#pascal alixe

Sure, let's read a 1602!

get his ass

uh, yikes! don't really know why we needed to make Johnny a rapist, in this.

okay so not QUITE that. still a weird subplot!

Ah, I had figured we were gonna do Attilan shit, but looks like it's Atlantis shit. I'm still down!

pretty weird pacing in this mini--the murder plot got put in motion about four pages before it got outed.

After the adventures of Young Justice last issue, No Man Land goes back to the land of Chronicles.

The issue's main story, Little Boy Lost by Scott Beatty and Pascal Alixe, opens on Man-Bat's family, the Langstroms, hunting for the food in the rubble of No Man's Land. They are helped out by Aaron's Man-Bat mutations allowing him to smell out food. They are doing as well as one can to in a destroyed city.

Because the family drama of Francine Langstrom raising two children (one being a tiny Man-Bat) without her husband in No Man's Land would be dull, the story needs some conflict. And conflict might as be the name of the eye-patch wearing gangster that decides to kidnap Aaron for a higher place in NML.

After the villain beats up Francine and kidnaps her son, she goes to ask for help from the face of Gotham's underworld boss: The Penguin. Oswald says that there is nothing the Langstroms can do for him, especially without Kirk's Man-Bat serum, and he declines to help.

Thankfully this is a Batman story, so when he hears that child is danger, he threatens Penguin to give him information on the lowlife who kidnapped Aaron. And this Penguin interested in stopping the kidnapper because the crime boss does not want to face Batman's wrath for no reason.

Batman offers comfort to Francise before she can do something stupid, but it is too late because she took the Man-Bat serum already. Francise is now the She-Bat! Francise takes flight to find her baby boy!

And not a moment too soon, because Patchy has gotten annoyed with Aaron trying to kill the young bat. Francise saves her son while Penguin's goons kill the villain like he was a sea turtle on a beach. Reunited, the Man-Bat family (including a Man-Bated out daughter) fly away from Gotham... for now.

The second story, Tune On, Tune In, Freak Out is my favorite story of the issue. It is about a television host just broadcasting out to what he assumes is an empty audience because no one has power in No Man's Land. But it turns out everywhere outside is listening to his broadcast about the going-ons in No Man's Land.

This dorky host is capturing the video of people just living in No Man's Land. The existence of this man getting word about the people trapped in Gotham is so important that Batman decides that he needs to protect this host with Oracle's help.

So, when a bunch of gangsters try to break into the studio, Bats goes to beat them down. When the host comes out to be beaten by the gangsters, he finds nobody there except a Batarang. (This still at the point Batman is still an urban legend...for reasons) The TV show the world what happens is a major step to get the outside world to reopen Gotham, so it is a true story about the importance of speaking up even if you think nobody's listening.

The third story, Identity Crisis (no not that one), opens on Batman fighting Killer Croc. But this is just an excuse for Bruce's cowl to be removed, so a psychologist can learn Bruce Wanye is Batman!

Yeah, this is one of those "Person learns Batman is Bruce Wanye and dies immediately" stories. This time the guy tries to reveal the secret to Two-Face, but because this is No Man's Land, the secret identity knowledge is worthless cause Batman is just some poor dope trapped in the city.

Annoyed at the doctor's treatment of him back in Arkham, Two-Face does a coin flip to see if the doctor dies. Batman fights Two-Face's goons away from the doctor's corpse, and he remembers the doctor in past, not realizing that Batman dodged a bullet with his death.

Not my favorite bunch of stories. I think part of it is that I am not a big fan of Man-Bat and his shaky status quos, and that extends to his family. It is hard for me to care, even if the story is fine. The second story does some lifting for the issue's score, and the third story had some fine art. But you can skip this issue.

Geoff Johns added a number of new characters to the Flash’s Rogues during his run!

Plunder was introduced in THE FLASH #165 (2000), while Blacksmith, Girder and Murmur all made their debut in THE FLASH: IRON HEIGHTS (2001) which gave us the New Rogues line-up!

They joined established Rogues like Weather Wizard who debuted in THE FLASH #110 (1960), Wally West’s ex-girlfriend Magenta who first showed up in NEW TEEN TITANS #17 (1982) and Mirror Master who first appeared in ANIMAL MAN #8 (1989).

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Featured Art:

THE FLASH SECRET FILES & ORIGINS #3 (2001)

Brainiac