Under the Radar/The Gift - Batman 45 to 47

== Review ==
* Gaz: Good morning and welcome to the first ever episode of Under the Radar, a show dedicated to the review and discussing of comic books from every era. I'm your host Gaz and this is my co-host Coolot.
* Coolot: I'm Coolot and this is my co-host Gaz.
* Gaz: So... We definitely started with a controversial topic for our first ever review. For those who don't know, this is The Gift by Tom King. Tom King is the writer for Mister Miracle, one of the greatest comics I have ever read. He is also the writer of DC Rebirth's Batman series, which... let's say split the audience.
* Coolot: And Heroes in Crisis and Strange Adventures and Human Target and-
* Gaz: Yeah Coolot, I think the audience gets that Tom King is controversial.
* Coolot: Oh.
* Gaz: Anyway, for those unaware, DC Rebirth was a soft reboot of the DC Universe following the... to put it mildly "controversial" New 52 reboot. Rebirth did a lot of really, really good things like bringing the character Wally West back, returning Superman to the way he used to be, Scott Snyder's Justice League was great. I mean, how do you not love a series that introduces Jarro? But... Tom King's Batman series was... well, it made some choices. Some good, like the introduction of the great character Gotham Girl or trying to get Catwoman and Batman married, and some bad, like the truly bizarre Bane plot twist in his series or today's story.
* Coolot: Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you: The Gift. What is the Gift you may ask? Imagine For the Man Who Has Everything if it had a child with Flashpoint and it doesn't have what made either For the Man Who Has Everything or Flashpoint good.
* Gaz: This is a strange book. One that takes heavy inspiration from For The Man Who Has Everything but doesn't understand the nuances of that story. For example, in For The Man Who Has Everything, Superman is put into a delusion world where Krypton never blew up and it results in a butterfly effect that ends in Krypton's ethereal state being demystified and Superman coming out of it not doing so hot because he realizes that his dream to live on Krypton would never go the way he imagined.
* Coolot: In this book, though...?
* Gaz: In this book, rather than the butterfly effect, we have the "butterfly" effect. The names are similar, I know, but they're very different. The butterfly effect sees minor events having massive consequences. But the "butterfly" effect has massive consequences that you just kinda claim happened because of a minor event.
* Coolot: So like if I punch you in the face, you could argue that it happened because of global warming.
* Gaz: Coolot, what are you talking about?
* Coolot: I have no idea. But alright anything else we should disclaim about the Gift before starting?
* Gaz: Nothing that can't be demonstrated from the comic itself. So, welcome to this new show, and let's show you this... honestly very shitty story.
The intro plays.
* Gaz: The cover of the first part is... okay. It's just a face with a speech bubble, nothing too eye catching. And also, is Booster Gold really well known enough that proclaiming he needs to die would... mean anything to a passer by?
* Coolot: It's like if a Spider-Man cover had Spider-Man saying "Puck must die". But covers are only one part of the story. Because this story starts in an unique-ish way. Green Lantern killing himself.
* Gaz: We shit you not. It definitely grabs your attention right out the bat and sets the tone for the rest of the story, though it also immediately shows the big problem with this story... Booster Gold is incredibly out of character.
* Coolot: Yeah, imagine watching an alternate version of a hero kill himself and your first thought is "awesome." Why did Green Lantern kill himself you may ask? He got infected by a virus that turns people into Joker.
* Gaz: They reveal this a couple pages later when Booster is attacked by this universe's Batman, who he believes is Bruce Wayne but is actually Dick Grayson. Now, you may be wondering, "what happened that caused Dick Grayson to become Batman instead of Bruce Wayne?" Well, good question cause they never explain this. That's a trend in this comic. According to some tech guy, Penguin is the President and Ra's al Ghul runs Eurasia and they never explain how this happened.
* Coolot: What is up with Bruce Wayne you may ask? Well basically early on in the comic, it's revealed that Booster Gold prevented Thomas and Martha Wayne's deaths for a wedding gift for Batman. Why did he do that you may ask? Just wait, it's dumb.
* Gaz: Booster eventually escapes from the insane Dick Grayson, but not before making this... horrible joke.
* Coolot: The joke is farts.
* Gaz: And, while running, we get glimpses into the other characters' lives, where they reveal Tim Drake is an accountant, Jason Todd is an inventor, and Duke Thomas got Jokered and was lobotomized. Which, credit where it's due, this page of Duke is haunting.
* Coolot: This is absolutely a nitpick but guys like Jason, Tim and Dick look around the same age as Bruce. Which is weird but I am aware that this is a nitpick.