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!'??"

Steph, Lockheed IS the leader of the X-Men. He just lets them think otherwise! Kind of like the ferrets...

I think you have some small snarky familiar issues, Victor.