Friday, May 9, 2014

Batman: The Cult - Jason Todd's finest hour

Looks like we're out of places to run to...  Guess we stand and fight.  At least we'll be going out in style.


A lot of folks seem to remember Jason Todd's time as Robin with little if any fondness.  He really didn't have much of a chance, starting life as a clone of Dick Grayson and then being changed into a street punk after the whole Crisis on Infinite Earths business.  I had stopped reading batman before Dick Grayson left and didn't come back to it for some time.  When I did come back to Batman, it was through a graphic novel that I came across in Phantom of the Attic.  It was the summer of 1988, and I had just started college.  The cover of the book was embossed with a manhole cover surrounded by bloody handprints.  Batman in the sewers; that seemed right up may alley.  I was about to get my reintroduction to Batman, and it was also to be my introduction to Jason Todd as Robin, and he kicked ass.


The Cult is primarily focused on Batman and his struggle to overcome his own fear, but it's Robin who is the hero of the story.  It's Robin who has to rescue Batman (multiple times), and hold Batman together so that he can eventually defeat Reverend Blackfire.  Batman is weak and broken, but Robin is the man of action.  So for me, I can't help but fondly remember Jason as Robin in a story where he didn't have to be a pain in the ass street kid who stole the wheels off the Batmobile, but rather got to be the hero who saved the Batman.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Miniatures Monday - Adventuring Bard

An adventuring bard keeps both his lute and his sword handy!  Here we have a bard from Reaper Miniatures.  Certainly not my best work, but still passable I think.  I've never been that good at painting either blonde hair or white shirts. :-)

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Happy Star Wars Day!

And May the 4th be with you!

I was looking though my Star Wars junk the other day and came across these.  Back in 1977, Wonder Bread released a series of I think 16 Star Wars trading cards.  You got one in each loaf of Wonder Bread, so that was a lot of crappy bread to eat to get some cards. :-)