I should like to state that I don’t speak for Stephen, but I think of what we do as less journalism and more gentle critique and analysis. Either way, the review is honest in what it conveys, I think the question is more of what a review SHOULD convey from a specific perspective. Your mileage, as always, may vary.

Clearly, a lack of professional journalism is something a great many industries deal with. Since the topic at hand deals with just one industry–comics–I chose to voice my frustrations with that. I specifically mentioned that the comics industry is something that I have a vested interest in. And being that you have a Master’s degree (congrats, by the way), I’m sure you can understand my reasons for being especially frustrated with the lack of journalistic integrity in this industry, while still recognizing the lack of journalistic intergrity in other industries. I actually am capable of recognizing things like that. Are you not?

I wouldn’t want to read an insipid analysis of every panel either. Still, I don’t think it’s out of the question to expect a mention about characterization, storytelling, etc., in a review. These are the foundations of the medium. Imagine a review for The Dark Knight that spent 90% of it’s time dwelling on the Bat-franchise as a whole and ending with, “Oh and that Heath Ledger fellow was pretty good, too.” That’d be a pretty awful review.

This is a silly debate anyway. Likely, it stems from my ongoing frustration with the lack of actual, professional journalism within the comics industry. It’s hard to take it with a grain a salt sometimes when it’s an industry that I personally have a lot vested in.

Unless you haven’t noticed this isn’t an English literary debate forum, it’s a comic book forum and 99.99% of people come to read the reviews here because they WANT to know Matthew and Stephen’s opinion on comics and not some insipid academic analysis of every panel.

The bulk of the review talks about the Batman titles in general and how dead isn’t dead in comics and something about Wally West and Captain America and here’s a list of new Batman books coming out soon and DC has no balls and Bruce Wayne should stay dead and here’s something about the state of comics and oh, yeah, Tony Daniel’s art looked nice.

It’s like one long tangent with some actual review thrown on at the end as more or less an afterthought. I mean, this is supposed to be a comic book review, and there’s literally no mention about if the dialogue was good or bad, or if the characterization was good or bad, or if Daniel juggled the large cast well. It’s just a badly written review.

“Even if DC jumped up and down screaming in our faces saying the ending wouldn’t be the ending we expected. Really DC? Really? I think following this stunt, and the three stunts before this, readers are wise to the bull, meaning the company is really going to have to try harder to get back into our good graces.

It would be nice if DC pulled a Marvel by finally elevating Dick/Bucky to top of the hero list for longer than 24 issues. The current change just seems so empty because we know Bruce Wayne is alive. And this is the real problem with everything going on in the DC Universe right now. When we know death is not permanent, that those that die will be back within a three year time-period, why should the reader care about the characters any longer?

For Batman, we’ve already been through the battle for the mantle in Knight Fall, which turned out to be a better story in retrospect. Unless DC grows a pair, and keeps Bruce in the coffin for the next thirty years, Dick’s time as Batman is short lived, and it seems we all know it. When Barry Allen died, readers had a chance to see Wally grow and become a very unique Flash. If we don’t get thirty years – heck even five years would be interesting – of Dick as Batman, it will all be a waste of the reader/fan’s time, as comic publishers continue to scramble to snatch as much of the pie as possible with these get rich quick schemes.

To be honest, I want to. I really want Batman, Batman and Robin, Red Robin, Detective Comics, Gotham City Sirens, Batman: Streets of Gotham, Batman Confidential, and the hundreds of other Batman titles to be really good again. I really want these series to succeed (even the grant morrison one). I want these titles to be the top twenty titles on the Diamond sales list each month. Why aren’t they? And what needs to change to make that happen? Here’s hoping the answer can be found in the next four months.”

…have to do with the actual issue at hand? It tells me nothing of how Tony Daniel wrote or drew the issue. I mean seriously, you had exactly TWO sentences dealing with the art.

I know you want to defend your review, but just face facts. It’s a bad one.

The only thing that disappoints me is that they STILL have yet to admit that it is Dick, by playing that little trick at the end. This pisses me off for two reasons: a) if it IS Dick, don’t treat us as if we’re idiots, and b) if it isn’t, which is VERY UNLIKELY, I will be very angry.