InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I give you dancing flower."

arbre_rieur (arbre_rieur) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-04-22 19:49:00

Entry tags:

char: batman/bruce wayne, creator: andy kubert, creator: neil gaiman

What Batman's all about
Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert provide us with a nice encapsulation of what Batman's all about.

And that pretty much says it all, really.

I especially like the part where it points out that these things are constants for ALL versions of Batman, no matter the era. This is why I find people who obsess over continuity to be acting silly. After all, the essential stuff, the truth at the character's core never changes. And isn't that what really matters?

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	colonel_green 2009-04-22 10:04 pm UTC (link)
	After all, the essential stuff, the truth at the character's core never changes. And isn't that what really matters? Well, yes and no. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	ghosty732 2009-04-22 10:12 pm UTC (link)
	Phrased better than I could have. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	zhinxy 2009-04-22 11:05 pm UTC (link)
	...perfect answer. ;) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

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benicio127, 2009-04-22 11:45 pm UTC

	thandrak 2009-04-22 10:10 pm UTC (link)
	The question is, what's the essential truth? Did Adam West Batman ever give up? He might. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	besamim 2009-04-22 10:13 pm UTC (link)
	He didn't exactly give up, but he did go insane and become mayor of Quahog, RI. ba-dump tssh (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

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ozlelila, 2009-04-23 06:51 pm UTC

sherkahn
2009-04-22 10:26 pm UTC (link)

So many concepts and ideas going on in every juicy page that it feels like trying to remember a dream- a dream that made sense when you lived it, then you go back a second in your head to remember some little detail and the smooth logical dream stream of consciousness breaks up and you're down a different rabbit hole.

This was great.

What does she mean, just a few more years....

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	luckofjin 2009-04-22 10:44 pm UTC (link)
	I think she means he gets to be a normal kid for a few years, until his parents are murdered. (Reply to this) (Parent)

(no subject) - (Anonymous), 2009-04-22 10:50 pm UTC

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heat16, 2009-04-22 11:53 pm UTC

(no subject) - (Anonymous), 2009-04-23 03:41 pm UTC

	(Anonymous) 2009-04-22 10:36 pm UTC (link)
	I don't have this issue yet but this seems right. Although I think this means that Batman will just come back again and again because even after he dies he is still Batman. No wonder people are scared of this guy over the rest; they'll stay dead damnit. (Reply to this)

	chipsnopotatoes 2009-04-22 10:39 pm UTC (link)
	i got this today and it was a beautiful story. (Reply to this)

	pyrotwilight 2009-04-22 10:50 pm UTC (link)
	Oddly what really made me tear up in this issue was Clayface's mini story. "He died...sssaving the city... No, that's not true...he saved the city, yes...but he died ssssaving me. I sssaid 'I'm not worth it.' He said 'Everyone's worth it' " (Reply to this) (Thread)

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filthysize.livejournal.com, 2009-04-22 11:22 pm UTC

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zhinxy, 2009-04-22 11:23 pm UTC

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batcookies, 2009-04-23 01:19 am UTC

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zegim, 2009-04-23 04:47 am UTC

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blackdocs, 2009-04-23 10:53 pm UTC

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blunderbuss, 2009-04-24 11:39 am UTC

	sistermagpie 2009-04-22 10:50 pm UTC (link)
	The end of this totally got me. (Reply to this)

	uadlika 2009-04-22 11:03 pm UTC (link)
	Come back Bruce! Don't leave me! I'm still scratching my head over this a bit, but the more I mull the more I like it. That's usually what happens with Gaiman. I need to both parts together now to get the ultimate feel. (Reply to this)

zhinxy
2009-04-22 11:03 pm UTC (link)

...Well, while I remain quite the fan of Gaiman, this still left me mostly meh. A bit too pat, a bit too formulaic, nicely done, but... It didn't make me go WOW! at any point.

But on the other hand? Should this indeed take its place with other of the Variously Overrated But Still Worthwhile and Interesting Batbooks by the Britgods, doomed to be collected and deemed classic with a capital C by DC comics before they're even off the press, in becoming arguably FAR more iconic than it should be... This one? Almost politely never does anything to shake up/grim up the mythos rather than gently fairy-tale tell it Gaiman style. Should it have an effect on future Batbooks and Batfans, it seems like it would be a fairly positive effect. And thus, it leaves me cold, but thinking it being overrated is something I can happily live with.

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besamim, 2009-04-22 11:28 pm UTC

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benicio127, 2009-04-22 11:47 pm UTC

starwolf_oakley
2009-04-22 11:36 pm UTC (link)

Neil Gaiman is a crapshoot. He is talented and his work on Sandman legitimized comic books. But this is way out there, even for an "imaginary story" when they are all imaginary stories.

Of course, part of this issue, where Martha says Bruce can't save his parents reminded me of Penance, aka Bleedball, aka the Thing with Robbie Baldwin's face. Paul Jenkins somehow legitimized Penance by saying it was similar to how Batman could stop all crime and his parents would still be dead. Uh-huh. And this issue reminded me of that. Which is never a good thing.

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	mullon 2009-04-22 11:46 pm UTC (link)
	I think I would rather just have Batman back. If I understand this, what Mrs. Wayne is saying is that there is no afterlife, and your reward is how people remember you. But that is a moot point by the fact that they are ghosts standing right there. (Reply to this) (Thread)

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katsaris, 2009-04-23 02:56 am UTC

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kamino_neko, 2009-04-23 04:36 am UTC

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aaron_bourque, 2009-04-24 03:25 am UTC

(no subject) - (Anonymous), 2009-04-23 03:46 pm UTC

	blackdocs 2009-04-23 12:18 am UTC (link)
	zomg, kitty from Y1 is back!!! (Reply to this) (Thread)

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zhinxy, 2009-04-23 12:20 am UTC

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blackdocs, 2009-04-23 12:29 am UTC

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sailorlibra, 2009-04-23 08:34 am UTC

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raattgift, 2009-04-25 02:06 pm UTC

cmdr_zoom
2009-04-23 12:53 am UTC (link)

This is how you do meta right, Morrison. You focus on the existing characters and who they are, not drag in new ones to be more awesome. (It also helps to not get too distracted by the process of storytelling itself, and how many balls you can keep in the air at once, and whether they're on fire.)

(Of course, it still has one of the same issues, one inherent to all metafiction: it reminds you that You're Reading a Story, bouncing you out of the "reality" of the characters and events taking place on the page. This isn't quite as blatant as Buddy literally seeing through the page/fourth wall, but...)

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bluefall
2009-04-23 01:05 am UTC (link)

Can I just say I loved the focus on his mother? It's always, always, always fathers and sons in the Bat mythos, and it's tiresome and pretty frequently sexist; the loss is always his father's, the flashbacks are always him and his dad, the inspiration and the inheritance and the heroism are always paternal (and passed on to male inheritors). So here's this story where Bruce is going to meet someone important and dead, and -- holy shit, Thomas isn't even there. The guide, the comfort, the person Bruce wants and needs to see in his fugue, it's his mom.

If everything else about this story were trash I would still love Gaiman for daring to break the pattern and give Martha her due.

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(no subject) - (Anonymous), 2009-04-23 01:16 am UTC

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zhinxy, 2009-04-23 01:52 am UTC

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bluefall, 2009-04-23 01:33 am UTC

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psychop_rex, 2009-04-25 12:03 am UTC

	aaron_bourque 2009-04-23 01:06 am UTC (link)
	Kubert kicked all kinds of ass on these two, but especially in the silhouette flashbats. (Reply to this)

	fromtheaether 2009-04-23 06:02 am UTC (link)
	Reading the ending, I can't help recalling the last line of the last pre-Crisis Batman story: "And so the night of resurrection nears its end, but when next he strides forth from this dark womb of bats... it all begins anew. 'Hello again. Beware... forever.'" (Reply to this)

	merseybeatler 2009-04-23 06:40 am UTC (link)
	Red this in bed last night: "Goodnight, bittersweet and rather bizarre comic book!" (Reply to this)

	jeyl 2009-04-23 09:57 am UTC (link)
	You see, this is good. The comic is doing something Christopher Nolan and his crew would never do. Give Bruce's Mom something to say. :P (Reply to this) (Thread)

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runespoor7, 2009-04-23 10:01 am UTC

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unknownscribler, 2009-04-23 10:33 am UTC

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aaron_bourque, 2009-04-24 03:21 am UTC

	runespoor7 2009-04-23 10:04 am UTC (link)
	basks is basking Mhmm, meta. I think I'm the minority, but I absolutely loved it. Iconism done right. (Reply to this)

	xdoop 2009-04-23 09:56 pm UTC (link)
	Azrael makes a cameo in the issue, but not Cass? (Reply to this)

oddpuppets
2009-06-22 03:15 pm UTC (link)

Like many things Gaiman, it is odd and sweet and tastes a little bit of what fairy wine must be like, though you should not, y'know.

I just think it could have been longer. Three issues, or one extra-size issue. It felt truncuated, like so much more could have been done and instead Gaiman left us only shadows to puzzle out. Which might be fitting for a Batman story, but for a meta-Batman story I require a little more meat. Great focus on his inspirating force to others and the focus on saving even one life, but there is more to Batman than that. What of Gotham City, *his* city? And in the ending shot, there is the Boy Wonder, but what about Grayson? Yes, reading it you could assume that he meant ALL Boy Wonders, but the panel clearly points to Tim. I thought that Dick deserved a goodbye all of his own.

Again, very nice, and much better than anything Morrison pulled up in R.I.P. ... and yet just not quite the A-grade I was expecting from Gaiman. Like the dancing of angels on a pinhead, but that's not what I expect from basically a wrapping up and beginning of the Batman.

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