What if Batman was Bruce Wayne and vice versa?

I love nothing more than that moment where I am reading an old comic and something tips me off that this issue is going to be amazing.

Batman #303 definitely has one of those moments. In this comic, Batman gets knocked on the head and gets all confused. He thinks that Bruce Wayne is the crimefighter and Batman is the billionaire playboy! Awesome, right?

Check it out. It all starts in a museum after a fight with a villain who gets away.

Awwww...poor Batman. So confused. So sad. But he gets his confidence back soon when he sees the Bat-signal.

That panel is rad.

Now watch as Bruce Wayne baffles Commissioner Gordon:

Sooo confusing. Bruce Wayne seems to understand that Batman is the mysterious masked vigilante identity, yet he still thinks that Bruce is the one who fights crime. Anyway, who cares? The important thing is that we get panels like this one:

I love that Gordon just thinks that Batman is disguised at Bruce Wayne for some reason. Gordon is a tired, tired man. At this point he's just like "Whatever."

No time to linger there, though! Bruce Wayne has to beat up Raveen!

Watch as Bruce hands out the most suggestive trash talk EVER:

He'll have to blow your brains out without a gun? But how will he do...ohhhhhhhh.

Bruce also punches a dude's hair off during this fight:

So obviously it's a problem that all these people are seeing Bruce Wayne beat up a room of people, Batman-style. But don't worry. Bruce uses some quick thinking here to cover up an onlooker's accusation:

That should put an end to any further questions.

Alfred notices that something is amiss!

The next morning, things get even weirder:

Skipping ahead, Alfred is unable to keep Batman from leaving the house in the Batman costume in broad daylight. This causes some confusion with the Gotham public:

So Batman, feeling like an outcast, seeks refuge. This allows for the writers to make a SICK HIPPIE BURN!!!

Let no one say that 1978 is too late to be making hippie jokes!

No matter where Batman goes, people laugh at him or threaten him. It's sad. And it prompts this outburst:

"Good grief!" says Batman!

I always thought Batman already had "one of those days."

What I am trying to say, in a long-winded way, is that Batman #303 is awesome.

Team Living Between Wednesdays is in effect!

Welcome to the new site everyone!

As you may have noticed, over the past couple of years I have had less and less free time for updating the blog. This was making me sad, and I had to think of a way to fix it because I love yammering about comic books on the internet. Also, I had run out of room on my Blogger account.

The solution to the second problem was to buy my own domain, which I did. And the solution to the first problem took some thought. Then it occured to me: go back to the original dream!

When Living Between Wednesdays first started waaaaay back in 2006, the original concept was that it was going to be written by four ladies. It ended up pretty much just being me, which worked pretty well but I still sort of missed the camraderie.

Over my years of blogging and working in a comic shop, I came to realize something: guys read comics too! So why shouldn't they be a part of Team Living Between Wednesdays?

I have assembled what I believe is an astonishing, unbeatable team of comic book fans to help write this blog. A mighty foursome that will be able to provide witty, insightful commentary on our favourite storytelling medium on a daily basis!

Let's meet the team:

Johnathan Munroe has been writing the hilarious comic blog "Paul and John Review" since 2006. As you may notice, we have now blended our archived posts together here on this new site. I have known Johnathan since university and he is definitely one of the reasons why I read so many comics today. He took the initiative to lend me tons of trades that got me hooked on the larger story arcs being told in comics. Prior to that I was more of a one-shot kind of gal. Johnathan's areas of expertise include The Legion of Super-Heroes, Dark Horse comics, magic-based characters, and DC's silver age.

Tiina Johns is one of my best buddies. She has worked at Strange Adventures comic shop in Halifax for several years, and got me a job there as well. She is also the bass player in The Stolen Minks, the band I recently departed because I wanted to focus on directing. She has been writing the "Comics are For Everybody" blog for Shameless Magazine for the past year, encouraging teenage girls to read comics. Tiina's name is spelled with two 'i's. Tiina's areas of expertise include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Brian Wood, Catwoman, indie comics and GLBT/feminist themes in comics.

Dave Howlett is the manager of Stange Adventures and he knows more about comics than you do. Don't even front. Dave was writing an awesomely titled blog called "All This and Earth-2," which sadly didn't last very long. Thankfully, he has agreed to blog again here because he has a wealth of knowledge and witty remarks that have to be shared. Dave also knows more about movies than you do, especially horror movies. Oddly enough, he also probably knows more about the Wu-Tang Clan than you do (unless you are a member of the Wu-Tang Clan. No disrespectin' the Wu!). Dave is also a really awesome artist. You may remember his work on the Marvel variant covers post that I did a few months ago.  Dave's areas of expertise include Jack Kirby, Superman, Mike W. Barr Batman stories, and EVERYTHING.

Together we form TEAM LBW and we are coming down from the Northeast tip to bring you a comic blog so awesome and charming it will melt your cold, nerdy heart.

We write about comics because we love comics. So check your cynicism at the door (or leave it in the comments threads over at Newsarama).This is a happy place (unless something makes us angry, but we're Canadian so even when that happens we just accept it with gentle good humour. And apologize.).

Here's what you can expect from the new Living Between Wednesdays:

- daily updates
- weekly comic reviews posted every Thursday (for real!)
- at least one Super Hunk rating per month written by yours truly!
- theme weeks that all four of us participate in (I think another Bob Haney Week is way overdue)
- the return of the weekly feature Archie Sunday
- weekly interviews with real life comic book creators!

And that's just a start!

Welcome aboard! I hope you'll stick around as LBW embarks on an exciting new era! HUGE THANKS to Paul Pettipas and my graphic designer husband Matt Reid for making this site for me. It looks awesome.

This Week's Haul: It's the Muppet Show!

Hiya everyone!

Here are some of the comics I read this week!

The Muppet Show #1

I am actually astonished at how well this was executed. It's really, really great. The way the characters are only drawn from the waist up, the jokes, the structure of the comic mirroring the Muppet Show episodes. It's just fantastic. Roger Langridge writes and draws it and he captures the feel of the original show perfectly. I am pretty excited about Boom Studios new Boom Kids line, but the Muppet Show was definitely what I was most looking forward to. I am a huge Jim Henson fan, and I have been watching a lot of the Sesame Street: Old School DVDs lately, so I was definitely in the mood for this. By the way, a Sesame Street comic would be awesome.

Wonder Woman #30

I know I have praised Gail Simone's run on Wonder Woman plenty, but I just want to say it again: her Wonder Woman voice is amazing. I find it really jarring when a character just doesn't sound right (ie - James Robinson's Superman) and Wonder Woman is a character that has been, more often than not, written as a very flat character. Simone manages to give her a lot of depth and personality without losing the regal quality of the character. Like, I want Wonder Woman to have some warmth and humanity, but I don't want to see her being like "yo, what's up Etta?"

Also in this comic, Wonder Woman is really, really angry so we get to see how powerful she can be when she wants to be. And I like that.
 

Daredevil #117

Daredevil is one of those comics that makes me feel sorry for people who don't read comics because they do not get to read DAREDEVIL. There are a lot of comics on the stands that I enjoy, and there are a lot of great story lines, but the world of Daredevil, however depressing, is one of my favourites to lose myself in for 10 minutes or so each month. I think because it's more of a character study than any other comic, which makes it sound boring but it's really not because there is also a lot of kicking and punching. Plus, Brubaker is the master of the cliffhanger ending.
 

Captain America #48

I love nothing more than when Daredevil and Captain America drop on the same week. Double shot of Brubaker, PLUS I get my two Marvel boyfriends, Matt Murdock and Winter Soldier, in one week. And this week there is the added bonus of NAMOR in Captain America! I would love a week where Namor appears in every Marvel title, because he really makes every comic that much more entertaining. In this issue we get a nice example of how Namor, though pretty ridiculous-looking, is really one of the most terrifying characters when he's angry.

And also, Winter Soldier was hot.

Superman #686

Meh. I love this cross-over Superman storyline. I love Renato Guedes' art. I do not love James Robinson's writing on this title. Usually I like his writing, but I am not feeling his Superman. I do love seeing Mon-El back in action, though. But seriously, Superman, the dude is trapped in the Phantom Zone forever because you, let's face it, did not even try to find a cure for his lead allergy and as soon as he gets out (on his own) you are demanding favours of him? I'm surprised he didn't tell you to take a flying leap (note: not an effective insult for Superman).
 

Showcase Presents: Ambush Bug

Hello, what's this? Something totally rad?!

I basically own everything that is in here, but I still bought it because I just want to support the fact that they even published this. Well done, DC. Ambush Bug may seem like an odd choice for a Showcase, but it's actually perfect because there has never been an Ambush Bug collection of any kind before, and it's a little challenging finding all of the issues he appears in. You won't be sorry you bought this.

Review of Medicine, by Johnathan

Just this past Tuesday, I went to the hospital and had two wisdom teeth removed. Several aspects of this process seemed worth mentioning:

Firstly, I was willfully paying several hundred dollars to a man so that he would remove some of my teeth. This seems strange to me now that I look back on it. On a related note, I said "Thanks" to the tiny radiologist once she had finished x-raying my mouth. This translates to "Thanks for bathing my head with radiation.", which is honestly something I never thought I'd say outside of certain types of RPG.

Secondly, my doctor (who did a fine job) was named Dr Goodday. Not strange in and of itself, but when I signed in I noticed that two of his colleagues were named Dr Precious and Dr Lovely. I have two main theories on this matter:

a) When I used to work at a call centre we heard of another call centre where you were allowed to make up a name to use instead of having to tell random strangers who you were. We were not allowed to do this, which is why Zoltan Hammertooth is not feared to this day among the wireless -clueless of the Deep South (this is a lie. A friend of mine and a man named Zoltan are currently simulating sex using a series of Facebook applications and roundly disturbing me, and so the name is naturally enough on my mind. I would have been known as Aristotle Conundrum)

b) The Oral/Maxiofacial surgery field has been infiltrated by the Fair Folk. Remember how I mentioned that the woman who blasted my skull with radiation was very small? It is just possible that she was a pixie. Also, Dr Goodday was very tall, which is not in and of itself telling, but it is possible that he had the hooves of a goat instead of feet, and we all know what that means.

The third interesting aspect of the whole experience came after I woke up two teeth lighter. Here's the situation: my girlfriend is out of town and has left me her keys. She lives directly across the street from the hospital. I have brought my friend Yeldarb along as per hospital instructions. Our plan is for him to escort me across the street and into the apartment, where I will spend some time recovering from the Wowie Gas that they gave me. The hospital folk will not hear of this and call me a cab. I feel compelled to apologise to the cabbie and tip him five dollars. He assures us that this is not the shortest distance he has ever been called upon to drive somebody.

Still, I appear to have done pretty well: no bleeding from the mouth, no blinding pain, no (shudder) "dry socket". As far as getting parts of your body removed, the whole thing was JOHN APPROVED.

Part two of that last thing! A long time later! By Johnathan!

I may seem to be in the grip of some sort of late-Winter/early-Spring frenzy of procrastination  but I am totally working on really cool things! With Paul! Also, I'm procrastinating a lot. But with a girl! Which isn't as bad, I think?

Anyway:

Mr Terrific - Would there even be a Mr Terrific in the Thirtieth Century? Terry Sloane started crime-fighting because he was the very best at everything and was super-duper suicidally bored by it all. But was he smarter than Brainiac 5? A better fighter than Karate Kid? More roly-poly than Bouncing Boy? No, no and no. I figure that a Mr Terrific somehow thrust into a Legion audition would find himself feeling suicidally inferior. He'd probably end up living in the sewers underneath the Clubhouse, eating future-vermin (astro-snakes! cosmic sand fleas! plasma eels!) and writing bad poetry about rejection. And everyone would forget about him until Five Years Later, when he shows up in two panels before getting shot by the Dominion. Poor guy.

Sandman - In contrast, Golden Age Wesley Dodds is just too damn hard to stop for him *not* to get into the Legion. Seriously, I don't know about his solo adventures but in the old All-Star Comics days he was easily the most bad-assed of the normal JSAers. As far as I can figure it, Lightning Lad or someone would have a scary dream about Sandman (and possibly also Sandy, the Golden Boy) punching him in the head and then he'd wake up and go to get a cup of coffee to steady his nerves and then Sandman would bust through the door and punch him in the head. He wouldn't even have a vote - no one would. they'd all wake up one day and Sandman would be just finishing screwing his name-plate onto that big horseshoe-shaped mass podium they have and that would be that.

Spectre - Well, he's got the power, but I don't know if his methods are in line with standard Legion non-homicidal practice. Also - and I know I made a very similar joke about Dr Fate - I think that "as old as time" is a bit too far past the age of eighteen to be ignored.

Starman - Let's ignore the fact that he wouldn't get in in a million years because he gains his power from a Cosmic Rod (and that thing really never did work too well, to tell the truth. It seemed like he lost it or found that it was completely useless about every other adventure) and think about how much more interestingly confusing the Legion would be if he got in. Star Boy! Starman! Together at last! Oh no, here comes Starfinger and Pulsar Stargrave! Aiee!

Wildcat - If his "nine lives" power was in effect, Wildcat would totally get in, but even if it wasn't I think that he would be a valuable addition to the Legion lineup for one simple reason: costume diversity. Essentially, most of the Legion (and a decent percentage of the JSA, actually) are wearing spaceman clothes with some sort of fancy-pants logo on the front. Whither the themed costumes of yore, super-teens? Wildcat, with his right-down-to-the-jowls attention to detail (okay, I haven't actually seen a jowled cat, but there must be some reason for those little flaps) could show those young punks a thing or two about looking good while cracking skulls. Picture Brainiac 5 wearing a hat shaped like a brain. Are you delighted? The answer is yes.

Wonder Woman - The Justice Society's secretary, which is kind of heinous, yes. It's not quite as bad in the context of the stories ("We can only have eight members for some dumb reason, but we think that you're cool! Want to be our secretary?") but yeah: stupid. Despite (because of?) all of the bondage, Golden Age Wonder Woman actually kicked a fair amount of ass, and her own comic was delightfully weird. I can't really think of any powers that she has that aren't duplicated by half of the legion membership, though. Maybe having Etta Candy around could count (Etta Candy is the most delightful Golden Age sidekick since Slam Bradley's pal Shorty. So I have decreed). If not, I'm sure that she could get into the Wanderers, no problem.

Cylon cookies!

There are many copies!

To celebrate (or mourn) the last episode of Battlestar Galactica tonight, I made Cylon cookies. And you can too!

First you just have to fashion a custom cookie cutter out of a heavy duty foil lasagna pan like so:

Then you make your favourite sugar cookie dough. Like all things in life, I turn to a fictional character for advice here. Betty Crocker has never steered me wrong.

Alright, now roll out that dough and get ready to cut some cylon heads!

Now, remember, when designing your cutter, and when placing the cookies on the pan, these cookies are going to lose their shape quite a bit when they bake and spread out all over the place. Leave a lot of room.

Time to toast those toasters! Bake for about 10 minutes until they start to get a little golden. Be careful taking them off the sheet after because they are delicate. We had a couple of casualties.

When the cookies are nice and cool, you can decorate them! I split a batch of vanilla frosting in half and coloured one half red and one half silver. Matt drew a Cylon head that we could use as a guide:

Mmmmm...delicious Cylons!

Enjoy the last episode everyone!