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.

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 wouldn't have gotten nearly as much out of AXM yesterday if I had to wait another month for the next issue to come out, hoping that there'll be backstory that will answer my questions.

Is this the alternate cover to Astounishing #4?

Yup. (Spoilery, BTW, for the issue.)

That strikes me as a cover you might like after you've read it, but NSM before. I admit I was all "Hey, Colossus, cool." "Wait, no, COLOSSUS?" "Kitty?" "Oh."