

As someone as who's about as familiar with Star Wars as Ian is with comic books, I find it funny that the most online discussion stems from the Light-Saber. Like, ALOT of online discussion.

You guys also brought up an interesting point in how Budd was the most morally repentant of the assassins, which makes him getting killed by one of the Deadly Vipers more meaningful, like they did with Bea. BTW I loved the Dexter's Lab singing

Ho you better believe you'll be getting some feedback on this one...

^Oh yeah, I totally caught Ralph Dibny and Bea DeCosta. I forgot who Grant Emerson was, so I thought it was a big JLI piece of fanwank. Even so, it's really cool how many characters this show establishes on a weekly basis.

I really liked the split plot and the fact that even with his powers, the Flash couldn't be in two places at once.

I'll agree that their take on Harvey Dent, whether it was the writing or acting, came off kind of lousy. That's why Dent should be nowhere near this series. But I genuinely liked the Bruce/Selina stuff. It was fun.

Happy B-Day!

I'm with ya there, everytime they go back to Barry as a kid it's really corny. Not even Jesse L.'s awesome hat can save those scenes.

Too fucking true. I really like this episode actually. If nothing else, more often than not each episode tests Barry's abilities to their logical extent, and we learn more about him. Don't know much about Girder, but I like knowing how soon Barry can heal, seeing him learn a Mach1 punch and etc. I love the development between him and Iris, as it's not moving at a snail's pace like Smallville. This is a consistently fun-ass show.

Chibi Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle are cute

TFS's Abridged is God's gift to DBZ fandom. I'm down for it, but I've heard virtually everyone groaning.