Batman The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight

[Sugar Daddy]

I have a few questions on this quality book -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/078947865X/qid=1008979962/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_7_1/107-4547673-9637307

1. No Man's Land - When there was this earthquake in Gotham---How come I never heard about this before? It seems so cool, and I really wanna know more about it? Are there any books about that event?

2. The 3 Robins!!!!!--Ok, ok, let me explain. Dick Grayson was the first. But the book says Nightwing originated in Detective Comics #38(1940). And then this dude, Jason Todd, became Robin. And then the fans decided that Jason should die in a vote. And then later Tim Drake became Robin. Ok, how come i have never heard of Jason Todd before? How come the Batman cartoons skipped Jason Todd? Is it because he was killed? And how come in the cartoons Dick Grayson became Robin, although he became Nightwing in 1940. And how come the timeline in the back says Robin was still around after the 40s, when it said he became Nightwing? Sorry, I know thats a lot.

3. How did Bane break Batman's back, and how in the heck do u recover from that?

4. This Harold dude that used to work 4 Penguin and now lives in the Batcave....bizzare.

5. And when Bruce had to rebuild the Batcave and Wayne Manor after No Man's Land, i doubt Bruce built it by himself, wouldnt someone, like a construction company, know his secret? I guess that's like the how the Watchtower got built in the JL cartoon.

6. This new Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, adopted by Bruce, I never heard of that one.

Ummm..........I have some more questions, if u can believe it, but I can't remember them now. If u can help, thanks a lot!

[Domino]

Originally posted by lasportsbiggie
I have a few questions on this quality book -

1. No Man's Land - When there was this earthquake in Gotham---How come I never heard about this before? It seems so cool, and I really wanna know more about it? Are there any books about that event?

Only about 100. And it's all in reprint form right now as well.

2. The 3 Robins!!!!!--Ok, ok, let me explain. Dick Grayson was the first. But the book says Nightwing originated in Detective Comics #38(1940). And then this dude, Jason Todd, became Robin. And then the fans decided that Jason should die in a vote. And then later Tim Drake became Robin. Ok, how come i have never heard of Jason Todd before? How come the Batman cartoons skipped Jason Todd? Is it because he was killed? And how come in the cartoons Dick Grayson became Robin, although he became Nightwing in 1940. And how come the timeline in the back says Robin was still around after the 40s, when it said he became Nightwing? Sorry, I know thats a lot.

The guy who was Robin in 1940 became Nightwing in 1984. That's Dick Grayson. Jason Todd came around in 1983, written as a virtually identical replacement for Dick Grayson. When Dick became Nightwing, Jason took up the Robin identity. After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, he was rewritten to be a former street kid who was obnoxious and cruel. The fans then voted that he should not survive the Joker's attack. That was about 1988. Tim Drake came along in 1989 and deduced Batman's and Nightwing's identities and Batman took him in. They skipped Jason Todd in the cartoon because he was rewritten to be a character that no one would want kids to emulate. At least that's my guess.


3. How did Bane break Batman's back, and how in the heck do u recover from that?

Bane learned Batman's identity, released all of his enemies, wore him down, and went to the cave and took advantage of Batman's weakened condition. He was replaced for a while by a psychotic post-hypnotically trained assassin that he hand picked. You know, reading that back, it sounds even worse than it was when I first read the story. Bruce was later healed by superhuman psychic healing. Yes, you read all of that right.

4. This Harold dude that used to work 4 Penguin and now lives in the Batcave....bizzare.

No kidding.

5. And when Bruce had to rebuild the Batcave and Wayne Manor after No Man's Land, i doubt Bruce built it by himself, wouldnt someone, like a construction company, know his secret? I guess that's like the how the Watchtower got built in the JL cartoon.

Good call. It's best not to think about these things.

6. This new Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, adopted by Bruce, I never heard of that one.

Part of No Man's Land. Read the trade paperbacks, you'll get the whole story.

Ummm..........I have some more questions, if u can believe it, but I can't remember them now. If u can help, thanks a lot!

[Sugar Daddy]

Ok, but if Nightwing debuted in 1940, how come DG didn't become him untl 1984? The book makes no other mention of someone else being Nightwing, and neither has any1 else

[The Guard]

Ian...

CATACLYSM is the Earthquake thing. It was about two months long. It's collected in the TPB Batman: Cataclysm. Good read.

As for No Man's Land. Don't waste money on the TPB's. Get the novel NO MAN'S LAND by Greg Rucka. Everything you need to no is there...in novel form. It's less expensive...

[Bird Boy]

Originally posted by lasportsbiggie
Ok, but if Nightwing debuted in 1940, how come DG didn't become him untl 1984? The book makes no other mention of someone else being Nightwing, and neither has any1 else

Here's the low-down:

Nightwing didn't debut in 1940. Dick Grayson, AKA ROBIN, debuted in 1940. I think he became Nightwing in the 70's-early 80's.

Batman and Robin were together for a LONG time.

Robin (DG) eventually drew apart from bruce, exploring college..and girls..heh.

He joined the league called "The Teen Titans". During the time DG was gone, Wayne took Jason Todd in. (I have the issue in which bruce and dick first see each other again after a long time..good issue).

Then, Jason Todd died...and basically, I know no more after that. I was big into the 70-80's comics, and I lost interest as the comics got older...

That's what I make of it anyway.

-BB

[Sugar Daddy]

thanks, but i wonder why the book says nw debuted in 1940, oh well

[TheScarecrow]

Originally posted by lasportsbiggie
thanks, but i wonder why the book says nw debuted in 1940, oh well

It was probably a typo. They should've only said that Dick Grayson/Robin debuted in 1940, rather then Nightwing.

[Domino]

Originally posted by TheScarecrow


It was probably a typo. They should've only said that Dick Grayson/Robin debuted in 1940, rather then Nightwing.

Exactly.

[Sugar Daddy]

yea, cause in the book, nightwing gets his own page, and its dick grayson. matbe they meant thats when dick grayson was first introduced as Robin.

[Beyond Batman]

"And when Bruce had to rebuild the Batcave and Wayne Manor after No Man's Land, i doubt Bruce built it by himself, wouldnt someone, like a construction company, know his secret? I guess that's like the how the Watchtower got built in the JL cartoon." -lasportsbiggie

I remember reading an issue where Bruce addressed this. Supposedly, Bruce and associates hire international contractors to only build parts of different jobs. They are brought to the states to get handsomely paid for very specific construction work, not knowing what they are building. These people are often non english speaking immigrants from many places around the world, and are often assigned various small tasks. It's kind of like how engineers design project after project and are so caught up in their work as a designer that they don't often see the final product.

Being a multibillionaire, anything's possible. BTW, lasportsbiggie, I'm glad to see you're taking an interest in the mainstream comics. Finding the answers to your questions will be a fun journey. There's a lot about Batman you'll find very interesting along the way.

[Sugar Daddy]

Originally posted by Beyond Batman
BTW, lasportsbiggie, I'm glad to see you're taking an interest in the mainstream comics. Finding the answers to your questions will be a fun journey. There's a lot about Batman you'll find very interesting along the way.[/COLOR] [/B]

thanks very much, i appreciate it. btw, today i went to the comic book store. i picked up dk2, nightwing 63, and robin 66 and 67. hopefully they will be good. i wanted tpb batman: year one, 2 and 3, some stuff on nml and the killing joke, but that would be too expensive, and anyways they didnt hve that. they had robin year one, vol 2 of 4, but that was weird. anyways, ttyl