Batgirl #17

           I have heard beyond great things about this series. I have never been a big fan of Batman knock off series, that don't include Batman. I never really consider Batwoman, Batgirl or Azrael. But I was looking around the comic store and I finally decided to buy this issue.
           Alfred tells Damian Wayne that he needs to eat and sleep more. Damian tells Alfred to get out of his room. Stephanie Brown over slept and then ran out of bed. Robin (Damian Wayne) captures a crossing guard and tries to interrogate him because children are being kidnapped, and the crossing guard was acting suspicious. Batgirl (Stephanie Brown) comes in and says Batman told her to be in charge of the case. The children that go to the school the crossing guard was working for went on a field trip. Robin went undercover. After Batgirl resizes Robin doesn't know how to have fun, they see the bus driver for the field trip was kidnapped, and all the kids were told to get on the bus. Batgirl and Robin take out the kidnappers. Batgirl then takes Robin to a moon bounce where they both have fun.
         I really liked this issue. I'm a huge fan of Damian Wayne, and his relationship with other people in the Batman world. This was, like Superman/Batman, a fun read. I still have to read more about Batgirl before I can actually come to a decision of whether I like this series or not, because this issue was very much focused around Damian Wayne. If they made a new Robin series it might look like Batman has most of the series in the DCU, but I would definitely read it.
        As I said before this series was really just development for Robin. instead of showing him as a cynical, and pretentious person, it shows how being Robin, and being son of Batman, means that he will never really be a kid. Which is really just a whole new side to Robin that hasn't really been shown.
       This was a good comic, even though it wasn't about Batgirl it had great stuff about Robin. I will have to read more Batgirl comics to decide if I like this series, but it looks pretty good so far.





Grade: 8/10
Buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

The Brave and the Bold #33

           In my entire comic collecting career the best thing that I have ever done was subscribed to the Brave and the Bold. One thing that I like about this series is that it is secluded from what is happening in the rest of the DCU, Batman is Bruce Wayne, Aquaman was alive, stuff like that. This comic is the only comic that featured something that has happened already, and they made it work.
            This comic wasn't the usual "heroing" around, but it was a girls night on the town. It showed Wonder Woman, Zatanna, and Bat Girl going around to parties. Nothing really happened at these parties (so forgive me for my short review) but afterwords, when everyone is tired, Wonder Woman begins to talk about Oracles. After a while everyone goes home, and Zatanna starts to cry, this is when the comic is explained. Zatanna saw in a vision the unfolding of the "Killing Joke," and made this girl's night out so that Barbara would remember dancing.
             One thing that I thought was pretty cool was that the comic used the same panels as "The Killing Joke" just put it into the art style of Cliff Chiang. Also it was a gutsy move by J. Michael Straczynski, explaining the "Killing Joke" but he did it very well.

Grade: B+
buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

Red Robin #11

            The combination of Batman & Robin and the Red Robin was next to brilliance, I just wish it had the writing to back that up.
            This particular issue started with a fight scene that I have seen before, Batman has many moves and the fight scenes are always entertaining, Red Robin has around five moves in his arsenal, There has only been 11 issues and I have seen him do a flying kick off his staff approximately eight times. Anyway after the fight scene, Drake and Pru go to the top of a building and interrogate one of the Seven Deadly Assassins. (the villains that were in the original fight scene, who work for Ra's Al Ghul)   when I say interrogate, I mean beat the living crap out of. They continue this until the member of the S.D.A  tells them a list of people close to Tim Drake that they are planning on assassinating. While this is happening, Tam is outside of Wayne manor with Vicki Vale, who is trying to get answers out of her, until they are almost killed by an assassin, after they get away nothing else really happens. Except when Batman and Robin come down and talk to Red Robin, overall the comic was really dull, and in the beginning when I said the crossover was next to brilliance, I did not say the comic was next to brilliant.
             One thing that I saw in the comic that was not really included in the comic (Advertisement) for a comic that was the return of Bruce Wayne By Grant Morrison, I just really hope that this is not false hope, where we find out that Bruce Wayne is gone forever, but I am really happy for the hope, and probability that Bruce Wayne will come back.

Grade: B
buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

Red Robin #10

ugh can't these guys get a good story out anymore? This was a bad book! Not kinda good but mainly bad, just bad! First of all this story expected you to read Bat Girl #8 (which with my schedule I will never be able to do) to just understand the beginning of the first scene. Even with that though the story would be very out of sink. All of the sudden Spoiler is the new Bat Girl, and the League of Assassins want to kill her and Red Robin? Plus even after that after a big dramatic scene with Pru (which was never explained) and the "big bad guys" come out(who work for Ra's al Ghul) they look just like the Council of Spiders. Great it worked for a little while, but don't bring them back. Especially not in the next story arch. Plus during all this Vale, who you can tell Yost is trying to make the next Lois Lane is trying to find out where Tim Drake has been. Nobody ever did that with Spider man, and I was glad they didn't. "Yost: You were great for a while, now you suck."

Grade: C-

buy at: www.mycomicshop.com