The Doomino Effect for Oct 1, 2008

Last week I ended up with only Marvel books; this week, I picked up only DC. Funny how that works.

The only book I bought last week that I normally buy was Batman #680, which continues the main Batman R.I.P. storyline. Lots of stuff happens in this issue: Batman crashes the Black Glove’s Danse Macabre; Le Bossu expresses his undying love for the Joker, only for the Joker to slice up his face in return; Nightwing is about to wake up from his dose of blue scorpion venom (a quick google search revealed that blue scorpion venom is actually used as a cure for cancer and other diseases, another hint that Dick Grayson is the Black Glove); Joker then takes out El Sombrero; Bat-Mite explains “Imagination is the 5th dimension” — whether an attempted metaphysical explanation or a joke, it was a line I got a kick out of; Talia Al Ghul, Damian and some assassins rescue Commissioner Gordon in order to team up and save Batman; Batman and Joker have a long, faux-expository battle, after which Batman walks right into the Black Glove’s trap and Joker sees Batman with his mask off; Jezebel Jet closes the issue by pulling on some long, black gloves.

You know, with Batman beginning to suffer the effects of Joker toxin, wouldn’t that be nuts if Bruce Wayne became the new Joker? That might be a fate worse than death, by reasonable standards. And the Joker does say “…you got yourself into this whole horrible mess because you wanted to understand what it was like to be me … you really want to know how it feels to be the clown at midnight? … well, here you are.”

I didn’t much care for Batman R.I.P. at the beginning, but it has definitely grown on me as each issue passes. I’m actually really looking forward to going back and re-reading the Morrison issues once the end is revealed. The one thing I’ve consistently felt throughout this story is that Tony Daniel was the wrong choice for a story this huge. He might be great someday, but this isn’t art that I want to look at more than once.

Speaking of not wanting to look at something more than once, that leads me to Terror Titans #1, which I didn’t actually want to look at ever. With only one book coming out that I normally read, I took a chance on this new series because I feel bad only buying one comic. I couldn’t get myself motivated to read this until about Sunday. It was okay; there’s a team of bad teenagers who work for the Dark Side club, where super-powered kids fight. The team is convinced their leader isn’t bad enough; poor guy has to prove his badness to be accepted by his peers. I’m sure this taps in to any homicidal anti-social angst that teen readers might be experiencing.

For what it was, it was executed well. That’s all I can really say. I think I got a good understanding of the characters and what was happening, but it’s just not anything I care too much about. Joe Bennett and Jack Jadson’s art was very good for a series like this — bold and bright, with a classic superhero sense of movement and intensity to what was going on.

I’m sure I’d probably have a more intense reaction either way if I’d been reading Teen Titans, but I haven’t, so I don’t.

Speaking of big DC team superbooks that I stopped reading, that leads me to Justice League of America #25, a double-sized issue — also purchased because I wanted to buy more than just Batman #680. I stopped reading Justice League when it got incredibly stupid; I can’t believe that’s already been a year ago.

So in the twelve months and issues that have passed, the team lineup has now grown to include almost as many Color-Noun superheroes as non-Color-Noun superheroes: Red Tornado, Red Arrow, Black Canary, Black Lightning and two Green Lanterns are on the roster. They’re still messing about with Vixen’s changing powers, so I’m glad I skipped out on the past year. I don’t think I’d have been able to handle twelve issues of “So what’s the deal with your powers?” “I dunno” “You steal powers from humans now and not animals?” “I guess so” “Let’s talk about this next month” “Cool.”

What intrigued me about this issue was the apparent connection between Kwaku Anansi, a West African mythical creator who spins reality through the webs of stories, and Ts’its’tsi’nako, the Lakota “Spider-Woman,” a mythical creator who spins reality through the webs of stories. Check out these excerpts from a poem by Tim Pratt:

Imagine a woman. Imagine a spider. Imagine
the woman is a spider, but also a woman, and also
imagine that she made everything you see,
and also that she made you, so that you might see
the other things she made. Imagine that she made
your imagination.
…
Imagine that she cannot control her thoughts,
that to imagine is to create, imagine that everything
she imagined came instantly to be.
…
Imagine that the world is a series
of webs spun by a woman (who is a spider)
who is imagining herself through a series
of altered states. Is that an explanation
for anything?

(I know it’s heresy to break up a poem like it’s a journal article, but there’s a link up there if you want to read that excerpt for its poetic value, rather than its insight on the correlations between the two creator gods; Ts’its’tsi’nako also plays a significant role in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony.)

Anyway, I doubt that’s any more than coincidence, but it caught my attention. The important part here is that Anansie has decided to change reality on a whim, which was remarkably easy, particularly considering all the trans-dimensional multiversal nonsense that previously had to happen in order for such historical changes to occur (such as “punching reality”). I really have no idea how that’s supposed to tie in with the rest of the issue, which was a whole lot of soap opera.

I think I’d be more inclined to think about this Anansie situation on a deeper level, perhaps looking for some literary clues, if McDuffie hadn’t conditioned me to not want to think that hard about his JLA run. I’ll be happy to be proven wrong, for what that’s worth. I just don’t know anyone who’ll vouch for the past year of JLA; even several comic shop owners have told me the book stinks. This “anniversary” issue didn’t make me feel like I’ve been missing out on anything.