I feel like the Commander, trying to impinge a reality on something like a comic book character, but this topic has got me thinking. Batman doesn't want to solve the problem of the Joker and other villains, if he really wanted to bring a solution to the table he would kill them straight off. He's trying to bring them to justice, which is merely moving the problem(s) over to society at large. Clearly the villains are never going to be be rehabilitated, Batman must know this, and yet he continues to to use non lethal tactics against them. So it's more of a hobby of his, this vigilante business. When the villains get loose (yet again) Batman can sleep better at night knowing he's got job security ahead of him.


THE
AND IT SELLS
COMIC BOOKS
AARDVARK

The last Watchmen show I watched was episode 5 and it is one of the ten best individual hours of television I've ever seen in my life. It's a good show.

AArdvark wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 4:16 pm Cord Jefferson, the writer of Watchmen Episode 6 wrote:

In thinking about this character, and thinking about this episode, I’d been thinking about how ridiculous the idea of Batman is — the idea of a straight, white, billionaire man not being able to get justice through traditional means and needing to put on a costume. That’s absurd, because rich, straight, white men will get justice however they want it. They can buy courts, they can buy police forces, they can buy presidencies. The idea that a billionaire white man is going to be stuck seeking justice on the street because he can’t obtain it elsewhere is absurd. So Captain Metropolis is a good stand-in for Batman here.

This is a bad take.

Bruce didn't see his parents get gunned down at the age of 8 and then instantly shunt forward in time to when he was 25 and able to take advantage of the advantages these (fucking) WHITE MALES get. He got to be scared, angry and filled with rage at the age of 8. And 9. And 10. And so forth.

It's all fictional, so this is dumb, but a kid reacting to the unsolved double homicide of his parents by being permanently apoplectic is the most believable thing in the genre.

What about the fact they showed the cops as being dirty and on the take from major criminal organizations who presumably have not only money but lots of muscle? The good cops and criminal justice folks are hamstrung by having to actually follow rules and look over their back for double cross from their own ranks. Don't think the joker and penguin care about being sued in court. Hell, where would you serve the papers?

AArdvark wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2019 4:16 pm
You know, he's right. Bruce Wayne could seriously make use of back channels instead of going the caped crusader route.

I never thought about it eiyjer. With the kind of money Bruce Wayne has, he could hire all the bouncers, bullies and bastards there are to beat, brutalize and bloody every punk, perp, and politician to quit practicing their trade in his town or get out of town.

As they pointed out in The Dark Knight, all it takes to get rid of someone is to bust them for anything - even a trumped-up charge - give them a bad reputation, then have them sent to the county jail.

So considering there are professionals who like this sort of thing¹ and he can pay them to do his dirty work for, what to him is pocket change, but to them is top-dollar, it makes more sense for him to be doing things to make more money rather than wasting his time as an amateur vigilante.


- - - -
¹ "This is the resume of a professional mercenary."
- John McClane, Die Hard 2

Cord Jefferson, the writer of Watchmen Episode 6 wrote:

In thinking about this character, and thinking about this episode, I’d been thinking about how ridiculous the idea of Batman is — the idea of a straight, white, billionaire man not being able to get justice through traditional means and needing to put on a costume. That’s absurd, because rich, straight, white men will get justice however they want it. They can buy courts, they can buy police forces, they can buy presidencies. The idea that a billionaire white man is going to be stuck seeking justice on the street because he can’t obtain it elsewhere is absurd. So Captain Metropolis is a good stand-in for Batman here.

You know, he's right. Bruce Wayne could seriously make use of back channels instead of going the caped crusader route.

BTW.

The issue of Harley Quinn that featured the art of the winner of that contest came out. It of course didn't feature the "naked in a bathtub" scene anymore. But what I found the most amusing was that the guy who won was already a professional comic book artist. He used to draw the IDW GI Joe and Transformer books. So was this a contest to find new talent or a way to get cheap publicity for somebody they were already hiring?

I'm calling shenanigans. SHENANIGANS!!

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Dunno, but Jezebel is the absolute dumbest website on the planet right now. It's desperate click bait and race baiting with a grand helping of social justice morons.

Believe you just described the entire Gawker network of sites.

That was good!

[youtube][/youtube]

Dunno, but Jezebel is the absolute dumbest website on the planet right now. It's desperate click bait and race baiting with a grand helping of social justice morons.

Literally just finished "Injustice: Gods Among Us" and while I enjoyed the story, the whole "Superman takes over the world to impose his form of peace" has been retold at least three times. Still, OKAY story and the writers managed to show character development and made Robin a whiny little brat.

6/10 - would read again.

Anyone care to suggest what my next comic should be?

Growing up I used to pull out all my Batman comics and re-read them all once a year or so. This generally took a a couple of months or so.

But since I got out of reading comics in the mid-90s I didn't do it anymore. They just stayed in a box in my closet. When the Batman Begins hype was starting in 2005 it got me interested in reading my comics again. But re-reading them I started thinking, I'd like to start getting comics again. So I did. But then I was like, who are all these new people and what happened since I last read? So then on top of buying the new Batman comics I started going back and trying to get all of the Batman comics I had missed. Filling in as many holes as I could and getting all the important storylines I missed over the past 10 years or so. Plus all kinds of other stuff. Any extra money I had I would just go through the back issues and buy anything I didn't have.

So I was buying all the old stuff I missed, buying all the new stuff, buying back issues and then DC announced the big Infinite Crisis crossover. I wanted to read that but to do that I needed to read more than Batman, so that lead to me buying nearly every book DC put out. That lasted until 2010 when I tapped out and just went back to Batman books. A few months later I stopped that again and took a couple years off.

So fast forward to 2012 years and it's time for The Dark Knight Rises to come out. I figured since I started reading comics again with the start of the Batman movies, I would re-read my comics again to celebrate the finale of the Batman movies.

Only my mind didn't process it properly. Since all the times I had done this previously were before my re-introduction into comics, my mind still kinda felt this was going to be a quick deal. A few months and I'd be done. It didn't register in my head that my comic collection had grown from one box to 8 boxes. All those comics I got from 2005-2010...meaningless! I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I remember the day The Dark Knight Rises came out on DVD I looked at my comics and I was only through one box. I couldn't believe the movie was already on home video and I had barely made a dent.!

The Man of Steel came out and OMG...I'm STILL reading.

It got to the point where I started thinking, "I started reading this when TDKR came out, if I'm still reading this when MoS hits DVD I'm going to shoot myself!"

So I cracked down the past few weeks and read as much as possible, skimmed a few stories I didn't care much about, (looking at you Michael Lane Azrael), just so I could finally be finished.

I started on July 18th 2012 and officially finished on September 15th 2013. 425 days to read 2452 comics and 219 graphic novels/collected editions.

Now I have no idea what do do with my free time. Thank God GTA V is coming out!

That's just ridiculous. Harley Quinn is a comedic character. The whole description of her sitting in a bathtub with a dozen appliances above her is obviously meant to be of a comedic tone. And DC doesn't allow nudity. She's not to go to be sitting there with her titties flopping out. God, people kill me. I read the description and didn't think anything about it. If you just take it out of context and look at it on it's own like jezebel did, sure, it sounds crazy. Put it in context with the rest of the panels and you get the goofy tone they're going for.

I was thinking about doing some crappy MS Paint drawing for that contest.

BTW, I think this whole contest is complete BS.

Amanda Conner is the perfect artist for a Harley Quinn series. Yet they have her as "co-writer" on the book and the first issue is going to be various artists all drawing one page with Harley "breaking the fourth wall" and trying to pick which of the artists she wants to do the series.

I guarantee that Amanda Conner will "win" the contest. BOOK IT!

DC is running a contest for artists to "break into the industry" by drawing a four panel page where Harley Quinn is essentially trying to commit suicide. Specifically what is drawing ire is the content of panel four:

DC Comics wrote:PANEL 4
Harley sitting naked in a bathtub with toasters, blow dryers, blenders, appliances all dangling above the bathtub and she has a cord that will release them all. We are watching the moment before the inevitable death. Her expression is one of “oh well, guess that’s it for me” and she has resigned herself to the moment that is going to happen.

http://www.dccomics.com/node/305151

Jezebel.com is finding a bit of annoyance with it (http://jezebel.com/dc-comics-contest-dr ... 1265537616) and it was a friend of mine who sent me the link with the subject "OMG!! Sex and suicide!" Everyone is having a knee jerk reaction to a relatively benign description (would someone be clothed if they were in a bath?), but I thought its cute how DC is still managing to draw just the opposite sort of headline Lethargic noted they are gunning for.

Flack wrote:I have never heard of Nightwing before your post just now. In fact when I read it I thought it might be the name of Batman's plane or a guy from Mortal Kombat.

Dangit, I was thinking of Nightwolf.

http://mortalkombat.wikia.com/wiki/Nightwolf

Nightwing is Dick Grayson, the original Robin, who Burt Ward played.

If this sticks it makes everything even more ridiculous.

1 - Bruce Wayne has publicly admitted to "funding" Batman.
2 - Bruce Wayne's son mysteriously "disappears" from public eye when Robin is murdered.
3 - Nightwing is revealed to be Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne's adopted son.

Who couldn't put two and two together????

The best part now though is that after all this talk about Nightwing making the media, DC HAS made the media. But for something else.

If you go to Drudge Report right now and scroll down a little there's a picture of Batwoman. Because the guys who write the book quit because DC wouldn't allow them to have Batwoman marry her girlfriend.

Congrats DC, here's that mainstream news coverage you wanted!

At this point so many creative people have quit DC over the past 3 years it's a wonder they can still put books out.

I am enjoying this thread. I just can't participate without sounding like Mister 80s and 90s Comic Guy.

I have never heard of Nightwing before your post just now. In fact when I read it I thought it might be the name of Batman's plane or a guy from Mortal Kombat.

Dangit, I was thinking of Nightwolf.

http://mortalkombat.wikia.com/wiki/Nightwolf

Well, you should be happy about the "big" moment that happened in Forever Evil #1.

DC has been bragging that whatever happened to Nightwing in this issue was going to cause a big media firestorm.

2 days later I have not seen one single news story pop up in my Batman Google Alert.

They had his secret identity revealed to the world. And they thought this was going to be like Spiderman all over again.

But Nightwing is not a household name. He's no Spiderman.

They also said people would be debating this for months.

But nobody is debating it. Everybody is in total agreement that it's stupid.