Last Time on "Batman" (SPOILERS)

[The Truth]

Sigh. Mayhaps I should have listened to The Mighty Thor and picked up Winnick's Bat title, for at the moment I find myself....disenchanted....again with the bat family and their various undertakings. Robin is being chased around Bludhaven by ninja archers and flaming horsemen, Batgirl is talking to dead chicks and trying to go one on one with The Penguin's newly established empire, The Red Hood has been revealed to be "Good god if you don't know by now consider yourself lucky", and Batman is....well....Batman.

And now for the spoilers...

[spoil]
Last I saw of Batman he was dealing with the revelation of the new Red Hood's secret identity. An identity of none other than his second protege' Jason Todd. JT made his big comeback by showing up in Gotham and royally screwing over everyone, commiting such acts as stealing one hundred pounds of Kryptonite from Black Mask, beating Joker upside the head with a crowbar, and basically just being a dick all around.

Speaking of which....Grayson's getting back to his roots as it were following his three month hiatus as his Year One story was told. He's gone "undercover" in order to infiltrate the local crime scene in hopes of moving one step closer the DC's new kingpin of crime, Black Mask.

Batgirl recently got slapped around by a giant gorilla, half drowned to death, spoke with the spirit of Stephanie Brown aka Spoiler, and is now back on the beat in her new town.

Robin? Can't say. Haven't picked up an issue in a while.[/spoil]

With everything that's going on in the Bat family, how is one to keep up? And what are your thoughts on these developmets? Shoud "you know who" have been brought back? Is Batman doing the right thing isolating himself from hsi partners? Will Robin's life ever stop sucking like a hoover with a Tim Allen supercharger?

[The Truth]

Further Bat-velopments. Eesh....where does one begin? Before the big change....or a year after that? Screw it...I'll just hit the major points.


[spoil]
For starters....no more Batgirl? That's right, Cassie found out that daddy dearest had another daughter that she knew about, and in the wake of her fight with Lady Shiva, she's seeming snapped and gone over to the dark side. Now leading the League of Assassins, Ms Cain's all about two things. Finding this sister of hers, and making Tim Drake's life a living hell. But hey, at least she offered him membership into the League. Provided of course he kill her father, the man who trained her, David Cain.

So onto Robin. Sporting a new costume, highly resembling the one seen in Batman and Robin: The New Adventures cartoon, Tim not only has to deal with his former friend Cassandra trying to kill him, but also with his newly adopted city of Bludhaven getting destroyed and the death of his best friend Conner Kent, aka Superboy. This guy just can't win.

Nightwing......sucks. Seriously. I'm not even going to comment one the One Year Later stuff besides to say that he seems to be acting like a complete idiot and Jason Todd for a time was also running around calling himself Nightwing, wearing a duplicate of Dick's costume.

Haven't been keeping up with Batman so ummm.....
[/spoil]

[Enchantress]

As of yesterday, we effective dropped Batman from our pull list. With Grant Morrison taking over the title, I decide to spend my hard earned dollars on Superman instead.

Sorry, as much as I love the Bat, I'm not going to stand around and watch Grant Morrison do to him what he did to the X-men. It would probably kill me.

[The Mighty Thor]

From the Batman: One Year Later stuff that I have read, its seems that Batman, Nightwing and Robin took off for a year on a trip of self realization and discovery, leaving Gotham under the watchfull eye of...Harvey Dent! Umm, what?! Okay, so Two-Face's scars had been healed, and he was given a clean bill of health by all of his doctors, but come on! I have trouble with the idea based on principal alone. I'm all for second chances, but Harvey Dent?! So anyway, then some crime lord wanna-be in Arkham by the name of The Great White Shark frames Dent for a bunch of villains deaths, and thinking the world, along with Batman, is out to get him, Dent buckles under the pressure, and pours acid down half of his face reverting to his dark twisted moniker of Two-Face.

Same as it ever was.....