Comic Books

> > 5
BATMAN STREETS OF GOTHAM #5


Price: $3.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 0.0%

Reviews

UserAddedSpoilers
robbydzwonar10/22/09YesRead Review
comicBOOKchris10/22/09NoRead Review
453
Pulls
Avg Rating: 3.6
 
Users who pulled this comic:
 

Comments

  1. MisterJ says:
    October 19, 2009 at 5:28 pm

    I hit pull before I saw that Dini isn’t involved with this issue.  But I might as well give the first issue a shot.

    Also, is that Huntress’s normal costume?

  2. Avatar photo Conor Kilpatrick (@cskilpatrick) says:
    October 19, 2009 at 5:35 pm

    @MisterJ: Yes.

  3. Avatar photo Viewt says:
    October 19, 2009 at 5:42 pm

    Chris Yost has been great in Red Robin, so I’m cool with Dini taking a couple months off.

  4. Avatar photo PraxJarvin says:
    October 19, 2009 at 6:00 pm

    Err… I recently changed my mind on Red Robin, but Yost is probably my least favorite writer of the bat books. It’s a bit disappointing as I really liked SoG…  Here’s hoping a bus of kids doesn’t explode in this issue.

  5. Avatar photo ScorpionMasada says:
    October 19, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    Why isn’t Dini keeping up with his monthly books?

    Fill in writers on both his Gotham books within 5 issues . . .

  6. Avatar photo WinTheWonderboy says:
    October 19, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    @MisterJ: Its Jim Lee’s design that he did so she’d look more the BOP tv show Huntress. The shows long dead, but the slutty costume lives on.

  7. Avatar photo HailScott says:
    October 19, 2009 at 7:49 pm

    Huh? I thought last issue with The Broker and Zsasz was the best SoG so far.

    I was hoping to see more of that. I don’t know anything about the Huntress, and Manhunter is just. . . not for me. So, is the continuation of the Batman story with Zsasz not going to be in here? Am I missing the point of the SoG title- is Batman not always going to be in it? I’m confused. I’ll guess I’ll have to take a peak inside before I buy it Wednesday.

  8. MisterJ says:
    October 19, 2009 at 9:03 pm

    @Win-Well at least the slutty costume comes with kneepads (cue rimshot)

  9. Avatar photo Conor Kilpatrick (@cskilpatrick) says:
    October 19, 2009 at 9:22 pm

    @ScorpionMasada: I imagine his bigger paying TV work takes priority.

    @HailScott: Last issue was a one-shot story. There is no continuation.

  10. Avatar photo ScorpionMasada says:
    October 19, 2009 at 10:00 pm

    What show is Dini working on? Animated stuff?

    You know what? I feel like being a dick . . . ahhaha

    I hit my deadlines for my job and I don’t nearly have the amount of people waiting for my work to be done on time as a comic book writer might.

    When I feel the stress of too much work and fear I won’t make a deadline, I cut back on how many projects and responsibilities I have.

    Perhaps the comic industry goes too easy on their talent.

  11. Avatar photo robbydzwonar says:
    October 19, 2009 at 11:37 pm

    I’m sick of Red Robin already.  If Dini isn’t on this, neither am I.  Screw Huntress.

  12. Avatar photo Conor Kilpatrick (@cskilpatrick) says:
    October 20, 2009 at 12:05 am

    @ScorpionMasada: Are you a writer/producer?

  13. Avatar photo skeets says:
    October 20, 2009 at 3:33 am

    I’d skip this arc if it weren’t for the Manhunter co-feature.

  14. Avatar photo WadeWilson says:
    October 20, 2009 at 4:43 am

    Nice cover!

  15. Avatar photo stuclach says:
    October 20, 2009 at 9:22 am

    @ScorpionMasada – No offense intended, but suppose you had a second job that paid roughly 1/10th the amount your primary job pays.  If something big came up involving the primary job how much time would you spend on the second one?  I agree that the comic industry might need to demand more from their talent, but (unless that individual has an exclusive contract) he/she has other options and, in the case of Mr. Dini, many, many options.  If they want him to continue writing for them, they need to treat him like the talent he is.  That is just the way the world works.

    Personally, I am exhibiting my displeasure with the situation by simply not buying the comic.  If DC (or other companies) can’t deliver what I want, then I simply don’t buy it.  That is the only way to effect change. [Though complaining on message boards certainly provides a more satisfying emotional release.]

  16. MisterJ says:
    October 20, 2009 at 5:29 pm

    I wish I could not buy this, but I will at least give it a try due to Nguyen’s art.

    Out of curiosity, what is Dini working on?

  17. Avatar photo stuclach says:
    October 20, 2009 at 7:05 pm

    @MisterJ – I believe he writes for the Batman: The Brave and The Bold cartoon.  At least occasionally.

  18. Avatar photo ScorpionMasada says:
    October 20, 2009 at 8:40 pm

    I’ve worked in two areas creatively as a writer: software development and education.

    Currently, I’m in education. One of my many jobs is writing curriculum for more than just my students. Close to a thousand stake holders at my school site depend on me delivering on time. I make a lot more from my full time teaching job than I make from my stipend or period off to produce curriculum (though I have been a part-time curriculum developer for a year). I also get paid well to work during vacation to complete some of these duties.

    Straight up: if I take a job whether it is for 1,000 dollars or 10,000 dollars, I deliver on time.

    If I don’t feel like the job is worth it (not enough money in it, not enough time, don’t enjoy it), I don’t do it.

    I call it work ethic.

    And I think I’ve heard artists and comic writers echo these same thoughts before.

    I love Dini and will continue to buy the book as long as he plans to write it (I really liked the fill in on Gotham City Sirens–that helps).

    I used to skip Detective when he didn’t write it . . . perhaps I will do it with Streets of Gotham as well, but this book seems to be based around longer story arcs.

  19. Avatar photo stuclach says:
    October 21, 2009 at 1:52 pm

    @ScorpionMasada – I agree completely. If you feel you can’t do the job well you shouldn’t agree to do it (unless, of course, you need the income to live).  However, (not to defend Dini, but to perhaps explain what happened) if you had agreed to a job and were working hard on it and then a job that paid much, much better came along (and you felt you needed to do it for your family/career), then you may (out of necessity) let that other job slip to make sure you do excellent work on the better job.  I don’t know if that is what occurred with Mr. Dini, but it is possible (not that that makes it OK).

    May I ask what curriculum you are working on?  I am currently doing a paper on AP courses in comparison to nonAP and the curriculum is obviously one of the most relevant differences.  

  20. Avatar photo magnum240 says:
    October 21, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    Has anyone considered that the breaks Dini is taking were built in from the start?  At least the reason he’s not writing the issue is because he has other things to do, not because he’s just not getting it done like so many other creators today.

  21. Avatar photo ScorpionMasada says:
    October 21, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    Right now I’m working on quarterly formative assessments that are highly aligned to the high school exit exams and end of the year state exams. My next assignment is doing the same thing for summative assessments.

    I’ve done secondary general education curriculum as well.

  22. Avatar photo stuclach says:
    October 21, 2009 at 4:44 pm

    @magnum240 – If I recall correctly (and I often don’t) the first issue he missed was originally solicited with him as writer, so that one probably wasn’t built in.  These might have been. 

    @ScorpionMasada – I did some work using Georgia’s End of Course Exams.  You can check it out here:
     http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-education/2009/02/10/study-finds-grade-inflation-at-some-georgia-high-schools.html

    I do a lot of work on education outcomes and find the level of rigor on the exams you work on an interesting topic.  My university (and the entire system in Georgia) is currently attempting to "revise" their core curriculum.  Unfortunately, many of those pushing for reform want to make it more confusing for students and less useful in the "real world".  They are pushing for more feel good courses (requiring classes like Heroic Quest for all students) and not requiring courses students really need if they want to get jobs (like mathematics and science).  It is a bit of a mess.

  23. Avatar photo ScorpionMasada says:
    October 21, 2009 at 6:16 pm

    Sounds like Georgia has it backwards. With No Child Left Behind hitting the public school system and Race To The Top possibly damaging public schools budgets, you guys should be focused on improving student’s test scores on the high stakes tests.

    Are you working for your university, your public school district or an independent company?

  24. Avatar photo stuclach says:
    October 21, 2009 at 6:55 pm

    @ScorpionMasada – I agree that we need to focus on rigor to improve performance on standardized tests (which, of course, typically leads to better academic/career outcomes).  That study was done for the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) as a consultant, but it was done through the University.  I am an economics professor and was contacted by the GOSA to do the study.  The other work I do on academic performance is academic research I do independently (no grants, etc).

    (I’m afraid we’ve hijacked this thread, if you’d like to chat more you can reach me on twitter also as stuclach.) 

  25. Avatar photo skeets says:
    October 21, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    main feature was ok, 3/5 but the co-feature was fantastic, so i’ll give it a 4.

  26. Avatar photo magnum240 says:
    October 21, 2009 at 7:43 pm

    What we really need is an iFanboy Twitter list.

  27. Avatar photo stuclach says:
    October 21, 2009 at 7:57 pm

    @magnum240 – Agreed. I think going to twitter.com/ifanboy and checking out who follows them is as close as we can get.  It would be nice to have a list of ifanboy user names matched up to twitter account names. Some are obvious (like mine), but some aren’t.

    (Sorry for the additional thread hijacking. I’m leaving now.) 

  28. Avatar photo magnum240 says:
    October 21, 2009 at 8:06 pm

    @stuclach  Well, im @tomohara.  I’ll find you now.  Also, depending on the day I ‘tweet’ (god, I hate that) ALOT, so be warned.

  29. Avatar photo PraxJarvin says:
    October 21, 2009 at 10:35 pm

    The lead feature wasn’t bad, but possibly not a two-parter. The co-feature really made the issue, for me. Saved it from a 2/5.

  30. Avatar photo comicBOOKchris says:
    October 21, 2009 at 10:41 pm

    I love Huntress, shes possibly my favorite female DC characterm and definitely in the top 5 of all time DC favorites. So its great to see her reappear in this arc which focuses on her. Yost seems to get her character, so this was a fun read for me. As was the Manhunter co-feature, which I usually skip over. Got me very interested, so now Im gonna go back and reread the previous ones.

  31. Avatar photo ScorpionMasada says:
    October 22, 2009 at 10:01 pm

    What’s Twitter?? ahhaha

    We got grade inflation like a 2006 real estate market in many of our California high schools. We get parents that rightly point out the disconnect between the good grades their kids get in English 9 and 10 and the nonpassing score they get on the high school exit exam.

    "The alternative is almost unthinkable, and that is failing students who worked hard and made so much progress but did not score high on the [end-of-course test]," the official said.

    hahahaha, really? If my students do not pass the culminating assignment with a C or better, they fail the class even if they have an A for an overall grade. We also don’t give D grades. Anything below 70% is a fail.

    "Other factors besides grade inflation could explain the gap between scores and grades. It’s possible that teachers may be grading students fairly but that they are not covering the content that the state expects students to learn."

    This is a critical factor in education. The alignment issue with class curriculum and the state tests.

    On another topic, namely comics, I enjoyed this book. I liked the Manhunter backup the most but I also enjoyed the main features dual storyline that comes crashing together at the end.

    I think that Manhunter cofeature was the best 10 pages I’ve read for these things. 

  32. Avatar photo WadeWilson says:
    October 23, 2009 at 4:08 am

    Solid issue all around, main story & back-up both 4/5 for me. Loved all the back story on Father Mark tying into all the old Batman events. Man … poor Father Mark!

  33. Avatar photo stuclach says:
    October 23, 2009 at 8:44 am

    @ScorpionMasada – I think we agree on education standards.  Did you see this quote in the comments: "I think the administrator’s comment that effort should be rewarded is accurate. " There is a massive amount of support for this crap out there.  People who claim to care about children are going out of their way to make sure kids are able to graduate regardless of whether they are capable of doing so.  This, of course, teaches these kids that they will be rewarded regardless of their actual abilities.  Then they go to college and yell at me for flunking them out of my class because they can’t write or speak in complete sentences.  The drive to get graduation rates up at the expense of rigor is driving the earnings gap that those same people constantly complain about. 

    (Sorry, again, for hijacking the thread.) 

  34. Avatar photo ScorpionMasada says:
    October 23, 2009 at 12:25 pm

    Effort is rewarded when students pay attention, practice, study, revise, and complete work.

    They will learn. Maybe not always enough to pass, but maybe enough to pass the next time they take the course.

    The only time this is not true is when the teaching is terrible or the curriculum is not aligned or maybe in some very special cases with students who have learning disablities of an extreme nature.

    We are also doing work to ensure that our students in 11th and 12th are being given instruction and test practice that will help them on the college placement tests. We are going to try and greatly reduce the number of students who place below Freshmen Comp.

  35. Avatar photo stuclach says:
    October 23, 2009 at 7:20 pm

    It sounds like you are on the right track.  We just had our annual school reform conference down here and I heard a lot of people saying the right things (the same things you just said in your post).  Now they need to actually follow through.  Keep up the good work.

  36. Avatar photo captbastrd says:
    October 26, 2009 at 5:13 am

    As far as Paul Dini not writing this and other titles due to "Hollywood" jobs when he’s signed on to them, I think he is more excusable than perhaps others are because he is usually working on DC related projects. Either way, he’s working towards comics in a way.

  37. Avatar photo Jediaxle says:
    October 27, 2009 at 6:15 pm

    I thought this book was great.  Haven’t read much Huntress stuff but really enjoyed her character along with the manhunter story

Leave a Comment