"The snail is the devil."

It's Friday, October 22, 2010 and we're continuing our two weeks of Halloween. heard from on of my Karate parents that a school is getting ready for their "Fall Festival", to which I responded "Why don't they just call it a Halloween Party, and get it over with." Oh no. That would lead to parents complaining to the school board I'm told.

Parents who complain about a school having a Halloween Party need the stick surgically removed from their asses.

There's a lot to enjoy about Halloween and one of the things I enjoy the most is the costumes. Sure, I like the scarier costumes that are traditionally associated with Halloween, but the idea of dressing up and getting out of yourself for a night is a lot of fun. Sure my buddy's son who is planning on dressing up as Batman doesn't know every detail about the character and isn't going to try to really play the role. he's three. he just wants to run around in a fun outfit and say "I'm Batman."

Hell, I want to run around in a fun costume and say "I'm Batman." Halloween is the night in which I get to do it and not have folks think I'm some kind of nut.

There's something to be said for masks. We can act a bit freer. We can take on roles that others don't think fit us. We spend a lot of time having to be ourselves in the real world, so its fun to play a different part, or at least dress the part.

Makes me want to get myself a Cape and Cowl for the Halloween.

Just as long as its not cursed.

SPOOKY COMICS!!!

OK, the comics this week for the most part aren't spooky, but I've got a theme going here so just deal with it.

Let's get the ball rolling with TINY TITANS #33. The comic has introduced its versions of Jason Todd and Tim Drake as pretty much toddlers. But having three Robins is not enough. All the kids in the daycare decide they want to be Robin too. So you have a bunch of little kids running around as Robin just in time for Halloween. This was neat because they worked in Shephanie Brown and Carrie from THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. I do wonder why little Cassandra Cain had a picture of Dan DiDio that she held onto so warmly. Perhaps she's hoping her DCU main equivalent will get a another series. Lot of fun to be had here.

Moving on over to SUPERGIRL #57 we have our hero dealing with the loss of her planet. Recently Superman and Supergirl suffered a heavy tragedy with the loss of new Krypton. While Superman has dealt with it by walking across the country and being a jerk, Supergirl is doing what she can to save an entire planet. I like her way to dealing better, its certainly more entertaining. Sterling Gates continues to make this the definitive run of this book and I know he's leaving soon, so the next writer is going to have big shoes to fill. The art this time around is handled by Bernard Chang, who with be taking over for Jamal Igle as he also departs the book. I like Bernard Chang, but again, he's got big shoes to fill since Igle was crucial in changing Kara's image away from the "Superjailbait" look. The comic itself dealt a lot with Kara looking at herself by way of seeing her 'reflection' in Bizarro-girl. The introspection was balanced nicely by a giant creature trying to destroy Bizarro World and Kara leading the Bizarros against it. Its a great story covered in a blanket of weird sci-fi. Big win.

I saved BATMAN AND ROBIN #15 for last because there so much going on in here. I absolutely love the fact that this story is coming to head right around Halloween. We're smack in the middle of the "Batman and Robin Must Die" storyline, and everything that's been going on since Grant Morrison started this is coming to a head. The reason I'm so stoked that this is all going down around Halloween is that one of the main themes in the entire run has been playing roles and theatricality. The very first issue of BATMAN he wrote featured Alfred trying to coach Bruce on playing the part of Bruce. It just kept rolling from there. We had the three police officers playing the role of Batmen. Batman and The Joker both taking on different personae. There was that "Battle for the Cowl" nonsense, but then onto Dick Grayson playing the role. We also had Damien Wayne attempting to take the role of Robin from Tim Drake and finally getting it.

On the other side we have Doctor Hurt playing the part of Thomas Wayne. We saw him rehearsing shooting Dick Grayson in the head. There's the whole "The Black Glove" movie that's just come back into the narrative. Everyone is playing the parts, but the actors are having it out as to what kind of story this will be.

I've been right all along. This is all about laundry. Who is going to play the roles? Who is going to wear the costumes? Good and evil are battling it out over who gets to wear the Cape and Cowl.

And the problem with reviewing an issue like this is that there's so much absolutely incredible stuff here that I want to absolutely gush on and on about forever, but I don't want to give away any spoilers. The contents of the box was easily the greatest thing ever, and I'd bet my bottom dollar that the last page was not what it seemed. The good guys have unleashed their ultimate weapon and I'm just giddy about it.

SPOOKY MUSIC!!!

And this song is definitely spooky.



Onward to the weekend.