The Heartbreak of Misplaced Penance

It is Wednesday, and as with all Wednesdays, that means it is New Comics Day. Which means that, as with every Wednesday, we pay a visit to our local comic store, where they know me by name and ask me, “Didja hear that I’m not allowed to sell you Batman Incorporated #3 today? Oh, they shipped it to me, but I can’t sell it to you! I need to store it someplace for a month! Why? Here, I got the issue right here! Look at this picture of some chick with a gun! For this I can’t sell you the book! That I’m holding in my hand and showing to you! And will place directly into your pull pile after I am done showing it to you! With a big “DO NOT SELL TO ROB UNTIL FOUR WEEKS FROM NOW” sign on it! Because a month from now, the families of those poor fuckers in Colorado will have forgotten all about the shooting!”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes, I realize that that was the least funny “my local comic store, where they know me by name and ask me…” gag we’ve ever done here at Crisis On Infinite Midlives, but for a change, that was actually a question that was asked of us at our local comic store this evening.

Regardless, the point is that we were at our local comic store this evening, which means that this…

…means the end of out broadcast day.

But it is a decent day’s take. We have a new issue of the Before Watchmen issue Comedian for me to possibly continue hating on, a issue of Jonathan Hickman’s Manhattan Projects, a new issue of personal favorite The Goon, and, if no issue of Batman Incorporated, an issue of Batman: The Dark Knight.

But before we can accuse any of them of being insensitive to tragedy that has nothing to do with comic books, first we have to read them. So until we have that chance…

…see you tomorrow, suckers!

Back In The Shadows: Batman Incorporated #3 Delayed

So now it’s a comic book story: DC Comics and the Batman editorial team have decided to delay this week’s scheduled release of Batman Incorporated #3 due to “content that may be perceived as insensitive in light of recent events.”

Wow, that content must be a pisser. Let’s see what the original issue’s solicitation says about it:

BATMAN, INCORPORATED #3
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art and cover by CHRIS BURNHAM
Variant cover by JAY FABOK
1:100 B&W Variant cover by CHRIS BURNHAM
On sale JULY 25 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Combo Pack Edition: $3.99
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for more information.
• The DC COMIC – THE NEW 52 debut of…MATCHES MALONE??
• BATMAN is hot on the trail of whoever is trying to kill DAMIAN – and he’s not going to like what he finds!

Okay, with an appearance by Batman’s undercover alter ego Matches Malone, this seems like it’s going to be an organized crime story… which at face value seems pretty innocuous compared to the theater shootings, but on one hand, one could argue that, for the next couple of weeks, any Batman story with a shooting might touch a nerve. Further, since the story is about someone trying to kill Damian Wayne – a ten-year-old kid – seeing a gun on him in the context of the theater shootings might be a little sensitive, whether or not the ten-year-old kid in question is a trained ninja assassin.