I've been thinking of the bat characters recently and some of their questionable actions. Whether writers are taking them a little too far. This focuses on Bruce, Dick and Alfred.
We all know Bruce does stupid things with his family. But there have been two things in the relaunch that have bothered me with his morals regarding mortality. Before the new 52 Bruce had very clear ideas about resurrecting the dead. He knew it wasn't usually a perfect process and since he didn't understand it he didn't want to tamper with it. That was the reason he backed out of several tempting offers to bring Jason back (plus he couldn't trust those making the deal) and putting him in a pit himself. That was one of the reasons he didn't allow Ra's to put his parents into the pit. Bringing Damian back in now puts him in a corner. Does he bring everyone back or act like a jackass playing favorites. No one questioned that he didn't try to bring Dick back even Damian but would he? Is he just going to start putting everyone in the pit?
Bruce might not like his limits as a mortal (as seen by how often power goes to his head) but the idea that he'd clone himself to continue the mission doesn't feel right. Not only is it vain to assume every clone would act just like him it undermines the idea of his legacy and uses the Al Ghuls means to enslave his clones to a never ending mission. Remember Talia cloning Damian to replace him? Why would Bruce decide to use that idea on himself? And honestly I think from a storytelling perceptive it's far more compelling to have people like Terry take over than more copies of Bruce.
Next is Alfred who I already discussed a bit. The man who acted as the conscience of Batman is now acting far more reckless and outright cold to the family. He's withheld the fact Bruce is alive from them (RHA #4 and 5), hidden the boys from Bruce and recruited a whole lot of minors. Unlike Bruce he doesn't train them and remotely tells them what to do. One has already died and he acts like it was just a solider he never knew. Will it take Bruce (the memory lost one) telling him it's horrible to get him to stop? Honestly I don't have faith that this storyline will be handled well.
I went over the whole spy thing not meshing well with the character. I don't care about BaRE although every once in awhile someone will mention it. This was the case with Dick acting more Bruce like and not in a good way. Apparently he exposed Tims' parents (who are under protective custody) to figure out if Tim was under mind control? I thought the whole point of the spy thing was to give Dick a role outside Batman and instead they make him act like him?
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You know how Jason was a Dick stand-in on BE? They pulled the same stunt this past week with Dick taking Bruce's place for drama.
ReplyDeleteAt this point I've come tot he sad conclusion that character assasination will be a thing on Batman comics as long Snyder and Tynion keep being the main writers of the series.
Tynion, along with some of the other BE/BaRE writers, doesn't get these characters. I mean they get some things but it's the plot dictating the characters not the other way around. Or hell trying to how their plot works with the characters acting like themselves. They try to jab cubed pegs into circular holes and it really looks like they have no idea what to do with these characters.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read TT since the DOTF tie ins but it seems like only Jason and Damian are written well. I mean in their solos although they have had some good guest spots in other books. I guess Dick could be okay in Grayson sometimes but I feel the book is an ill fit for him.
Except for some stuff with solo titles most of the Bat family get togethers are awful and/or disappointing.