Picked up the latest issues of a couple of the BATMAN titles last weekend. My reaction to them was quite different and I think I've made a decision to drop one of them.

DETECTIVE COMICS #784 was a solid mystery story, the first of a multi-part arc by Brubaker featuring the other protector of Gotham City, Alan Scott. When a dead body is discovered by former Commissioner Jim Gordon, Batman finds that a serial killer (thought gone and forgotten decades before) may very well have returned. Or is this the work of a 'copycat'? It's not long before the Dark Knight learns that both cases may involve the original Green Lantern. I've always been fond of Alan Scott and it's great to see him outside his usual JSA surroundings. I can't wait for the next issue and find out if the 'killer' is who it seems to be. :-)

This issue is filled out by the last of the Josie Mac stories and acts as a lead in for the 'psychic' police detective's next appearance in GOTHAM CENTRAL #9. I have been reading that title, but I've come to enjoy the Josie Mac stories enough so that I may very well pick up that issue.

BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS on the other hand is a ham-fisted 'touching' tale of Alfred Pennyworth's "fight for life". With only a few nice scenes the story really does little but set up some future storylines and try to make Bruce a bit more human. The story ends with the appearance of some character, who I don't know if I'm supposed to recognize or not. Frankly, I'm not going to be around to find out one way or the other.

The usual BATMAN B&W tale wraps things up with a hard to follow story about an photographc exhibit of Gotham gargoyles. There is some plot dealing with Batman's tracking of a group of kidnappers, who apparently travel around dressed in gargoyle masks for no apparent reason. I think it might be time for DC to drop these back up stories unless they have something worth presenting in this format. Some stories look like they were drawn to be printed in color, but were dropped into this spot just so they could fill up 8-10 pages in the book. B:GK has been crossed off my pull list!

All I could think when I was halfway through JLA #82, was why am I wasting my time even finishing this? After a break, I picked it up again, finished it and wondered again. Basically the previous couple of issued lead up to about five pages of fighting and an all but impossible to follow 'wrap up', which hardly explained what had gone on and certainly not to my satisfaction. Also, it's one of those stories where EVERYBODY gets away in the end and ALL of them vow to return. Not on my dime! (So okay, comics haven't been that cheap since way back when I was reading LITTLE LULU and all those Harvey titles, but you get my point!) Maybe when the promised John Byrne/Chris Claremont storyline begins, but until then I'm not wasting any more time OR money on this book. Pheww!

JSA: All-Stars #3 has another nice tale a JSA member, both in their current incarnation and an shorter tale of an earlier one. This time around it is Hector Hall, the current embodiment of DOCTOR FATE. Not only a nice story of a 'possible future' but also a natural lead in to the good Doctor's forthcoming mini-series. A short tale of the GA version of the Doctor fills out the issue and actually reads like one of those old comic stories. Nice job by Darwyn Cooke as both writer & illustrater of that tale. I continue to be surprised by how much I am enjoying the series and if we never see the 'villain' Legacy (or whatever his name was) again, that's fine by me.

Well, the title FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE JUSTICE LEAGUE pretty well tells you all you need to know about this six issue title. If you were NOT a fan of the 1980s version of the team put together by Maxwell Lord (or rather one of those who read it and then later claimed you hadn't liked it when it became popular to bash the comic and its creators) then this is not going to change your mind. I have never stepped back from admitting that I absolutely loved that several year run and couldn't be happier to see BLUE BEETLE, BOOSTER GOLD, CAPTAIN ATOM, FIRE and ELONGATED MAN (with the lovely Sue Dibney) back together again. This time out when CAPTAIN MARVEL declines the invite Billy's sister is more than happy to have MARY MARVEL sign up. If you have any fond memories of the title under the guiding hands of Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis, you owe it to yourself to at least flip through this first issue. I rate it as one of my Top Five for this week.

I still have a few more titles to rant about, but I'll try to get to those tomorrow. G'night!