-tt- BnR 4-6 thoughts
I'm going to blame itllcometome for this. We've been talking about the current arc of Batman and Robin, issues 4-6 via messages and my thoughts are too long to include in a message.
SO here you go, girl!
First of all, let me say, I read Batman RIP. It was boring, so I don't know what all these fanboys are talking about, it being so great. Then again, some people think Grant Morrison's a genius and should be knighted. I don't really think that at all, I would say sometimes the guy can be totally off his rocker and other times his stuff is great.
1. Red Hood's new snazzy costume: itllcometome said between a conversation we had:
The Red Hood uniform is terrible! The hood looks more like a helmet and he's wearing a white shirt with a cape. The jacket was perfect as is. However the idea of Jason drawing up those new duds and taking it to a tailor is hilarious. This scourge needs a makeover!
One every badass needs leather. Two, the kid looked great. Three, that high collered cape mess? What the hell does that do? As if that lipstick tube they stuffed his head into doesn't inhibit his range of motion already. He drops his leather jacket and hood for a long sleeved jersey with a skull on it? That gonna strike fear into the hearts of men?
We were talking about this costume:
versus this costume:
The first one, being the leather non-costume, as the Under the Hood Jason wasn't keen on playing "dress up" like the costumed villains/super-heroes. He was more about getting the job done. Of course, the Red Hood thing was a play on the Joker/Jason Todd's killer's old duds, but the Under the Hood version was much more stream-lined. Leather jacket = badass.
Not that this costume isn't entirely badass, I mean dude makes it so, but it's pretty campy. However, what I will say is it seems to represent a bit of desperation on Jason's part: desperation to be a superhero, to do the right thing. Then again, he does say they are battling the new face of crime. What an ironic twist to use the old face of crime to battle the new face of crime.
2. Sidekick: How ironic is it for Jason to have a sidekick? Especially after having "talked" (kidnapped, fought) to Mia Dearden (the cool Speedy!) about the perils of sidekickdom, child endangerment, the fact that they were both from the street and were taken in by wealthy men, etc. Even in BnR 5, he tells Damian not to expect "job security" with the Robin gig.
But yet, it totally works. One, Sasha/Scarlet's father was a low-level criminal, working for Prof Pyg. Her mother left them early on, it seems. This somewhat mirrors Jason's own backstory in that his father worked for a criminal and his birth mother abandoned him.
She's also been disfigured, having been forced to wear a glued-on-to her face "Dollotron" mask by Pyg. Jason seems to have this thing for damsels in distress. The women being raped by Garzonas, a diplomat's son who was a rapist and could get off on diplomatic immunity; the fact that he was willing to save his mother -- who had abandoned and betrayed him to the Joker ; his upset over the death of Duela Dent and now taking in Scarlet.
Granted, on one hand she seems so frail, unsure and emotionally damaged, on the other she reminds me a little bit of Carrie Kelly from Dark Knight Returns. Particularly regarding the fact that both she and Carrie both had little training before hand and both represent a call to arms (Jason's call to do something now that Batman is gone, plus his call to rid Gotham of crime for good).
Initially I thought this scene was more manipulative than comforting. But after reading through the entire arc and seeing that Jason cares for Scarlet, I see this is more about a) quieting her frantic mind; and b) keeping her a bit off-balance, making sure she's still in on his way of doing things; and c) a (dark?) echo of Bruce speaking to one of his Robins, probably Dick, since he was the first and Bruce did ask him if he wanted in on his way of doing things.
Sadly, Scarlet's tale seems to end in issue #6. She fights Flamingo, a crazy face-eating Purple Rain-esque guy alongside Damian, Batman and Jason. When Flamingo hits her and tries to pull her mask off, Jason tells Flamingo he's the one the crazy face-eater dude wants and tells Scarlet to run. And she does, she ends up leaving Gotham. So, while I didn't like the fact she exited so early, it seems as like it was some kind of..... sort of happy ending for her.
3. The Red Hair issue.
You know what? It's just so ridiculous. This is pretty much where I think Morrison went off his rocker.
Morrison just basically combined the pre-Crisis Red Hair Jason Todd with the post-crisis Jason Todd. It really.... makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
In this scene, when Jason's talking about the helmet giving him zits and his concern over the possibility that he's balding: well, here's this snarky, killing-machine bad-ass who's got a fair size ego and I think this was just Morrison trying to humanize him.
Also.. there seemed to be a lot of Killing Joke references in this. That scene above with Scarlet reminded me of this:
and this:
Anyways.
4. Damian. I love that little shit. That's all.
5. Then there's this end scene, more Killing Joke references.
Original:
Batman and Robin 6
Jason copies Joker practically right down to the body language/ facial expressions.
Anyways. Thoughts on this: This was incredibly meta. So much of what Jason did in this was meta: phone polls, phone calls....
What Morrison has Jason say in BnR 6: More or less it's like Morrison himself is talking about the fickle fandom that didn't want to to give the second Robin a chance because he wasn't the first Robin. It didn't matter that the second Robin was actually a more interesting character - he was a usurper. Like Jason says... he never stood a chance. I felt like Jason was going to pull a Deadpool in that scene and start talking about who writes him best or something.
Jason says he tried to be like Dick Grayson, the original Robin. Interestingly enough, that's how he was first written: as a Dick Grayson clone, right down to the backstory. He was an acrobat, cheerful, and both his parents were killed. When he was changed to be different, a street kid whose (adoptive) mother was deceased (drug overdose) and father was killed by Two-Face. He was rash and angry, probably no more so than an average teenager, and on top of that someone who survived the streets.
When Jason's talking about this cruel world, I get the sense that he's not just talking about Gotham: he's talking about the fans that wanted him killed off. The fans that would kill off a teen just to see if they could do it; or to see the Joker, the bad guy get the upper hand over the good guy for once. And probably those fans still out there that want to see him dead: his death is the greatest triumph Batman's greatest villain had over him.
And how sick is that? When fans talk about wanting to have his head bashed in with a crowbar once again? Seems like Morrison is talking about the fandom itself.
See why I had to post this rather than write a message? Holy crap, this is long.
SO here you go, girl!
First of all, let me say, I read Batman RIP. It was boring, so I don't know what all these fanboys are talking about, it being so great. Then again, some people think Grant Morrison's a genius and should be knighted. I don't really think that at all, I would say sometimes the guy can be totally off his rocker and other times his stuff is great.
1. Red Hood's new snazzy costume: itllcometome said between a conversation we had:
The Red Hood uniform is terrible! The hood looks more like a helmet and he's wearing a white shirt with a cape. The jacket was perfect as is. However the idea of Jason drawing up those new duds and taking it to a tailor is hilarious. This scourge needs a makeover!
One every badass needs leather. Two, the kid looked great. Three, that high collered cape mess? What the hell does that do? As if that lipstick tube they stuffed his head into doesn't inhibit his range of motion already. He drops his leather jacket and hood for a long sleeved jersey with a skull on it? That gonna strike fear into the hearts of men?
We were talking about this costume:
versus this costume:
The first one, being the leather non-costume, as the Under the Hood Jason wasn't keen on playing "dress up" like the costumed villains/super-heroes. He was more about getting the job done. Of course, the Red Hood thing was a play on the Joker/Jason Todd's killer's old duds, but the Under the Hood version was much more stream-lined. Leather jacket = badass.
Not that this costume isn't entirely badass, I mean dude makes it so, but it's pretty campy. However, what I will say is it seems to represent a bit of desperation on Jason's part: desperation to be a superhero, to do the right thing. Then again, he does say they are battling the new face of crime. What an ironic twist to use the old face of crime to battle the new face of crime.
2. Sidekick: How ironic is it for Jason to have a sidekick? Especially after having "talked" (kidnapped, fought) to Mia Dearden (the cool Speedy!) about the perils of sidekickdom, child endangerment, the fact that they were both from the street and were taken in by wealthy men, etc. Even in BnR 5, he tells Damian not to expect "job security" with the Robin gig.
But yet, it totally works. One, Sasha/Scarlet's father was a low-level criminal, working for Prof Pyg. Her mother left them early on, it seems. This somewhat mirrors Jason's own backstory in that his father worked for a criminal and his birth mother abandoned him.
She's also been disfigured, having been forced to wear a glued-on-to her face "Dollotron" mask by Pyg. Jason seems to have this thing for damsels in distress. The women being raped by Garzonas, a diplomat's son who was a rapist and could get off on diplomatic immunity; the fact that he was willing to save his mother -- who had abandoned and betrayed him to the Joker ; his upset over the death of Duela Dent and now taking in Scarlet.
Granted, on one hand she seems so frail, unsure and emotionally damaged, on the other she reminds me a little bit of Carrie Kelly from Dark Knight Returns. Particularly regarding the fact that both she and Carrie both had little training before hand and both represent a call to arms (Jason's call to do something now that Batman is gone, plus his call to rid Gotham of crime for good).
Initially I thought this scene was more manipulative than comforting. But after reading through the entire arc and seeing that Jason cares for Scarlet, I see this is more about a) quieting her frantic mind; and b) keeping her a bit off-balance, making sure she's still in on his way of doing things; and c) a (dark?) echo of Bruce speaking to one of his Robins, probably Dick, since he was the first and Bruce did ask him if he wanted in on his way of doing things.
Sadly, Scarlet's tale seems to end in issue #6. She fights Flamingo, a crazy face-eating Purple Rain-esque guy alongside Damian, Batman and Jason. When Flamingo hits her and tries to pull her mask off, Jason tells Flamingo he's the one the crazy face-eater dude wants and tells Scarlet to run. And she does, she ends up leaving Gotham. So, while I didn't like the fact she exited so early, it seems as like it was some kind of..... sort of happy ending for her.
3. The Red Hair issue.
You know what? It's just so ridiculous. This is pretty much where I think Morrison went off his rocker.
Morrison just basically combined the pre-Crisis Red Hair Jason Todd with the post-crisis Jason Todd. It really.... makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
In this scene, when Jason's talking about the helmet giving him zits and his concern over the possibility that he's balding: well, here's this snarky, killing-machine bad-ass who's got a fair size ego and I think this was just Morrison trying to humanize him.
Also.. there seemed to be a lot of Killing Joke references in this. That scene above with Scarlet reminded me of this:
and this:
Anyways.
4. Damian. I love that little shit. That's all.
5. Then there's this end scene, more Killing Joke references.
Original:
Batman and Robin 6
Jason copies Joker practically right down to the body language/ facial expressions.
Anyways. Thoughts on this: This was incredibly meta. So much of what Jason did in this was meta: phone polls, phone calls....
What Morrison has Jason say in BnR 6: More or less it's like Morrison himself is talking about the fickle fandom that didn't want to to give the second Robin a chance because he wasn't the first Robin. It didn't matter that the second Robin was actually a more interesting character - he was a usurper. Like Jason says... he never stood a chance. I felt like Jason was going to pull a Deadpool in that scene and start talking about who writes him best or something.
Jason says he tried to be like Dick Grayson, the original Robin. Interestingly enough, that's how he was first written: as a Dick Grayson clone, right down to the backstory. He was an acrobat, cheerful, and both his parents were killed. When he was changed to be different, a street kid whose (adoptive) mother was deceased (drug overdose) and father was killed by Two-Face. He was rash and angry, probably no more so than an average teenager, and on top of that someone who survived the streets.
When Jason's talking about this cruel world, I get the sense that he's not just talking about Gotham: he's talking about the fans that wanted him killed off. The fans that would kill off a teen just to see if they could do it; or to see the Joker, the bad guy get the upper hand over the good guy for once. And probably those fans still out there that want to see him dead: his death is the greatest triumph Batman's greatest villain had over him.
And how sick is that? When fans talk about wanting to have his head bashed in with a crowbar once again? Seems like Morrison is talking about the fandom itself.
See why I had to post this rather than write a message? Holy crap, this is long.