Letters to Detective Comics #10

[Admin]

Please let us know what you think!

[Admin]

Terrific issue, Charlie! This issue sets just the right tone of desperation and hope, with Batman becoming the symbol of the city he defends.

Loved the banter between Bruce and Alfred--- and Kanto's dialogue was a perfect mix of foppishness and the sinister!

And what a knockdown, drag-out battle...! Itill take weeks for Alfred to clean up the Batcave after this! Oh, wait--- it gets worse next issue of the Crisis (WW#10), you say...? Poor Alfred...

Tupper, that is one amazing cover. I don't know why, but for some reason it is always cool to see Batman with his cowl down. I guess it's nice to be reminded sometimes that he is a man, too. For a better grasp of what I mean, please see Ellen Fleischer's epic Elseworld serial Batman: Locked Inside the Facade. Wait, what's that you say, Ellen...? There's a sequel to that story coming soon? Excellent!

[dragonbat]

(Blush) Yep. I'd say about 40% of it is written in my head. I just need to get typing.

But enough about me.

Charlie, you had me on the edge of my seat with this one! Excellent stuff. And Bruce's anguish when he thought that he'd killed Kanto was excellent. Also loved the glimpse of Leslie. A confirmed pacifist she is and always should be (Willingham's travesty notwithstanding) but you've clearly brought home the point that 'pacifist =/= wuss'!

Stellar work!

[starlord]

The more destruction there was to the cave, the more I cringed. Great job would be an understatement! Personally, I loved the way you had Bats use the certain "chemicals" from old foes against Kanto. A stroke of genius there! Stupendous work, Charlie!

[goldk]

Great job! What a fight! Batman never lost his cool. I would love to see what happens to Kanto when he wakes up back on apokolips! Somebody is sure gonna be pissed!

[HoM]

I was trying to make Kanto slightly effeminate or... "Gay"... Because, you know, he wears pink. And a hat. And have you SEEN his beard? And I think that a sinister gay assassin is something you would be caught totally off guard with. The thought keeps me up at night.

"Is that your sword or are you happy to see me, Kanto?"

"Darling please, it's my sword." *chop*

Anyway, thanks for the kind words Ellen, but you gotta' remember, Leslie wasn't turned bad by Willingham's writing, it was by editorial mandate, so the sole blame shouldn't lie on his shoulders but on the bateditor group, you know? I personally have no love for the guy. I can defend his Batman work, but then look at Robin, you know?

Brian, thanks for the kind words! The reader's appetite for destruction was wetted by your New Outsiders torture fest (#10! Still available by password!) and I think I had to carry on that trend by making Bruce totally BEATEN! I liked how he kept falling down the cavern. I enjoyed writing that sequence because he doesn't JUST have to be grim and gritty. He can be slightly clumsy too.

Roy, thank you! He wouldn't BE Batman if he lost his cool. That's his most endearing quality, his ability to take on anything that comes his way, perfectly highlighted in the opening pages of Brad Meltzer's JLA#0...

ADAM TUPPER! I'm calling you out! You were a pleasure to work with and your cover delivered on so many levels! Thanks for taking the time and effort for such a superb piece! Let me tell you, you're always welcome over in The Question cover bullpen, always!

Check out the DC2#s own Justice League #0 next week by us folks here at the DC2. Just keep rocking!

Oh, and wish me luck for my GCSEs tomorrow, I'm getting the results at 10 in the morning! Peace out!

[dragonbat]

Be interesting to see what Willingham's mandate was. Or to put it a different way, when Dave gave me the plot for NW #8, I was told that Dick would have to call in the TT for help. I could have written it in a way in which he panics, screams for help, and basically comes across weak and wussy. Instead, if I did it right, it became Dick figuring out why Earth is losing, and making that SOS became the smartest thing to do.

If DC editorial did tell Willingham specifically: Write a story in which it's revealed that Leslie witheld treatment from Spoiler in order to send Batman a message that what he does is dangerous and kids could die, then yes. I agree 100% that Willingham's hands were tied.

But if so, Willingham should have pointed out that Jason Todd meant more to Batman than Stephanie Brown. His death didn't make Bruce retire. If anything, it spurred him on.

IF editorial said instead: We need Leslie out of Batman's life. She has to do something beyond the pale. We want him to find out that her negligence killed Spoiler... there were other ways that wouldn't have made a travesty of her character.

Someone on the DC boards posted this scenario shortly after that issue hit the stands:

Suppose Leslie's been going through a crisis (small "c"). She's a pacifist and hates Batman's violence, yet he gets the job done. She knows her way is better but his works. She can't figure it out, and seeing the situation in Crime Alley on a daily basis, she finds it increasingly hard to cope. So... she starts dipping into some of her medical supplies. Sedatives, etc. When Steph is brought in, it turns out that EITHER she needs some of the very supplies that, due to Leslie's sampling, they've run out of, OR, the meds Leslie was taking impacted her judgment and she prescribes the wrong course of treatment.

Either of those two ways, Steph dies. And Batman might not be able to forgive her. He's not good when his heroes develop feet of clay. But Leslie doesn't betray every ideal for which she's formerly stood.

Anyway, that's DC canon Leslie. Your DC2 Leslie, once more, ROCKS!

[chris]

Man, that cave is trashed. If I were Alfred I'd be asking for some serious health insurance and a raise. And a vacation too. All the seemingly useless stuff in the background of the cave finally makes sense and the rogues gallery unknowingly saved Batman's life. Sinister gay assassin from Apokolips, yeah now that you mention it that is terrifying. I imagine when he arrives on the other end of the boom tube he and four friends will give Dadkseid a makeover and teach him to exfoliate, and then kill twenty people. Nice isssue Charlie!

[Susan Hillwig]

Is there a "best issue ever" button? 'Cause this one was a serious conteneder! Nonstop action, innovative defense tactics...and Bat-Mite, baby! I can't help it, I love that guy! ;D

Too many great parts to single out all of them, but the best of the best are Leslie standing up to the Desaadite, Bruce saying "Go get 'em, Bruno" to the dinosaur, and Kanto being afraid of bunnies.

[The Anti-Tupper]

You're the man C.

Thanks for the kind words as well, all. The best is yet to come.

[batarang]

Aw man, Bruno dies too? How many are you gonna kill off? HOW MANY?

Yet another terrific issue. Bruce pulled out ALL the stops to defeat an undefeatable foe. It was fortunate that the battle took place on Batman's home turf otherwise next issue would have been "Detective Comics, starring that Gay Master Assassin".

Plus our hero took down Steppenwolf's flagship all by his lonesome, and that's no mean feat. It's interesting that the Apokoliptians fear the non-meta guy the most. Shows you Batman's reputation extends beyond Gotham (hell, even beyond EARTH).

And Bat-mite. Bat-mite rocks! Let me commend you on another stellar action-packed bat-story.

[markymark261]

Overall a great read. I thought you did a terrific job of making Kanto cool. I also liked the references to previous issues with Batman's choice of weapons that were used on Kanto (although thinking about it afterwards I wondered whether Bats would really use his villains' weapons so readily).

Some things didn't quite work for me, such as the bunnies joke (which just came across to me as an unfunny Buffy reference), and Bats using a boom tube to get rid of an unbeatable Apokaliptian foe seemed a bit similar to Batman #9. Also, I wasn't sure how transporting Kanto to Apokolips would stop him. Presumably Kanto knows where Bruce lives now and can boom tube back himself (or even a thermonuclear device) to the Batcave whenever he feels like it.

[Lantern Lad]

Well, I liked the issue a lot. I thought the 'bunnies' thing was pretty funny too.

I did have the same thought as Mark though, that why would that stop T.M.G.A. from coming back at him? But then I thought, oh yeah, this thing leads right into WW #10 & then JL#0, without a moments rest, probably not giving T.M.G.A. time to recooperate and attempt to kill Bats again.

I do have one problem though... you over-kill the word 'and'. Generally, 'and' is used once in a sentence, where there was one sentence where, I believe you used it four times. When read outloud, it sounded like an overly excited child re-telling the story. I could be wrong, I haven't had an English class in about 10 years... and you do come from the land where our language originated from... You know the place where history comes from!

Overall, I say, great issue, and I can't wait to see where you go from here and I can't wait to read Wonder Woman #10 and Justice League #0 and The Question Monthly and...

[Romans Empire]

I was all over the other issues when they first came out but I had to wait before I could finish up this little tale called Crisis. But after sitting down to read this tale one thing came to mind:

Damn Charlie! You really can write Batman!

“Y-You’re real!” “I never said I wasn’t.”

“There’s no real need for you now, face.”

These were great lines! The whole issue was great from top to bottom. I won't go over what has already been mentioned but I will say this- This past year it has been a pleasure to see you grow as a writer and there has been no better example of this then the work you put forth on the four Crisis issues you did. Great job and I can't wait to see what you do next.

[HoM]

Thanks for your kind words John, it's always a pleasure to hear compliments from talents such as yourself! Now read The Question #1!