Batgirl #18 Requiem / Death of the Family

Batgirl #18 Requiem was horrible.  First off the story really has nothing to do with the death of Robin beyond Batgirl getting a phone call.  This issue is really a continuation of the Death of the Family Story line where Barbra Gordon is fighting against her brother.  But the story is told in a bad noir style from the evil brother’s point of view.  It has bad stilted writing as show in blocky block text that might be trying to be dramatic.  But in reality it is bad crappy writing pretending to put a woman in an imaginary abusive situation of some kind of “I hate all women” fantasy.  You the reader and I should get better for our money but when Spider-Man beats his wife/girlfriend and is still considered a hero there is not much hope for the art form since abuse is abuse weather it is in a comic book or real life.

Red Hood and the Outlaws! #17

Red Hood and the Outlaws #17 was more Death of the Family aftermath.  It was a very interesting recap and review of the Red Hoods life.  It was interesting to the interaction of the different characters, Arsenal, Starfire, Robin (ah Ghul), Alfred, Nightwing and Batman.  I was kind of surprised at the ending I did not expect a cliffhanger.  This makes me grateful I was not paying attention to the list of Death of the Family comics coming out next or the plot summaries.  This is first time in a number of issues of this mega story that I have been surprised.  Good comic.

Batman!!

Batman #17 Death of the Family and the big climax which to this old reviewer  is just another letdown as there was nothing really new in the end.  While the characters might or might not change really this Super Mega Story was just another piece of good publicity.  The story could have been grand and it would have been amazing if the Family had actually been harmed.  I thought maybe Batman’s solution to the Joker problem was going to work.  But it was a bluff at least when we see the aftermath.  This was the chance for the New52 the Batman writers to do something new and special and instead they just reset the story which is just a typical copout that chased me away from comic books in the first place.  I am very disappointed in this story, very disappointed. 

Nightwing!

Nightwing 16 Death of the Family was interesting and could have been good if not stuck in this filler mode for the Death of the Family mega story.  The layout of the comic itself was annoying with an entire section with the left page an advertisement and if we were lucky the right page had some of the comic displayed.  I don’t know maybe this issue will make sense when the story is over but otherwise it was just another “crossover” that was just filler.  I mean seriously how did the Joker have the time even in a year to set this all up?

Red Hood and the Outlaws!

Red Hood and the Outlaws #16 another Death of the Family Story but unlike the Nightwing story Red Hood and the Outlaws had a nice flowing story from start to end.  There was a little foreshadowing of future stories beyond the Death of the Family mega story, those one page breaks were a little jarring to the main story.  But I am sure not everyone is happy when slaved to some other story you have no control over.  The creative team still did a good story that did not feel like total filler while being filler or a set up story.

Batman!

Batman #16 (Death of the Family) while the story started strong and interesting it ended predicable.  It is kind of sad that the Joker was chaos and yet everything was just predicable as always.  Oh well.

Detective Comics!

Batman Detective Comics #16 (Death of the Family) contained two good stories, they were excellent stories.  The first story really did not have anything to do with the Death of the Family story.  It was just Batman tracking down the Joker Fan boys and Fan girls.  There is nothing new here and nothing worth tagging as part of the uber story ark.  The second story with the Emperor Penguin taking over the Penguin’s operation and that story is more related to Death of the Family.  But in the end I’m tired of buying a comic with two half stories included.  Frankly I’m tired of DC being lazy and stretching crappy material over several comics hoping no one will notice.

Batgirl!

Batgirl #16 (Death of the Family) Meh – I don’t know how the Joker has time for all this side business.  The story was OK and had some good action, but in the end the story has to be saved and stretched out so there will be more and more Death of the Family) comics without end or connection to the main story.  So this issue ends up just being a reset to where we were on page one of this issue.

Teen titans & Red Hood and the Outlaws!

The Teen Titans #15: Another Death of the Family Story.  While entertaining and interesting to see the mess from a new point of view I do not think this story was really necessary.  It just seems like a new story in a new comic in order to sell more comics.

Then there is more Death of the Family in Red Hood and the Outlaws number 15: The story ends at the same place as the Teen Titans 15 which was kind of amusing.  I do not know much about this comic as I have avoided it on principle because of what the writers did to Starfire (so sad).  Anyway, this issue was good and entertaining.  The story flowed well from one section to the next.  The Joker had some good lines and when put together with the Teen Titans issue makes for some interesting story building on the Joker’s part.  Though at this point I’m starting to wonder how the Joker can spend so much time with each Hero / Villain in all these books.  I ask because he sure is talking a lot and while traps could have been set up over the last year it seems like more work and planning than is the norm for the Joker.

Nightwing!

Nightwing #15 was not bad.  Though it did feel as if the Death of the Family story was just plopped into the middle of the current story line, I guess that is supposed to make it more real.  Not much else to say about this comic.

Death in Error

Death of the Family?!!  I have been calling the Batman mega story Death in the Family.  Why did no one correct me??? Even at the Comic Book Shop! I did web searches and searching with Death in the Family and was not corrected by Google and got the same results when I tried Death of the Family.  D’oh!