#My further speculations about Gotham War in a meta level (as in‚ What The Fuck Was DC Thinking?) is that this was... an experiment of sorts
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angstandhappiness · 3 months ago
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VERY INTERESTING
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One thing I did like about the ending of Gotham War is that I feel like there's some potentially interesting analysis of Bruce's character to be had here, because I find this whole thing 1000% more interesting viewed through the lens of Bruce backsliding on his core classic issue: He's terrified out of his mind at how much he loves these people around him and he struggles with having relationships with people who have fundamental differences to him. I keep thinking of that Tini Howard quote about this arc and about how it's not about whether or not Bruce and Selina can get together, but that he doesn't really know how to agree to disagree with someone he loves when it comes to something deeply foundational to him. And I think that's the entire point of including everything with Jason--that it's Bruce at a low point, after too much stress coming too quickly, too many major psychological pummelings over the last several arcs, and hitting a point where he can't deal with shoving aside his fundamental disagreements with Jason anymore. But he can't just write Jason off either, because Jason is his son, so his ten simultaneous mental breakdowns all get together and decide that the only option he can live with, is to try to force Jason out of this life. That's why he tries to talk himself into forcing Dick and Tim and Damian to be caught by the police, so they'd be forced out of this life. That's why he crumbles in an alley and tries to talk himself out of loving these people. Because he doesn't know how to agree to disagree with them and still keep loving them, keep having a relationship with them.
Because everything that happened with Selina, that he really let himself believe that he could be with her, marry her, and still be Batman, that really fucked him up and I think Gotham War is more of the aftermath of that. That's how I'm (admittedly doggedly) interpreting the bit about Selina and him being the "parents" of this group, despite that Selina was never in that role--I think Bruce wanted them to be the "parents" of the group and let himself believe in it and, when it went pear-shaped, something in him backslid terribly and now we're all here. "I'm okay with me not having happiness." is a direct call-back to Bruce in the car with Alfred on the way to the wedding, asking with surprising vulnerability, "Am I allowed to be happy?" He opened his heart and got hurt again and it's been stewing for awhile and so much has happened since then--Zur-En-Arrh, Tim getting his throat cut, Dick coming to cheer him up after Selina and getting shot in the head and Bruce almost losing him, Failsafe, Insomnia, everything that's going on over in Gotham Nocturne, etc.--that it fractured something in him and the cracks have finally grown deep enough that it fell apart in this story. So now all of this is just mounting tragedies to him. Which means he can't stay connected to it because he's too afraid of losing them and he's unwilling to try after what his fracturing led him to do. He can't stop them from living this life, despite everything he tried. He can't stop loving them, despite how hard he tried. So, all he can do is walk away before he gets hurt again, trying to leave everything in Dick's hands. Dick who is "better than Batman", who is better than Bruce. That he wants Dick and Barbara to be the "parents", because that's what he was trying to be and felt he failed at it, like to me this ending isn't really resolution, this is a low point for Bruce as a character in his bigger arc, because I think Batman's character arc always has to come back to his trauma of losing his family when he was young, working to let a new family in, coming to love them, and struggling against how much it terrifies him that he might lose them, too, because he doesn't think he can survive that kind of pain again. He'll still be in Damian's life, still be Batman and Robin there, but I think he's making an exception there because so much of it comes back to being able to live with fundamentally disagreeing with someone--Dick and Jason and Tim are adults, he can't tell them what to do anymore. Damian is young enough that, even if they clash, he's still directly in charge of raising him.
Zur-En-Arrh does hang over this entire storyline, he's part of what's taking up too much space to allow Bruce any mental breathing room, but fundamentally I see this storyline as part of Bruce's issues: That he's terrified of losing those he loves, but he can't control them, he desperately tries to and it doesn't work, and he can't live with them taking different paths from his ideals, so he walks away, rather than get hurt further. Bruce is probably going to dig himself further down into this hole and he's being incredibly dumb about it, but I can see how this fits all things that he has always struggled with--and sometimes he loses that fight against himself. This event wasn't really about fighting with Selina or Vandal Savage or even his kids--this was Bruce's love versus his fears, and today his fears won.
#DC#Gotham War#Bruce Wayne#Very brief correction that Bruce was unconscious for a whole Eight /Weeks/ instead of Days after Knight Terrors (Gotham War Battle Lines)#And it's also technically the second time Bruce went into a recovery coma in recent times. First time (Failsafe arc) lasted Two Weeks#And yeah. At least for Bruce's angle of him having The Worst Emotional and Mental Time Ever is consistent with Zdarsky's writing#Meanwhile I'm not familiar with or aware how Tini Howard's been handling Catwoman. Interestingly‚ I did skim it to check a fact or so#And learned that Gotham War had more of a proper built up on Catwoman's side. Or at least the built up from there felt more Organic#My further speculations about Gotham War in a meta level (as in‚ What The Fuck Was DC Thinking?) is that this was... an experiment of sorts#Because this story was spread out across 3 titles in its entirely. Batman book‚ Catwoman book‚ and the Batman/Catwoman Gotham War thing#This feels rather odd for me‚ but that can be because I'm relatively new and unfamiliar with how DC tries to farm money from Comics#The closest I can think of as a comparison would be Knight Terrors‚ which was self contained and the side stories were indeed just sides#Would I call it a successful experiment? Depends because it feels like everyone involved had their own goal in mind#Zdarsky has mentioned that Mindbomb is a story he's thought about for at least a /year/‚ and the built up towards it is very visible#Meanwhile the fact that a magic‚ immortality granting‚ parasitic-like meteor hit Gotham and became a Lazarus Pit (or Something Close to it)#That Amanda Waller has access to and is Studying‚ which ties with whatever she's been doing at each event finale#Is just briefly mentioned like a bare minimum to check off a box of sorts. Which ties with the idea of the Dawn of DC (Inter-connectivity)#(Not going to try to speculate what Tini Howard's goal might've been since not reading Catwoman and all)#But yeah. Before‚ I was skeptical that Mindbomb would be rough as it claimed to be‚ but now I'm. Afraid of what Zdarsky has planned#batman meta#dc comics#addition
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