Politics as Usual

I sometimes browse Alternet, Common Dreams, The Nation's website and ZNet for news articles of interest. I can't help but notice many of these sites compare the tea party movement with the rise of fascism. Does the movement contain a lot of nuts? Yeah. And I'm sure 80%+ of it is just angry republicans and all their talk of fiscal responsibility and limited government (pragmatically good things if actually practiced) will turn to smoke if they are elected. But brown shirts? Probably not.

I have seen parts of Glenn Beck's shows, for example, and he does a similar thing. Beck seems to have devised an entire mental complex about the evil "progressives", a nebulous and sinister group that seems to contain everyone to the left of himself, and supposes that if we don't rally behind the candidates he supports it's game over for freedom. Beck is hysterical.

America has a lot of problems. High obesity, child hunger, poverty, unemployment. Highest prison population, highest defense budget, fifth highest number of executions. None of these problems will be helped by voting. And an election probably won't make them much worse either, as they are endemic to our entire economic system, which remains unchanged from election cycle to election cycle. I am far more excited for Batman and Robin #16 coming out on 11/3 then any election prospects from 11/2.

Superheroes as adolescent male wish fulfillment?

I like the character of Green Arrow. He's a modern day Robin Hood, and he has been put through a lot of interesting twists and turns. I am, however, very behind on his adventures. This is the preview for the new Green Arrow and I must say I have zero interest in reading a series that opens with such a thing.

What we basically see is every right wing revenge type fantasy played out yet again. A young pretty girl is chased by a gang of street thugs. They imply they will rape her. Green Arrow swings into rescue her.

It makes me sad people are still buying that kind of lazy pandering story. It's a classic sexist fantasy, the male hero has to swoop into rescue the helpless woman, and the casual use of a gang rape as a plot element feels a bit misogynistic. The only positive thing I can say is that the street thugs aren't black, which is a slight improvement from this scene, which has probably been replayed millions of times in pulp fiction since the beginning of time.

Heartening news items!

$18.6 million of un-employment given to millionaires in 2008!

Chiquita banana sued under anti-terrorism laws for sponsoring Columbian death squads

6 men were executed aboard aid flotilla, 5 Turks and one American citizen

These are the symptoms of a corporatist empire. I hope the people bringing the lawsuit take Chiquita to the cleaners, but I'm not holding out too much hope.

Grant Morrison's Batman

Grant Morrison is currently writing what is, I feel, the definitive post Frank Miller Batman run. Because I have nothing better to do with my life, I made an official looking reading list/chronology if anyone is interested in trying to read it and start at the beginning. I hyper linked the relevant stories to the trade they are collected in, or to the individual issues if more appropriate.

There are number of threads leading into Morrison's Batman. Additionally, a certain familiarity with both Batman and the DCU in general (particularly Kirby's New Gods) will assist in understanding.

Batman Homework:

Year One

The Killing Joke

Dark Knight, Dark City (Batman 452-454)

The Black Casebook

DCU Homework:

Identity Crisis

OMAC Project

Superman: Sacrifice

Infinite Crisis

Fourth World Homework:

Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus volumes 1-4

Seven Soldiers of Victory

Batman: The Black Glove Saga: part 1: R.I.P.

(26 issues)

52 # 30 and #47

Batman and Son (Batman 655-658 and Batman 663-666)

Batman: The Black Glove (Batman 667-669 and Batman 672-675)

DC Universe #0

Batman: R.I.P (Batman 676-681)

Optional Further Reading: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul takes place simultaneously around the middle of the Black Glove storyline. 52 is a great series and a person could do no wrong by reading the whole thing.

Batman: The Black Glove Saga: part 2: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

(17 issues)

Final Crisis 1-4

Batman 682-683

Final Crisis 5-7

Last Days of Gotham 1-2 (Detective Comics 851 and Batman 684)

Battle for the Cowl 1-3

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? 1-2 (Batman 686 and Detective Comics 853)

Optional Further Reading: Final Crisis has several spin-offs and one shots, such as the Legion of Three Worlds, Submit, Resist, Requiem, Revelations, and Superman: Beyond (Superman: Beyond is collected in the main Final Crisis trade). Battle for the Cowl has the following one shots: Gotham Gazette: Batman Alive?, Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead?, Commissioner Gordon, Man-Bat, The Network, the Underground as well as a three issue Oracle mini-series and a three issue Azrael mini series. Most of the Battle for the Cowl one shots are collected in one trade. I wouldn't recommend the Battle for the Cowl spin offs, but the Final Crisis minis are pretty good. Revelations continues the Crime Bible storyline from 52 and 52: Five Books of Blood.

Batman: The Black Glove Saga: part 3: Batman Reborn

(26 issues)

Batman Reborn (Batman and Robin #1-6)

Time and the Batman (Batman #700)

Batman vs. Robin (Batman and Robin #7-12)

R.I.P. The Lost Chapter (Batman #701-702)

Return of Bruce Wayne #1-6

Batman Must Die! (Batman and Robin #13-16)

Batman: The Return #1

Optional Further Reading: The new Batman starred in the regular Batman series, where he fought Black Mask for control of Gotham. Azrael has an ongoing series spun out of his Battle for the Cowl mini series. Batwoman briefly had control of Detective Comics and had a great storyline called Elegy. After Damian becomes Robin, Tim adopts the identity of Red Robin and has his own ongoing series.

Batman: The Black Glove Saga: Part 4: Batman Inc.

(9+ issues)

Batman Inc (Batman Inc. #1-8, Batman Inc: Leviathan Strikes!)

Batman: Leviathan 1-?