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daydreamerdrew · 7 days

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Comics read this past week:

Marvel Comics:

Captain America (2017) #701-704

These issues were published across May 2018 to June 2018, according to the Marvel Wiki. All were written by Mark Waid. There was a far-future storyline that went through all of these issues. It was drawn by Leonardo Wilson. In issue #701 it was colored by Matt Wilson and in issues #702-704 it was colored by Jordie Bellaire. In issue #701 there was a 4-page story about Steve and Bucky fighting in WWII that was drawn by Adam Hughes. And there was a 4-page story about Steve going undercover for S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1968 that was drawn by J.C. Jones and colored by Paul Mounts.

A 3-page story about Sharon Carter protecting Steve when he was injured in WWII in issue #702 was drawn by Rod Reis. And a 5-page flashback in the middle of the far-future storyline part of the issue to a relevant fight between the Red Skull and Captain America was drawn by Howard Chaykin and colored by Jesus Aburtov. A 5-page story in issue #703 that took place back during the early “Cap’s Kooky Quartet” days of the Avengers was penciled by Alan Davis, inked by Mark Farmer, and colored by Irma Knivilla. And the entirety of issue #704 was dedicated to the far-future storyline.

In the WWII flashback in issue #701 Steve has to fight Warrior Woman, who says that one of her motivations for trying to steal the Super-Soldier Serum is, “I’m hungry for men I won’t break in two.” I was surprised to see this kind of sexually-charged combat in a Captain America story. And in the WWII flashback in issue #702 I was surprised to see Peggy Carter right in the thick of battle, fighting with guns, because my previous exposures to flashbacks of her in WWII in Captain America and the First Thirteen (2011) #1 and the Captain America story in Tales of Suspense (1959) #77 had her distanced from fighting.

The main storyline taking place at an unspecified future date starred Jack Rogers, to whom Steve is his great-great-grandfather. The world is a utopia, “Everything Steve Rogers dreamt of and fought for made real.” In this utopia everyone has had the Super-Soldier Serum, and Steve is largely remembered as a “resource” because “it was autopsying and dissecting his remains that allowed scientists to isolate the elements of the Super-Soldier Serum that benefit us today.” Jack is a historian, one with a different, more nuanced and positive view of Captain America, and he has a good position in the government, partially because of ‘respect for his bloodline.’ However, Jack’s son Steve had a negative reaction to the Super-Soldier Serum and is very sick in the hospital, mirroring the first Steve Rogers’ life before he was given the serum.

Captain America (2018) #1

This issue was published in July 2018, according to the Marvel Wiki. It was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, penciled by Leinil Francis Yu, inked by Gerry Alanguilan, and colored by Sunny Gho.

Captain America (2017) essentially ignored the preceding Secret Empire event. Captain America (2018) is where the aftermath for Steve of someone pretending to be him having taken over the U.S. for Hydra is beginning to be portrayed.

In this issue Steve says, “I’ve been at war since I was a boy.” He refers to himself as, “A man loyal to nothing… except the dream.”

Also, it looks like Bucky is going to be a supporting character in this book, which is of interest to me because they’ve largely been in separate solo books since Steve came back to life in 2010.

The Incredible Hulk (1968) #282-283

These issues were published across January 1983 to February 1983, according to the Marvel Wiki. Both were written by Bill Mantlo. The breakdowns of issue #282 were drawn by Sal Buscema, which were then finished by Joe Sinnott. And issue #283 was penciled by Sal Buscema and inked by Joe Sinnott.

In issue #282, when talking about her first time transforming into She-Hulk, Jennifer Walter says, “I was angry, scared… and blood raced in my veins… Your blood, Bruce!” When Bruce calls her my name during a fight, she says, “Don’t call me ‘Jen,’ Hulk- it upsets my concentration! I’ve got to be the savage She-Hulk now, to deal with this menace!”

Timely Publications:

the Captain America stories in Captain America Comics (1941) #15

This issue was published in June 1942, according to the issue cover date. It contained 2 20-page Captain America stories.

I want to note that I like how Bucky hypes Steve up. In “Captain America and the Tunnel of Terror” (written by Otto Binder; penciled by Al Avison; inked by Syd Shores) after Steve has beaten Nazi strongman Fritz Krone in hand-to-hand, Bucky says, “Cap! I saw it all and you were great!” And in “Captain America: The Invasion from Mars” (written by Otto Binder; drawn by Al Avison) when a bad guy asks who he is, Bucky speaks for Steve and says, “Just Captain America, the most powerful fighter on Earth! Give it to ‘im, Cap!”

DC Comics:

Batman (2016) #33-35

These issues were published across October 2017 to November 2017, according to the DC Wiki. I’m continuing rereading Tom King’s Batman run. This was “The Rules of Engagement” storyline. All were drawn by Joëlle Jones and colored by Jordie Bellaire.

I was not interested in the depiction of Bruce’s relationship with Selina here. I was interested in the depiction of the reaction of Bruce’s family to the news that he’s now engaged to Selina.

Superman (2023) #13

This issue came out this month, April 2024. It was written by Joshua Williamson, drawn by Rafa Sandoval, and colored by Alejandro Sánchez.

I talked about my thoughts relating to Lena, Lex, and Brainiac here. Outside of that, I am also genuinely interested in seeing what’s upcoming with Supergirl and Kon-El.

Shazam! (2023) #5-9

These issues were published across November 2023 to March 2024. All were written by Mark Waid. Issues #5-6 were drawn by Dan Mora and colored by Alejandro Sánchez. Issues #7-8 were drawn by Goran Sudžuka and colored by Ive Svorcina. And issue #9 was drawn by Emanuela Lupacchino and colored by Trish Mulyihill.

I wrote out my reactions to each individual issue here.

Fawcett Comics:

the Captain Marvel story in Whiz Comics (1940) #90

This story was published in October 1947, according to the issue cover date. It was 8 pages.

At one point in “Captain Marvel Versus the Mail Girl” (written by Otto Binder; possibly drawn by Pete Costanza) the titular mail girl, Candy, prevents Billy from saying his magic word by stuffing his face with chocolate (before kidnapping and trying to kill him). At the end of the story, when Candy is in jail, we see a panel of her in her cell saying, “Oh, the wretch!” and throwing down a box of chocolates labeled, “Chew on these while waiting for trial. Compliments of Captain Marvel.”

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daydreamerdrew · 20 days

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Comics read this past week:

DC Comics:

Legends of the DC Universe (1998) #10-11

These issues were published across September 1998 to October 1998, according to the Grand Comics Database. Both issues were written by Kelley Puckett. Issue #10 was penciled by Terry Dodson and inked by Kevin Nowlan. And the layouts of issue #11 were drawn by Terry Dodson, which were finished by Kevin Nowlan. This was a Batgirl story, taking place when Barbara was 18 and just at the beginning of her superhero career.

In this version of events, its portrayed that Jim Gordon could tell that Batgirl was Barbara as soon as he learned of Batgirl’s existence. In the first issue we see Barbara out fighting as Batgirl interspersed with a flashback to the senseless death of her parents, then Jim’s conflicted emotions as he drops Barbara off at college. He is both proud of and made afraid by the “fire” in her and what it could bring, and this ultimately makes him awkward with Barbara, unable to properly talk to her. Bruce as Batman approaches Barbara to tell her to stop being Batgirl, citing both the danger to her and the feeling that he owes it to Jim, but she convinces Bruce to train her instead. It’s after Barbara has started working with Bruce that Batgirl’s existence comes to Jim’s attention, and he’s horrified, but there’s no implication of him ever confronting Batman over it, just him trying and failing to bring it up with Barbara. But this doesn’t have the same amount of tension as is implied in the references to conflict between Bruce and Dick when he was around this age in other stories I read this week.

In the second issue Barbara happens to be part of a hostage situation at a bank, because it’s Gotham, and Jim rushes in alone to try to handle it, afraid of Barbara trying to do so all by herself, since he knows she’s Batgirl. He gets shot and taken prisoner, which Barbara witnesses, leading to a flashback from her perspective of Jim taking her in after her parents’ deaths. Her first attempt to handle the situation as Batgirl doesn’t go well and she is also captured. But it’s, maybe counterintuitively, while they’re imprisoned together and Jim is seeing Barbara as Batgirl up close that his fear is overpowered by his pride in her and he accepts that she is actually capable of being Batgirl, and he frees her to that she can save the day. This change of heart is expressed not through dialogue or even that much internal narration, but largely through his expressions. At the end of the story the two of them are still not seriously talking about their feelings, his about her future and for her what seeing him seriously injured dredged up, but are interacting cordially again.

Batman: Turning Points (2001) #1-5

These issues were all published November 2000, according to the Grand Comics Database. Issue #1 was written by Greg Rucka and drawn by Steve Leiber. Issue #2 was written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Joe Giella. Issue #3 was written by Ed Brubaker, penciled by Dick Giordano, and inked by Bob Smith. Issue #4 was written by Chuck Dixon and drawn by Brent Anderson. Issue #5 was written by Greg Rucka, penciled by Paul Pope, and inked by Claude St. Auben. This miniseries was about significant moments in the relationship between Batman and Jim Gordon.

Issue #1 took place early in Bruce’s career as Batman and working relationship with Jim. At the beginning of the issue Jim's wife leaves with his son, and then there's a hostage situation at a wedding caused by a man whose wife and child just died. Jim trusts Batman to handle it, and he does, despite his inexperience. Afterwards Bruce goes to Jim's cleared out apartment to try to talk to him as a friend, which Jim rejects. Jim tells Batman, “That’s why you’re here? Because you feel sorry for me? Who do you think you are, anyway? You come to my home and you say you’re sorry to me like you’re my friend? We’re not friends. Are you married? Do you have children? Did your wife or partner or whoever walk out on you?” And after Bruce’s silence, “So don’t tell me you’re sorry. Right now I’ve got more in common with with Corbett [the hostage-taker] than I do with you. So unless you know what it’s like to lose your family, I don’t want to hear it.”

I was really surprised to see Bruce attempting to be a genuine friend in his Batman identity. My perception of him has been of him being really emotionally closed off and formal.

Issue #2 is about Jim reacting to Bruce taking Dick on as his sidekick. It has the intense title "From Generation to Generation Like Cancer." It's also drawn with an old-fashioned art style, which the rest of the issues in this miniseries weren't, and it's handled like it too, with Mr. Freeze having a goofy costume and weapon. At first Jim thinks that Batman must be “insane" for taking on a teenage partner. He believes that Bruce is putting Dick to the path to getting killed. But Bruce argues that he’s “helping him not get killed,” refers to what he’s doing as “not training him so much as I’m guiding him,” and makes an argument that wasn’t convincing to me that Dick needed an outlet for his anger, so, “I’m just trying to stop a cycle we’ve both seen too many times.”

Jim is swayed by this, and is also convinced to release one of Mr. Freeze’s captured henchmen despite not understanding the reason why. Upon seeing Batman and Robin together Jim is amazed, views them as “In a whole different world,” and then thinks, “What was I thinking? Our rules don’t apply to him. They never have,” which was shocking to me. What follows is Batman and Robin having a “conversation in the dark” with the henchman, taking the opportunity to intimidate or even torture him for information about Mr. Freeze. That was also surprising to me, both for this story that's early in Dick's career as Robin and with this art style. The information leads them to a hideout at a warehouse for large props for an old children’s show, which I assume was meant to evoke the 60s Batman show specifically.

During the following fight Mr. Freeze briefly has Dick in a perilous position, and also several police officers are killed. Counterintuitively, Batman being afraid that Dick could die and the deaths of the police officers makes Jim feel more confident in this arrangement, because he approves of Bruce and Dick's relationship and he thinks that Dick could die even if he wasn't a sidekick. It seems that the most important factor, over the evidence of Dick's skills as a fighter, is that Jim thinks having a partner is good for Batman. He ends the issue with the question: "how can I deny him what everyone wants, if I am his friend? How can I deny him a family?" The idea that he could have a family that isn't a partner to him as a superhero isn't considered. Bruce had raised the possibility that Dick could become a criminal without the outlet of being a superhero earlier, and the now fatherless families due to Mr. Freeze killing several police officers is also evoked by Jim as an example of "handing our troubles down from generation to generation." He also considers his relationship with his niece Barbara, which is made even more significant since he lost his wife and son.

This all is a striking departure from the first issue of the book where Jim did not yet consider Batman a friend, still thought of him as a strange but skilled person and wasn't caught up with the persona of the Batman, and didn't think of him as a person enough to consider that he could have lost anyone important to him. Note that in the "Prey" storyline read last this past week, it's emphasized how well Jim understands Batman including understanding the extent of his grief.

Issue #3 took place after Jason's death in the "A Death in the Family" storyline, published in 1988, and after Barbara was disabled in Batman: The Killing Joke (1988). Bruce changes his tactics, going back to being quick-acting vigilante that saves people then disappears, and doesn’t answer the Bat-Signal or otherwise work on solving mysteries. Bruce expressed admiration for Jim that he “is still here, doing his job… persevering.” He considers Jim to be the “better man” because what the Joker said to him during The Killing Joke made him doubt himself. Bruce is also worried about what will happen if he’s the one to bring in the current serial killer operating in Gotham, because it’s through being brought down by the Batman that his enemies become costumed criminals that continuously terrorize the city. In the end Bruce and Jim are affirmed in their friendship and mutual support for one another. Also, Jim tells Batman, “I’m sorry, too… about your son,” referring to Robin’s death. Batman says, “He wasn’t my son… Not really,” to which Jim says, “The hell he wasn’t.” It’s surprising to me that Bruce trying to downplay that relationship and not acknowledge Jason as his son isn’t responded to more negatively.

Issue #4 took place during the 1993-1994 storyline "Knightfall," which I haven't read, in which Bane breaks Bruce's back and then in the aftermath Bruce adopts a more aggressive way of dealing with criminals. Throughout the story there is an emphasis on that Jim thought he understood Batman, and he struggles with whether he's misjudged him and if he's one of Gotham's "psychotics and misfits," thinking that if that's the case, "Then it's my job to stop him. To make up for covering for him all these years." Tim Drake appears as Robin briefly, responding to the Bat-Signal when Bruce won't. Jim questions him about if Batman is all right, but Tim defers by only saying that he's physically fine, which frustrates Jim. I was struck by that it doesn't occur to Jim to be concerned for Robin's safety with Batman, even though there's a scene where Jim is worried about Batman breaking into his office to hurt him. The story doesn't end with a resolution where Bruce changes or Jim is reassured.

Issue #5 called back to the story of issue #1, with the character that held up the church wedding coming back and prompting Bruce and Jim to reflect on their friendship since then. Jim emphasizes how both of their lives are “marked by tragedies,” and says, “You told me that everyone needs a friend. You’ve been mine. I hope to god that I’ve been yours.”

Batman: Ego (2000)

This 62-page graphic novel was published in August 2000, according to the Grand Comics Database. It was written and drawn by Darwyn Cooke.

At the beginning of this book, discussing the Joker’s latest crime, Bruce thinks, “What horrifies me most- is that I seem to be getting used to it. The pain. The death. Not numb, but used to it. Like each new atrocity is the echo of a pistol fired long ago- in the depths of a dry well.” This reminded me of some of the language used in the “Shaman” storyline across Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (1989) #1-5, which suggested that Bruce was fated to be Batman because of what he experienced as a child, that he’s marked and it’s visible in his eyes. The last two panels that that bit of narration was placed over were Batman’s narrowed eyes as he looks at the Joker’s crime scene, and then child-Bruce’s horrified, wide open ones as he sees the gunman shoot his parents.

This book depicted Batman as this other figure that lived within Bruce since he was a child, and as a being that could be in conflict with him. It reminded me of Bruce Wainright from Batman: Creature of the Night (2018), whose Batman was in essence an imaginary friend come to life, a guardian angel that took the form of Batman because of that Bruce’s fixation on the to-him fictional character. Though the idea of Bruce Wayne being mentally ill is invoked very early in Batman: Ego, with presentiment flashbacks to Dr. Hugo Strange saying Batman had “both schizophrenia and a split personality” and Gotham City’s mayor calling him a “total headcase” early on. (The Hugo Strange quote actually comes from the "Prey" story arc, read later this past week.)

What incites the conflict between Bruce and Batman is that Bruce wants to quit being Batman, then the sticking point in their argument becomes that Batman wants to be able to kill criminals. Batman threatens, “If you denounce me- if you try to jam me back into your subconscious, then I promise I will torment you until the day we die! I promise you’ll wake up screaming every night of your pitiful life!” Batman brings up Harvey Dent, the lawyer and friend of Bruce turned villain Two-Face, and says, “Harvey was in a position where his secret self could act freely. Harvey’s condition ensured he couldn’t be held accountable for anything Two-Face did.” He says, “although we share a host body, I suggest we admit that we are separate entities,” and proposes that Bruce go on being Bruce Wayne, but “step aside” when Batman is needed. Bruce believes he is necessary to ‘temper’ Batman’s wrath, but is also unwilling to kill Batman, and so ultimately they continue on as they were before.

Nightwing (1996) #133-137

These issues were published across June 2007 to October 2007, according to the DC Wiki. All were written by Marv Wolfman. Issues #133-134 were penciled by Jamal Igle and inked by Keith Champagne. And issues #135-137 were penciled by Joe Bosco and inked by Alex Da Silva Soare. This story, titled “321 Days,” did take place in the present day of the Nightwing book, but it was heavily based around, and flashed back to, events of the period of time that Dick moved out from Wayne Manor for several months when he was 16 going on 17.

In their argument, flashed back to in issue #134, Dick says, “When we started this you were open and encouraging. You were like my father… But these last few years… All you’ve been doing is trying to control me.” Bruce tells Dick, “If I found you today instead of then, I would never bring you into the fold,” which is what prompts Dick to move out. Struggling to make ends meet on his own, Dick meets Eddie, and his right-hand woman Lui. Eddie tells a group of young people, “You’re being put down like you’re still nine ‘cause as much as they say they love you- You getting older means they’re getting older.” He assures the group, “Unlike your parents, unlike other adults, I’m not afraid of being replaced.” In issue #135 we see that Dick formed a romantic and sexual relationship with Lui, and the Eddie began training Dick (much like Bruce would have) and told him things like, “Good. Really good. But I’ll make you better. Maybe, someday, even better than me.”

Still in issue #135, Dick grows uncomfortable with the worsening criminal activity Eddie is involving the gang in and considers calling Bruce, but changes his mind, saying, “What am I doing? I left to prove I’m grown up. I can’t just call daddy.” Lui proposes to Dick that he help the gang rob Bruce Wayne with his access to him, but Dick can’t accept that they were “using” him and that he was just a “passkey” to them, until he finds out that Lui and Eddie are sleeping together, which is devastating for him. At this point Dick goes back to Bruce and they take down the gang as Batman and Robin, after which their relationship is repaired. Bruce says he can’t treat Dick as an equal because, “I’m older. Smarter. I can still take you in a fight. But I will respect you… as an adult. […] Maybe it just took a while for me to see it.”

Dick is deeply distressed about Lui coming back into his life 10 years later. Though outwardly he acts cordially, his internal narration over the 4 pages of their conversation in issue #133 reads: “Don’t trust her. Don’t trust her. Don’t trust her. Don’t trust her. She looks the same, smells the same. Don’t let her in. She’ll crush you, just like before. Smells like Jasmine, always did. Don’t do it. I want to believe her. Believe in her. Trust her. Jasmine. I can’t trust her. Don’t trust her. Jasmine and sweat. The memory is still strong. Dick Grayson loved her. Robin busted her. I can’t trust her. I shouldn’t. Jasmine and sweat. She still smells the same.”

Dick’s former relationships with Barbara Gordon and Starfire are invoked several times throughout the story. Dick questions in issue #134, “Is she why I’ve never been able to commit? Why it’s easy for me to say ‘I love you…’ But not ‘I need you’? as images of Dick and Kory appear behind him, and then of Lui fighting Robin. In issue #136 he thinks, again with Barbara and Kory appearing behind him for part of the narration, “After her… Couldn’t let myself trust… Couldn’t let myself believe… Couldn’t let myself get close. To anyone. I’m so tired of that. I want… I want… Just don’t know if I’ll ever be able to have.” In issue #137, after Lui has been seriously injured in a fight and Dick rushed her to the hospital, he thinks, “Damn you all. Once bitten. Twice shy,” and Barbara and Kory’s reflections in the glass briefly overtake his own.

In issue #137 Dick gives the speech that the title of the story comes from, telling the new Vigilante something he’s never been able to tell the people he’s actually close to before. He describes that after Lui, “I spent most of the next year pretending nothing had happened.” He says that, “Day one was the day I learned the truth.” Then, “when things looked their worst… 321 days later everything changed again.” I haven’t actually read The New Teen Titans (1980) before, so I’m not sure exactly which event from that this is referring to. Barbara and Kory are again depicted behind Dick, and he says, “Only, I had never confronted what was wrong. So I screwed up what I had… And then, later on, I screwed up again.”

Also, Dick running away from Bruce and joining up with a criminal gang that targeted young people reminded me of a similar thing happening in Robin: Year One (2000), though that was a bit different in that it happened very early in Dick’s career as Robin.

Nightwing (1996) Annual #2

This issue was published in April 2007, according to the DC Wiki. It was written by Marc Andreyko, penciled by Joe Bennet, and inked by Jack Jadson. I read this because it's included in the same trade that collects the "321 Days" storyline, so I thought it might be relevant. This issue was about Dick and Barbara Gordon’s relationship over the years, leading up to their present day state in the aftermath of the Infinite Crisis event.

I liked how Bruce hung over their relationship in the story. Early on Barbara sternly tells Dick to get back in bed because he’s recovering from injuries, and he tells her that her “glare” was “like you channeled Batman there.” She tells him, “Maybe you bring that out in people,” to which he says, “Ouch. Now you sound like him.” In the flashback to their first date when they were still Batman and Robin he’s fretting out they skipped patrol. He dramatically says, “Bruce is gonna kill us.” She says, “Kill you, not me. I don’t live with him,” but also, “He’ll never know we skipped patrol.” But Dick thinks, “Yeah, he will. He knows everything.”

Dick tries to confess the extent of his feelings for her back then, saying, “I’m a big boy now,” and, “I love you, Babs- as a friend, as a partner- and I’d like to believe I could love you as a…” but he doesn’t learn until the present day that she heard him. Barbara explains, “You should be grateful I did that. You had so much going on. The Titans had reformed again. And you and Bruce… Remember how tense things were then? You were so angry, you were rejecting all things Batman.”

As part of Dick’s recovery, we see a scene of Barbara being encouraging and a scene of her speaking to him harshly to motivate him. After the harsh scene, Dick realizes that the spikes he pushed himself in order to not impale himself on were only “foam rubber,” and comments, “Bruce would’ve used real iron.” Barbara says, “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? But I’m not Bruce. And I’m not here to reinforce your guilty conscious.” Apparently, not risking seriously hurting him during training but still speaking harshly to him is a step up.

When a call from Bruce interrupts their conversation, Dick thinks, “It all leads back to him, doesn’t it?” Dick tells him that Barbara is acting “like a drill sergeant, but that’s what I needed.” Bruce very bluntly drops on Dick that he’s going on a long trip with Tim and wants Dick to come as well, that “I’d like my family with me.” Dick doesn’t even get a chance to respond before Bruce says, “I need a final decision by Friday,” and leaves. And then Barbara ends up leaving to ensure Dick goes with Bruce, telling him in a letter, “We both know you have to go with Bruce. Not because of him, but because of you.”

Of relevance to the “321 Days” story is that Barbara refers to that Dick lost his virginity to Starfire. He asks, “Who said I was a virgin,” and she responds, “Please. The whole ‘I-know-you-better-than-you-do’ thing?” Dick doesn’t correct her, just says, “Right.” (Though, to be fair, “321 Days” was published just a bit after this.)

Also, it was strange to follow up reading that story about Dick being affected by an early sexual manipulation, to the scene in this story where Dick sleeps with Barbara after he gets engaged to Kory, but doesn’t reveal that he’s engaged until the next morning, seriously hurting Barbara. That scene primarily highlights Barbara’s perspective; I don’t really understand what was meant for Dick to be thinking there.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (1989) #11-15

These issues were published across September 1990 to January 1991 according to the Grand Comics Database. All were written by Doug Moench, penciled by Paul Gulacy, and inked by Terry Austin. This was the “Prey” storyline, featuring Dr. Hugo Strange as the primary villain.

This is immediately one of my favorite Batman stories that I’ve ever read; it worked really well for me. I read this simply because it was the next arc in Legends of the Dark Knight, but it paired well with Batman: Turning Points and Batman: Ego, considering the focus on Bruce’s mental state and relationship with Jim Gordon.

In the first issue Jim, Gotham’s mayor, and psychiatrist Hugo Strange appear on a live talk show together to discuss the Batman. Bruce justifies watching to Alfred by saying it’s “free analysis,” but as Strange talks he gets deeply distressed and self-harms by squeezing his glass so hard it shatters and cuts his hand, then continues watching as Alfred tends to his wound. Strange says that Batman is “extremely obsessed- and he craves individual power, indicating a paranoid mistrust of others.” Strange says that he’s, “Obsessed with the night, with darkness. Perhaps obsessed with vengeance,” and pinpoints that it all leads back to a singular trauma that happened during the night. And, regarding that he’s a “rogue who acts alone,” Strange says, “He does not wish to share his victories and accomplishments, yet he insists on remaining anonymous. You see-? He craves fame, wants to be a star, but not as himself- only as the fictional construct, ‘The Batman.’ And, referring to that he uses “the iconography of a hideous, filthy night-creature,” Strange believes that Batman’s motives aren’t “utilitarian” and instead “he exults in the dark power of this terrifying apparition.”

Bruce is comforted when Jim defends him, thinking, “Gordon knows. Gordon understands.” But when the mayor surprises Jim with the announcement that there’s going to be a new “vigilante task force” to take down the Batman, and Jim’s going to lead it, Bruce is distressed again. He thinks, “No. Not him. Not Gordon. Not the only one who understands.” Later, wondering if what Strange said about him being too obsessed and needing to work alone is true, Bruce thinks, “What would it take… for me to trust someone? And who could I trust?” Meanwhile, since Strange is going to consult on the task force, Jim is worried about him being able to figure out Batman’s secret identity. But later, when Strange requests the files on every mugging and murder from the last 5 years, he thinks, “At least he’s underestimated the extent of the Batman’s obsession- a lifetime obsession. He’s also underestimated the time necessary to prepare. In a mere five years, no man could become what the Batman is.” He agrees that Strange will be given the files, “but nothing of my suspicions.”

Strange, it turns out, is deeply disturbed and jealous of Batman. He imagines being like him would feel “omnipotent.” It’s a frustration that he can understand the Batman only psychologically, and he wants to know what it would feel like physically to be Batman. He also hates women, saying in issue #14, “You’re all alike! No man’s ever good enough for you,” as he hits the mayor’s daughter, who he had kidnapped after she spoke positively about Batman. He, in his delusional way, interpreted her support of him as her specifically being attracted to Batman, as opposed to him.

There’s a scene in issue #14 where Bruce is drugged, Alfred tries to help him, and then Bruce hits him before fleeing to the Batcave because he feels safe there. We see in issue #15 that Bruce stays there for several days, comfortable in the dark, and initially refuses to eat even though Alfred was bringing him food. This was the first moment I’ve read that’s made me sympathetic to Alfred’s position and appreciate his loyalty to Bruce. I don’t find him making fun of Bruce for being absurd endearing at all. And I believe his cold parenting holds some responsibility for how Bruce turned out. But this made me appreciate that Bruce is stronger than Alfred, and that Alfred continues to care for Bruce even though Bruce doesn’t always make it easy.

Also, referring back to Jim’s sentiment in Turning Points #2 that “our rules don’t apply to him,” which was about Batman taking on a teenage sidekick, it seems relevant that, prompting by the discussion of Batman’s role is a vigilante and his own inability to disobey the mayor, Jim thinks in the first issue, “in the end, if I’m not above the law… is he? And if he isn’t… Then what is he?”

#comics read this past week #my posts

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