Batman: Death and the Maidens

[ratcreature]

I've just read Batman: Death and the Maidens #9 (written by Greg Rucka, art by Klaus Janson) and right now I'm not all that pleased with the series. Maybe it is because I haven't (re-)read all parts in one setting, as I suspected all along while reading, that it was better suited to be read as graphic novel than as monthly, but I don't quite get it.

For one, should R'as' death turn out to be permanent, and it looks like that from his corpse being burned, I don't like that. More importantly, why is Nyssa now heading his organization? I mean, I get why the brain-washed cultists now follow her, but as I understood it, she now follows in R'as al Ghul's footsteps and I have no idea why she would want to do that. We just have Nyssa and Talia as a kind of incestuous sisterly couple heading the genocidal eco-terrorist cult, and everything else is the same. Or am I missing something?

I liked Nyssa better as a challenger to R'as power and Talia as a somewhat independent player. *grumble*

Comments

Re: Interesting -

[thete1.livejournal.com]

I *think* I see what you're saying about things, but, well, again -- I commented again on the matter -- I just didn't see it the same way. If you're going to take Talia out of play, that was most assuredly the way to do it, especially since there's now all *kinds* of room for more character development with her in the future.

I *didn't* see her as being weakened, or being portrayed more 'weakly' than she should be. It's kind of like good porn. (Bear with me)

When I want to get two characters together who normally wouldn't do what I want them *to* do, I make a point of having the characters behave in ways that are as close to canonical-as-I-see-it, but which also happen to be the ways that push the *other* characters' buttons. I ask myself "How can I get these people smooching? What needs to happen? How can I make those things happen in ways that make sense for the characters, so that the reader finds the eventual smooching believable, or even inevitable?"

How successful I am at any given time is, of course, open to debate. But to bring this back to Rucka and DatM, I kind of see Rucka doing something similar. "How do I get Nyssa and Talia to do the things I want them to do? What would Nyssa have to do in order to make Talia turn against her father? There's nothing. Ergo, I have to play it another way, and put Talia in a situation where she would act against her father without realizing she was doing so. How do I make *that* happen? What would break her *that* much?"

And while the necessity of breaking any character can (and will, and should) be argued to death, I don't think Rucka did Talia wrong. Because the *only* thing that would take her to that point... is what Nyssa actually did.

Now, if she'd been broken in some other way, or if it had taken less effort, or if she hadn't shown signs of coming out of it at the penultimate moment? Yeah, I'd be right with you. However... yeah. This felt right.

Of course, ymmv.