Entering No Man's Land

[Enchantress]

Figured it was time to start a thread about this one too. I sent *someone* the book last year for Christmas and I think he finally got it finished.
Me, I'm going to have to dig it back out and refresh my memory on it... butttttttttttttt..........


What did you like most about NML?

[Local Hero]

Hmm difficult. I loved the way Rucka handled Harvey Dent/Two face and his mixed feelings for Dtv Montoya. The whole courtroom scene was just genius. The stuff with Joker & Harley was also priceless.

Despite my ambivalance towards Poison Ivy as a character I think she got the short end of the stick as far as story time, ok she was mentioned (a lot) but her actual scene count was pretty low compared to the others in the rogues gallery. The interaction between Cassandra and Helena was interesting. A real foreshadowing of Birds of Prey eh

[Enchantress]

I agree, the stuff with Joker and Harley was great. But honestly, I thought the stuff with Bane was genius. I was also a big fan of the courtroom scene and Harvey was pretty much the scene stealer of the whole book.

[The Truth]

I loved the fact that Batman finally had to admit that he couldn't do it alone.

First, he kicked everyone out, telling Robin and the rest of the Bat-fam to hit the bricks, then it got to the point where he had to play his enemies off one another, engaging in turf wars and pretty much becoming the DC equivilent of The Kingpin for Gotham city. Deciding who could what blocks and for how long and for what reason.

Then he had to let people like Lockdown and the KGBeast run Blackgate(sp?). Even for all his skill and determination he still had to look outside for help. And then when he put in the call for everyone to come back and help him take back Gotham.....nice.

But I've said it before and I'll say it again and anyone who's read a handful of my posts will know...I love it when an established character (or story) is taken and reinvented. Seeing Batman, Robin, Huntress (as Batgirl), the new Batgirl, Nightwing, and Azreal all going out and having to face what was in essence a city of criminals was fantasic. I was so used to Bats and crew always having the upper hand with their simple presense, that it kinda took me by surprise to see that the people of Gotham were now like "Oh look...it's that guy. Let's bash his head in with a brick."

And calling the GCPD the Blue Boys......heh.

[Local Hero]

Well I had up to now only read the novel version of No Man's Land ( THank you very much Chanty for a fun and eminently enjoyable pressie) but on thursday night when i visited Forbidden Planet there was a distinct sparsity of new trades so I picked up the five No Man's Land trades to see how different the comic version was. I have read the first trade and so far we have a few variations (I might have glossed over it but I can't remember Scarecrow or Scarface/Ventriloquist or Father Christian from the novel. It was great to see a few passages from the start of the book (which had stuck in my mind) portrayed in all their artistic glory. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the trades over the next few days

[Local Hero]

I read the rest of the trades.. and wow.. they are great. in fact I liked them so much I went out and bought the Contagion & Cataclysm trades so I could catch up on what happened before.