Random Happenstance

We've looked at a ton of action figures from video games I don't play, so how about a comic tie-in from a video game I don't play? From 2015, Batman: Arkham Knight #9, featuring "Suicide Blues, Part 2 of 2" Written by Peter J. Tomasi, pencils by Ig Guara and Viktor Bogdanovic, inks by Julio Ferreira and Richard Friend; and "Burning the Days, part 1 of 2" Written by Tomasi, pencils by Bogdanovic, inks by Friend.

This was the ninth issue of...sigh..."the official prequel to the Arkham Trilogy finale." (Pinches bridge of nose) I swear to god sometimes, comics...So, we're more than midstream on this one, but in the opener, Batman, Deadshot, and a remarkably surly Commissioner Gordon battle a creature that looks like Metamorpho on the cover, but more Clayface-like within. Deadshot's costume is just dire, though. I don't know if he has it in the game and the blame should fall there; but still. The fight goes a little long when Gordon pistol-whips Deadshot before he can help Batman, and later when Deadshot claims to be "on the side of the angels this time!" through his work for Amanda Waller, Gordon isn't having that either and drops him like oil prices. (Too soon?)

After Gordon and Waller have a bit of a territorial-pissing contest (in which he mentions Boomerang was dead) he gets a call to the roof, where Batman has just returned the missing Bruce Wayne! Nightwing had played Batman there, but then has to take off in search of his second stolen motorcycle that month, possibly both courtesy of the mysterious Arkham Knight. Best guess, but wasn't it Jason?

I see what they were going for, but I don't like that Batman-kick panel; that guy just looks confused. In the second story, a year after his escape from Arkham, Calendar Man prepares to make his dramatic return. Batman beats up some of his former henchmen looking for him, and Barbara has a date--with Tim Drake? It's just tacos and a movie, but feels just wrong, and follow my math: it's like a word problem for your homeschooled nerds! Barbara was a few years older than Dick--at least three, arguably more. Dick was maybe five years older than Jason, and Jason was at least two or three years older than Tim. But the video game is its own thing, so whatever.

Back when Hastings closed, I didn't spring for the Dr. Harleen Quinzel/Electocutioner/Talia 3-pack, because they would've been a bit tall. Not quite kicking myself on that one, but if they fell in my lap, I guess...