Two Links

After seeing it mentioned on The Beat, I wanted to spend the afternoon watching The Maxx, the animated adaptation of Sam Kieth's bizarre and magnificent hallucinatory, superhero comic from the 90s. But mtv.com inserts a commercial between every scene and it was driving me mad. Someday when I have more patience I'll sit down and enjoy.

Instead, I got sucked into The Comics Curmudgeon. The commentary is pretty amusing, but I think a large part of the appeal is seeing other people get as angry at Archie and Beetle Bailey as I do.

Bright Starts.

Less than a year ago, Murphy commented on a missed opportunity by DC. The success of The Dark Knight film drove new customers into comics stores, looking for new Batman comics. What they unfortunately found was the middle of "Batman: RIP": a densely written, surreal breakdown of the Batman character. I agreed with Chris that despite personally enjoying the arc, it was the furthest thing from a comfortable starting point for new readers. It drew too much from Grant Morrison's previous year of Batman comics and well, basically was a little too Grant Morrison. And on top of that, I never felt Tony Daniel was the right artist for the storyline. In any case, it seemed like a missed opportunity to draw in new readers.

It turns out they missed the mark by a bit under a year, in the form of two of my favorite new releases.

Go buy Detective Comics #854.
Go buy Batman and Robin #1.

The former features Batwoman, a relatively new character getting her long-awaited starring role written by Greg Rucka. The first issue introduces the character, has a Batman cameo to ground it, and sets up her first case. It's engrossing and beautifully illustrated by J.H. Williams III. It's everything an introduction to a comic story should be.

The latter features the new Batman and Robin. It asks for more backstory but that depends on how much the new reader wants to know. The basics are easy. Bruce is gone. Dick Grayson has ascended to the cowl. Bruce's l'enfant terrible Damian is the new Robin. How things got to this point is sort of complicated (and isn't that what Wikipedia and trades are for?) But once you accept the starting point, it's a good one. And it doesn't hurt that it has great (slightly unconventional) artwork, courtesy of Frank Quitely.

Fresh Ink

Chris is a talented writer, but a poor self promoter. Go check out his weekly Fresh Ink column on Comics Alliance.