RatCreature (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ratcreature) wrote2004-05-07 03:28 pm
ratcreature) wrote2004-05-07 03:28 pm
Entry tags:
young Bruce Wayne
So crazy person that I am, I am kind of trying to write a first draft of a comic Batverse overview for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
crack_van, because the Batverse really deserves to be pimped. A lot. So while I'm valiantly struggling to come up with ways not to make the character backgrounds and storyline descriptions ridiculously long, and possibly with footnotes *facepalms* -- lots of footnotes explaining alternate versions, because I'm irrationally afraid to be kicked in the head by people reading it, whose favorite version of the pivotal character past moment is a different one -- I'm rereading bits and pieces, and I'm reminded all over again of why I love the characters so much.
For example young Bruce Wayne. I mean, he's one traumatized little kid, and copes with the loss of his parents in a scary way, but he is also just awesome. He makes the decision not to let something like his parents death happen to someone else ever again in night of the murder, and in a way it's really a thought that an eight year old would have, like, it's not an especially realistic goal or anything. It's not a grown up thought of helping victims of crime, or reducing crime, or saving as many lives as possible -- possible doesn't figure into it. He swears on the grave of his parents that it'll never happen again. But the dedication and drive the loss of his parents start within him, in a way I admire that, because it's not resigned but defiant even against impossible odds. And he keeps that goal, and his oath in mind even as an adolescent and adult, he never revises his goal into something achievable.
I think he's a great person for that. I mean, as far as my reactions to the death of close relatives like my mother or my grandparents go, it just resulted in me being depressed, and kind of fatalistic about death happening, it's not like I decided to dedicate my life to rid the world of cancer or anything. And okay violent death is of course different, but I never got the impression that it was about vengeance for Bruce, or about that particular mugger. I really admire how he takes his pain and transforms it into a force for something positive. Even though his way is probably not the "sanest" one to deal with death, after that night's events he is at least never passive or a victim again.
I mean, in many depictions of the murder and it's aftermath, you can see the moment he makes this decision, when his look turns from that of a scared kid, into the look of someone determined and scary, like this one from Year One, or in the one from the Zero Hour Batman issue, I linked to above. He is still afraid of course, but it doesn't paralyze him anymore. He faces his fear and uses it. I also truly envy his focus-- not exactly in that I would want to be that extreme myself, but-- it may be kind of scary, that he's so single-minded, yeah, but once he's certain of his goal he works to achieve it, and does so with all he has.
First he molds himself exactly into what he wants to be, both body and mind, then later he transforms his home into the perfect base for his mission, his company into the machinery to generate the technology and immense funds he needs, but he doesn't just fight as Batman, at the same time on the Bruce Wayne side of his war against crime he uses Wayne Enterprises to generate wealth and jobs for Gotham, is a philanthropist who gives money to charities, all to transform Gotham.
Um, I think, I don't really have a point, except that I adore the ingenuity of Bruce's whole setup.
crack_van, because the Batverse really deserves to be pimped. A lot. So while I'm valiantly struggling to come up with ways not to make the character backgrounds and storyline descriptions ridiculously long, and possibly with footnotes *facepalms* -- lots of footnotes explaining alternate versions, because I'm irrationally afraid to be kicked in the head by people reading it, whose favorite version of the pivotal character past moment is a different one -- I'm rereading bits and pieces, and I'm reminded all over again of why I love the characters so much. For example young Bruce Wayne. I mean, he's one traumatized little kid, and copes with the loss of his parents in a scary way, but he is also just awesome. He makes the decision not to let something like his parents death happen to someone else ever again in night of the murder, and in a way it's really a thought that an eight year old would have, like, it's not an especially realistic goal or anything. It's not a grown up thought of helping victims of crime, or reducing crime, or saving as many lives as possible -- possible doesn't figure into it. He swears on the grave of his parents that it'll never happen again. But the dedication and drive the loss of his parents start within him, in a way I admire that, because it's not resigned but defiant even against impossible odds. And he keeps that goal, and his oath in mind even as an adolescent and adult, he never revises his goal into something achievable.
I think he's a great person for that. I mean, as far as my reactions to the death of close relatives like my mother or my grandparents go, it just resulted in me being depressed, and kind of fatalistic about death happening, it's not like I decided to dedicate my life to rid the world of cancer or anything. And okay violent death is of course different, but I never got the impression that it was about vengeance for Bruce, or about that particular mugger. I really admire how he takes his pain and transforms it into a force for something positive. Even though his way is probably not the "sanest" one to deal with death, after that night's events he is at least never passive or a victim again.
I mean, in many depictions of the murder and it's aftermath, you can see the moment he makes this decision, when his look turns from that of a scared kid, into the look of someone determined and scary, like this one from Year One, or in the one from the Zero Hour Batman issue, I linked to above. He is still afraid of course, but it doesn't paralyze him anymore. He faces his fear and uses it. I also truly envy his focus-- not exactly in that I would want to be that extreme myself, but-- it may be kind of scary, that he's so single-minded, yeah, but once he's certain of his goal he works to achieve it, and does so with all he has.
First he molds himself exactly into what he wants to be, both body and mind, then later he transforms his home into the perfect base for his mission, his company into the machinery to generate the technology and immense funds he needs, but he doesn't just fight as Batman, at the same time on the Bruce Wayne side of his war against crime he uses Wayne Enterprises to generate wealth and jobs for Gotham, is a philanthropist who gives money to charities, all to transform Gotham.
Um, I think, I don't really have a point, except that I adore the ingenuity of Bruce's whole setup.
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You are very, very brave. But I'm glad somebody's doing it; it's a big enough fandom to support monthly recs, I think -- it's just that the idea of having to do the overview makes people flee in horror.
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Once I'd woken up from the screaming nightmare...
Okay, seriously, if you do it, I promise I'll take on a month of recs :)
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I love him. And this is a lot of the reason why.
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*nodnodnod* Have you read the Batman/Planetary crossover "Night on Earth?" Basically the plot (the Planetary characters are chasing this mentally ill guy who's cycling them through a different reality every couple minutes) is an excuse to have a bunch of different Batmans (Frank Miller, Adam West, current continuity, original version) in one comic?
It's pretty cute, the art is simple but lovely, and you don't really have to know who the Planetary characters are, seeing as how all they do is snark on/fight with Batman. And of course he relates to them in his different Batman-y ways-- Current Batman fights Jakita when she gets in his way, Adam West Batman says "Oh, I can't hit a girl" (Jakita: "I liked you better a second ago") and Frank Miller Batman spells out the nine ways he can stop them, five of which are fatal blah blah blah.
So I was skimming along happily, geeking out ("Lots of Batmans! Hee!") until I come to the very last Batman, who's some kind of Ultimate Future Batman who's never appeared in the regular continuity. And that scene? Blew me AWAY.
Up till now, he's been various places on the "Reasonable <---> Violent" continuum, but they've finally managed to explain to him what's going on-- including the fact that John Black, the reality-shifter, is the way he is because he was experimented on by bad guys, who also shot his parents. And he gets to the mentally ill guy who's causing the reality shifts, and this is just from memory, but he says...
"Do you remember your parents?"
"Yes."
"Do you remember their smiles?"
"Yes."
(Batman kneels down and takes his hands) "Do you remember how they made you feel safe?"
"Yes."
"Then you hold onto that. Because that's what we can do for other people. We keep the bad things from happening. Keep them from turning into people like us."
And, god, I got *misty*. It was *beautiful*. I mean, you usually have this idea of Warren Ellis as the cynical guy who doesn't really appreciate the traditional superhero, but if that's what he sees as the core of the ultimate evolution of Batman, then he gets it a lot better than a lot of people I could think of. *sigh* Anyway, I guess this is a big rec for "Planetary: Night On Earth," which *was* available on zcult there for a while and probably wouldn't be too expensive on eBay or something either.
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"Yes."
"Then you hold onto that. Because that's what we can do for other people. We keep the bad things from happening. Keep them from turning into people like us."
*wibbly eyes of DOOM*
God, must redouble my efforts to acquire this. *Man*. And yeah, dude, I totally wouldn't expect that from Ellis, as great as a lot of his work is. *sigh* That's... that's just the THING. The big THING. That makes episodes of JL like "Legends" and "Hereafter" so unremittingly cool and right and GOOD and *SIGH*
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Don't know that I really have a point, except that I found it interesting to contrast old Batman with modern day Batman, and see what the current writers choose to emphasize from the original tale.
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On the other hand, I do have a Bruce!icon. *uses it*
Batverse for Dummies...not for the simple-minded or easily confused
Hee!
Re: Batverse for Dummies...not for the simple-minded or easily confused