Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Looking back at the All Caste

Some things that stuck out during Lobdell's first run about this group. This is just idle musings.


Why did Talia take Jason to the All Caste?

Yes, Tynion had his own ideas about this but it didn't work with already established canon. Not with Talia's past motives, the story Lobdell was telling, etc. Under Winick Talia kept Jason away from Ra's and his assassins because Ra's wanted Jason killed after he left the pit.

Lobdell has Ducra and Talia surprised that Ra's allowed it and seeming supportive. The most logical reason I can come up with is his obsession with cheating death and needing to get answers on how Jason returned. (*1) Despite her father's approval Talia doesn't have him trained with the LOA (again Tynions' run doesn't mesh.)

This could partially be out of fear as Jason noticed her terror at the Lazarus Pit. Maybe the All Caste are the only ones she trusts to help Jason? Talia says she still thinks Jason has the potential to be a good man. And that does make sense as it would be harder to be a good person in the LOA. But why not take him to Bruce? Besides Talia apparently telling Jason that he's unavenged in there's no other reason stated here. I kind of toyed with theories about Jason being different but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go all in quite yet. But to quote another fandom:

"When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” - Spock, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 1991

We first learn of the All Caste by meeting Essence in Red Hood and the Outlaws Volume 1 #1. The introduction it's self is odd as Essence appears behind Roy and Jason. This leads to Jason excusing himself and Roy not reacting to Essence's presence. Roy thinks Jason is talking to himself since he can't see Essence. This happens again later on when Jason sees black smoke, he realizes no one else notices it and proceeds to argue with Essence until she reveals herself to the others. Jason doesn't try to explain Essence to them (not entirely) or why he could see her. In fact he tried to hide it before he lost his temper.

The All Caste teach combat but every other named member we've seen has some mystical/magical abilities. For Ducra and Essence this is easy to explain since their (unwilling) members of the Untitled. But we never learn what the story was with the other members. S'aru could remove memories and is ancient despite looking like a kid. Apparently the others were old too since it's been centuries since they had anyone trained by them. After their slaughtered their turned into the undead. While Jason hasn't been to all the areas in the Acres of All he feels at home there while his friends find it disorienting. He feels abnormal around normal people.

While the logical comic mind says, "DC would never allow that for a bat character" it seems like there is a deeper connection. Of all the places Talia could have taken Jason she brings him to a place Jason isn't sure exists in the same dimension as Earth and has mystical/magic users. If they all have these supernatural abilities and Talia took Jason to them over all the other apparent options shouldn't that mean Jason himself is capable of more than physical abilities? Is that why she freaked out?

Lobdell has said Tynion was supposed to wrap up the Untitled arc since the higher ups wanted it complete. While he didn't handle the story well it's still possible Tynion was given some insight into Lobdells' plans. He just overplayed his hand and didn't know how to deal with the plots. Thus he never actually explained things and just randomly had Jason doing feats we've never seen before. (*2) Looking back Lobdell has hinted at something being up with Jason's connection to the the All Caste that's deeper than mere martial arts training.

Talia's part in all of this (*3) is rather odd and she has information the rest of us don't have yet. In one telling she's in the graveyard waiting for Jason as he climbs his way out of his grave. How did she know? At the Lazarus Pit Jason witnesses her fear of him. At the Arces of All Talia tells Ducra that physically Jason was fine but his soul was absent until the pit. What I've always found weird was how Ducra reacts to this. I didn't know how to voice this before but her declaration that Jason will "destroy us all" if she didn't train him is just bizarre. Sure at first it sounds like she's talking about his anger but she effortlessly took him out. Why does it matter that she has to teach him?

Why does she view Jason as a potential threat to everyone? If he was such a threat wouldn't training him be risky? Jason himself thinks it was a smart move for Ducra to make. When we get glimpses of his training his teachers are encouraging and later on Jason thanks Ducra for believing in him. Not much to go on there but there is the curiously vague ritual Jason takes. His chest is covered in marks while he lies below the surface of the water in a small Koi pool. It looks like if he just sat up he'd be fine yet it's treated like he would have died. Apparently he's the first person to survive it in a long time.

The ritual is referred to as the cleansing and beyond that we aren't given any solid information on it. Whatever it is has to be important if Jason and others were willing to go through something that has a good chance of killing them. The markings aren't seen on Jason's chest under Lobdell until Jason has a nightmare. He's on an alter in the nightmare, maybe as a sacrifice? Which could be how he sees himself in regards to his connection to Joker.

Still there seems to be a theme of magical/mystical abilities Jason has with things we see. We know that the swords at least are magical and we've heard that they can be used: against evil, powered by the users soul or blood and only work against magic. When Bizarro couldn't hurt Akila it was Jason using the All Blades that caused her to scream in pain. In a lot of lore there is a cost of using magic that requires a form of payment or sacrifice. Blood is usually seen as a sacrifice or an amplifier for power. Zantanna once told Batman how powerful it was when her throat was cut and she had to write her spell out in her own blood.

Essence and Jason both claim to be students of Ducra which seems a little odd when you look at the characters. It's obvious that Essence is a tremendously powerful woman while Jason just looks like he was trained to be an assassin. But he's still entrusted with deadly weapons and sees things no one else does. Something he tried to hide and never answers. Besides the Batman/Superman annual (which doesn't really fit into canon anyway) none of the family has seen the weapons. Tim made a reference to the All Caste (which still seems weird to me) under Fabian N. but seemed to think they were just assassins that trained Jason to fight blind.

If Jason does have some magical/mystical abilities I could easily see him hiding it from his family. In older bat books Bruce is a little...well he's kind of an ass when it comes to those that aren't entirely human. He's referred to Kori as "the alien" and disrespected her relationship with Dick. Warned his kids about metas on their team, etc. I could see him being more uncomfortable with something can't understand. If Jason already feels like the black sheep that would make it a hundred times worse.

Back to the cleansing, if I had to guess based on the name, timing and possible hints? I'd say Jason "came back wrong." Talia claims his soul was absent from his body upon his resurrection. In the Futures End issue Jason says he was dragged from heaven. Maybe the markings on his chest are a seal? Idle speculation just because it's fun.



*1 Which isn't present in Tynion's telling since Ra's doesn't understand why Jason is considered special. I find that odd given his obsession with death,

*2 Tynion had Jason have glowing tattoos on his chest (the same ones from his flashback and dream) and pulling weapons out of his chest.

*3 Jason doesn't seem to have met Talia in Lobdell's Secret Origins tale meaning Tynions' first meeting of the two isn't canon.

No comments:

Post a Comment