All-Star Batman #9 preview

[Caivu]

http://www.avclub.com/article/batman...ocialMarketing

[Maxpower00044]

This continues to be the best batbook on the stands. Great preview.

[Katana500]

Cannot wait All Star Batman has been really good so far!

Also, anyone else really feel like the First Ally will end up being Alfred!

[UnderTheRedHood]

Cool. But I'm Waiting On The Next Arc Tbh

[JBatmanFan05]

Jock doing Batman vs Ra's Al Ghul, how al cool.

I'm really loving All Star. King & Snyder is just killing it and fans get two main Batman books IMHO.

[Frontier]

Feels like it's been forever since the last issue...

Jeez Batman, ease up, Alfred's just trying to do the best he can .

I'm guessing Ra's is the man with the cane, but who is his friend? Sensei?

Isn't Catwoman supposed to be in this issue? I thought she was a part of this arc, or mentioned as one of the featured villains, but she's been absent in all the solicits and issues so far...

[DragonPiece]

Feels like it's been forever since the last issue...

Jeez Batman, ease up, Alfred's just trying to do the best he can .

I'm guessing Ra's is the man with the cane, but who is his friend? Sensei?

Isn't Catwoman supposed to be in this issue? I thought she was a part of this arc, or mentioned as one of the featured villains, but she's been absent in all the solicits and issues so far...

I think she was going to be in this arc, but Snyder changed his mind. Maybe because King has been using her so much.

[Frontier]

I think she was going to be in this arc, but Snyder changed his mind. Maybe because King has been using her so much.

That's what I was assuming as well.

I was curious to see how he'd handle her, but oh well...

[SpideyZERO]

Well...Catwoman is indeed, in this issue

Fantastic end to the arc. I enjoy Snyder's long epic style stories but he really excel in doing shorter and connected stories like Black Mirror and now End of The Earth. I really enjoy the focus on different villains and how they can bring the end of the world. Snyder wasted no time in this issue and Bruce's fight against Ra's was very tense and filled with many smart turnaround moments, not to mention Jock's art, full of energy.

The backup is kinda eh....we still don't get Duke's name...but wow, Duke's a metahuman? Now that is interesting. I have been indifferent with Duke but this new development makes him much more interesting to me. I still hope we will get answer soon in Dark Days

[Desean101101]

So duke is metahuman eh? That makes him vastly more interesting and also alot more important in Gotham, A place that hates Metahumans with a passion XD . Its place were highly capable normal people thrive along side magic but Metahumans don't pop there often at all.

[UnderTheRedHood]

I dunno how I feel about a metahuman batside kick.

[Atlanta96]

Giving Duke powers seems like the laziest, most contrived way to make him unique and stand out from the rest of the Family. Now Snyder has something to point to as "proof" that he isn't a derivative character, without actually making an effort to develop him into something unique and original. Just slap some radar sense onto him and call it a day.

[SicariiDC]

Is that definitely what it was? Damn, I'm so confused...Who is Daryl again? Is that Bloom? I guess by the end of Snyder's run my head was fried...Or I'm just not up on the entire Duke continuity cuz the back ups after zassz haven't made much sense to me...It's frustrating

Edit: ok, I remember that's dukes cousin? Who got powers during the bloom story?

Oh and during the main story, I love jock, but it was kinda hard to figure out some of action for me...Oh, and why did Ra's having "flying monkeys"/wytches looking creatures at one point? Were they introduced in the last issue? These hallucination/mind control/cloaking device things got smh

[skyvolt2000]

Is that definitely what it was? Damn, I'm so confused...Who is Daryl again? Is that Bloom? I guess by the end of Snyder's run my head was fried...Or I'm just not up on the entire Duke continuity cuz the back ups after zassz haven't made much sense to me...It's frustrating

Daryl was a member of Bat Gordon's team and flew the blimp that Gordon used. Some how the Bloom virus got to him and he went nuts towards the end.

And the reason why everything is now confusing is because King wanted to restrict Duke to the back ups in the book.

http://www.newsarama.com/34115-all-s...to-snyder.html

Scott Snyder: Duke is a huge part of the plan for All-Star Batman and beyond. With the line running double-ship and with all the events we've been planning with Metal, it's been an exciting but also tricky math of, like, where do you put a character that you want to have a story of his own, beyond being part of a team of him and Batman, extending that but also giving him his own space - all that stuff.

So All-Star Batman #9 really leaves him off in a place that begins his ascendance.

He then features in a big way in Dark Days, the two-parter series that preludes Metal.

Nrama: Is that where we're going to learn where you have Duke?

Snyder: That's kind of our long runway plan.

By the time the second issue [of Dark Days] comes out, my hope is that we'll be able to talk about openly Duke's role in the Bat-universe coming up.

Nrama: Weren't you originally planning to do that in All-Star Batman?

Snyder: Initially I thought it would all land in the back-ups in issue #9 and say, "Hey! Here's who he's going to be. This is what we're going to do."

But then our editors were very wise to say, "You're smushing it into six pages?"

So what we wanted to do was give it a bigger stage and roll it out in a way that tells the story more expansively.

So get ready for a summer of Tim Drake & Damian fans throwing bigger fits about Duke.

[Atlanta96]

LOL, can we just get rid of all the editors? I know why they exist but is all the awful stuff they do to comics really worth it anymore?

A thought, I've been very hard on Scott Snyder for his treatment of the Bat-Family and constantly pushing characters I hate. Is it possible that all my complaints are actually the fault of editors, and Scott was innocent all along?