Just when I think I'm out, DC Women Kicking Ass pulls me back in!

Birthday wish #1 at DC Women Kicking Ass is also my #2 Christmas wish this year (first is an end to all war forever!), but they're all worthy wishes and NEED to come true.  Comics would be so much the better.

Katana... cancelled...

Not that it comes as a surprise.  Sales were abysmal and the critical response mixed.  Still, Katana is one of the few New 52 characters I like more than the original universe version.  Especially visually.  Whoever redesigned Katana into a sleek, all-armored killing machine did her a huge favor.  The old ketchup-and-mustard outfit was fine in its day, but not particularly memorable and too bright to be intimidating.  Now she looks like a human stealth fighter jet, every bit as lethal as the stories make her out to be.

When Katana ends, that will also end my regular purchase of any DC ongoing.  I spot-buy when something specific about a book interests me-- a particular story development or a fill-in by an artist whose work I find a "must-buy."  I bought the debut arc of the Batman Beyond Batgirl for both those reasons and because the writer has some positive vibes for me due to his sterling work on the Cass Cain Batgirl.  I bought the Gail Simone Batgirl because I wanted to see how she handled a character reveal (nicely done).  I bought the recent The Witching Hour anthology because it's Halloween time and I'm a huge fan of the original series.  I'll buy the first issue of Batman: Eternal because I want to show some support for Stephanie Brown and out of curiosity.

But Katana, while not perfect, was still a fun book I looked forward to buying each month.  Too bad there just weren't enough of us out there.  Nice try, Ann Nocenti.  I appreciated what you were doing!

Another DC panel, another request for Cass!

I suppose you know about this already, right?  DC Women Kicking Ass reports on a little pro-Cass incident that happened at the Emerald City Comicon.  Unfortunately, Stephanie Brown was a taboo question topic, but DC allowed Cass for some reason.  The crowd apparently responded very positively when asked if they wanted to see Cass back in the DC universe and panel member Larry Ganem said he'd make a note of it.

Of course, both the Steph ban and the Cass note might have been little jokes, but it's heartening to learn Cass still has some convention support out there.  Beyond buying issues of her series on Comixology, occasionally mentioning her online to pros who maintain an active social media presence and writing respectful letters to DC about her, one of the best ways of keeping Cass alive to DC is to ask nicely about her at convention panels.  Nicely.  Again-- nicely.

At least until they ban all mentions of her.

It's a little glint of hope, anyway.  Perhaps we can read into this signs of a Cass thaw at the DC headquarters the way Kremlin-watchers used to analyze every speech, Pravda article and news broadcast to find out who was in and who was out and what policies might come into effect back during the Cold War.  I have confidence Cass will re-appear in comics sometime in the near future.

Cass is back as Black Bat (on a sketch trading card)

And you can read all about it (and see it) on this DC Women Kicking Ass post, "New Batman Trading Card Series Now Available."

As you can see, the card itself is pretty nifty work.  You don't have a lot of space on a card, so you have to make what little you have count.  This artist has.

The only sketch card I've ever owned came out of an Indiana Jones Masterpiece set a few years back when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out.  If I remember correctly, it depicted Indy's dad, Dr. Henry Jones, Sr.  I can't remember the artist's name, but the likeness was quite accurate and I admired it a lot.

I still own that card, so if you're an artist who drew Sean Connery for that set, one of your cards has made it all the way to Japan!

Probably won't get a Cass Cain Black Bat card, though.

More reaction to the Gail Simone firing...

DC Women Kicking Ass has a sharp take on DC's abrupt and low-class firing of one of their top writers and New 52 cheerleaders, but it's one of the comments that inspired I found intriguing.  Here it is:

 "I think Marvel or any other company would welcome her with open arms." --jayb3 

 If Marvel is smart, they'll immediately announce they've offered a top-flight title to Simone.  I have no idea what her reaction to that would be and I wouldn't want to speculate, but the evil Texas businessperson side of me can't help but hope something like this happens.

In fact, if I were J.R. Bryan, Stetson-wearing editor-in-chief of Marvel, I'd be on the phone with Simone today with a Southern-accented sales pitch along these lines:

"I want to hire you right this minute.  We've got an idea that Dani Moonstar and Xi'an Coy Manh are so sick of all the factions and in-fighting among the X-Men they've decided to buy a van and travel these United States lending a helping hand to those in need.  Kinda like that ol' Lee Van Cleef-Timothy Van Patten show The Master, only awesome because you're writing it.  Other than that basic concept, you've got carte blanche to do whatever you want, set the tone, add other members to the cast, no one's off limits, slap any title you like on there and we're gonna give you a big PR push in the media and at the conventions.  How 'bout it?"

I predict at least 50k in sales.  At least.  And I do know Ms. Simone is a lot classier than I am.