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Oh. Hello there.
uh... this is the first in a series - probably
of videos in which I try to explain for you
complicated-ish plot arcs from DC Comic books. I say DC specifically
because i do not read anything else.
and to wit
I should mention - by way of introduction - that I am an
administrator on the DC Database
which is probably largest wiki related to DC Comics on the internet.
My name is Rab Townsend.
That's my name.
Sorry.
i'm from canada
so that would explain my...
lack...
slash
having of an accent?
uhm... anyway
let's - let's get started. Let's get down to the
business of this...
the first arc that i have chosen to explain
is called Birds of Prey - COLON -
Trouble in Mind
...It's a pun!
you'll get it later.
It starts off
with this fella named Charlie Keen
and he is a reporter from the Gotham Gazette and he has some informant that has told
him that there was this all girls team of vigilantes or something
and
yeah - he's been investigating it.
so he goes to this church to meet his informant, one night, and then it turns
out that his informant is a bunch of assassins dressed in invisible suits who are
going to kill him
so he gets saved by the team he was investigating - the birds of prey - who are
only two at this time. Two... two... there we go. Over here.
They are two at this time. They are black canary and starling
and they save his ***.
then they try to get him out of the city because he's
been targeted for death obviously. so they try to get him to a plane at the airport
at which point he receives a text message and then explodes in their
faces!
the text message has this nursery rhyme on it.
So you can put things together in your mind. I'll maybe get to that later.
so they take a sample from his body secretly
and uh... they take it to this doctor starling knows named trevor
cahill
and he discovers some chemicals in his blood
and one of those chemicals is this experimental stroke drug and he's all like
'why has this guy got an experimental stroke drug in his system?' and
so they check and see which facilities have been using this stroke drug and
four or five of them have been broken into recently
FANCY THAT!
so
they check out the fifth one obviously because it would be dumb to check out
the other four
and there's a bunch of dudes in invisible suits, of course
so, they fight those guys, and then all of a sudden there's this voice in their head, and the voice is all like
I'm... a jerk - and it turns out.
to be Choke.
This
fellow or lady named Choke, who can talk in people's brains and make them explode
when they read nursery rhymes on their phones and have an experimental stroke drug in
their system
apparently
and
okay i've got some notes over here, so I have to read these to make sure - Okay. Yeah. At some point,
Katana and poison ivy decide to join the team
and batgirl too.
so there you go. they're on the team
and then they get on a train for some reason, and i don't remember why, and
stop these two dudes from blowing up
and the two dudes are supposed to be some kind of radio transmitters
receiving or sending - i don't remember - i don't know
i say i don't remember but i actually do kinda remember, and the thing that i'm
remembering is that it's not really explained. that's why i'm saying 'i don't remember'
maybe to spare the writer
and editor of that book, who i will not name, despite the fact that it's totally
obvious if you read the book. 'cause it's right there in the credits.
i'm trying to spare them some embarrassment.
not really. no.
anyway
they're on this train. guys almost blow up, and then it turns out
that dinah - black canary - can hear this Choke's voice in her head, and
it's saying the nursery rhyme, and oh my gawd, she might explode. so starling
punches her in the face and she goes unconscious and is not
gonna blow up
fortunately
and then they take her to doctor cahill and he's all like 'why do you have a
stroke drug in your system? What the hell?'
and she's all like
*flirty flirty* and he's all like *flirty flirty*, and then there's some *** tension
you can - you can feel it there in the book as you're reading it.
and you'll be like 'Oooh...
*** tension.'
or maybe it's just written there, but there's some *** tension. You'll
experience it in whichever way you feel suitable
uhm...
anyway somehow they find out that these invisible dudes who are called the
cleaners, and wear these invisible suits and stuff
are uhm... living in between the floors of prominent gotham buildings - just
like in Being John Malkovich
where the guy goes to work on, like, the thirty-fifth and a halfth floor.
hafth?
the thirty-fifth and a halfth
floor
so much foam there. Uhm... yeah.
on a floor between floors, for some reason. Which, I will add, is a plot device which is
used in Batman: The Court of Owls
and so it seems a little cheap that it's used here
even though it happens here first.
or does it? I don't even know!
it doesn't - i don't know!
i'm kind of mad about that
because they've got, like, overlap. maybe the Talons from Batman - I've got my
hand over here and I'm holding - Okay, I'll scooch over. The Talons from Batman, and then the
cleaners, and they just hang out together on the middle of the floor thing - or they're
in the same building, and they don't even know it! What what's going on here?!
...moving on
so they go to one of these floors between the floors and it turns there's like a
million of these cleaners - cleaner dudes... Did i already mention that i don't
know why they're called cleaners?
there's no explanation... [email noise]
Shut up! and... uhm...
they...
then they fight them, obviously because that's what you do in a comic book; you fight them
and then all of a sudden Choke's like 'Nuh-uh! You're not gonna remember this ***!'
and then sends them out into the
street all of a sudden, and they're like 'what happened? I don't remember fighting anybody! I'm not even
on the team anymore more! What's going on?!'
and... that kinda pisses people off for a while.
and then starling goes to see some friend of hers named June, and June's all like
'I don't wanna see you!' And she's all like 'whatever, I'm happy you're here!'
but then we never see June again, and I have no idea what purpose that's seen
serves...
and, uh, then...
Also - also starling, like
goes to a bridge, that there was a note on her arm that apparently Black Canary
wrote for her, but maybe didn't
because of that weird thing that happened before where they forgot stuff?
and then it turns out that a bunch of guys are waiting for her to kill her there, so
clearly it wasn't black canary who sent her there, because that would have been a
real *** thing to do.
all right
and then after that, there's some dude named eric
and the dude named eric is like a sleeper agent - all of these cleaners guys are sleeper
agents for choke and they all put on their fancy costumes from mind
control hypnosis magic
and this eric dude, they find this eric dude, and they're all like, 'Dude.
you got mind control problems.'
and he's all like 'What?! I don't believe it!' And then they're like 'no. you do.'
and so...
they go to his office, and they use him as a mole.
and then
it turns out that everybody in the office is a sleeper agent and so
everybody in the office like turns into a
cleaner and is all like
'we're going to beat the crap out of you!'
and then dinah's - Dinah's black canary. I think I said that already.
Dinah and everybody are all like 'I'm gonna beat the crap out of you guys - who are going to beat the
crap out of us
and then somewhere in the middle of that big fight
Dinah's all like 'Ha-HA! I know how... I know who Choke is!'
'I know how this is happening!'
except she never tells us
so thanks
anyway it turns out that Choke is trevor. trevor cahill - the doctor who she had squirmy
feelings for
maybe
and
so they corner him in some, like, car park or something.
and then they're all like 'you're Choke!' and he's all like 'Nah - yeah, I might be.'
And then Katana cuts off his head.
and i like five minutes later she's like 'Wait a sec...'
no, no.
he wasn't choke.
and that's the end of the story
that's the end. that's the end for you. you don't get to read anymore until later
and it wouldn't help, because after that
Choke is never mentioned again. the whole thing is never mentioned again.
in fact, the next issue
which is number eight, I think. the next issue, which is collected in the next
the next...
trade paperback
I've gotta stop referencing over here because you can't see...
the next trade paperback
it... it has nothing to do with the next story, so i don't know why it's in there.
but anyway there's this issue where they fight a bunch of assassins in a burning
building or something and then it turns out that dinah killed her husband
kurt a long time ago and that
created a whole lot of issues for me, because of continuity related things that I
will maybe get into another time.
but anyway, that stuff...
that stuff sorta runs through the plot, but I don't know why that's there. it's really
dumb
and Choke's never mentioned again
the end.
so just enjoy staring into my eyes for a few seconds while I try to think of something else to say.
Nope. That's it.
except that I got a bunch of glare in my eyes, and now I can't see.
anyway
thanks for stopping by, and reading... not reading - Listening!
to my stupid thing where i do stupid things
and talk about stupid things...
stupid things.
seeya later.