It's Astounding and Astonishing at the same time!

Aha. I get it now. Thank you.

I totally read Batman: Year One at Borders a week ago. It's priced at only six bucks normal, which isn't so bad for, what? Three or four issues? Still might wait for it used, cause I don't have a burning desire to own it just yet. I should go to Borders and read more of their stash.

Of course, if I change the name to "Bart," all my meatspace friends -- non-comics-reading people -- will think I mean Simpson. Meh.

Call it Kid Flash.

Just to prove I'm not totally out of synch with the rest of you, I had this same thought.

I still think that Robin #127 shows evidence that Willingham is starting to round a corner in his approach. I agree that up to this point, the storyline and characterization have been way off (I still find it an interesting decision that Tim's father went after Bruce with a gun once he found out that Tim was Robin. I wonder what would be considered a "normal" response of a parent in this situation, although it was way out of character for Tim's father. I liked how in this issue Tim is still shown as resourceful and quick-thinking. I think that Tim has dialed back his "psychotic-ness" (for lack of a better term) as a way of keeping his word to his father. I'm sure it won't last. I guess the main thing I liked about this issue is that I'm starting to see the underpinnings of the upcoming "War Games" event, so it's like trying to solve a mystery with just a few clues.

I wouldn't characterize the issue as great or anything, but I think it was an improvement over what came before.

On a different note, did anybody pick up the Ex Machina or Challengers of the Unknown debuts last week?

On Astounishing, Lockheed, by all accounts, should be lame. But he's so. Damned. Cool.

sumi, I have every intention of reading Robin, Batgirl, and many other titles of the Frank Miller & afterwards era. I gave up on the Batman in the Forties - Seventies series because the Batman that lives in my mind is a Tim Burtony, truly dark vigilante. And the Frank Miller fits that so much better than the stuff from the early days, with its having to comply with the Comics Code... I don't want to upset anyone by saying that the movie (not the Adam West one, the other one) set the tone in my mind. But it did, a little. I see Batman as a less-killing Punisher. I shouldn't draw parallels across publishers either I suppose, but this is how things are. What was really fascinating to me was reading the Bruce Wayne-preparing to become Batman bits and lining them up with stuff from - season 2? Angel. "I'm not ready yet..." etc. Very fun to speculate as to how much Frank Miller may have influenced Joss et al.

Of course we are pleased.

Yay! I can't wait to have real income so I can buy comics more often.

And I laughed my ass off when

Me too shrift! Also, re: Beast, I asked boyfriend who is familiar up to 1997ish with Xbooks about it, and he said that was a thing on which Beast seems to go back and forth. So, in character, but not extremely so.

I totally read Batman: Year One at Borders a week ago. It's priced at only six bucks normal

6? I paid 10. But I paid it to the local comic book shop so it was worth the extra. I am weird about local business.

I think that Tim has dialed back his "psychotic-ness" (for lack of a better term) as a way of keeping his word to his father. I'm sure it won't last.

But Tim can't dial down the crazy. It's who he is, the adorable little freak.

I like Lockheed -- doesn't everyone want a minature dragon of their very own?

Sumi, I certainly do!

On Astounishing,

True dat (I can almost imagine Joss thinking the exact same thing), and he knows how to make an entrance.

I wouldn't characterize the issue as great or anything, but I think it was an improvement over what came before

I did LOVE Bernard in this one.

On Astounishing in general, I'm not really hooked by the plot just yet, but the writing is fucking great. I particularly loved in #2 after Lockheed flamed Ugly Bad Guy's face, and Ugly Bad Guy flung himself out the window, all the dialogue -- Wolverine's "I say we make him the leader," and Beast's "Not even a 'You haven't seen the last of me!'??"