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Maybe he's been throwing them into the Great Lakes?

Sincerely, Allaine

(Despite the presence of this forum, I generally just email my thoughts, but since this is a case of collaboration, it's probably more sensible if I just post here.)

Chris . . .

I'm sure you're not surprised that I'm commenting on the various threads connected to Pamela first. While I am certainly much more fond of her than Selina is, I am in agreement with her on one basic tenet - when grief befalls Ivy, it's usually her own fault. Here, however, Selina is equally correct in stating that the worst thing Ivy did was:

Quote:

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go to a bar, have a drink, and flirt with the bartender.

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Of course, part of the reason was Roxy's resentment of how Ivy treats her (as evinced by her reaction to Ivy saying hello to Harley), but everyone treats her that way, and Ivy was just the unfortunate target. (But that's another story.)

Speaking of Harley, it's a bit of a surprise that Ivy didn't seek Harley out for training. Certainly Harley is in, if not as good shape as Selina, better shape than Ivy, with her acrobatic abilities. Then again, I don't know how Harley got her abilities in your world - for example, in NML, Ivy gave them to her when she found her body outside Robinson Park, whereas in Mad Love I believe she was a gymnast in college.

It's equally possible, I suppose, that Harley is in Arkham, or that Ivy sought Selina out because Catwoman eventually took the extreme step of a one-woman show to combat a progessively worse series of press reports.

Anyway, I was reading this chapter when I reached this line:

Quote:

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She had to get back into shape so she could hold her own in a physical confrontation as well as any other rogue of her stature.

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That was at the bottom of my window. To continue reading, I would have to scroll down further. A lucky break, as I just took a moment knowing what was coming next, and enjoyed wondering how Selina would respond.

(Although it's about time - as fighting goes, Ivy has always been one of those types to rely on "props". Hand-to-hand, well . . . I don't think anyone expected her to beat Selina in Hush, including me.)

I think Ivy has been humiliated here worse than ever, bringing her down to the level of a leering beer commercial, and for once she's able to elicit some sympathy. (I'm reminded of BoP 63, when Dinah is chasing Cheshire through a swimming pool and thinking something along the lines of "I hope no one's taping this, or this is will be downloaded for eternity".)

Oh boy, this should be interesting. What will Bruce think about Selina helping one of his enemies to fight back better? And how much of Ivy's personality will it take for the sympathy to wear off?

To Myklar:

I'll admit I don't read Superman comics. I watched the movies when I was a kid, and I watch Smallville now, but for me, my connection to Superman is the animated series. And I don't even have the good sense to be ashamed to admit it!

For that reason, when I "think" Lois Lane in general, I "hear" Dana Delany. I have associated LL with DD to the extent that I associate the Joker with Mark Hamill, certainly much more than I would associate Superman with Tim Daly, for example. When I read your segments from her POV, I "hear" Delany's voice reading the lines. That's how spot-on I feel your portrayal of her is. (When I compare you to the cartoon writers, please don't take that as faint praise.)

Out of curiosity, just what did all those other reports say about the Prometheus affair to make Selina look worse? I basically skipped the beginning and end of that little story.

To both of you:

Of course the entire piece is excellent. I don't know who's mainly responsible for the magic shop (the cat bit, of course, smacks strongly of Chris' handiwork), but the whole thing certainly does make for a more forbidding harbinger than even Bruce's "cosmetic surgery". When various attempts to learn more information are halted at turns by such things as a playful cat and an answering machine, that's the cosmos' way of saying, "Don't ask. Even if I could answer - which I can't, by the way - you wouldn't want to know."

The true trick of a collaboration is not only to create a seamless piece, but to make it so that a reader imagines he or she is reading something that has flown from a single mind, and yet can detect those little touches that are "tells" for the other writer. So this is a marvelous thing.

Sincerely, Allaine

P.S. To whoever said it in their review - where exactly did you get the idea that lots of gargoyles is a sign of bad news? *glowers*