I mean, I really do empathize with the perspective you're coming from, but I just don't agree with that reading of the story. I don't have a clear handle on this, but I think that at the time, canonically, Barbara wasn't Batgirl or an active superhero at that point, but she *was* a character who knew Batman's secret…

YA is the best comic out there, as far as I'm concerned. I think the AV club may feel that it's deliberately pandering to them and rebelling.

Morning Glories shouldn't be coming out in individual issues. It only makes sense when you binge-read.

…but…the Killing Joke is one of the best Batman stories ever, and Barbara as Oracle was a unique, interesting take on superheroics. Dismissing KJ as misogyny (due, I assume, to the idea that a comic that injures or kills a woman "to motivate the hero" is part of the dreaded Women in Refrigerators meme) seems like a…

I agree. He was single-handedly keeping me interested in the batbooks until they killed him.

What's funny is that Quire is one of my favorite characters, mainly because I'm a teacher and he tends to think *exactly* like a student I have. It's fun to watch him be pointlessly oppositional.

Yeah…I mean, I know you're right, Pixie, but I am the problem. I love Bendis books. I love the idea that when I pick up a copy of Uncanny what I might get is 10 pages of the Stepford Cukoos arguing about shoes. It turns out that I care about character more than story, and that's what I get from Bendis.

I actually *love* the X-verse at the moment, but admittedly it's basically impossible to follow without buying all of the books. Having said that, "Astonishing X-Men" and "X-Men" and especially "Uncanny X-Force" especially could go away forever and I wouldn't care. "New X-Men", "Uncanny X-Men", and "Wolverine and…

I'm looking forward to Negan getting killed with his own stupid bat, but I hope there's more to look forward to after that. It's obvious he can't hold his people together by being a thug, no matter how smart and resourceful he is, so it's just a question of how many regulars have to die to get to the end of his…

Go with that instinct. There are some great older Batman trades. Hell, read some stuff like "Batman: Gothic" or "A Death in the Family" or "Year One" or "The Long Halloween/Dark Victory" or even the "Knightfall" books. Or hey, if you can get your hands on a copy of "Dark Knight/Dark City" you can get a really good…

I'm a lifelong Superman fan. I bought every issue for almost 10 years. Then it got stupid and I stopped, came back for "All-Star Superman" and went away again. The current "Action" run is ok, so I'm trying to read that, and the art on Superman/Wonder Woman is pretty decent, so I'm giving that a look…but I pretty…

Huh. Really? I thought Infinity was kind of like reading a comic version of myself at 10 years old playing with action figures. It was like Axe Cop in space. Although actually that does sort of sound cool.

Amazing X-Men is fun. It looks like a 1980s John Byrne comic, almost. The story also feels like a throwback, which I'm enjoying, but of course I'm so spoiled by comics with slightly more substantial plotting and characterization that I don't see myself buying it consistently.

Bro.

I mean, obviously it's a taste thing, and it depends what kinds of stories you're trying to tell, but I tend to be attracted to creative layouts and clean lines, and McKelvie, by that standard, is consistently flawless. Obviously Aja and Staples are up there, too. Some of the others you guys mention are good at…

Um, Young Avengers? Best art in comics from Jamie Mcelvie? Kieron Gillen? Really? Nothing?

If it wasn't for Swamp Thing and Wonder Woman, there would be no point at all to DC, though Vertigo is still making some good things. Just let it go.

The continued critical attacks on this show are funny because the reviewers like to accuse Sorkin of presenting a fictional world (which is his job) in which journalists are more idealistic than they, the critics, are.  The critics are always un-self-aware about this, and I'm looking forward to more gloriously…

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