Review: the Arkham Asylum softball game in Alan Grant and Tim Sale's "Madmen Across the Water."

[about_faces]

So it's recently come to my attention that some of you have never heard of this story where the Arkham inmates played softball against the inmates of Blackgate Prison. Because that totally, actually happened.

Comments

[box_in_the_box]

After all that promise throughout, it's kind of disappointing that the story doesn't seem to go much anywhere other than "things fall apart, the end."

Welcome to anthology stories. I realized in short order, as I was getting back into comics during my college years in the '90s, that expecting meaningful stories from an anthology comic is, with rare exceptions, as hopelessly naive as expecting that, if you watch enough episodes of Inspector Gadget, you'll eventually see Doctor Claw's face

[about_faces]

Anthology stories can at least give one different looks at characters and character moments, even if nothing much changes by the end. It's like the Batman: The Animates Series tie-in comics, which couldn't do much in the way of major plot changes, but could at least tell great stories focused around character moments. For me, that's great. I love Batman comics FOR these characters, especially the villains, and these kinds of stories were often the ONLY times they were given moments to shine as anything other than antagonists who needed to be kicked in the face.

Did you like the Robinson Joker story? I've learned via scans_daily 1.0 that it has its fans, but man, it just seems like another big example of noble ambition that doesn't quite pan out in the final product.

"Okay, somebody's going to die to up the stakes of this story, but it won't be any of the characters that I remember seeing from the cartoon, so HELLO ENSIGN REDSHIRT!"What gets to me is that, as in stories like the one above, the ensigns were the only ones in Grant's

[box_in_the_box]

It's like the Batman: The Animates Series tie-in comics, which couldn't do much in the way of major plot changes, but could at least tell great stories focused around character moments.

See, this is one of the biggest reasons why I was never able to get into the tie-in comics for ANY TV show or movie series, as a little kid OR as a college kid getting back into the game, because either a) the writing rather ploddingly telegraphed how much it was running in place or b) even before the term "Jossed" was coined, I knew that truly bold and daring moves would get "Jossed" by the TV show or movie series itself (one reason why the Star Trek: The Original Series comic was at its best when it was chronicling the "unseen adventures" of the original five-year voyage).

I mean, it's not even like I really WANTED the status quo to be radically altered all that often (except for the Superman "love triangle", which I ALWAYS hated and wanted to see go away), but ... damn, man, you know?

I love Batman comics FOR these characters, especially the

[about_faces]

Have you tried reading the TAS tie-in comics, especially those by Ty Templeton? They went places that most tie-in comics never dared to go, really pushing the envelope in terms of a series being at the mercy of a larger franchise.

For example, the comics actually created a fantastic arc for Mr. Freeze that worked around and ENHANCED his three TV episodes and the Sub-Zero movie. Of all characters, Dini's Mr. Freeze--while brilliant--should logically be incredibly-limited when it comes to the kinds of stories you can tell with him. Which is why most of the Freeze appearances in proper DC Comics kind of such, and just rely on making him a dead-inside sadistic killer and nothing else. But the TAS comics, especially those by Ty Templeton and Scott Peterson, built up wonderful places for the character to go even after Nora was cured and remarried. Combined with his tragic finale in Batman Beyond, the tie-in comics actively helped create the greatest take on Mr. Freeze by a wide margin

[box_in_the_box]

Even still, I get the impression that Grant sympathizes a great deal with Jeremiah. And disturbingly enough, I kind of do too, when I read the above page. That's not a good thing, is it?

I strongly suspect it's an intentional thing on Grant's part, since he seems to be to be playing on a very superhero comic book fanboy weakness.

Follow me on this one. Reread the arguments between Zehrhard and Arkham (and isn't it interesting how many vowels and consonants their names share in common, even as the first letters of their last names set up the rather obvious gag of opposites, i.e. pitting A against Z), and the pep talks that they give their respective teams. The two men clearly over-identify with their respective camps of men, from Arkham empathizing with "malfunctioning people, not monsters," and Zehrhard patting his inmates on the back as "respectable crooks, not cowards," but look DEEPER than that. It's so much SIMPLER.

This entire conflict is all about JOCKS VERSUS NERDS. And THAT'S why I think it was intentional on Grant's

[about_faces]

That's a fantastic observation, and may actually speak to my own sympathy for the rogues over the heroes, even as I acknowledge that to be a sticky stance. There was a great Poison Ivy story called "Hothouse," where Batman said something along the lines of "the problem with sympathizing with your opponent is that the feeling is rarely mutual," which I think is important to keep in mind when sympathizing with the Batman villains. Lydia actually wrote a fantastic Scarecrow story along these lines, which played up the fanfiction trope of the sweet normal person reaching out to the villain and possibly redeeming him through kindness/love, and then instead playing out those events entirely in keeping with the way Crane actually is.

(and isn't it interesting how many vowels and consonants their names share in common, even as the first letters of their last names set up the rather obvious gag of opposites, i.e. pitting A against Z)Good catch! I wonder if Zerhardt was created expressly for this story, and thus to make that reference

[abqreviews]

>That aspect really should have come up

[about_faces]

Actually, one of the criminals mentions being part of Dr. Faustus's gang...

Yeah, I had thought about mentioning it, but it hardly seemed to matter once I ended up having to cut Faustus entirely out of these scans. I wanted to talk a lot more about Faustus and what he meant to Jeremiah in this story, especially as he became the representative of Jeremiah's highest hopes and dreams before literally going up in smoke. Times like this I really wish I could post the whole stories without fear of getting in trouble, just because there's so much else to say and see! I mean, who knows what I might miss that someone else might have something to say about?

Gets better every time I re-read it. It's my favorite post-crisis Batman story besides YEAR ONE. Granted, some of the dialogue is hackneyed, but every time I re-read it I see new levels of ambiguity, like whether that woman Pyle falls in love with really was just acting in self-defense.

Honestly, I think that the vast bulk of the first fifty issues of Legends of the Dark Knight--and large

[captaintwinings]

I always loved how totally into the game Poison Ivy is. And also how Squishy has clearly never played a team sport in his entire life.

The contrast between Dr. Arkham and Warden Hfuhruhurr is great. I like that they both have reasons for their treatment of the inmates.

Also, Skeets is in Arkham? Does Booster know about this?

(I'm really having some trouble reading this lettering, for some reason. "None of you could ever understand, you--you sausages!")

[about_faces]

I was sad to cut the scene where Faustus--in full Satanic coach mode--ordered Squishy to be batter. I had a whole commentary about how, of ALL the rogues, Squishy is the least adept to spots. I feel like he'd try picking up the bat and just topple over, or duck from any oncoming balls and cry "NOT THE FACE NOT THE FACE!"

Warden Hfuhruhurr

I love you, Captain.

[psychopathicus]

My first thought - why is Bane in with the Arkham crowd? He was never insane, and given that he's catatonic here, they don't even USE him. What's the point

[about_faces]

...but what I was wondering is where are the other villains?

It's a great question, and one which could have been explored along with the ex-henchmen idea if only the story had been longer. As with the Arkham inmates, the only Blackgate inmates we really get to see as characters are original Alan Grant creations who get killed off in the same story, so even if we saw Deadshot or Cluemaster (and man, I now really wish that we had), they would have been relegated to being in the background even worse than Harvey and Firefly. Man, Blackgate really DOES get neglected by anyone who isn't Chuck Dixon, doesn't it?

[psychopathicus]

I guess it's kind of inevitable. After all, a prison just doesn't compare to an asylum in terms of drama. You'd think they would have thrown in the PENGUIN, though - I mean, talk about missed opportunities.
Also, where's the Joker? Hadn't he been recaptured by this point?

[about_faces]

Neither he nor the Scarecrow were apprehended during the whole Mayoral kidnapping in Knightfall, and while Scarecrow went on to do the whole "God of Fear" thing which ended in his arrest, the Joker was still free. Even when he reemerged with a ponytail for the movie storyline with Az!Bats, he still managed to elude capture by the end. I'm not sure when exactly "Madmen Across the Water" came out in relation to those stories, but I think it's a safe bet that the Joker was still free at that point.