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In A Vacuum, The “Martha” Scene Isn’t That Bad.

Tell me.

Do you read?

Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice is one of the most polarizing films that I have ever seen. The prevailing opinion on the movie was that it failed to live up to the spectacle that a clash between Batman and Superman should be, but there remains an ever vocal community of fans that will defend the honor of the 2016 Zack Snyder film with their dying breath. When I watched BvS for the first time, I remember feeling somewhat letdown. I thought the movie was a huge opportunity for DC to eat into the massive stranglehold that Marvel Studios had developed over the comic book movie genre of films, but that’s not to say that I thought the film was inherently bad, I thought the intention of the film was in the right place, but there were a lot of creative decisions made that muddied the waters, especially when it came to Batman. However, there is one scene that sticks out to me, well, it sticks out to everyone, but not for the same reason as it does for me. The “Martha” scene.

When Clark says “you’re letting him kill Martha,” the reaction Bruce has is in fact because Bruce’s mother’s name is also Martha. But what drives him to change his course of action runs much deeper. 

Batman has let 20 years of crime fighting, and a disaster he blames Superman for make him more hateful than he has ever been. Hate and anger have always been driving factors in what motivates Batman to be who he is, but he rarely, if ever lets himself slip to the point of being apathetic. And now, he’s gotten to that low point, and he is looking for any reason to justify taking Superman’s life. He spends the whole movie dehumanizing him, and reinforcing an image he’s constructed of Superman in his head. He’s an alien, he has no allegiance to anyone, if his interests change he could pose the biggest threat in history, etc. 

Batman has created a cocoon of his own desire for revenge, the general hatred he’s carried around with since his parents died, and the apathy that has come with tirelessly fighting crime for 2 decades fuels his reasoning for why he has to kill Superman, why he SHOULD kill Superman. Bruce tells Clark that he was never even a man. And when Clark, believing that he’s about to die, makes his final plea to Bruce to save his mother, once Bruce realizes who Clark is talking about, he begins to understand what the implications are of what he is about to do. Bruce’s irrational fear and hatred towards something, someONE that he did not understand, and tried desperately not to understand confronts him right in his face, right at the moment where he is about to cross a line that he cannot go back from. 

Hearing his mother’s name escape from Clark’s mouth does more than remind him of the tragic event that catalyzed Bruce Wayne’s transformation into Batman, it also makes Bruce question what he has allowed himself to become. Bruce realizes that he is about to kill a human being. Someone who didn’t ask for any of this to happen. Hearing the name Martha, and being confronted with the fact that Clark Kent is a person, somebody’s son, it floods Bruce’s brain back with the long lost sense of empathy that differentiated Batman with common criminals in the first place. He is obviously reminded of what was taken from him when his parents were killed, but he also for the first time is able to look at Superman in any other way beyond being a threat to humanity, and the reason why people close to him are dead. Batman remembers who he is in this moment, someone he has not been throughout the entire runtime of BvS. And he realizes that he cannot look another man in the face, one who is pleading with him to save his mother, and plunge a spear into his chest and kill him. All the efforts Batman makes to strip Superman of any sense of humanity, are challenged right before him at this moment and it’s awesome. 

(but then Zack Snyder has Batman murder like several people immediately after this so the emotional resonance is completely lost but hey what are you gonna do)

[bluemilkboys]

Kev’s Comic Book Odyssey #1 - Spider-Geddon and The Batman Who Laughs

Hello there! Haven’t posted to this blog in a minute! Last time I did I talked about Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi, what an absolute riot that was, huh? Well this is going to be different. In my isolation in attempt to help stop the spread of coronavirus, I have dived deeper into comic books. 

Now, the world of comics is one of the most complicated mediums of entertainment one can simply just venture into. And to avoid having existential anxiety about knowing exactly what was going on in the Marvel and DC Universes respectively, I devised a very simple method of how I would get my feet wet. My favorite superheroes are Batman and Spider-Man. So when trying to find something to invest my time in, I sought out the popular stories from those characters. This rang true more for Batman than Spider-Man (I’ve been on a pretty heavy DC kick in general lately).

So in my story hopping, I found myself really sinking my teeth into two stories in particular, Spider-Geddon, and The Batman Who Laughs. Let’s start with Spider-Geddon. 

What originally drew me to this story was the inclusion of the version of Spider-Man from the 2018 PS4 game, and my familiarity with the previous event of this nature, Spider-Verse. It’s relatively easy on new readers like myself, and I and I had enough familiarity with characters like the Superior Spider-Man to be able to infer enough and be able to understand the story completely. I guess I should give props to more stories that are able to do that until I gain enough comic book literacy to where it’s not needed anymore, huh?

Anyway, the story centers around the villains from the previous Spider-Verse event, and they’re back for more. And to be honest, the Inheritors are fine, but I wasn’t focusing on them much. They make an immediate impact in their first big confrontation with the Spider-people, killing a few of them including Spider-Man Noir, but this story was much more for me about the seeds of dissent that were slowly and gradually planted throughout the series. Otto Octavius, the Superior Spider-Man, is very adamant that he be the one to lead the team of Spider-people in the absence of Earth-616 Peter Parker, who is gone for the majority of the story, and throughout the story there is a natural sense of distrust in Otto, due to him you know, being a supervillain before, and all that. Otto is determined to end the threat of the Inheritors forever by killing them, something that the Spider-Gang elected not to do the first time around, and honestly I think this is where you see one of the weaker parts of the story. Maybe I shouldn’t call it a weak point as much as it is a missed opportunity. I think the entire moral conflict on whether to subdue or kill the Inheritors is not explored enough, and there was an opportunity there to do a little bit of a character deconstruction about Spider-Man’s willingness, or lack thereof to kill his enemies. And I LOVE character deconstruction. It’s one of my favorite things that people can do with a character. To display such an understanding of a character, that you’re able to peel back the surface layer stuff and give readers a deep tissue narrative massage, I LOVE that shit. 

I also really enjoyed PS4 Spidey’s role in this story. He was obviously not in Spider-Verse, and I don’t think anyone should have expected him to come in here and be the center of attention, so the way they utilized him really resonated with me. He was the newcomer who didn’t really have a full grasp on everything that was going on, and so I was able to appreciate his perspective because I personally do not have a full grasp on everything that’s going on. Not just in the Marvel Universe though. Just generally. In life. Anyway, PS4 Spidey gets consistently surprised and amazed at all the different Spider-Totems across the multiverse, including my personal favorite moment in the entire series right here:

All in all, I had a great time reading this event, it was a really fun Spider-Man story, and not to spoil, but the twist toward the end really got me. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m a novice in the game, or if it was just that good, but nonetheless, I still enjoyed it. Spider-Geddon gets a solid 8.5/10 good book!

Alright let’s get edgy, lads. It’s time to talk about The Batman Who Laughs. 

BWL is such a wild part of DC’s Rebirth. And according to people I talk to who’s opinions I trust, Rebirth is largely a big stinky mess, so I feel confident in saying this is one of the bright spots. God, this character, it’s entire existence is so chaotic. BWL exists in a negative version of earth, in a “dark multiverse” where different versions of Batman have become evil in different ways. Among them is the Batman Who Laughs, a terrifying fusion of Batman’s intellect, and the immoral propensity of the Joker. His origin issue was absolutely fucking wild, and a hell of a way to introduce a character, but now, he’s got his own series. From like 2 years ago. But I digress, let’s talk about it!

What I liked about this series was that it returned an element of horror that is always somewhat present in Batman’s best stories. I also love when an author knows a character so well, that they feel comfortable deconstructing that character and really exploring what makes, in this case, the Batman the Batman. BWL does a good job blending those two concepts. We’ve seen Batman pushed to the edge before, but me personally, I have never read a story that featured Batman getting pushed by someone who knows him so intimately, literally another version of himself. The story however is relatively low stakes, and relies a lot on the power of the characters and how attached you are to them. I wasn’t familiar enough with Jim Gordon’s son really at all before reading this, and a decent part of the story revolves around him, so I guess that was one aspect of it that fell short for me. And for a story literally called, “The Batman Who Laughs” there really isn’t a deep dive into the namesake character. I would actually even go as far as to say the Grim Knight gets more attention. It’s a good Batman story, but what drew me in was the Batman Who Laughs character, but this story doesn’t have much to say about him opposite of Batman.

I think Batman has been in a weird spot since the New 52, and this story, while imperfect, I believe was a step in the right direction. 8/10.

Thanks so much for reading this first in hopefully my long series detailing my journey into comics! Make sure you check out the Blue Milk Boys podcast, and follow me on Twitter @kevinOMO_. See y’all next time. 

[bluemilkboys]

Luke - A Star Wars Character Dissection

There has been much ado about Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars ecosystem ever since his last appearance in the Star Wars films with The Last Jedi. So for my first post on this blog I wanted to take a more all-encompassing look at Luke, and how I believe the way he’s presented in The Last Jedi is actually the most faithful and attentive depiction possible for his character at this point in his life. Yeah. This is gonna be full on Last Jedi propaganda. Feed me your tears. 

So I think the most important thing to consider with Luke is that despite how much he progresses in the Force, he is still the same person. And Luke as a person is imperfect. He’s supposed to be, as the representation of the everyman, he’s a human being with flaws. His biggest, in my opinion, being his vulnerability to his emotions, and how susceptible he is to them being leveraged against him. Luke always looks for reasons for his fears and desires to be justified. As a result he is able to compartmentalize the deaths of his aunt and uncle extremely quickly because it enables him the opportunity to go pursue the adventure that's been denied to him for a long time.

Think about that. The only parental figures he’s ever had in his life are murdered by the Empire, and throughout the rest of A New Hope, he spends very little time dwelling on their deaths.

In the case of Luke being extremely vulnerable to his emotional attachments, look no further than Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Luke cuts his training short when he learns that his friends are in danger. Luke knows that his Jedi training is perhaps the most important thing in the entire fight against the Empire, and that becoming a Jedi is instrumental in defeating evil. But when that which Luke is attached to emotionally is compromised, he drops everything to attempt to save his friends. Luke abandoning his Jedi responsibilities is not new to this series.

Moving on now to Return of the Jedi, we see Luke progress even further in the Force, becoming a full fledged Jedi Knight, having displayed a mastery of his Force powers. He is still the same guy. The same Luke prone his own personal desires and attachments. Upon learning that Darth Vader is his father, Luke knows that he either must turn him back to the light, or eliminate him. In the big confrontation with the Emperor, Palpatine senses this vulnerability for his father, and exploits it, using it against Luke in order to stoke his anger and his hatred. And the Emperor nearly succeeds. Daring Luke to strike him down in anger after Palpatine mocks his plans to defeat him, as well as his attempts to redeem his father, and Luke nearly does it. The Emperor challenges Luke to strike him, and Luke nearly does, stopped only by Darth Vader, who I personally believe was trying to save Luke from falling into darkness rather than protecting his own master.

The fight ensues. Luke and Vader go back in forth, dueling for the fate of the entire galaxy and Luke again falls victim to his emotions. As the action slows, Vader taunts Luke further. If he is unwilling to turn, perhaps his sister would be, and Luke loses control once again. He unleashes his rage against Vader, delivering a flurry of strikes with the full force of his fury behind them, and comes within an inch of murdering his own father. Stopped once again only by the sight of Vader’s severed mechanical hand, Luke quite literally witnessing himself transform into Vader the more he gives into his anger. It is only then when Luke realizes what he’s done, and what he was about to do, and controls himself.

Now we come to The Last Jedi. The common fan refers to this film as a sacrilegious depiction of the mighty, holy Luke Skywalker. But like i’ve said, no matter how much more powerful Luke becomes with the Force, he is still. The same. Person. Someone who is incredibly emotionally driven. Whether it’s ambition, love, anger, or in the case of The Last Jedi, fear, Luke is the kind of person whose actions reflect those emotions. So when his own flesh and blood, the son of his own sister displays an aptitude with the Force unlike that which he as ever seen before, the cocktail of Luke’s emotions that were connected to this situation created an incredibly volatile environment around Ben Solo’s training. Ben’s journey is a completely different story, but his turn to the darkness is the catalyst to every last one of Luke’s core, driving emotions. His love for his family and friends, his fear of the dark side returning, his anger at himself for failing, all triggered at once, leaving Luke with no other option but to remove himself completely. From the Force, from the Resistance, from all of the conflict. The same man who’s emotions drove him to abandon his home on Tattooine, to abandon his jedi training to save his friends, and to abandon his jedi instincts when provoked by the dark side, finally had had enough when his greatest failure was solidified as Ben Solo became Kylo Ren. And that’s the point of Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. Despite his strength with the Force, despite being a Jedi legend, he’s still the same guy he has always been for decades. And the reason I believe Luke’s depiction in this film is so powerful is because it shows that all of those flaws have finally caught up to him, and we have to see how he tries to answer for them. Luke’s greatest enemy is himself, and when we finally see him overcome that, accept his failure, and allowing himself to learn from it, we see the completion of his story, and I don’t think there’s a more faithful depiction of that character you could possibly have.