That's what I get for typing while chatting with my guests. I'd clicked on ita's link, then kept googling for more of the artist's stuff, and then as I was working my reply the guests came in, so I was trying to do two things at once, when I suck at even doing one thing reliably.

(really leaving now)

Hey, Astounishing AND Serenity next week!

Also, it looks like the next new Powers isn't coming out 'til mid-September.

Also, it looks like the next new Powers isn't coming out 'til mid-September.

Oh yeah. Guess it *has* been a while.

The new comics list said that the originally scheduled release was in May.

Is Serenity a three or four issue series?

There has not been enough discussion of Batman #644. And by "discussion," I mean "ranting and raving," and by "enough" I mean "any."

(Well, there's some in LJ-land, but seriously not enough.)

People! Friends of mine! Speak!

I ranted. And then, like a sensible person, I linked DC Clocktower to Sarah T's post on the subject, because she said things without the mouth froth.

Only... I didn't really have mouth froth like I should have, because I'd realized that was where they were going with it early on, and had just hoped I'd be wrong. It's silly, pointless, and did I mention offensive?

I don't know. I'm really feeling more and more, between recent events and recent comments by artists and creators, like they really don't want my dollar. As a female, I feel like a disposable consumer these days. Which I totally didn't when I started getting back into comics two or three years ago.

I'll probably start cutting back my purchases, both because the content isn't grabbing me, and I need to cut all corners I can in terms of finances, but I'm irritated that I'm in a position where that doesn't feel like I'm really going to be losing out on that much.

As a female, I feel like a disposable consumer these days.

As a critical reader with a brain, who respects continuity of character*, I feel like a disposable consumer.

*(And while Willingham is by FAR the worst offender in the "Characterization? What Characterization?" debacle of self-aggrandizing wankery, he is, unfortunately, by no means the *only* DC writer who has decided that continuity of character doesn't mean a damn.)

Can you whitefont what happened in the issue?

Batman #644 was the conclusion of the 4-issue "War Crimes" crossover (2 issues each of Batman and .... 'Tec, I think), which dealt with the question "Did Steph have to die from her Black Mask-inflicted injuries, and if not, then whodunnit?"

We find out that Leslie (and here I'm including nonsense text so that the spoiler space doesn't give away whodunnit just by the shortness of her name) did it. No, really.

I don't have enough incoherent rage in me to convey how totally totally fucked that is. I'm not sure I've ever seen another character in any fictional medium act MORE out of character.