Saturday, February 4, 2017

Detective Comics #946


Batman is now responsible for everybody he couldn't save.

The Review
At one point in this issue, Spoiler discusses her misgivings about being a superhero with a programmed bit of Clayface that looks and acts like Tim Drake. This is part of what she says:


I fucking hate this with all of my comic book loving heart.

I don't know exactly where the blame falls for comic books entering a modern era where everybody had to deconstruct what they mean or where writers decided to discuss real world consequences of having superheroes and super-villains. But whoever is to blame, they fucking broke the magic of superhero comic books. I'm not saying some remarkable stories didn't come out of that perspective. But it paved the way for lazy writers to merely write stories where the villains sole reason for existing was to defeat the bad guy. Sure, there was probably quite a bit of this previously but that was before the change in perspective of viewing heroes and the normal people around them as if they were real. It was a naive landscape where The Joker could go after the Batman simply for the sake of going after the Batman because he wasn't murdering thousands of residents of Gotham every time he attacked. No when The Joker attacks Gotham simply to punish Batman, the audience can't escape the question: would Gotham be safer without Batman? That's a question that should never have to be asked in comic books. We shouldn't be delving into the idea that superheroes cause more harm than good because at that moment, the entire reason for superheroes ceases to exist.

When you have story after story of a villain attacking Superman or Wonder Woman or The Flash or Batman or The Teen Titans simply because they have a vendetta against them, all collateral damage and innocent lives lost can, arguably, be blamed on the hero. Every time Superman is manipulated by a villain to do evil, Superman becomes a threat rather than an inspiration. Years of lazy writers who couldn't be bothered to come up with a criminal motivation for the super-villain and instead simply had the villain target the hero created the next generation of writers asking the question, "Why aren't more people angry that proximity to superheroes causes death and destruction?" Now heroes have to constantly be proving that they make things at least 51% safer than if they weren't there as opposed to what they once were: simply heroes that people were inspired by and whom people trusted and who fucking, quite simply, made the world a better place.

Fuck this bullshit that heroes are responsible for the death and destruction caused by villains. And here's the worst thing: I can't say that they aren't responsible! Of course the Teen Titans made New York an unsafe city because every fucking time the Fearsome Five or the Brotherhood of Evil or Deathstork showed up causing death and destruction it was because they were trying to kill the Teen Titans. Lazy comic book writers have made it so I can't enjoy a fucking Teen Titans book where Councilwoman Alderman is wrong to want them out of the city! She's a fucking asshole who is written to be an asshole and a villain but she's got a fucking point!. Give me back my heroic heroes who never allow themselves to be the reason for death and destruction. Make your fucking heroes heroic again, DC Comics.

What I'm saying is the heroes should never have to slow the fuck down long enough to ask themselves if what they're doing actually helps! Goddammit. It should be obvious. Make it obvious, you pricks.

Spoiler returns to the Bat-family after her philosophical musings with fake Red Robin. She stops them from sending the Victim Syndicate to the police after they've defeated them all because she has a few things to say about Batman and the world he's created. Oh boy. I can hardly fucking wait.

The Ranking!
No change! Batman still doesn't know exactly who the First Victim is but does it really matter to Batman? To him, the real First Victim, the one he couldn't save but always blames himself for, is his Mother. Definitely not his Father because his Father should have fucking saved his Mother, the creep.

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