I was talking about this very thing with my husband just the other day. Wouldn't destroying an entire city be seen as an act of terrorism? As an act of *war*? And whatever happened to justifiable homicide and self-defense? In the real world, if a man pointed a gun at me or my family or any innocent and I killed him, no reasonable jury would convict me. But heroes are held to a different standard, even when they have no super powers. If a vigilante kills someone, even to save someone's life, the vigilante has automatically done a BAD THING.
How can Batman hold to an ideal in a world where the law itself makes no sense? In any reasonable world the Joker would be long dead by now. It's not just Batman who's an idiot for continually putting him back in Arkham, it's the judges and juries and lawyers who don't find a way to give him the death penalty. Once Batman turns the Joker over to The Law, it's up to The Law to find a way to either hold the Joker or kill him. Instead it's like they throw up their hands and turn on the batsignal and say, "Oops! Sorry Batman! He got out again. Guess you'd better go catch him!" Nobody takes responsibility for anything in the comics world, except Batman, who takes responsibility for *everything*.
One comic series I really liked was the Batman Adventures/Batman and Robin Adventures/Gotham Adventures series, which was based on the excellent 1992 Batman: The Animated Series. The art is consistent and the storytelling is top-notch. Since it's billed as an all-ages comic, the villains can't be the horrible psychotic mass-murderers that they're portrayed as elsewhere. It makes the dilemmas Batman faces much more reasonable and poignant, and his rules are far more understandable. The stories are mostly episodic, but the art and characterizations are very consistent.
Anyway, in sum, THIS: it's that comic writers need to tone the villains the fuck down!!!
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Date: 2010-03-20 04:12 pm (UTC)How can Batman hold to an ideal in a world where the law itself makes no sense? In any reasonable world the Joker would be long dead by now. It's not just Batman who's an idiot for continually putting him back in Arkham, it's the judges and juries and lawyers who don't find a way to give him the death penalty. Once Batman turns the Joker over to The Law, it's up to The Law to find a way to either hold the Joker or kill him. Instead it's like they throw up their hands and turn on the batsignal and say, "Oops! Sorry Batman! He got out again. Guess you'd better go catch him!" Nobody takes responsibility for anything in the comics world, except Batman, who takes responsibility for *everything*.
One comic series I really liked was the Batman Adventures/Batman and Robin Adventures/Gotham Adventures series, which was based on the excellent 1992 Batman: The Animated Series. The art is consistent and the storytelling is top-notch. Since it's billed as an all-ages comic, the villains can't be the horrible psychotic mass-murderers that they're portrayed as elsewhere. It makes the dilemmas Batman faces much more reasonable and poignant, and his rules are far more understandable. The stories are mostly episodic, but the art and characterizations are very consistent.
Anyway, in sum, THIS: it's that comic writers need to tone the villains the fuck down!!!
YES.