A few months back I noticed an article on Geeks of Doom about Batman Inc., and clicked through for a read. Now before I continue, let me explain something about my knowledge of comic book History. As I kid I collected comic books, almost exclusively Transformers, I had a pretty wide selection of other comics, but Transformers was the one I had a complete collection of (as long as I collected them I should say, call it complete #1-#50). I have always picked up a Graphic Novel here or there, but my current knowledge of whats happening in the Marvel and DC universes is limited these days to stories in the current cartoons and tidbits from the interwebs. So I’ll admit it’s somewhat spotty. Anyways, I read the article, and found out a few interesting and new things. Batman had been killed; Dick Grayson had taken up the mantle of the Batman; Bruce Waynes son, Damian had become the new Robin; Batman/Bruce Wayne was not in fact dead (of course) and only trapped in time now having to find his way back to the present through history; Upon his return, Bruce Wayne tells the public he has been funding Batman and they will now be creating an international crime fighting corporation, Batman, Inc.! I had to read it a few times to grasp all that I had missed with the goings on in Gotham City. But I was intrigued and certainly wanted to know more and I headed to the comic shop to grab the issues mentioned in the article. After that it was over, I quickly picked up all the issues across multiple Batman titles to put together the complete story surrounding these massive changes to my favorite superhero. And I have to say, I think it’s some pretty cool shit that’s been going on, the current story lines are awesome and the art is more amazing than ever.
Of course this triggered a dormant but fiendish addiction and I have once again delved head first in to comic collecting. This time around however, I can actually afford it! Yes kids, I have my pull box at my local comic shop, with an expanding list of subscriptions. It seems I picked a good time to return to the hobby as many of the publishers were coming up with interesting jumping in points for new or returning readers. DC had just recently started a bunch of new titles continuing the stories of old characters (the Flash, Batman & Robin) and Marvel was putting put .1 issues. They would print between two regular printings and sum up the recent story lines allowing a new reader to catch up in a single issue. This certainly made it easy for me to catch up on lost story lines and provide me with a fantastic pile of great stuff to read. You can see my pull list here, it keeps me with about 8 new books a week and I have no doubt it will continue to grow. I’d say it’s been about 4 months now I’ve been putting my collection together I’ve got about a long box full now, not bad for a rookie collector if I do say so myself!
paxtonium 