dragonbat2006

But first, there was this in Batman Eternal.

And now? Well, some time ago, I wrote At the Ballet; a short Cass-centric piece, where Cass is introduced to Ballet via Sleeping Beauty.

And in today's Batman and Robin Eternal, we get ( Three scans under cut! )

I know it's probably coincidence. I know this. So let's just say that I'm thrilled that something in my head-canon somehow reached a pro writer's brainwaves and leave it at that.

So, today's Daredevil left Matt between a rock and a hard place and I'm thinking about the way it ended.

( Spoilers below! )

My longtime internet buddy and beta, Starbatz, came up from Cincinnati. She went all four days, I went three. (Sabbath observance means no Saturdays at cons for me. On the plus side, I do not love crowds. The only way that I deal is to pretty much spend my time in the panel/lecture rooms and Artist Alley, rarely venturing farther afield.)

So. Will post swag pics later. (At least, those I can't find online) My camera flash doesn't work so well, so I'm waiting for better light before I take pics.

( What I did and what I bought )

Great con, can't wait till next year!

Even an intriguing Batman development isn't hooking me the way Marvel is. I picked up She-Hulk #1 on a lark and... it is so... FUN! DC just isn't anymore. There are some decent stories. There are some intriguing developments. But even the best stuff they're putting out doesn't have me on the edge of my seat, counting down the days to the next issue.

I'm on tenterhooks for Daredevil. I tweeted Chris Samnee because the unlettered preview art for #36 actually tugged at my heart-strings (2nd page. Matt and Foggy in the hospital. Owwwww!) in a good good way. Got a reply back, too, but that's beside the point.

She-Hulk seems to be more of the fun. It's hit the perfect equilibrium between comedy, drama and action, between external and internal conflict. The characters are relatable in a way that DC's aren't. Probably because DC's answer to 'make them relatable' is 'erase most of past canon and start fresh with a blank slate' while Marvel's is 'let's have jumping-on point issues... even if we annoy folks by renumbering, where we update the origins for the 2010s. Matt Murdock now had a computer in college, etc. Explain who these guys are briefly and then get on with the stories.'

When I think back... it seems like Marvel's take is how it should be. I started reading DC in 1988. I bought back issues because I wanted more to read about my favorite characters, but I never felt like I couldn't enjoy Batman or X-Men if I didn't have every single back issue ever. I joined in media res and learned as I went along.

Incidentally, that approach taught me that when I was writing a story, I didn't need to detail up-front every single thing about my characters' appearances, back stories, etc. It was fine to start in the middle and fill in the blanks as necessary.

This hurts. It hurts because the only times I've picked up the odd Marvel issue until about a year and a half ago was when an issue was written by one of a handful of writers I'd told my LCS "Put aside anything these people write and add it to my pull-list. Even if it's just a collection of Hostess Fruit Pie ads." (Very short list. Chris Gage, Gail Simone, Tamora Pierce, and Russell Lissau. The first two because I love most of their work. Tamora Pierce because I'm a fan of her novels and so was onboard for her White Tiger mini. It... wasn't as good as her novels, but it was still decent. Russell Lissau is on my list because he's an all-around nice guy who comes onto message boards and he wrote a Batman story years ago that showed me that his vision of Batman was almost a perfect match for mine. I've liked a lot of his other stuff, too.) I picked up Daredevil on a lark during a slow week when it was "I have maybe 2 or 3 things coming in for my pull-list. The blurb says this is a good jump-on point and I've heard good things about Mark Waid. Yeah, he wrote some JLA stories I've got in trade and I liked those. Let's take a chance."

And now, I'm still not reading much Marvel. I'm nervous about picking up team books with multiple titles, so I'm mostly staying clear of the X-books and A-books. For now. But I'm loving what I am reading and pre-Reboot, I wouldn't have considered picking up a regular non-DC title (barring those 4 writers).

Why isn't DC fun anymore?