Nrama: It's interesting that Superman has to hurt himself with Kryptonite before he can heal.
Pak: Yeah, it's this sacrifice that Superman made. He basically let himself be killed off in order to try to save the day.
In this article from just last month, its writer explains that Bruce Wayne has to let himself be killed off in Batman #49 in order to become Batman again to try to save the day.
Initially, Bruce says that by regaining the memories, he could be a Batman without the trauma. Yet when they learn that Bruce would have to go brain dead before being able to receive the memories, the truth comes out. He could never be both. He could never be the happy, well adjusted man that he was during his amnesia and the same watchful protector of Gotham that the city needs him to be. And so he willingly traded his happiness for obsession to once again save his city.
What's next? Sacrificing the entire DCU so that it can have rebirth as new hero...?!
You know...I have always had my suspicions that Batman was... well... bats, but this only confirms it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they should name this "Resurrection" instead of "Rebirth"....
ReplyDeleteIt's just Nekron again.
ReplyDeleteI'm less curious about Superman- or Batman-as-Jesus (since DC has generally been fixated on cramming "superheroes as modern mythology" down everybody's throats in recent years) as I am about DC's weird obsession with Batman being psychologically damaged. I would have thought all of that Frank Miller type stuff would have played itself out, by now, and we could go back to a Batman that doesn't think he's Wolverine, because that story is really boring and I think says more about the writers than the character...
ReplyDeleteThere's no escaping the fact (to such extent as anything in comics is a "fact") that the death of Bruce's parents was a traumatic, formative thing for him. But in terms of Bruce being psychologically damaged, I like the note Snyder hit with it: the main thing their deaths did is make Bruce acutely aware of how we're ALL one unfortunate event away from dying. This has him deeply bugged, and he feels the need to do something about it on as many levels as he can.
ReplyDeleteI can't see Bruce as a normal, well-adjusted guy, but I can see him as pretty close to that, provided he keeps working to save lives. It's not about punishing criminals, it's not about exorcising his rage, it's about making sure as many people can make it to tomorrow as possible. It feels like a good place for Bruce to be in, where he's still spurred to risk his life but not because he's still a poor broken child.
"What's next? Sacrificing the entire DCU so that it can have rebirth as new hero...?!"
ReplyDeleteThey already tried that, back in 1985. And again. And again. And...
"That trick NEVER works!" -- Rocky J. Squirrel
Off topic, but have you ever considered a new Central City geography piece using the Flash tv show? Last night in particular had Barry running down an "alley" as wide as a boulevard.
ReplyDeleteSo someone tore down the building that was between two other buildings, thereby making the two alleys on either side of said building into one much wider alley between the other two buildings. It happens. The bigger and older the city, the more room for anomalies.
ReplyDeleteThe Superman as Jesus thing is weird because his creators were jews and Superman was not Jesus, Superman was Space Moses/Golem. That's a 70s thing. It does fit Superman, through, because Superman always struck me as the kind of guy who asks himself WWJD and I wouldn't mind to see it a bit more embraced.
ReplyDeleteWell-written Superman always struck me as the most Christian of heroes. Superman has a lot of chivalric hero DNA in him, too
Playing with concepts:
Superman: Jewish/Christian
Batman: Atheist/Deist.
Wonder-Woman: Helenic/Olympian.
Very representative of the West, interesting!