Steph, here's the Astounishing lowdown:

Colossus came over from Russia when Prof X invited him to be a member of the new X-Men. While there, he fell for the young Kitty Pryde. Which was very sweet and oh-so-OTP. Then he cheated on her with some space-ho, and the relationship ended (though he was still sweet). Kitty moved on, moved to the UK, got a new shag. He sacrificed himself to host the cure for the Legacy virus which was threatening to kill a whole lot of people. Poor gutted Kitty (this and other stresses got her down) quit the superhero biz.

Okay, ick. Re War Games -- I understand that public distrust of the Batfamily is important, but what in fuck was the leap of the journalist in the last frame? There was a fucking GUN BATTLE outside the school, with no heroes present, and somehow Batman caused the death of the girl? Okay, sure, the whole thing is Spoiler's fault, but that's not a conclusion that can be reached with available evidence. It's so patently clear that Bats and them ended the hostage situation, that I just don't get the conclusion. Or maybe armed guys taking over buildings and then falling asleep is a regular Gotham thing.

Cracksmoker.

However, it might just all add up to a very clever plan -- why does Batman need to carry her out? Why not just vanish?

I'm with you on that, ita. It made no sense. Maybe Willingham really should just stick with Fables and keep out of the Batverse.

ETA: But ita, if he planned it, why was he then so snappish with the other two for being "exposed"? To me, it seemed like a necessary evil for him to carry her out, to make sure she got out safely. He took on that responsibility, at whatever cost.

Part of the plan, perhaps? I just don't see why one of the other able bodied adult men couldn't have done it. My other thought was that he wanted it to seem that she was dead, so he needed to say all that stuff. Isn't he supposed to be daylight averse? (I mostly read him in Outsiders, where he had no such hesitation). Still, why did they follow him out?

Pfah. I liked it, up to that point. I even didn't have a bitch about how Batgirl was written.

Willingham had no control over the *plot* of the issue -- several writers have said that "War Games" was planned entirely by the editorial office, leading plenty of people to speculate that they were signalling that the series would stink, by the way.

Polter-Cow, if you don't know who Leslie Thompkins is, you really need to do some sort of Batman 101, because she's a central character in the extended Batfamily. As you can tell from the issue itself, she's a doctor who has known Bruce his entire life, and knows his secrets, although as a pacifist she disagrees with his methods. And as you learned in the last Nightwing, her clinic is where a lot of people who find it, shall we say, more convenient to avoid the sorts of questions one would be asked at a hospital end up getting treatment -- though we more frequently see her treating Batfam members than gang-bangers.

Really, 90% of the time I find the questions I have about "who is that?" are resolved within an issue or two if I pay attention.

90% of the time I find the questions I have about "who is that?" are resolved within an issue or two if I pay attention.

90% of the time I find if I come here and ask I get a good answer that means I can get more value out of the comic in a much shorter time period.

I assume that anyone who has a problem answering questions like that won't answer.

But I don't want Steph to spend too much time wondering what the deal is with the shiny guy, so I do my best to answer without deciding which comics she may already have read (didn't you say you hadn't read Nightwing, P-C? Maybe I remember wrong).

No skin off my nose.

90% of the time I find if I come here and ask I get a good answer that means I can get more value out of the comic in a much shorter time period.

Exactly.

(didn't you say you hadn't read Nightwing, P-C? Maybe I remember wrong).

I hadn't initially, but then I went back and took it out of the Sky Captain plastic and read it anyway. I don't remember connecting the clinic with Leslie, though.

No skin off my nose.

Thanks. Your explanation helped me too. How long has Colossus been dead, in our time? I think I saw him in UXM, but that's a different continuity.

Do you think that it is important for the plot for it to appear that Darla is dead? Thus keeping any remaining sharpshooters from trying again? (Although, having her taken away in an ambulance would suggest that she's not dead.) I agree that it was a weird leap for anyone in the crowd outside to make.

Since 2001, P-C. To underscore the impact of the look on Kitty's face, I think she got an entire issue of mourning -- he was her first BF, and I don't remember her having more than the one (Pete Wisdom, who may not even have existed/counted with the selective reboot) since him. I think, apart from the woman Colossus fell in love with that ended him and Kitty, he hasn't been with anyone either. But I did miss some bits. And I'm hopelessly biased.

sumi, I thought you were talking about Buffy at first, and it confused me. Heh. But that might be plausible, and also implausible, as you point out. That scene is just so problematic, huh?

ita, Thanks. So not ridiculously long (as far as comics go...I wasn't sure if it was a recent thing, or Joss resurrected him from the eighties or something). But I'll have to go back and look at Kitty's face now. And now I'm anxious to see Wolvy's reaction. I understand they were good buds, what with the fastball special or whatever.

And aw. Your bias is cute.