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."

Getting back to the Batverse (because really, Marvel? Ehh. I'm only in it for Joss) I'm getting incredibly irritated at the way they're characterizing Steph. (Spoiler Steph. Not Teppy Steph.) The big reveal in this weeks Catwoman on top of the circs that led to her getting fired as Robin -- it seems like her whole character/MO lately is "I want to prove myself to Batman so I'm going to fuck things up tremendously". Am I nuts, or is this 1) the same plot as last month, just with more dead bodies; 2) a rehash of Tim's "I'm going to make Batman know he needs me" thang, only rewritten as pathetic and needy and lame; 3) kinda condescending; AND 4) just plain fucking irritating all around.

Has she always been written this way? I'll admit I only started paying attention to the character with the Robin run.

In Bruce Wayne: Fugitive, Steph kept being annoying, and Batgirl kept knocking her out. That was fun.

If it's a shift in characterisation, amych, I think it started before I got on board. She's seemed awfully approval-seeking in the few months I've been reading her. But I do remember Plei complaining about the bad writing on the Robin title, so I don't know how purposeful that was.