On the bright side, Barry Kitson draws a very gorgeous Helena Wayne. <3

The most important question that was asked this issue.

Answer? An unsurprisingly watered down and cliché characterisation of Desaad on a plot that leads to nowhere.

Anyone care to wager me on that? :)

Sorry I took forever to get back to you on this, I literally just got back from work.

SPOILER ALERT TO ANYONE WHO HASN’T READ THE ISSUE YET: STOP HERE!

That out of the way, basically she destroyed all of Michael Holt’s labs through a series of “freak accidents”—I’m assuming—in response to Michael sending in the troops to destroy her lab on Starr Island. Which is very un-Power Girl-like.

Mind you, it was already a mistake before to write her off as someone who used Michael and stole from him (though in all fairness, this was not entirely on Levitz), but this just takes the whole cake. Kara would never do something like that.

And then Helena was very condescending towards her afterward, which again, is not very Helena Wayne-like.

Someone needs to seriously rescue Power Girl from Paul Levitz before she becomes even more unlikable. Of all the issues where she’s been written grossly OOC, this one takes the whole cake.

I think that serious discussion I’ve been wanting to have addressing Levitz’ bad writing habits is long overdue at this point.

But I’ll write that article later this week. I have something better for today.

Zsasz. Another psychotic killer on the loose, which means there will be more senseless deaths. Something there’s been far too many of already. 

I can’t decide if Bruce is meta-commenting on the fact that the DCU is too full of doom and gloom or not, but either way, I agree. 

Catch the preview for Detective Comics #18 @Newsrama.

One thing that did make me smile at least is that fact that Damian was shown using his “sister’s” weapon of choice.

Tomasi doesn’t go into detail about what to expect in upcoming issues in Batman and Robin, but he does confirm that the title is here to stay, and mentions that the next couple of issues will deal with the fallout using five stages of grief. He also discusses why he developed Bruce and Damian’s relationship the way he did, how he personally felt about Morrison’s decision to kill Damian, what the title’s priorities were for the first 18 issues, and so forth. Definitely worth a read.

Of particular interest (to me anyway), Tim Drake will be *featured* in #19, but not necessarily as a partner. Which means there’s still a chance my Huntress theory could still be true.

As I stated in my original post, my comments were not intended to dismiss fans’ feelings, and I am especially not dismissing the fact of how very problematic it is to kill a 10-year-old boy of mixed heritage for no other purpose than to serve as a plot point in his father’s story. That story has already been told with Death in the Family, and on a grander scale, the whole “kill an important character to serve as a plot point in another character’s story” has been overly done since the New 52 started, and was especially characteristic of the post-Crisis reboot as well. It’s enough to say, it hasn’t been original for a very long time.

My point was that the Newsarama article framed the “permanence” of the character’s fate in such a very “matter-of-fact” way, it’s hard for me to take it seriously, especially given how often characters were killed, meant to “stay dead,” and didn’t. It was already bad practise that the major event was spoilt by the press just three days before the official issue’s release. This latest one just feels like it’s trying to stir shit up even more. 

All I have to say is:

Remember that time Helena Wayne’s death and erasure was supposed to be a permanent thing, especially after being “reborn” as Helena Bertinelli post-Crisis?

She still came back as Helena Wayne in 2006 at the end of Infinite Crisis and was featured as a main character in the JSA Annual of 2008 before coming back full time in the New 52 relaunch.

Remember when Jason Todd’s death was supposed to be a permanent thing in order to turn Batman into the dark, brooding superhero that he was post-Crisis?

He still came back in the Hush storyline in 2005 and remained a staple to the DC Universe as the Red Hood. 

Remember when Kara Zor-El’s death was supposed to be a permanent thing in order to make Superman the last Kryptonian post-Crisis?

She still came back as Kara Zor-El in 2004 despite other Supergirls preceding her and even came back in the reboot. (Though let’s hope the solicitation for Supergirl #20 isn’t referring to Kara-El’s literal death to make Power Girl the only living Supergirl or I’ll be genuinely pissed).

So what has DC Comics taught me in my short history of being a comic fan? No one stays permanently dead in the DC Universe even if it takes nearly 20 years for them to come back in some form.

I’m not saying this to be dismissive of any Damian Wayne fans who are rightfully pissed about the confirmation of the character’s fate following the events of Batman Inc #8, but I am stating my scepticism that this will be the last we’ll see of the character. Chances are I’ll probably be pushing 40 by the time this character makes a comeback, even if it as Ibn al Xu’ffasch on Earth-22 (aka, the Kingdom Come universe).

The origin of the Huntress costume.

This issue explores how, where, and when the costume got made, and when Helena Wayne officially became the Huntress.

Definitely worth the read!