Happy Birthday...

To zasjah - - -



May the peace and security of Elessar's Gondor be yours! May Orcs never cut your horn! May you be light as heart as a Hobbit and steadfast as a Steward's son! Have a great year....

Birthday wishes for birthday joy....

To permetaform -

Happy birthday! To a creative, imaginative, interesting friend with a lot of scope and flair -




Have a wonderful year.

Deathblow...

So then I read Batman: Deathblow by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo.

First strike against it: I didn't like the way Bruce Wayne was drawn. I love Bruce Wayne and love stories that feature him without the cowl and cape a good part of the time. I loved it that this story did feature Bruce Wayne as Bruce Wayne, but sadly he didn't look the way I think Bruce should look. Not slick enough. Not smooth and handsoe enough. Batman, too; he seemed rough, almost scruffy. And Alfred looked downright weird, though I liked his role as assistant. Oddly, in this story, he reminded me of Oracle, because of all his computer work at the other end of the comlink with Batman. An odd image. I'd never thought of Alfred and Barbara as being alike before.

On the good side: Batman was exquisitely characterized. Azzarello had the character down perfectly. My favourite scene: Bruce is at the hospital bedside of his friend, who has been badly burned by a pyrokinetic. He sits for a bit and then says without preamble: "You've suffered third degree burns over ninety-five percent of your body... Epithelial culture grafting is out of the question. You can't be restored. You understand what that means." Pause. "I can find your killer."

That's Bruce: direct, uncompromising, pragmatic, effective. And in his way, caring.

But too much of the story contained pages with neither Bruce nor Batman in them, and though I liked the antagonist, we didn't get to know him well enough to satisfy me. It was a "games of death and deceit" story, which I love in general, but this didn't quite grab my attention or pull me into the suspense. It was readable enough, but left me dissatisfied. I suspect I might have loved it with a different artist.

I haven't seen ads for the Azzarello/Jim Lee issues of Batman being released as trade paperbacks. I assume - I hope - it's going to happen. Any time now. I'm eager.