Batman #21 Preview/Discussion

[Scott Taylor]

Batman was watching four different channels. Probably just monitoring the news.

The hockey players were named Shuster and Taylor. Shuster co-created Superman. Is this foreshadowing of something Superman is going to do?

[MikefromGotham]

So the actual physical Button didn't come back when Thawne returned from seeing "God". It has to turn up again, right?

[MikefromGotham]

Batman did notice that spark from the Mask to the Button. I guess he has viewed the Pirate as just another villain with mind control abilities and not a multiversal level character. We the reader know about COIE, but Batman doesn't, at least not at this moment in his memories he doesn't. That raised eye brow made it clear that Batman just realized there was much more to the Pirate and his mask than Batman had first thought.

[Rikdad]

so is thawne dead?

I think we should resist the temptation to assume that we saw the same Thawne disappear and then promptly reappear. Maybe so, but he was spattered with blood when he zapped out and free of blood (as well as a lot of his own flesh) when he zapped back in. These Thawnes could be from different timelines or different moments in the same timeline. Why have him disappear, then reappear? It may be a trick. More thoughts here:

http://rikdad.blogspot.com/2017/04/b...batman-21.html

[JBatmanFan05]

Do we know yet what trade The Button will be collected in? I can't figure out which one yet, which is bothering me, big time since everything is clear as far as a trade coming soon.

As far as Thawne, is he ever definitively dead lol? It never seems so.

[Qwerty]

How do we know it was saturn girl other than the fact she is blonde and mentioned the legion. Do we see evidence of this somewhere else?

[rui no onna]

Do we know yet what trade The Button will be collected in? I can't figure out which one yet, which is bothering me, big time since everything is clear as far as a trade coming soon.

Like Night of the Monster Men, I believe the crossover is getting its own collection (HC format first).

[MikefromGotham]

Two things that took me out of the story... One, the Gotham hockey team wouldn't be playing in the Western Conference finals. Gotham has been referred to as an east coast city as far as I remember. Two, Saturn Girl is the only woman in a room full of men in a psych ward? Totally unbelievable. Lol I know it's silly, but those two things bugged me. Lol the super speed runners, God and magic button didn't faze me at all. I'm comic book weird....

[Caivu]

How do we know it was saturn girl other than the fact she is blonde and mentioned the legion. Do we see evidence of this somewhere else?

She already showed up in Arkham in "I Am Suicide". And in the Rebirth special itself I think she had a ring that identified her as Saturn Girl.

[Rikdad]

How do we know it was saturn girl other than the fact she is blonde and mentioned the legion. Do we see evidence of this somewhere else?

Blonde + Legion is all I have; it could turn out to be someone else, but SG has more history.

Incidentally, Johns himself put the LSH's Dream Girl into Arkham in a JSA-JLA crossover circa 2006. But this isn't Dream Girl, and the power of prophecy isn't necessary for someone who knows the future.

[Qwerty]

She already showed up in Arkham in "I Am Suicide". And in the Rebirth special itself I think she had a ring that identified her as Saturn Girl.

Didn't read that story. Thanks.

[Rikdad]

in the Rebirth special itself I think she had a ring that identified her as Saturn Girl.

I'm looking at the art now, and I don't think it identifies her as Saturn Girl; it just identifies her as a Legionnaire. So she could be another blonde, female Legionnaire. Saturn Girl seems most likely, but she doesn't show any powers. She doesn't give her name because she tells the police that it would be dangerous to reveal it. Clearly, Johns is trying to preserve a little mystery around her identity despite telling us very clearly that she's from the future and has an LSH ring. Maybe there's a curveball coming.

Interestingly, in Rebirth, she's very calm and certain that the future will turn out all right. Now in The Button, she's panicked and full of despair.

[Nick Miller]

Whenever I see Bruce taking a beating, I imagine what I'd be saying if I got the chance to somehow beat up Bruce.

"This is for being a sexist dick!" "This is for saying that Cass was "always mentally disturbed."!" "This is for making Brother Eye!" "This is for not telling Tim that Steph was alive after War Games!"

I could go on.

LEAVE. right now. 😜

[Nick Miller]

An Ok issue.

And Metropolis and Gotham hockey teams would be in the Eastern conference, not the West. someone get a King and the editors a map.

[Rikdad]

The hockey players were named Shuster and Taylor. Shuster co-created Superman. Is this foreshadowing of something Superman is going to do?

As I mentioned in my annotations, the players had, respectively, the city and colors of Superman and Batman. Curiously, the "Batman" player (black and yellow, from Gotham) is the one named Shuster, and I can't identify a comics creator named Taylor who is of comparable stature to Shuster. So, either the name Shuster is a red herring, or later in the story, we're going to encounter someone who seems to be Batman and is really Superman or vice versa.