Letters to Batman Issue 6

A masterpiece! Oh wait... Hmm.

Aha!

A lil' piece of gold! You love your silver age, dunt cha?

Great issue, KSM! Between this and the Flash, you are really turning into one of the DC2's most impressive storytellers!

I love how you started the issue in media res, and focused on a neat puzzle and some good characterization (particularly Alfred)! And that last line about Bruce making breakfast was on a par with Simone having Bats ask Wonder Woman to give Alfred the recipe for Themysciran cookies in a recent issue of JLA Classified!

Great villain (and nice backstory, delivered in just a few lines, with a glimpse at the fun-loving original Boy Wonder)--- maybe you can do him up for Who's Who #2 in November...?

And for anyone wondering where the idea came from for this issue. Go find your Kingdom Come books or trade. Go the second issue and find the page that first shows Bruce Wayne. In the third panel on that panel look to the Batcomputer monitor down in the far right corner.

That's it. Intended as an "easter egg" by Ross, I guess it just stuck in my head and eventually became this story.

Great story Brandon. I liked the style and the fact that it was dialogue driven. Also loved those referances to a couple of the entertainment version of Bats. "You complete me?" Next I was waiting for a "Show me the money," or a good old fashioned, "I want to watch the damn world series."

Really terrific all the way through. Great job!

Thanks guys!

Scott,
I have one more Batman story to tell at some point which is much more of a serious psychological brainbender. BUT, I have to tell my Atom story first so maybe that will happen in the next month or so.

I didn't have any direct plans for the Bizarro but I can try to work on it as soon as I get a spare moment. Glad you liked the cover. I've been sitting on that one since the site started and was glad to finally get to use it.

Three a week actually. Most of which I burn by doing Ska Aerobics.

Ellen does seem to have a certain elegant grace surrounding her like an aura, doesn't she?

Ska aerobics huh? Gotta try those, someone hand me a Madness CD!

Hey! Thanks for reading and commenting on the story, John!

Glad you thought the dialogue worked here. I wanted it to come off as an annoying, impish, crazed fan so I went a little more over-the-top than usual. I also got a little metafiction with some of the references.

First off, the traps had to be dangerous mostly to make the story more exciting. Heh. But the idea was that Batman would have to have levels of defense that could work in holding off both metas and humans. The second he crossed into outer perimeter at the start of the story he popped up in the Batcomputer. If he had appeared as a big monstrous meta, like say Killer Croc, it would have triggered the spikes. But for a human it wouldn't have activated and they would have rather been nabbed by the knock-out gas that Batman later encountered. But, with the Bat-Mite Virus in control all the safeguards were off and even a few new tricks like the Batmobile's activation.

There was a conflict of interest too with Bat-Mite as his programming told him to retrieve the information at all costs, but since his artificial intelligence was "grown" inside the Batcomputer the programming mutated him into an obsession with his target. That being why he was cheering him while simultaneously trying to kill/delay him.

Right. Again, thanks for the nice words and I hope to live up to expectations with the Atom story (mostly likely coming out next month).

LOL! Thanks Susan. Glad you liked it.

I'd be very happy if someone else wanted to follow up on the Bat-Mite. It'd be fun to see more of him and it's a good way to get at Batman. If you want to hit him where it hurts, mess with his most powerful and useful tool, the Batcomputer.

And as far as I know, the digital cloaking thing is a sorta new idea. It's a device on the ultility belt that scrambles digital signals and renders Batman mostly invisible to standard surveillance. It's a handy thing that would keep his picture from being snapped by every kid with a camera phone or digital camera. It also helps with security cameras. So, if anyone else wants to use that too it would be cool.

Thanks Chase! And that sounds like a fun crossover. We would have to figure out how it would work though.

Thanks Batarang.

I think anyone in their 30s has to have some appreciation for Bat-Mite because of the cartoon from the late 70s or early 80s. I'm glad you liked it and it certainly was fun to be able to bring back this long disregarded character in a way that made him relevant again.

Glad you enjoyed it, DKD!

Thanks Roy!