Topic: DC Comics Reboot

[Silver Shocker]

That sounds like....a lot of stuff going on. Also Joker taking over an amusement park. Comics sure repeat themselves, don't they? Though I remember reading (I think it was you who said this, actually) that Paul Dini in the comics did world-building that explains why Gotham has so many amusement parks.

Also, wouldn't Batman know that doctor Arkham had a wife who got killed by a batarang? Seems like a thing he should remember.

You ever read Tomasi's Batman & Robin OR Rebirth Detective Comics? Both runs have a group of Batman villains that are basically "The Batman Revenge Squad" - villains who want revenge on Batman because they blame him for ruining their lives, and it includes people who was horribly mangled in fights with Batman (and also Lady Clayface), such as one with some leftover shrapnel left in them and one with a batterang still lodged in their head that caused brain damage, resulting in some of their dialogue being disjointed non-sequiturs.

Deathshot. For a Batman villain,he didn't fight Batman in a long while.

Deadshot? Or is there also a Batman villain called Deathshot? Because Deathshot totally sounds like a 90's Image comic character right alongside Deathblow.

[HarryTrotter]

Deadshot. Typo on my part.

Yeah,Streets of Gotham and Dini's Detective run. Everyone should read it. Apparently,Gotham used to be the Atlantic City of [ wherever the hell it is,somewhere around New York].

Yeah,Arkham Knight arc is kinda similar to Victim Syndicate,but with established villains. Since she thinks they are all just victims and good guys and Batman is a bully.

[Silver Shocker]

Yeah,Streets of Gotham and Dini's Detective run. Everyone should read it.

I should put it on the list.

Since she thinks they are all just victims and good guys and Batman is a bully.

Villains often think they are the heroes of their own stories.

"Y'all think you're the heroes of this little adventure, but you're not."
~Handsome Jack, the villain of Borderlands 2, and a total heel.

[HarryTrotter]

Well,she was raised by Arkham inmates and blames Batman for the death of her mother. Again,Jeremiah Arkham having a wife and her dying in a prison riot seems like a thing Batman should already know. Like,he was there.

[Silver Shocker]

Was that tying into an earlier story by a different writer or was it a retcon in that book? Because if it was the latter, then that's bizarrely sloppy on the part of that writer.

[HarryTrotter]

It came out of nowhere,afaik.

[Silver Shocker]

Speaking of recent Batman comics.....

I did a thing.

I'm been chipping away at some Batman/Joker/Scott Snyder material (fun fact, my plumber is named Scott Snyder  And the irony of that just creeped me out big time)

And I started reading Joker 80th Anniversary from about a year or so ago. And I read the Punchline story.

YIKES.

(And yes, I know Harley isn't with Joker, but I'm not using that crappy half-baked Punchline.)

I think you undersold it.

I don't know if Punchline is the worst villain I've ever seen in fiction, if not, she's close. She's just the worst. She's not fun or hammy, tragic, sympathetic or relatable, fascinating or creepy, or a challenge to the good guys in an interesting way, she's just gross and unpleasant. A witch's brew of almost every bad stereotype about young people in the internet age. She doesn't seem to be intolerant, but that's about it.  I could quote almost any line of dialogue from her initial 10-page story to demonstrate this, but this part in particular stands out:

*poisons the Dean with Joker toxin* "I got the recipe off the internet. I don't know if it's going to work right. You wouldn't believe how many chemicals it takes. I had a good teacher though. Don't fight it Dean Bob, I want it all on camera [takes picture or video recording with smartphone] [...] I've been testing with some of the homeless people under the overpass. You're the first that matters, though."

Well, as a lead in to a Batman crossover, (Joker War), it's a pretty rotten one. I sure hope she's better in that storyline than she is in this story. If she isn't it might be a rough time if I do read it.

Another extra large 9.99 book I picked up very recently is Generations Forged, the direct followup to Shattered Generations. I haven't read it yet, it'll be a long while, but I looked through it for fun, and it's a such a fun, colorful book celebrating the rich history of the DC universe. Two things in particular stood out:

Spoiler: ShowHide

1. Doctor Light (Kimiyo Hoshi) got a power up by absorbing a large amount of light-based or solar energy, and got a new costume that was a tweaked version of her old costume, but with the multi-pointed star swapped out for a more rounded white-hot sun. I like it quite a bit.

2. From the DC Wiki:

"The comic introduces the concept of "Linearverse" where non-powered heroes like Batman age far slowly than normal and went through all stories that happened in past comics, at least in some form."

Oh DC, never change. Fluctuate less in quality, please, for the love of Rao, but never change. Keep being gloriously insane in that very DC-Comics way.