Batman: Son of the Demon
So I decided to reread Batman: Son of the Demon since there's that plotline coming up dealing with Ibn and all that jazz. As it turns out I've never actually read it. What follows are my comments as I read the story, because I rapidly realized there was no other way for me to get through it.
WARNING: Any and all Talia lovers: I'm not...at all. My commentary reflects this. This is not a personal attack on you or her. I shall attempt to restrain my venom to image captions rather than body commentary so you don't have to read it if you don't want to. You are more than welcome to like her. (Someone has to... ~_^)
I'm deliberately selecting moments in the story where Batman or other characters are utterly OUT OF CHARACTER... because it hurts... and I like sharing pain. If there are any scenes I like, or bits I find odd or funny I'll toss those in too.
Now that I've made my disclaimers... This is my thought process AS I go through the book.
...ok. Either I have never EVER read this or it was so abhorrent that I blocked it from my memories. But I don't think that's in since I'd remember the pretty. That is one very hot looking Bats. I'm not really big on this style of art... but man the artist makes Bats look hot. So, since I probably never read it I'll post my agony here for others to enjoy.
The Pretty:
How long can I drool over the pretty Bat before being overwhelmed by what I've heard is an abhorrent plot?
Let's find out...
1...2... 16...
16 pages. Darnit.
okay... out of Character point number one. Alfred leaving Talia alone with Bruce and then asking her to look after him? I. Don't. Think. So. I can handle Bruce trusting Talia. (He falls in love WAY too easily.) But Alfred? It just doesn't sit.
Bruce saying Talia can STAY?.... ok I can sort of buy it. Suspension of disbelief and all that... but it seems odd...
aaannnd......more wtfery not 10 pages later.
Oooooookay. I can actually see Bruce wanting that. I can actually imagine Bruce not realizing that he ALREADY DOES with Dick. I can't see him admitting that out loud. Ever. To anyone.
Random Bad Art:
I should explain this next bit. Earlier Talia waited outside of a building Batman was investigating. It takes him 30 seconds to break into an office (he specifically states they have very good security) where he finds a man dead , murdered from a decent quantity of poison poured in the man's coffee pot. Note that the poisoner didn't put it in the man's cup but in the coffee pot so the poison could have been placed there ages ago, regardless of when the man actually DRANK a cup.
Impeccable deductive skills there Batman. Simply because Talia wasn't there just before Batman she couldn't have killed the man by 'accidental' poisoning. (Do I think it was her? not really... but that's NOT the point.)
Weirdness:
Single most out of character thing I think I have EVER seen batman do besides kill someone:
oooh... back story involving tenative precepts and what the HECK.... just like that he dumps the engagement line on us (on the same page that Talia's just declared her intent to KILL someone.) and Batman just says YES?
...wow. That's....
...this is like reading bad fan fic.
That's the only way to describe it. (This is the point where I realized that this was not a message board post but a live journal post that warranted full pictures.) I mean... In his country all that's required is the CONSENT OF THE BRIDE?! That's the most freaking progressive little concept I've ever heard of for a thousand year old despot to have. And Bruce thinks he's conservative. So help me if I find out later on that Ra's is wearing women's underwear I'm stopping RIGHT THERE.
So anyway... The out of characterness of this:
well I don't know if I can put it into words. Bruce utterly BAILS on Gotham. For WEEKS. (Granted this is not unheard of...) and then he TRAINS an army in (non-lethal) techniques? I mean... this is Batman. I can even let myself buy into him marrying Talia (I can't believe I said that...) but he STILL doesn't agree with Ra's aims. Even if they ARE trying to take down the same guy... he's just going to blithely TRAIN Ra's men?
More artistic weirdness:
Ok so... you can have that many pieces on the board and still stalemate?
Spot what's wrong with this page:
Batman bringing a team to break into a facility.
Batman bringing a team into a facility when he has to give them last minute instrucctions like "no talking and stay low."
Batman having issues with breaking into a US Govt. facility? Since when?
Batman jumping to baseless conclus- oh, wait that's common in this story...
The reason Batman works alone:
He doesn't have these kinds of issues when he's not using thugs to get the job done.
I can't say that this image is any more out of character than anything else in the story...
But I can't help but cringe at Batman's last comments. Ra's will never let him name the kid. and no child of Batman's is EVER going to have a happy life. It's like one of those inviolate rules.
So anyway...
I'd be willing to lay odds that based on the way the characterization has been going in this story Talia WON'T be getting a stern talking to about that little 'killing a man' thing.
moving along:
....he's just gonna forget ALLLL about that whole BEING HERE TO CATCH A MURDERER! While you're at it, Bruce, why don't you just burn the cape and cowl right now?
I think this first panel pissed me off more than anything else in the entire story.
The man on the gurney needs major medical help and Bruce is being an uncaring, overprotective bastard. No wonder Talia's going to wind up giving the kid away. If this is what having a kid does to him. This is definitely not the man she fell for... (then again we haven't seen the man she fell for since page 16...)
Waaaay too graphic for me:
Keeping you updated on the plot:
So now that we've had our fill of melodrama... Batman's gonna snap back to his normal self and...go back to working with Ra's...? You know... again I get the feeling I'm reading a horrible piece of fan fiction where the writer just assumes that I'm going to fill in the characterization on my own. But every time I do... the character doesn't act right. I'm rapidly concluding that Mr. Barr is a hack....
So Batman and Ra's form a daring plan to storm the stronghold of the enemy. Batman even knows EXACTLY where it HAS to be.
It's in Mt. Arrarat. Which... if I might clarify... is a FREAKING MOUNTAIN! And they're just going to parachute onto it and HOPE they find the entrance before they FREEZE to DEATH. Wait, I know... it must be ok. It's only a LITTLE MOUNTAIN after all. (I'm sorry. if I don't snark about the mountain I'll go insane. It's the only thing that's going to keep me sane enough to turn the next page.)
Wow I thought the idiocy couldn't get any better. I WAS WRONG! First I must point out that there was this satelite that the badguy managed to hijack. it was a weather controlling satelite. Now this is pretty darn funny. Earlier on they mentioned pluviculture. The science of rainmaking. This is typically done by seeding clouds with silver nitrate. Later on the bad guy uses this satelite to make a hurricane over Russia (...I LOVE comic book logic. REALLY.) But this next panel, this is impressive. You saw on the last picture that we were going to get an example of the badguy's POWER. Well here it is. and it would be really impressive if it weren't so utterly IMPOSSIBLE to do with a SATELITE.
Yes ladies and gentlemen: he can TARGET LIGHTNING!
Ok, I'm better. They land and are attacked and quite frankly this first panel is just a darn fine picture of Batman being awesome:
And I was going to stop with that panel until I read the rest of it. The character assasination does not END.
And now it's time for another WTF moment:
a) Batman trusts Ra's to turn off the highly destructive weather satelite that could allow Ra's to achieve his aims of world domination.
b) Ra's actually takes an order from Batman.
if nothing else proves that this is a paralell universe this panel alone pulls it off.
...the thing that disturbs me most is that while Batman's sating his bloodlust by kicking the crap out of the badguy... Ra's actually DOES destroy the satelite.
No I have NOT had my fill of melodrama yet.
Thank you very much! Please tell me that's the last of it. Batman goes home, solves the poisoning that he was originally dealings with (it wasn't Talia,) and broods.
But wait! on the last page we get one FINAL out of character behavior from our Dark Knight.
And then the kid gets put up for adoption. The end... thank heaven.
I'll admit that I'm not being totally fair here. Lots of comic books have flaws like this stuff in them. Lots of books even have this many flaws. (And I was being nitpicky with some of that stuff) But most either don't take themselves that seriously or else they don't just keep pouring on the inanity like this one. I've read good comics. I've read bad comics. I've read controversial ones. but I've never read one that smacked of badly written fanfiction like this one.
cross posted: scans_daily batscans_daily and my journal.
WARNING: Any and all Talia lovers: I'm not...at all. My commentary reflects this. This is not a personal attack on you or her. I shall attempt to restrain my venom to image captions rather than body commentary so you don't have to read it if you don't want to. You are more than welcome to like her. (Someone has to... ~_^)
I'm deliberately selecting moments in the story where Batman or other characters are utterly OUT OF CHARACTER... because it hurts... and I like sharing pain. If there are any scenes I like, or bits I find odd or funny I'll toss those in too.
Now that I've made my disclaimers... This is my thought process AS I go through the book.
...ok. Either I have never EVER read this or it was so abhorrent that I blocked it from my memories. But I don't think that's in since I'd remember the pretty. That is one very hot looking Bats. I'm not really big on this style of art... but man the artist makes Bats look hot. So, since I probably never read it I'll post my agony here for others to enjoy.
The Pretty:
How long can I drool over the pretty Bat before being overwhelmed by what I've heard is an abhorrent plot?
Let's find out...
1...2... 16...
16 pages. Darnit.
okay... out of Character point number one. Alfred leaving Talia alone with Bruce and then asking her to look after him? I. Don't. Think. So. I can handle Bruce trusting Talia. (He falls in love WAY too easily.) But Alfred? It just doesn't sit.
Bruce saying Talia can STAY?.... ok I can sort of buy it. Suspension of disbelief and all that... but it seems odd...
aaannnd......more wtfery not 10 pages later.
Oooooookay. I can actually see Bruce wanting that. I can actually imagine Bruce not realizing that he ALREADY DOES with Dick. I can't see him admitting that out loud. Ever. To anyone.
Random Bad Art:
I should explain this next bit. Earlier Talia waited outside of a building Batman was investigating. It takes him 30 seconds to break into an office (he specifically states they have very good security) where he finds a man dead , murdered from a decent quantity of poison poured in the man's coffee pot. Note that the poisoner didn't put it in the man's cup but in the coffee pot so the poison could have been placed there ages ago, regardless of when the man actually DRANK a cup.
Impeccable deductive skills there Batman. Simply because Talia wasn't there just before Batman she couldn't have killed the man by 'accidental' poisoning. (Do I think it was her? not really... but that's NOT the point.)
Weirdness:
Single most out of character thing I think I have EVER seen batman do besides kill someone:
oooh... back story involving tenative precepts and what the HECK.... just like that he dumps the engagement line on us (on the same page that Talia's just declared her intent to KILL someone.) and Batman just says YES?
...wow. That's....
...this is like reading bad fan fic.
That's the only way to describe it. (This is the point where I realized that this was not a message board post but a live journal post that warranted full pictures.) I mean... In his country all that's required is the CONSENT OF THE BRIDE?! That's the most freaking progressive little concept I've ever heard of for a thousand year old despot to have. And Bruce thinks he's conservative. So help me if I find out later on that Ra's is wearing women's underwear I'm stopping RIGHT THERE.
So anyway... The out of characterness of this:
well I don't know if I can put it into words. Bruce utterly BAILS on Gotham. For WEEKS. (Granted this is not unheard of...) and then he TRAINS an army in (non-lethal) techniques? I mean... this is Batman. I can even let myself buy into him marrying Talia (I can't believe I said that...) but he STILL doesn't agree with Ra's aims. Even if they ARE trying to take down the same guy... he's just going to blithely TRAIN Ra's men?
More artistic weirdness:
Ok so... you can have that many pieces on the board and still stalemate?
Spot what's wrong with this page:
Batman bringing a team to break into a facility.
Batman bringing a team into a facility when he has to give them last minute instrucctions like "no talking and stay low."
Batman having issues with breaking into a US Govt. facility? Since when?
Batman jumping to baseless conclus- oh, wait that's common in this story...
The reason Batman works alone:
He doesn't have these kinds of issues when he's not using thugs to get the job done.
I can't say that this image is any more out of character than anything else in the story...
But I can't help but cringe at Batman's last comments. Ra's will never let him name the kid. and no child of Batman's is EVER going to have a happy life. It's like one of those inviolate rules.
So anyway...
I'd be willing to lay odds that based on the way the characterization has been going in this story Talia WON'T be getting a stern talking to about that little 'killing a man' thing.
moving along:
....he's just gonna forget ALLLL about that whole BEING HERE TO CATCH A MURDERER! While you're at it, Bruce, why don't you just burn the cape and cowl right now?
I think this first panel pissed me off more than anything else in the entire story.
The man on the gurney needs major medical help and Bruce is being an uncaring, overprotective bastard. No wonder Talia's going to wind up giving the kid away. If this is what having a kid does to him. This is definitely not the man she fell for... (then again we haven't seen the man she fell for since page 16...)
Waaaay too graphic for me:
Keeping you updated on the plot:
So now that we've had our fill of melodrama... Batman's gonna snap back to his normal self and...go back to working with Ra's...? You know... again I get the feeling I'm reading a horrible piece of fan fiction where the writer just assumes that I'm going to fill in the characterization on my own. But every time I do... the character doesn't act right. I'm rapidly concluding that Mr. Barr is a hack....
So Batman and Ra's form a daring plan to storm the stronghold of the enemy. Batman even knows EXACTLY where it HAS to be.
It's in Mt. Arrarat. Which... if I might clarify... is a FREAKING MOUNTAIN! And they're just going to parachute onto it and HOPE they find the entrance before they FREEZE to DEATH. Wait, I know... it must be ok. It's only a LITTLE MOUNTAIN after all. (I'm sorry. if I don't snark about the mountain I'll go insane. It's the only thing that's going to keep me sane enough to turn the next page.)
Wow I thought the idiocy couldn't get any better. I WAS WRONG! First I must point out that there was this satelite that the badguy managed to hijack. it was a weather controlling satelite. Now this is pretty darn funny. Earlier on they mentioned pluviculture. The science of rainmaking. This is typically done by seeding clouds with silver nitrate. Later on the bad guy uses this satelite to make a hurricane over Russia (...I LOVE comic book logic. REALLY.) But this next panel, this is impressive. You saw on the last picture that we were going to get an example of the badguy's POWER. Well here it is. and it would be really impressive if it weren't so utterly IMPOSSIBLE to do with a SATELITE.
Yes ladies and gentlemen: he can TARGET LIGHTNING!
Ok, I'm better. They land and are attacked and quite frankly this first panel is just a darn fine picture of Batman being awesome:
And I was going to stop with that panel until I read the rest of it. The character assasination does not END.
And now it's time for another WTF moment:
a) Batman trusts Ra's to turn off the highly destructive weather satelite that could allow Ra's to achieve his aims of world domination.
b) Ra's actually takes an order from Batman.
if nothing else proves that this is a paralell universe this panel alone pulls it off.
...the thing that disturbs me most is that while Batman's sating his bloodlust by kicking the crap out of the badguy... Ra's actually DOES destroy the satelite.
No I have NOT had my fill of melodrama yet.
Thank you very much! Please tell me that's the last of it. Batman goes home, solves the poisoning that he was originally dealings with (it wasn't Talia,) and broods.
But wait! on the last page we get one FINAL out of character behavior from our Dark Knight.
And then the kid gets put up for adoption. The end... thank heaven.
I'll admit that I'm not being totally fair here. Lots of comic books have flaws like this stuff in them. Lots of books even have this many flaws. (And I was being nitpicky with some of that stuff) But most either don't take themselves that seriously or else they don't just keep pouring on the inanity like this one. I've read good comics. I've read bad comics. I've read controversial ones. but I've never read one that smacked of badly written fanfiction like this one.
cross posted: scans_daily batscans_daily and my journal.