Mark's Epic Blog of Randomness

By Mark Rodriguez The Court of Owls has sent their army of Talons to attack the city and Alfred called the Bat Family to help stop them. The Talons attacked Wayne Manor and after Batman stopped this violent home invasion, he went to Arkham Asylum to rescue Dr. Arkham. Now he heads to rescue Lincoln March. This is one of the most misleading covers ever ‘I can no longer be broken’ starts off with a Talon attacking Lincoln March, stabbing him fatally. However, the Talon is a bit old and careless and gets tased. Lincoln pulls out a gun and shoots him in the eye. We then flashback to the Talon’s life. Like several potential Talons, he started off as a child in Haly’s circus. Due to being afraid of the high wire, the kid is tossed into a trailer that was set on fire. The kid survived the fire, and the ringmaster called him worthy to be the next Talon.  Twenty seven years later, we see that adult Alton Carver as a Talon, killing someone in Gotham. However, he was spotted by police and had...

By Mark Rodriguez This comic, similar to Detective # 8 was supposed to be a 2-part story but it was rushed into being a one-shot so all Issues 9s would be part of the Night of the Owls. Interestingly enough, this was supposed to also feature the White Rabbit, and possibly continue her story. However, despite being on the cover she didn't make the final cut. Let's check it out. ‘The Madness’ opens with Batman and Commissioner Gordon investigating a train full of dead people. The people actually went mad and killed themselves for some reason. At the BatCave, Batman studies the tunnels around that train station and decides to check it out.   Meanwhile, Gordon is chewed out by Forbes AGAIN, but now has the authority from the mayor to make the Commish see a shrink. It seems all this jerk does is yell and whatnot and never does any actual field work… which is what Gordon always brings up.  Batman investigates the tunnels and runs into Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, two villains based ...

By Mark Rodriguez The Arkham crazies have been affected by a new Toxin that makes them super muscular and even more insane. Batman's quest to find the culprit had him chase a new villain named The White Rabbit, and following her eventually led to Bane. Bane is behind this, and while Batman managed to get away, he says the new Toxin has not only made him stronger, but smarter. Issue 7 concludes this tale with ‘The Final Curtain’ as we return to Harmon Island where Batman just eluded Bane. And it also shows off DC’s new logo. As Bats enters his hideout, he finds the captured Poison Ivy. Ivy tells him Bane made an antidote with a sample from the virgin star cactus. Bats has the vial, but the problem is, Bane is going to have to eat it. Bats asks about the White Rabbit, but she’s merely hired help. Ivy asks what she means to him, and Bats doesn’t quite know the answer. Bane finds Batman and leaps right into the laboratory mountain stronghold. The fight continues as Bane boasts that Got...

By Mark Rodriguez Arkham's crazies are being affected by a Toxin that makes them super strong and even crazier, and Batman has to find the source of this. His search led him to the Scarecrow that hit him with the Toxin and his fear gas. As Batman faces his fears, he is crazy enough to attack Superman when he comes to help. The Man of Steel has to take him down, but did he hit him too hard?? Batman Dark Knight # 6 is titles ‘Run Rabbit Run’ and we begin with Batman’s flashbacks of losing his parents.. and waking up to see Superman apologizing for hitting him so hard.  Supes wants Bats to get medical attention due to the toxin, but Bats sends him to find the Flash instead. Bats says the toxin runs on adrenaline, but if you go over your limit, that will undo the effects. The Flash was poisoned earlier on and was sent running to not let the toxin metabolize…but now Batman realizes that if he stops running, he will die. So he sends Superman off to help Flash break his limit the same way...

By Mark Rodriguez Someone is giving the Arkham villains a drug called Toxin that makes them super muscular and insane. As Batman tries to find out who's been behind this he runs into several of the villains and a mysterious White Rabbit that keeps telling him to chase him. After Deathstroke destroys the Batplane, Batman's search leads him to the Scarecrow. In “Handful of Dust”, Scarecrow sprays the room with fear toxin that starts to affect Batman. He tells him that heroism is a mask Bats wears to hide from fear, and that Batman’s true fear lies in other people dying while he’s busy saving someone else, hence, he can’t be everywhere at once.  The gas makes him see everything from the death of his parents to some of the villains, which I guess implies deep down Batman does really fear his rogues. And oddly enough, Damian is also seen among his fears. Why is Catwoman there? Why would Batman be afraid of her? I mean, what can she do? Leave him at the altar? Scarecrow beats him dow...

By Mark Rodriguez Batman has to find the White Rabbit, who seems to be behind releasing all the Arkham inmates, as well as juicing them up with Venom. The Flash comes to Batman's aid against Clayface. Batman thinks Poison Ivy is involved, and Flash comes along but he gets his finger pricked by one of Ivy's plants. Flash must now outrun the poison,which leaves Batman to face Ivy's lair alone. If you think the Flash suddenly showing up to help Batman, the cameos have just begun. Issue 4’s “Welcome to the Jungle” has Batman fight off some plants, and sees that Ivy was not in her lair after all, and was most likely abducted. He still wonders who is behind this, and pushes the White Rabbit aside as just a pawn… He then gets a message from Wonder Woman (why????) saying they’re too busy to help him out this time. WHY DOES BATMAN NEED THE JUSTICE LEAGUE'S HELP TO TAKE DOWN HIS OWN ENEMIES? AREN'T THE BAT FAMILY ENOUGH?!  Gordon is feeling the pressure from Forbes after his ...

By Mark Rodriguez Batman went to stop an Arkham breakout and faced a giant muscular version of Two Face. He soon collapses and his eyes bleed, which is a side effect to a new kind of Venom (the drug that makes Bane so big). Several Arkham inmates escaped with similar powers, and while the rest of the BatFamily deals with it, Batman now ran into a musclebound version of the Joker, alongside the new rabbit woman that's been running around. “Catch me if you can” continues the fight, as Batman says he thought the Joker retired, I guess after getting his face cut off. After a short fight we see that Joker was merely Clayface impersonating him, which Batman figured  out beforehand since the Joker was left-handed and Clayface was not. Clayface then suffers the same ‘bleeding eyes’ thing Two Face did before (can his eyes bleed?).  Clayface collapses on Batman and the White Rabbit tries to inject him with this new toxin. However she spots the Flash and runs off instead… Apparently Batm...

By Mark Rodriguez Someone is releasing all of the Arkham villains and Batman automatically thinks Two Face is behind it. It turns out a mysterious Playboy Bunny is behind the break out, and Batman runs into an over-sized muscular Two-Face calling himself One Face. The One Face thing is so lame, even the cover refuses to call him that Issue Two, called ‘A Rush of Blood’ starts with um… One-face beating the living crap out of Batman, until the drug he took, conveniently made him bleed through his eyes, making him pass out. Yes, even Commissioner Gordon calls it convenient, since that’s the only way Bats got out of that alive.  Two-Face mentions a ‘white rabbit’ drugged him, so Bats has Alfred search the web for girls in bunny lingerie… which his aged butler is more than happy to oblige. Meanwhile, all the powered-up crazies are tearing shit up all over Gotham and all the other Gotham vigilantes, namely, Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, Batwoman and the Birds of Prey have their hands full. ...

By Mark Rodriguez So the New 52 gave Batman a soft reboot and 4 titles at the same time. People liked Batman, Detective and Batman and Robin to varying degrees... but maybe they should have stopped with three. This one turned out to be the most redundant Batman comic since we already have 2 comics based on his solo adventures (and they get a pass since those two are the classic Batman titles since forever) and Batman and Robin focuses on his teamwork with Damian. We didn't need a THIRD Batman solo comic. Will David Finch's sweet art be enough to justify this? Dark Knight # 1 opens with ‘Knight Terrors’ with Batman leaping off his Batplane and changing into Bruce Wayne just in time to deliver his big speech. He delivers a speech on fear and his new Gotham Revitalization Plan… which would have been sweet if he didn’t do that already in Batman # 1. We also meet Lt. Forbes, someone from Internal Affairs Gotham P.D that is against Bruce funding Batman Inc, and by extension, helping...