They're mesmerizing!

The secret of women revealed.

We here at Ret-Conned HQ are huge fans of Paul Dini and his work. Kris would gladly immortalize the man for the work he did on The Batman Animated Series, which led to the creation of several amazing characters who made their way back into the mainstream comic universe, most notably Harley Quinn and Renee Montoya. His stories are well crafted and filled with detailed characters that make the universe he works in come alive.

Over the past year he’s been working on two of what were our favorite series, Gotham City Sirens and Batman: Streets of Gotham. Sirens brought together the three big “bad girls” in the Batman rogue’s gallery - Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn - and turned them into a very dysfunctional, but somehow completely understandable “family.” It’s part Charlie’s Angels, part Batman, but all fun. Streets focused on smaller stories of Dick and Damian as Batman & Robin. While Batman & Robin dealt with the mysteries leading up to the return of Bruce Wayne and Batman dealt with big crises like the return of Black Mask, Streets had very well written and amusing stories of the B-side villains like Mr. Zsasz and The Carpenter as well as the repercussions of Hush masquerading as Bruce Wayne.

Both of these books have been a lot of fun and both of them have been slowly going down hill as other writers have randomly done other stories and guest appearances in it. Normally, we’d be perfectly fine with it, but it’s become rather annoying when the solicitations and previews talk about this being a Dini scribed issues about one subject, only to pick it up and find it was a completely different story written by somebody else. Streets has been the worst offender of this as stories will change in the middle of a story line. One month you’re reading about Robin searching to uncover the underground fight ring killing orphans in an issue that ends on a dramatic cliffhanger and the very next issue jumps to some other story about Batman helping a prostitute who’s johns are getting murdered.

This week was especially disappointing as Streets was supposed to be the second issue in House of Hush, the sequel to Dini’s very good Heart of Hush story, but instead we get a full issue of the Two-Face second feature.[^1] At least the latest solicitations for Sirens has stated somebody else is writing the issue. I have to say, I’m seriously considering dropping the book.

[^1]: Granted, I’ll admit I’m very biased as I’m an unabashed Hush fan.

The only book that Dini has been consistently working on is the new Zatanna series. Dini has said repeatedly over the years that his favorite character in comics was Zatanna, so it is no surprise that once he got to write a Zatanna solo book, it sucked up all of his time. After all, this is a man who happened to marry a woman who is also a stage magician[^2], who performs in a top hat and fishnet stockings just like his comic heroine.

[^2]: Even if you never click on any of the links we post on RC, go compare Zatanna and Misty Lee. So similar it’s creepy.

We’ve really enjoyed reading Dini’s Zatanna run and we’re glad he’s happy. We just wish he would pay attention to some of his other work as well, or that they officially announce a new regular writer on the other two series.

Come back Paul, we miss you.

Travis, what’s on your pull list?

* Batman Beyond #3 - More Hush! More future Catwoman! Bat Wraiths! The story is great, but the art is getting inconsistent in scenes where Terry’s not in costume.
* Darkwing Duck #3 - This series continues to have the Gnome Seal of Approval: “It’s good! Everybody should read it!”
* Tiny Titans #31 - Continues the Tiny Titans FCBD story with the party at the Fortress of Solitude. Don’t worry if you missed the FCBD story, it’s repeated here.

Kris, what’s on your pull list?

* Azrael #11 - Good book, but it’s becoming a little too Dan Brown for me. The heavy religious context of this book could be off putting to a lot of people.
* Batman Beyond #3 - The art in this book is going down hill while the story picks up. If it keeps this up, issue #6 will be epic, but drawn with crayons.
* Batman: Streets of Gotham #15 - Really good story, inspite of the lack of Hush. Two-Face has kept being an interesting character, regardless of whether he’s Two-Face or Harvey Dent.
* Brightest Day #8 - I think this will be great to read in trade. Right now, it’s just too slow for it to have more than minimal impact. I hope Miss Martian continues to be an important character.
* Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Riley - This book is supposed to explain why Riley joined Twilight as a double agent for Buffy. It really doesn’t do that, or explain anything else.
* DC Universe Legacy #4 - Barely more than several snap shots from DC history, but it’s fun. I love the ending, which is one of my favorite moments in DC’s history.
* Green Lantern Corps #51 - This book still isn’t living up to Tomasi’s run on GLC, but it impressed me enough that I’m hopeful for the future. Also, Cyborg-Superman is a dick.
* Justice Society of America #42 - I want to care about this story, but James Robinson has some short comings as a writer that are being exposed. Too many characters, and Jade is written as a completely worthless and obnoxious character.
* Power Girl #15 - Great, and about to tie into Generation Lost. Judd Winick continues to climb the list of my favorite writers.
* Supergirl #55 - Sterling Gates must have sat down with Geoff Johns’s run on Action Comics and said “I can do this, but with Supergirl.”