Oh, good. Liking?

Oh yes.

It's funny, there's a lot I've not liked about the current Outsiders, but the flaws just make me love it more. And the rampant sex talk doesn't hurt.

Yeah, that.

Is it still any good?

I'm still liking it, but the ebbs and flowsof the membership are hard to take sometimes, and I'm annoyed that Lyta Hall is back.

Yeah, that.

I think they had me from, "That's an awful lot of monkies with guns."

Expand! I mean, yes, this, but I'd love to see more about it from your POV.

Well, OK, if you insist....

From the beginning of the more relationshippy stuff -- say, early-ish Nightwing, BOP #8, etc., I'm sure there's a bunch I haven't read yet -- she's the one who pulls back from him. Now, when he was a teenager, she wouldn't even consider him because of the age difference. (Batgirl: Year One.) I don't know enough about Bat-continuity to say where the relationship was when she was paralyzed. But when he's looking to move the relationship past friendship in the more recent comics, her initial reaction is to reject it not because she doesn't care about him, but because she feels like their relationship is one of the Bat-things she had to put on the shelf after she was shot. To her, their relationship is still founded in her being Batgirl. And it's interesting that this is largely the reason that she gives for breaking it off as well.

Now, clearly, this is part of what draws Dick to her, this shared past. There aren't all that many people he can sit around and reminisce with. But she's just as much not coming to grips with her being paralyzed at the end of the relationship as he is, because "you loved me when I could walk" does not mean "you don't love me as I am now." Hem ay not have a fully integrated view of Barbara the independent yet disabled woman, but I think she really still thinks at the beginning of the relationship that she can't be attractive in the chair, and that this is still a Big Issue for her at the end of their relationship. Interestingly, part of what she says to him when she breaks it off is about how he plays dumb when every other woman finds him attractive -- I think she's so worried that he'll find someone else, someone who can keep up with him physically, that his attractiveness turns from a positive to a negative feature.

(And, yeah, he does kind of get around a little, even if it's unintentional at times -- also, I'm convinced he and Tarantula will get it on at some point in the not-too-distant future now that they are working together )

OK, back to work...

Ain't it Cool on the two Return Of The Joker versions

Reading this over, it's not my clearest piece of writing -- will try to clarify if need be when am home with comics scans.

Also, how do you know if your download is the uncut version of ROTJ? Because the one I've got is pretty dark, but who knows...

ETA: Ah! Thanks, Hec.

Can you only download it?

Just check out Amazon — you can buy it on DVD. Has a nice audio commentary, too. And you'll definitely know if it's the uncut version. You can't miss the label on the cover.

Reading this over, it's not my clearest piece of writing -- will try to clarify if need be when am home with comics scans.

I think it was clear, but I'd still like to see an even clearer take.

You've read Chronicles #5, right?

And are you caught up in the current Batgirl?

No and no.

I really only got seriously into Batfamily stuff in the last, oh, couple months? And have been mainlining it pretty much only for three weeks or so. So there are lots of blank spots -- I am still making my way through BoP (though I did skip ahead to see how it dealt with the breakup...).

Just check out Amazon — you can buy it on DVD. Has a nice audio commentary, too. And you'll definitely know if it's the uncut version. You can't miss the label on the cover.

just back from Amazon

Well that was simple. Apparently Tim Drake fans are going to need to own this.