…there’s always room for a few more comics. This week is Air #10 and Herogasm #2, Hellblazer #256 and Young Liars #16 and of course, Phonogram #2.3.

Because, like many of you, I’m feeling the lousy-economy pinch, I’m going to open this week up with a call for some webcomics recommendations. Who’s doing something new and different with comics online?

Finally, I don’t know if you’ve been watching the (rather lousy) news coverage of the protests following the elections in Iran, or following the (much better) feeds on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube. Either way, today felt like a good day to re-read Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi’s classic tale of growing up in revolutionary Iran. I know this is the space where you get to tell me what to do, but I really can’t recommend Persepolis enough. It’s a view into a country that gets universally bad press, and as we’re watching the people fight oppression, it’s nice to see inside the hearts and minds of people who’ve lived through it.

So why was Captain America #600 made available to be in shops today again?

Retailer Brian Hibbs of The Savage Critic(s) has made his displeasure known on the retail side of the Captain America #600 situation. Hibbs bluntly points out his belief that Marvel did a disservice to retailers by focusing the release of the issue for a Monday, presumably to coincide with a media push.

Part of the problem seems to be that while many outlets carried news on the return of Steve Rogers, precious few actually indicated that Cap #600, the beginning of the story, hit comic shops today. CNN.com’s coverage includes comments from Tom Brevoort and makes some terrible puns (details are “shielded”? Yeeesh), but there’s no mention of the issue hitting stands. Same with New York Daily News; they pimped Reborn, which begins next month, but not today’s special issue. Heck, even the L.A. Times’ Hero Complex Blog, which has a preview of Reborn #1 doesn’t mention that the lead-in is in stores now. The New York Times gets it, but hey, they are a paper of record, and reporter George Gene Gustines is a fan who’s been known to read a comic book news site or two in his time (ahem). But by and large, you can’t help but wonder if anyone at Marvel made sure to mention to these outlets that issue #600 was in stores today.

So, while some retailers went out of their way (and paid for shipping) to have the book in-store two days ahead of time, it seems that there’s little info out for the “civilian” populace that would let interested parties know that they can get the book right now. What else did Hibbs have to say?

At the end of the day, Marvel decided to fuck with retailers in the hope that news would break big. That doesn’t seem to have happened.

The shame of it is that if they had told us this at point of initial solicitation I could have played it up in store, I could have gathered subs and interest and preorders, and I would have had a stronger order placed because there would have been excitement about the “how” of it.

Now, not so much.

To be fair though, it’s hard to make the argument that Marvel just decided to f with retailers (though Hibbs obviously thinks differently about the company and has a successful class action lawsuit to prove it) rather than try to sell some books. Unless you own or fully control the media outlet, the media outlet will do what’s best for said media outlet 10 times out of 10. Who knows if a mention of Cap #600 being in stores today was in Sacks article in the Daily News (the “break” article), but it seems likely, if Marvel was pointing to major media coverage for the issue, that they felt it would be. When news stories go outside of the comics media which can be largely controlled by the publishers, you rolls the dice, and hope for the best.

It’ll be interesting to see how other retailers react. Retailing readers, how about you? Have you had phone calls, increased interest, and increased traffic? Did getting the book today make a difference for you? And what about the readers? Are you waiting till Wednesday, or did you have to have the book ASAP?

Note: As was pointed out in the thread, the CNN story did mention that Captain America #600 was available on Monday.

With the news of Steve Rogers’ return hitting the blogosphere, we at Blog@ decided to take a look at some of the winners and losers when it came to Captain America: Reborn.

WINNER: Sharon Carter. Sharon has been through the wringer the past two years of issues, going through mind control, kidnapping, and even the loss of her unborn child. But the worst part for her has been the guilt — knowing that she killed Captain America. But as we’ve seen in Captain America #600, the rumors of her causing Steve’s demise have been greatly exaggerated — and this frees her from the prison of her own making.

WINNER: Tony Stark. This is a character whose greatest struggles have been defined by guilt — whether its retreating to the bottle when SHIELD tried forcing him to create weapons, or hunting down armored heroes and villains to stop the proliferation of his Iron Man tech. But his current run from Norman Osborn — complete with the eventual erasure of his mind — stems from his guilt over Steve Rogers’ death. Heavy was the head that wore the crown, but with Steve Rogers’ return, the cracks in the Iron Man’s armor might actually shrink.

WINNER: Clint Barton. The one-time Hawkeye had been given the reins of Avengers leadership by Luke Cage, finally cementing the dream Clint had had way back in his first appearances in the series. But is Ronin really leadership material? The Magic 8 Ball points to no, and Steve’s return might mean that Clint can finally stand down and do what he does best: snipe the leader.

WINNER: Barack Obama. He’s a one-man comics bailout machine! If there’s anyone appropriate of welcoming Steve back, I think it’d be this guy. I smell a variant cover coming on! (I kid because I love.)

(more…)

IDW has posted on their blog that Linkin Park has released a video for “New Divide,” the theme for the upcoming film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Linkin Park – “New Divide”

The soundtrack will be available in stores on June 23rd.

Ahhh, the 90s. A time of screaming mouths, big hair left over from the 80s, more feral mutants than you could shake a stick at, and of course, big guns and bigger shoulder pads.

Skottie Young brought up the 90s over the weekend on his Twitter account, focusing on how people look down at the era and disparage everything about it. I couldn’t help but not only agree, but also look back on the era of comics I grew up with.

I love Cable, I love X-Cutioner’s Song, which was going on when I got into comics, I flipped out when the X-books were “canceled” bringing about the Age of Apocalypse. There were Spider-men, who seemed to double more than Multiple Man. An AIDS analogue struck mutants across the globe. Batman was broken, Superman died, and of course, Hal Jordan went insane with evil power.

Man, I loved 90s comics, especially early 90s. That’s when I first really got into the books that have now become a major part of my life. For me, it started with a crossover issue featuring both Spider-man and the X-Men, which my mom bought at a grocery store, knowing I loved the brand new X-Men: The Animated Series. I was amazed by the range of stories that could be told in these little magazines. Plus, it was easier to enjoy over and over again.

I didn’t become a real “collector.” I kept my comics, but I wasn’t obsessed with bags and boards or any of that. I wanted them easy to access and easy to read. My ultimate favorite storyline was definitely Age of Apocalypse. I was already a fan of the idea of alternate worlds in all forms of media, and here was one with my favorite characters of the time. The re-inventions of these characters were so cool, from new costumes to new alliances, and even some that were almost completely different, like Nate Grey, Cable’s double from this reality. I read the story in its entirety about 6 times as a kid. I’ve since gone back and re-read it at least 4 or 5 more. A lot of it was over-the-top, and even downright silly, but even now (I last read the story last year) it still strikes me as one of the most fun experiences I’ve had reading comics.

Are these the best-written or best-drawn stories ever? No, and some of them are downright goofy. But there’s no need to look back on them with anything less than fond remembrance. It was a time of decadence in ways different than the decadence of today, but not necessarily in worse or better ways. There’s no need to say “90s superhero comics suck,” even if they weren’t exploring the same range of emotion or realism as some books today do. But hey, I’m just a non-jaded comics fan.

By Jimmy Palmiotti

This week, a bunch of movies, a tribute or two and some more silliness… as expected. Amanda and I had the pleasure of taking a full day off and hanging with two of our favorite people, Billy Tucci and his stunning wife, Deb. We went out to the beach, drank a few too many drinks, had some nice meals and got to swim for a bit… a perfect summer day in my eyes, with perfect company. We spoke about how excited I was that Billy was going to finally illustrate an issue of Jonah Hex for Justin and I. It’s what I love about comics… getting to work with friends on a project. As for the rest of the week finished the translation on the first TORPEDO book for IDW and I got to tell you, I forgot how wonderful these books are. It was a real treat to be included in this event.

And last… got time finally to catch up on some movies,  Some good, some bad… and all featuring an opinion from me… I would love your feedback on these reviews, so don’t be shy. Anyway, here we go…

UP: Well, forget it is animation and understand that most movies with animation are written 50 times better than live action any day of the week. This movie was funny, silly, sad, and heartbreaking and didn’t have a boring minute in it. Run to see it… and personally, while watching it in 3-D… I forgot it was 3-D, so I think its cool to see it in regular 2-D as well. I will not ruin a thing other than to say I laughed my ass off watching it and to its credit, the theatre was filled with kids, and they didn’t talk a bit during the entire film, which is amazing if you ask me.

(more…)

Comic book fans, to paraphrase the old Bob Kane comic, are a superstitous lot.

Change — at least of the big, sweeping characterization variety — doesn’t come without vitriol, unless it is carefully built up and covered with in-universe logic. Legacy characters like Kyle Rayner and Connor Hawke — who burnt up the charts in the ’90s upon their release — have since been retconned, with the sterling sentinels of the Silver Age reassuming their heroic mantles.

So what happens if a death sticks, and readers are satisfied that a new hero has taken on the reins?

Because that may be what has happened with Ed Brubaker and Captain America.

(more…)

Look out, Dark Avengers, Hulk, and Secret Invasion: Wednesday Comics just jumped to the top of the pile.

DC Comics announced today that John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo’s Wednesday Comics feature starring Superman will be serialized in USA Today. The initial strip will appear in the July 8th print edition of the paper, with the following installments appearing online at USAToday.com.

For those of you not keeping score, this is the highest selling newspaper in America, with a circulation of 2.11 million, even narrowly beating out the Wall Street Journal. These strips will come out each week on USA Today’s site the same date as Wednesday Comics hits the stores, and the online strips will be promoted in the print edition.

“It just makes sense, no?” wrote Alex Segura in DC’s blog, the Source. “A weekly series created to remind readers of the joys of standalone comics and the newspaper strips many of us grew up on debuting in the pages of one of the most well-known and widely-read newspapers ever.”

There’s no getting around it, Barry Allen wore a bow tie: Over on 4thletter, David Brothers talks a bit about why Flash: Rebirth just isn’t doing it for him, and notes something that bugged me about last week’s third issue—Geoff Johns offers Explanation #2 for why Barry Allen wore a bow tie. The real answer is, of course, that Barry Allen is old, and he starred in old comics from a long time ago, back when people wore bow ties. Now only conservative TV pundits do, so Johns has attempted to explain why Allen, who, on DC’s sliding timeline never was from the time of bow ties being fashionable, always wore a bow tie. Once was probably sufficient; it’s not like Frank Miller devoted any panel time to explaining Bruce Wayne’s pipe-smoking and ascot-wearing in Batman: Year One.

Why this place doesn’t sound the least bit pleasant: Southern Ohio’s Springfield News-Sun chats up local creator Chad Lambert about his graphic novel Return to Point Pleasant, which is about a now legendary local cryptid—The Mothman.

I like his logo: The Honolulu Star-Bulletin on the print-on-demand return of Mr. Jigsaw, a one-time Charlton Comics back-up star.

“More like Whine for Justice”  made me laugh: Here are Rachelle Goguen’s reviews for some of the books she read this week. When discussing Green Lantern Corps, she got distracted by the multi-page preview of Justice League: Cry for Justice included in the back, and she wasn’t terribly excited about it. Tucker Stone didn’t much care for it either, bringing it up in his review of last week’s Batman, after wondering if “Ed Benes and Ethan Van Sciver having a line-drawing fight or something”:

Sure, DC was nice enough to jam that hideous looking “A Cry For Justice” preview in the back of the comic to remind you how much worse things can get, but still—who gets off on this kind of art?

I agree with #2: Sandy Bilius shares a few brief thoughts on the comics industry, and I second his second one, regarding weekly comics. From a business perspective, I’m sure it actually helps Marvel and DC to stretch out their six-, seven- and eight-part crossovers to last as long as possible—since, if adding Civil War: in front of any title helps it sell better, the longer the time period they have, the more comic copies of Civil War: Richard Rory they can publish—but if these things would wrap up in the course of a few weeks, that sure would be preferable from a reader’s perspective (and it also allow for more non-crossover storylines in the rest of the line, encouraging writers to write their own stories, rather than focusing on building up to, tie-ing into, and dealing with the aftermath of whatever the big universe-wide story is).

Everything he learned about editing he learned from J. Jonah Jameson: Stephen Colbert guest-edited a recent issue of Newsweek, and in his editorial about why he took the job (entitled “Why I Took This Crummy Job”) he discusses what editing entails. Comic book reference in paragraph seven.

Total Sci Fi announced that ITV will not be renewing its sci-fi drama series Primeval.

“Basically ITV have changed their policy about drama before 9pm in that they’ve decided they really don’t want any, at least not of the quality and cost of Primeval,” Total Sci Fi attributed to a source close to the production. “The show remained as popular this run (in terms of audience share) as ever before but the fact is that everyone knows ITV have money problems and they’ve decided that whatever drama budget they’ve got left is better spent after 9pm.”

Total Sci Fi’s source also alluded to the awkward cutoff to the series, as well as fans’ likely response. “At the point where we finished the third series, we had every reason to believe we would be doing a fourth. Had we known there was any likelihood of cancellation, clearly we wouldn’t have left half the cast marooned up a tree in the distant past. We can understand that some fans might be frustrated by this ending and we’re sorry for that,” the source said.

Yet with rumors of a feature film or a U.S. release of the series, “Obviously we’re devastated that things should end this way with ITV. But we’re absolutely certain that although this stage of its evolution seems to be over, Primeval isn’t dead. We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved over the past three years and we have every intention of keeping Primeval alive in other ways.”

Primeval dealt with a cast of five scientists who patrolled temporal disturbances, and tracking down the creatures — both from past and future — who came out.

On Keith Olberman’s news show, Countdown on MSNBC, Olberman portrays Fox chief Rupert Murdoch with a pirate accent whenever reading quotes from the Chairman of News Corp. It’s a less than flattering portrayal of the Australian born businessman, playing up his Aussie roots rather than, say, anything nefarious about the man.

Well…maybe not.

According to an upcoming wrongful termination suit to be filed this week, Roger Friendman, who was fired for reviewing Wolverine after downloading an illegal copy off of the internet, claims that the film was on the web in the first place due to Murdoch.

As reported by the Daily News’ Rush & Molloy, Friedman’s attorney Martin Garbus said that Murdoch asked the studio to make him a copy of the unfinished film and, “Apparently, someone made another copy for themselves,” says Garbus.

Nikki Finke offered up her own version of the rumor, reporting that “Murdoch was anxious to bring the film on board his yacht and asked 20th Century Fox to make a copy for him. But then Murdoch had outside people do it, and that’s how the film leaked onto the web.” Although Finke noted that sources have told her that Murdoch saw a rough cut on the Fox lot moths before the film appeared online.

While Friedman was (very) publically fired over the Wolverine review and resultant flap, another angle on his firing says that it had more to do with Scientology and less to do with a pirated copy of Wolverine.

As Rush & Molloy report, Fox News’ Roger Ailes was under pressure to fire Friedman by Kelly Preston, Tom Cruise and other members of the Church of Scientology due to his columns and reports critical of Scientology. Reportedly, Cruise made Friedman’s firing a condition of agreeing to co-star in the upcoming Wichita with Cameron Diaz.

Both Preston and Crusise’s attorneys have denied Friedman’s claims, pointing out that Friedman was fired days after his Wolverine review.

I understand that the word “mijeong” means “pure beauty” in Korean; at least, that’s what it says on the back of the NBM manhwa collection Mijeong. I’m not sure if the “pure” part necessarily applies to the work of Korean creator Byun Byung-Jun contained within, but I’m positive the “beauty” part does.

The seven stories of Byun’s that fill this book’s pages are each beautifully drawn, regardless of the subject matter, tone or even the style in which they’re drawn—all shift from story to story.

In fact, there’s such variety within these stories that it’s hard to see what it is that holds them together, beyond the creator, and perhaps the level of skill with which they’re illustrated. Most of them are set in the city, and share a certain romantic but bleak outlook, but then there’s a few near the end which are comedic pieces.

As a whole then, I’m not sure how successful a book Mijeong is, if one-person anthologies are to be judged on their cohesiveness, on the way that every part informs the entire work. But I certainly don’t want to sound dismissive of what Byun’s done here either, as there are some pretty great stories in here.

(more…)

Those of you who read the first Phonogram trade and missed those thoroughly despicable yet compelling characters in the series’ second incarnation will be thrilled to know that “We Share Our Mother’s Health” is indeed the story of Emily Aster. A story of Emily Aster, really, because Emily strikes me as a woman with many, many stories. It’s part of her charm, if charm was something that she could be bothered to have.

I relate to her, though she’s nasty and frightened and working as hard as she can to keep up with something shallow and silly to leave behind the person she was, the person who hurt. I want to know just how Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie got into the head of a woman stuck trying to stay as pretty as the pretty young things around her, clinging to a rock’n'roll youth that she’s losing fast because she cannot relate to the adult world she’s supposed to be part of.

(Read on.)

(more…)

Superpovoir, a French comics news site, has reported that with Astonishing X-Men #31, Phil Jimenez, currently of Spider-Man fame, will be taking over art duties for Simone Bianchi.

Jimenez has been well-known for taking some high-profile assignments, including Infinite Crisis, the Barack Obama cover of Amazing Spider-Man, as well as part of the current “American Son” arc in Amazing Spider-Man. His last work on X-Men was with Grant Morrison, during the Planet X storyline in 2002-2003.

UPDATE: The Superpovoir site has since taken this off their web page, and the Google cache no longer works.

Ethelbert is the king of the tiny country Portocristo. He is also six-years-old.

That’s the premise of Lewis Trondheim and Fabrice Parme’s Tiny Tyrant comics. It’s a premise that, viewed from one angle, seems high concept in a Hollywood pitch for a kids comedy kind of way, and, viewed from another, seems like a pretty incisive observation about the way adults cater to the demands of children, often to the point of foolishness…albeit an observation taken to its humorous extreme.

That extreme is where Trondheim, who writes the feature, keeps the narrative, as not only is Ethelbert a spoiled brat, but he’s a spoiled brat with absolute, unquestionable power over all of the adults in his world. They must all always bend to his whims, no matter how ridiculous those whims may be. Hilarity, therefore, often ensues.

The half-dozen stories collected in Tiny Tyrant Vol. 1: The Ethelbertosaurus were previously collected by First Second in a 2007; this collection is apparently a new, more album-like format that seems to serve the material very well.

The title story involves Ethelbert’s attempts to get a really cool dinosaur named after him, upon discovering that a new species a paleontoligist discovered in the kingdom was a tiny, bird-sized one. This involves forcing his scientists to genetically recreate a dinosaur and to time travel (I guess there is something to be said for iron-fisted dictatorship after all).

(more…)

So reading DC’s solicitations from yesterday, I noticed some really interesting news.

Announced as the new ongoing writer for Teen Titans was Felicia D. Henderson, co-executive producer of the new J.J. Abrams series Fringe, as well as a former co-exec producer for Gossip Girl. (She also teaches advanced screenwriting over at UCLA, one of the top programs in the country.)

And in addition, Angela Robinson, the writer/director of the spy thriller D.E.B.S. and several episodes of the L Word, was announced to write the Red Circle comic known as the Web.

“Right now I am writing a comic for DC Comics, and I did a Web series, and I just wrote a graphic novel,” Robinson told Variety on Thursday. “I feel like I am working everywhere, in television, in comics, in books and on Web series. I don’t feel like you can, as an artist, only make studio movies. What I’m trying to do is so diverse, and I think we all need to work across all the platforms out there now.”

So what’s so interesting about this? Well, since it’s been a truism in the industry that African Americans and women have been underrepresented in the comics industry, the fact that two African American women — one headlining one of DC’s big franchises as an ongoing writer — are joining the Big Two simultaneously is pretty unprecedented. What do you think, Rama readers?

Defense wins pennants, but the DC Bullets found evidence that you still need to hit during Saturday morning’s game against the Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal put up a three spot in the second inning, but only managed to add on three more runs during the entire game. Needing only to average a run per inning, the Bullets found their offense sputtering in an untimely manner.

Despite two first inning singles by 3B Mike Lorah (1-3) and DH Larry “LP” Vollano (1-3), the Bullets were turned away without scoring. In the second, back to back singles by SCF Nel Yomtov (2-3, run) and LF Andrew Arnold (2-3, run) set up SS Adam Schlagman’s (2-3, 2 RBI) two run triple. With none out, Schlagman was held at third. A pop out to short, a line to third and a soft fly to left stranded the inning’s third run. In the third, C Sal Cipriano (1-4, run), P Doug Harrison (1-3) and RF Pat Brosseau (2-3, RBI) sandwiched singles around two outs, pushing across a third run.

(more…)

If this is true, I think Marvel might love the ’90s a little bit more than I had thought.

The French comic book site Superpouvoir has reported that in September, Marvel will be taking a blast to the past, with a series revisiting the Clone Saga:

SPIDER-MAN: THE CLONE SAGA #1 (of 6)
Written by HOWARD MACKIE & TOM DEFALCO
Penciled by TODD NAUCK
Cover by PASQUAL FERRY
You’ve been asking for it…and now it’s here: THE CLONE SAGA!!! Marvel’s most controversial event of all time returns with a vengeance, presenting the Clone Saga as it was originally intended to be told! From the minds behind the crossover that changed comics forever and the artist that introduced Spider-Man to President Obama, it’s six issues of twists and turns that will shock fans old and new alike! Be here as Peter Parker’s worst nightmare begins again…now with an ending you have to see to believe!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

That said, this is still a rumor, as Superpouvoir has cited Marvel’s web site as their source, and my run-through of the site has found no such announcement.

On the one hand, a Clone Saga series would be taking a similar route to this month’s X-Men Forever, in which Chris Claremont took us back to 1991 to continue X-Men as he would have completed it — and Marc Guggenheim did get a lot of ears perking up when he teased Ben Reilly’s return (or at least someone named Ben Reilly) in an upcoming Amazing Spider-Man arc. On the other hand, the Clone Saga was so divisive that many creators have tripped all over themselves to not just forget Ben, but to bury Ben, bury the books, bury the shovel that they used to bury Ben and the books, and then forget where they buried all that stuff.

But boy, having this cover…

What do you think, True Believers?

All right, New York fans — if you dig Steve Dillon, here’s your chance to meet and greet!

The Hero Initiative has announced that on Wednesday, June 24th, the Preacher and Punisher penciller will be hitting Jim Hanley’s Universe in Manhattan from 6pm to 8pm.

All proceeds, both for the $5 raffle as well as the $15 sketches, will go to the Hero Intiative, which helps out creators in financial or medical need. If you’re in the area, check it out!

So that’s why there aren’t more women in comics: Becky Cloonan keeps picking fights with them. (Via  The Beat)

“What I really dug was the exchange of ideas, which is ultimately what any book group, regardless of genre, is about”: The Philadelphia Inquirer has a nice little feature story on local comics shop Brave New World’s book club.

I call foul: Jenna Weissman Joselit’s story about the relationship between the Catholic church and comic books is interesting, and features a cool illustration, but didn’t quite live up to the “When Moses Saved the Man of Steel” headline.

“It’s not about violence. That’s too easy. It’s about evil”: In my last link dump, I had  linked to a post of Christopher Bird’s making fun of Mark Waid’s new-ish series Irredeemable, and I gave it some pretty negative reviews myself, so here’s a nice, positive one. April Snellings writes about the book, and talks with Waid about it here. Balance!

The Long Halloween is “possibly the best Batman graphic novel of all time”: I completely agree with Ian O’Connor. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Batman: The Long Halloween really is the best Batman graphic novel of all time. Except for Batman: Year One. And The Dark Knight Returns. And A Death in the Family. And A Lonely Place of Dying. And Batman: Child of Dreams. And Batman: Gothic. And Mad Love. And The Killing Joke. And Batman: Year 100. And Arkham Asylum. And The Many Deaths of The Batman. And Batman: City of Crime. And Batman: City of Light. Oh, and Batman: The Cult. And all of the Matt Wagner Batman comics, especially that first Grendel crossover. And The Dark Knight Strikes Again. And All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder. And Batman Black and White, if collections of shorter stories count as graphic novels. Oh, and if so, then certainly Batman: Ego and Other Tails. And all those Showcase Presents, Archives and Batman Chronicles collections. And, come to think of it, I even liked Dark Victory better, as it has my favorite Loeb-written sequence ever.

So how old are Batman and sons?: Regular reader “batmansgirl” posted a link in the comments section of my post yesterday to Tom Bondurant’s discussion of how old Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake and other Bat-characters must be, given the introduction of Damian Wayne. I’m going to re-link to it here, because  Bondurant’s post is fun and fact-filled. And his conclusions hew close to my own assumptions about the characters’ ages, with the exception of Tim Drake, who needs to still be high school-aged. Unless he keeps flunking junior year to keep up the pretense that he’s just not smart enough to be Robin…? As impossible as Damian makes it for Batman to still be in his mid-thirties as editors so often insist when pressed, even bigger problems for Batman’s generation of heroes were raised by the introduction of Black Lightning’s college graduate-aged daughter Thunder, and Green Arrow’s nineteenish or so son Connor Hawke.