Ok, so I am reading the Batman War Games thingie.. (Spoilers within)

[Jain Zar]

And obviously much of it has been spoiled online since pamphlet readers like making us trade waiting bitches miserable.

But can someone explain to me what the hell DC was thinking?

I mean the following retarded things have happened either within it, or right after it as has been posted many places: (Listed in increasing orders of dumbassery.)

1: Spoiler is killed.  A fun romantic interest for Tim Drake, and generally nifty character gets whacked, apparently so the Women in Refridgerators website can have more stuff to write about.  She was cute (In an entertaining way, not in a creepy anime fashion) and fun, something the Batman books need more of anyhow.  Someone who isn't a raging psycho most of the time, yet isn't uber awesome.  What?  We needed room for Orpheus, his doofy bald bodyguard, and Tarantula?  If they wanted her gone howabout reuinting her with her kid in some fashion that takes her out of the picture while not making her into a corpse?  Or is she warming up wherever dead low level DC characters go for Green Arrow's current sidekick?

2: Dr. Leslie Thompkins, a secondary character who brought Batman more towards "The Street", and was a nice moral compass/potential love interest for Alfred seemingly let Spoiler die via witholding treatment for some bugfuckingly stupid reason then runs off to Africa.  The lady who during No Man's Land gave medical treatment to fricking Zzazj, or however the hell his name is written.  What the fuck?  So not only do we whack one character, we ruin another who acts COMPLETELY out of character?  Didn't they learn anything from the whole Hal Jordan thing?  Oh wait, secondary character who isn't an icon.  Fuck.

3: Jason Todd is back from the dead.  Ok, this one takes the cake.  Did the screams of "WHAT THE FUCK?!" when it looked like he was back during Hush NOT maybe show nobody was asking for this one?  Batman is better without all the magic back from the dead bullshit that infests the DC and Marvel universes at large.   Can someone besides Uncle Ben stay dead in superhero comics?  Do I have to somehow take over an entire comics company and start turning back from the dead characters into brain eating zombies to stop this crap?  AGH.

[Llava]

In fairness...

Thomas and Martha Wayne have stayed dead too (though there have been threats).

[Velorath]

I'll thank them for bringing Jason Todd back for one reason:

After Hush, everytime there was some some sort of mystery in the DCU Jason Todd would get the blame.  I remember during Idenity Crisis (right before the final issue came out) someone on Newsarama came up with this long explanation of how the killer was Jason Todd in Alfred's body, and went on to build his case using obscure shit from decades-old comics, and then there were other losers telling him how cool his theory.  If Jason Todd hadn't come back people would have been working up stories where everything in Infinite Crisis was caused by him somehow.

[Margalis]

Was Jason Todd the one that bit it during Death in the Family? So he's alive again? How did that happen?

[Trippy]

Was Jason Todd the one that bit it during Death in the Family?

Yes.

[Llava]

Was Jason Todd the one that bit it during Death in the Family? So he's alive again? How did that happen?

I believe the official story so far is "he only LOOKED dead!!!"

[Velorath]

I believe the official story so far is "he only LOOKED dead!!!"

Well I think the official story right now is "we aren't going to tell you yet because the how isn't that important right now."

So I'm guessing they haven't even come up with a how yet.

[HaemishM]

Yeah, Winnick refuses to say "How" claiming it isn't important how, only why. Which in this case is total bullshit, because the HOW is getting in the way of everything he does. The how could explain how he has aged, the how could explain how he has the prowess of years of training, etc. etc. etc. War Games was OK, but it really just felt like another attempt at a Batman reboot. Remove the extraneous Batman family characters from his normal orbit, isolate him from his normal support group in preparation for what's going to happen in the Infinite Crisis. Add to his paranoia (like it needed it) as he starts to remember what the other Leaguers did to his mind in Identity Crisis.

I really don't like what they've done with the Black Mask character. I was reading Batman when they first came up with that character (some great Doug Moench/Tom Mandrake stories). He was a terrfic character, but the way they are portraying him now doesn't seem right. I'm sure I missed things happening to him but still. Hush is a decent villain, but not all that great, IMO. Now they are trying to make it look like Hush really isn't the person they spent 12-issues trying to say he was. The Batman titles are also losing all sorts of continuity with each other, just like the multiple Superman books are. I'm sorry, but no character should appear in more than 1 solo title and 1 team book.

[Velorath]

 Can someone besides Uncle Ben stay dead in superhero comics?  Do I have to somehow take over an entire comics company and start turning back from the dead characters into brain eating zombies to stop this crap?  AGH.

At this point I don't care too much about bringing dead characters back as long as it makes for a good story or if the original death was crap (the former possibly occuring right now in Captain America, and the return of Colossus in Astonishing X-men is a good example of the latter).  The Jason Todd thing seems like maybe it sounded like a really good idea to them when they were planning it, but the execution was lacking.  There are some interesting story possibilities there, but so far they haven't really been explored, and it almost seems like a minor matter compared to all the other shit that's going on to set up Infinite Crisis.  It was big news for a couple weeks, but was quickly over-shadowed.

[Llava]

Didn't they bring Hawkeye back to life? Already?  I believe I heard that.

[Velorath]

Didn't they bring Hawkeye back to life? Already?  I believe I heard that.

Kinda.  He's been brought back to life in House of M.  Whether or not he stays alive after that story ends isn't known (but he probably will).

[HaemishM]

You just know he'll back back after House of M. Fucking cockmonkeys.

I wouldn't be nearly so pissed off about the pandering return of Hawkeye if his original death hadn't been so hopelessly retarded.