#well the joker and superman stories were fine reading-wise

[dark-horse76]

So, uh. I bought this comic specifically/solely for the adorable versions of these two (I didn't even bother looking up what the comic was / what it was about lol):

I don't know why I didn't expect that reading it would make me want more of it, but here we are. I love them and I need more xd.

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na RACIST! (how Dobson thinks Batman is a supremacist, why I think Batman is not so good and Frank Miller is problematic

Over the last couple of years, Andrew Dobson has mad eit clear that he is not a fan of the character of Batman much (or anymore), calling him a Mary Sue and an embodiment of toxic masculinity as if that term means something nowadays considering how often it is thrown around. And don’t get me wrong, if you don’t like Batman as a character, that is completely fine with me. I myself am not the biggest fan of Batman myself. Or rather should I say, his overexposure in the comics.

Cause honestly, I do not hate the character on concept. I watched reruns of the Adam West Batman show from the 60s and the animated 90s show long before I even saw the Burton versions. Batman Brave and the Bold is one of my favorite animated shows of the 2000s. And I think that there are quite a few good Batman stories, shows and games out there overall. I do however believe that when it comes to Batman in the mainstream comics, things have taken a nose dive for a long time. Writers like Grant Morrison, Scott Snyder and Tom King in particular have over the last 10+ years (at least in my opinion) not just attempted to write stories about Batman as a hero, but also put him into the center of ever escalating events and philosophical wang fests so often, the comics and its characters (Batman and his villains alike) have become quite ridiculous. As a result Batman as a comic series is at times just too edgy, people get sick of certain characters (I like the Joker, but the way how he was handled in some of Snyder’s stories was ridiculous to the point they should have just called him Satan) and Batman comes off as a Gary Stu almost by default, cause the only way a “normal” human could even dare to deal with the over the top situations he faces, is by being even more over the top and smart and awesome by default.

 Now that we got my soapboxing regarding why I think Batman is not as good as a comic character anymore out of the way, lets see what Dobson’s take on Batman is and why he thinks he is turning Bat- I mean bad.

 He believes that Batman turns into a fascist.

... I would ask if that is a joke, but I know that Dobson does not get humor at all or can tell a good joke if he was possessed by Leslie Nielsen.

Okay, so lets just try to dissect why this is dumb.

First off, while I did not talk about it in detail, I did mention that there are different incarnations and versions of Batman to enjoy. Hey, Dobson himself said that the one he enjoyed the most was the Batman of the animated series in the 90s. Which btw I highly recommend. And so do others. But here is the thing: There is not one “ultimate” version of Batman to stick to. There are different interpretations of the character. And most people are okay with that. Heck, there are more than enough people who both enjoyed the 60s Batman and Burton’s Batman. The important thing is, that all those interpretations need to have a certain key element of Batman still in order to make the character recognizable as who he is to be. Which in my opinion is the willingness to fight for good even in the face of some serial killer level baddies and show also once here and there his smarts as well as a bit of heart (guess what people, Batman can be compassionate too if he needs to be) while at the same time wearing a costume as he does and try to convey the image of being “the night” to put fear in the hearts of those cowardly criminals.

 Which is why people in general will call writers out on being bad, when you do not “get” Batman or what people in general associate Batman to be. But Dobson seems to insinuate at least indirectly that people are dumb for not understanding it. That he is supposedly the only one who “gets” Batman right. No Dobson, you are not the only one. The shitton of people who mocked Batman vs Superman of which you were a part of, are proof enough.

 Next, I have to admit I find it hilarious that he believes that Frank Miller’s version of Batman is what he believes people consider slowly the mainstream version of the character. No they don’t.

 Let me try to explain it with this version a bit, seeing how Dobson does not and in doing so is utterly misinformative. In the late 2000s, comic writer Frank Miller, known for work such as Sin City, 300 and his run of Daredevil in the 80s, was tasked by DC comics to write “All Star Batman and Robin” a miniseries in 12 issues. While the thing has actually pretty good artwork by Jim Lee (an artist Dobson wishes he could be), the story itself is very, very bad. While Miller was in the past quite respected and was the man behind “The Dark Knight Returns” in the early 90s (a comic even I think is pretty decent as a story about Batman as an older man taking the cowl up again)  , his work in general even at this point was not that good. Miller had become an openly racist person towards people of muslim background after witnessing 9/11 in New York in person, Batman in his work became a vigilante who gets away with levels of assault, violence and edgy philosophing and beating his meat (metaphorically) that it just became pretty obvious that Miller had turned into a racist grandfather with power fantasies whose ideas oozed into his work. I am not denying the accusations Dobson throws here at Miller. His Batman in All Star is violent, acts like a self righteous psycho, kidnaps an underaged boy and does at one point consider that if he had Green Lantern’s power ring he could make the world “better” than Hal Jordan. Which considering his actions so far in that comic makes any person with self preservation instincts and empathy  wonder, what “better” means. Additionally, other characters like Superman, Wonder Woman and the mentioned Green Lantern don’t really fare good either when it comes to having likable personalities, making you wish a villain like Luthor would just get rid of those “heroes” already just to assure us they could not go crazy next tuesday.

So yeah, it is a shitty version of Batman, despised by many to the point All Star Batman is mocked to the nth degree. Miller himself became even more controversial and hatred when he wrote and got Holy Terror released, a beast I do not even want to touch upon at the time righ now. I just say it is bad as shit and one of the worst writen and drawn things I ever saw.

 HOWEVER… this version of Batman is not the mainstream one. I repeat: this is not the mainstream one, “accepted” by a majority of people. As the paragrpah previously show.

The character All Star Batman is considered ONLY associable with Millers miniseries of the same name, that did not even properly conclude as it was put on endless hiatus with issue ten. It has never become inspirational for any other portrayal of the character so far and DC comics also does not endorse the character in correlation with its main universe, even if they still sell tradepaperbacks of the series.

This, if you have any reading comprehension, points towards one of the biggest lies in Dobson’s comic: The idea, that THIS Batman is the one that’s been popular for the last 15 years or so, as STATED by Dobson himself in the second panel of his comic.

 No. No, this “Batman”, the violent psychopath who uses guns and drives a tank, is not the mainstream and never was so in the last 15 years. Or I should rather say 20. See, this comic was published like in 2015. Meaning he is referring to Batman from between 2000 till 2015.

Lets see what versions of Batman were popular at this point

So we got a Batman who was there for a girl dying cause of something done to her brain, a 60s inspired Batman who still was badass and worked well with other heroes and saved the world a few times, a videogame Batman who would not even have let the Joker die when his poison finally got the better of him (Arkham City), a Batman who travelled backwards through time into the present and then tried to use his fortune to support heroes in other parts of the world to do good (I acknowledge though, the Batman shooting Darkseid thing was crap, even if Darkseid is the god of evil in DC) and we even got (though not shown here) a Batman who even when he drove a freaking tank did not run over peolpe with it (Batman, Nolan trilogy) and would rather accept people hating him than being a hero, by taking on the blame of Harvey Dent being killed to not taint the laters reputation. Oh and did I forget to mention that Nolan’s Batman almost sacrificed himself to prevent Gotham from nuclear destruction?

And before someone says “gotch’ya” by pointing at another rinfamous work by Miller, known as the Dark Knight strikes again… I said popular. That comic from the early 2000s was not popular and again NOT referenced much by mainstream media or mainstream fans as good.

 Now I will say, Batman as in the mainstream comics at the same time got unfortunately darker to the degree I hinted on when I made this post. Cause the last 15 years were comic wise the time of Morrison, Scott and others in particular. Who were involved in such “brilliant” moves as the Court of Owls story, the introduction of Professor Pyg, turning Joker into a satanic archetype villain stu, Batman having the brilliant idea to go Big Brother Eye, the No Man’s Land shit, having to deal with more brutal murders than previously etc. Yes, mainstream Batman got more violent. But the violence was less in the character itself as more within the world he was part of. Mainstream Batman comics took on a more violent tone than there was before. But ironically, even if Batman had to face more brutal beatdowns and villains, by comparison he is one of the most “kind” characters compared to the ones he faces or even works with. This is a character who had to teach his own son that murder was not okay, cause the kid was raised by an evil murder cult.

 And even with the mainstream comics such as Detective Comics and Batman main series becoming darker… they are not pro-fascist or go into that direction. I read a lot of DC in general, not just Batman, and Batman is not going sieg heiling or beating up people because of the color of their skin or because they are poor. When Lex Luthor was president, Batman was one of the main heroes opposing him. Mainstream Batman is beating you up for being a murderer and highly violent criminal with a gimmick, independent of your political agenda. And the writers are also not pro fascist, including even post 2015 Frank Miller.

 Yeah. Frank Miller, whose work I am not fond of and who I think is a racist asshole who had things coming for Holy Terror,  is not really writing (or at least publishing) racist Batman anymore.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think the guy is bad and I believe if he had a chance to get his opinion out unfiltered, we would be in for a shitstorm. But I actually read up on his Dark Knight 3: The Master Race thing because I was worried how racist that is and how DC would recover from that dud. Turned out… it was not as bad as you would expect with a title like this. The “Master Race” referred in that story to a group of racist kryptonians who thought they should take over earth because their powers made them superior. While Batman was not the most positive character in it, he was fighting against them with many other heroes. This Batman was actually a vast improvement personality wise from Batman in Dark Knight strikes again and All Star. So yeah, Batman written by racist grandfather was still a hero. Granted, I think a lot of that was also thanks to the fact that DC had partnered up Miller with someone who kept things tighter around him, but still. Fascist Batman is not a thing the comics and the majority of fans want.

 Ironically, if you want to see how a publisher taints the image of a hero people look up to by making him more racist… well, Dobson’s “praised” and woke Marvel did once something called Secret Empire. Which had Captain America turn into the Fuehrer and taking over America. And the Nazis for a lack of a better word, were “competent” enough in the story that the heroes really only won in parts thanks to a shitton of asspulls. So… yeah.

I mean, the event still ended with the good guys winning and the bad guys defeated, but still.

[the-schwayest-batman-around]

Opinions on Robin Beyond

So per some mild interest by some followers and my own interest in talking about it. In the effort of spoilers, I’ll be placing a read more for those interested. In addition, I’ll list the pros and the cons of the choices made so far. Finally, these are my opinions about the choices. If you agree or disagree, that’s completely understandable and I respect those opinions.

So let’s get going!

So while it’s been hinted at several times, Matt McGinnis, Terry’s younger brother, appears to be taking up the mantle of Robin. This is a huge shift in the Beyond dynamic as Terry McGinnis has never had a Robin despite several attempts as far back as the television show to give him one. In fact, the execs at Kids WB wanted Matt to be a larger focus and make him go on his own adventures that Terry wasn’t a part of (going as far as having a little motorcycle or Batmobile hidden behind a dumpster outside his window as an idea).

Pros:

A Brand New Dynamic: We’ve had several Robins and several different with dynamics with each of them. The most common is the father/son bond with Batman and Robin (Bruce and Dick/Jason/Tim/Damian being the most straightforward). There are exceptions, such as Stephanie, Duke and Carrie. However, this one is between two brothers. Once again, one can draw a comparison to Dick/Damian for a Batman and Robin that were brothers, yet Terry and Damian have known each other far longer. This is a unique approach to a Batman and Robin dynamic that (to my knowledge) has not been seen in other Batman media.

Character Development: This may seem surprising to have this big change only 14 issues into a series, but Matt’s evolution as a Robin candidate has actually been going on since the DCYou era of Batman Beyond (2015). Compared to the animated Matt McGinnis, who mostly served as a bratty little kid who would mess with Terry when he got home, this Matt was more active. When we were first introduced to him, he and several others were battling a Brother Eye controlled hellhound before saved by a time displaced alternate version of Tim Drake (it makes sense in context). Since his reintroduction, he has helped defend the city against an invasion of Brother Eye robots, helped rediscover and save the Justice League Beyond, made his way to Metropolis after it was highly dangerous and filled to the brim with Cuvier’s splicer army, was trained briefly by Tim Drake, saved his brother from Spellbinder’s mind control when Tim and Barbara couldn’t, repeatedly ran into Jokerz controlled territory to help his brother and several other things. In this arc alone, we’ve learned he’s been spending hours watching training videos on Damian (but likely the other Robins as well). For several years now, Matt has been grooming himself to become an ally to Terry. Going back to Tim, even he took a while to be groomed into his role as Robin.

Fan Favorite Choice: This may not be a surprise for most people, but fans have been using Matt as the ideal candidate for Terry’s Robin. Doing a quick image search on Google, Deviantart or even tumblr with Robin Beyond or Matt McGinnis Robin yields plenty of results and ideas of what Matt would be like. Fans have wanted Terry to have a Robin for some time and Matt has repeatedly been the main choice. There is a precedence and several fans may be excited to have this finally come true.

Effecting the Family: Matt’s introduction as Robin is going to yield a lot of big story potential. This has been hinted in the solicitations that there’s going to be several people unsure of letting Matt into this life is a wise choice. Whether or not the events of Return of the Joker occurred in this new DC Comics universe is up in the air (Terry and Matt’s parentage has changed according to current writer Dan Jurgens). However whether or not this is the case, how will Barbara, Damian, Dick and Tim, former sidekicks of Bruce, react to Terry finally getting a Robin? Will Bruce justify it? How will Terry react to finding out his flesh and blood brother wants to join in the battle? We saw a lot of push back from Terry when Max began to be a larger part of the Bat-family life. The Bat-Family in Beyond is growing and changing and this could lead to several conflicts and disagreements in the future.

New Audience Surrogate: In the 1940s, Dick Grayson (Age 12) was created to be Batman’s sidekick to attract new readers. In theory, Dick would serve as an audience surrogate to imagine life as fighting as Batman. Young boys who wanted to be Batman but were too young could suddenly put themselves in the pixie shoes of Dick and imagine themselves fighting crime against the Caped Crusader. This was a smash hit and a massive influx of child sidekicks flooded the market and are still around today. Matt may serve as a new audience surrogate. Terry, while originally a good audience surrogate when he started off, has now grown. He is out of school, living an apartment and has been Batman for several years. It may be seen as a way to bring new readers in to have Matt serve as this new window into the world of Batman Beyond. If it worked in 1940, it would suddenly work well in whatever year Batman Beyond takes place.

Cons:

Too Many Rookies: A draw for several people to Batman Beyond was a very unique pitch to the series. Terry, a young novice Batman, was trained by a much older, wiser Bruce Wayne. This was something very unique and Terry fit into an interesting in between. He was older than most of the Robins we had seen but still had the sass and charm of Dick, Jason and Tim. Yet he was what many little kids wanted to be: Batman. It’s been almost 20 years since the beginning of Batman Beyond, and we know several years since Terry has taken up the mantle of Batman. However compared to several of the Robins, it appears he’s still learning and refining himself. More than once, he has needed support from Bruce on the field (look no further than the previous arc where Terry had to be rescued from a smack down by Damian). Adding someone new to the table, someone who still needs to be trained, may make people uncomfortable.

Balancing Failure: Dovetailing off the previous point, a new balance will need to be established and figured out with Matt. As Matt is likely becoming a brand new Robin, he will be judged by his lack of failures or amount of failures. To refresh people, Terry has failed several times and needed help in his time as Batman and has struggled. Some people found it frustrating to see a Batman struggle while others found it sympathetic. The problem with Matt is there hasn’t been many noticeable consequences for his actions. In fact, several times he hasn’t had many failures, instead being rewarded for his actions since the start of his comic appearances. He may end up in a tough situation (captured by the Beast Men, dive into the middle of a battle with Spellbinder, running into Jokerz territory) and end up fine or saved by someone else (saved by Jon Kent Superman, snaps Terry out of his illusion, is unscathed by the end of the story and never captured despite Terry and Dana being discovered and captured).

Wandering Focus: In this 2017 run of Batman Beyond, the Bat-family has actually grown quite a bit. While we’re unsure about the canon of Beyond Dick Grayson and Tim Drake, we have gained Mayor Luke Fox, League of Assassins Leader Damian Wayne and the return of fan favorite Nissa aka Batgirl. This is on top of pre-existing Batman Beyond supporting characters Bruce Wayne, Max Gibson, Melanie Walker, and Barbara Gordon. These are 7 characters and not much time has been spent on some of these characters. With the addition of Matt and his subsequent training will take away from focus on the other characters. For an example, we were introduced to a character that was initially pushed in the first two arcs of the DCYou. Nora Boxer, Matt’s caretaker in the apocalypse and a possible nod to Kamandi at Earth’s End character Ben Boxer, vanished very quickly with the return of Terry McGinnis with no mention or nod to the character. The question remains just how much focus other characters will get with Matt now taking a larger role as Robin.

The Loss of Personal Life: Matt slowly entering this role as Robin is a step towards something that has been growing increasingly rare: Terry’s life outside of Batman. While his animated life got the most attention to Terry going through High School, seeing friends, we still saw snippets of it in the other comics. Several of the original comics had Terry going on dates with Dana, camping trips with Howard, Max and Dana, a field trip and more. Adam Beechen’s run had Terry spend time with his Mom and Dana with integration between the two intersecting. Kyle Higgins run showed Terry going through college and nods of trying to deal with a roommate, classes and being a superhero. However with the Dan Jurgens run, there has been barely any focus on a lot of life outside of being Batman. Dana and Matt served as two bastions of a life outside of superheroics. With Terry’s mother absent, no school and the only interactions he seems to have being Dana, Max and the Bat-family, it appears that Terry’s life may be nothing but Batman. This may again, turn people away from the story, as several people enjoyed Terry’s cast, friends and exploring Neo-Gotham outside of just the lens of a superhero.

My Personal Opinions:

I make it no secret that I am a vocal minority being against Matt becoming Robin. I feel with after the events of Return of the Joker, Old Wounds, and if you want to count them as canon, Killing Joke and Death in the Family, Terry would likely not want to have a kid sidekick of his own, let alone a sidekick on the field. We also saw in the comics the last partner he had, Vigilante, did not go well. While I’m not opposed to giving Terry an eventual partner with proper character development, I felt this would be better suited years after college and distance from the events of Batman Beyond 2.0. In addition, he would likely not follow the same formula as Bruce had and pick a sidekick that was not a child, let alone his brother.

However, I will admit I can see a lot of good story potential with Matt as Robin. Matt can make a very unique Robin and really force Terry and the Bat-family to adapt. Matt is hardly a carbon copy to any of the allies trained by Bruce, especially any of the Robins. He could bring a lot to the table and change the story for Terry in a big way, maybe a good way.

Dan Jurgens writing has been a tough egg to crack for me. There’s several ideas and moments that I feel are perfect. Several of the interactions between Terry, Bruce and Matt have felt on point. Plots and some writing have been very questionable though. The man can be a great writer when he really cares for a project (look no further than his Rebirth run on Action Comics or older examples being his Tangent Universe imprint). I want to hope that these stories are going to get really good because I did enjoy the first arc of Rebirth and several ideas of his second arc (and while not written by him, Nissa’s issue was awesome). So let’s keep our fingers crossed for the future of the Batman and soon to be Robin of Tomorrow.