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swatkatI've come to the conclusion that if Batman is the King of Manpain, then Jaime Reyes is the anti-Batman.
The other day I was reading a Batman/Wonder Woman story (I blame JLU), and every time the story shifted to Bruce POV, I remember thinking, 'Oh Bruce! Why so emo?'
In retrospect, Batman must be pretty hard to write - a little carelessness and you're suddenly in Frank Miller-land, writing about the goddman Batman with people pointing and laughing at you. But here's the thing, all that angst and ~manpain? It's actually canon. All that OTT-ness? Canon. After all, who else - after being framed for murder and imprisoned - would think that escaping from prison and pushing away all his proteges, all detectives trained by him, and starting a new life of FIGHTING CRIME unhindered by ~people and ~relationships is a perfectly reasonable thing to do? Who, after his city has been destroyed in an earthquake and declared a no man's land by the government, despite his best efforts, would disappear, travel the world and be emo while everyone else scrambles to survive? Who would live through madness, defeat a god, travel in space and time and die - and then come back to life, finally, with the realisation that he's not alone, that he's never been alone, he's always had help?
Sorry guys, he's busy being emo elsewhere.
Their faces!
And this is actually very poignant, because Grant Morrison can do that: "The first truth of Batman. The saving grace: I was never alone. I had help." And I love that Superman and Wonder Woman are right in front. (So is Booster, but whatever.)
There is a reason why any time anyone talks about manpain, Batman is on top of the list. It's not necessarily a good thing, because ~manpain comes with its problems: as JLU Batman so helpfully pointed out, "I'm a rich kid with issues. Lots of issues."
(This is not to say Batman is all manpain, all the time - he wouldn't be one of the most successful comic book characters of all time if he were. This is also not to say his manpain doesn't produce good stories (good being a subjective term; War Games is not 'good', The Killing Joke - no, I don't care what the fanboys say - is not 'good'); every now and then, after reading through five issues of Bruce being an insufferable idiot you get payoff moments like the one above, from Murderer/Fugitive. Or something like Neil Gaiman's Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, which I was re-reading the other day. The book gets mixed reviews, but man, I always tear up whenever I read it, especially the last few pages with the 'Goodnight, Moon' sequence segueing into 'Hello, Bruce. Hello.':
*clutches heart*)
And now, contrast: Jaime Reyes. Like Bruce Wayne, and most other superheroes, Jaime has plenty of reason to angst - he came home one night after an adventure only to learn that he had been missing for a year and that his family thought him dead. His mother was angry and horrified when she saw him transform into the Blue Beetle; his sister was so terrified that she ran away. And Jaime was understandably hurt (he never wanted to be a superhero; his secret ambition? to be a dentist), but then you get something like this:
Because it's his book, and it's about him, but it's also about the various people in his life. They're supporting characters, but they're not just props to his story. (The most prominent supporting characters in Bruce's stories aren't props, either. Thankfully.)
And then this:
Because if Batman - no matter how many Robins and Batgirls he keeps adding to his crew - is ~the dark knight, fearsome in his lonely splendour, Jaime's Blue Beetle is the exact opposite. His family is allowed to love him. He is not ~FOREVER ALONE. He doesn't have to go through a near death experience to be comforted by his mother - in fact, he's quite the momma's boy:
See that, bad guys? His mother didn't raise him like that!
And what happens when Batman meets the anti-Batman? HILARITY, that's what happens.
Bruce's glare, bwahaha!
Shh, Bruce, Jaime actually thought you were funny in a dry and sarcastic way.
On a non-Blue Beetle note, I'm also convinced that this is meant to mock Bruce's ~FOREVER ALONE angst:
ALOOOOOOOOOOONE!
+
I cannot believe I've failed to mention this here, but Bryan Q. Miller said he liked gabzilla-z's Oracle!Steph comic. \0/
The other day I was reading a Batman/Wonder Woman story (I blame JLU), and every time the story shifted to Bruce POV, I remember thinking, 'Oh Bruce! Why so emo?'
In retrospect, Batman must be pretty hard to write - a little carelessness and you're suddenly in Frank Miller-land, writing about the goddman Batman with people pointing and laughing at you. But here's the thing, all that angst and ~manpain? It's actually canon. All that OTT-ness? Canon. After all, who else - after being framed for murder and imprisoned - would think that escaping from prison and pushing away all his proteges, all detectives trained by him, and starting a new life of FIGHTING CRIME unhindered by ~people and ~relationships is a perfectly reasonable thing to do? Who, after his city has been destroyed in an earthquake and declared a no man's land by the government, despite his best efforts, would disappear, travel the world and be emo while everyone else scrambles to survive? Who would live through madness, defeat a god, travel in space and time and die - and then come back to life, finally, with the realisation that he's not alone, that he's never been alone, he's always had help?
Sorry guys, he's busy being emo elsewhere.
Their faces!
And this is actually very poignant, because Grant Morrison can do that: "The first truth of Batman. The saving grace: I was never alone. I had help." And I love that Superman and Wonder Woman are right in front. (So is Booster, but whatever.)
There is a reason why any time anyone talks about manpain, Batman is on top of the list. It's not necessarily a good thing, because ~manpain comes with its problems: as JLU Batman so helpfully pointed out, "I'm a rich kid with issues. Lots of issues."
(This is not to say Batman is all manpain, all the time - he wouldn't be one of the most successful comic book characters of all time if he were. This is also not to say his manpain doesn't produce good stories (good being a subjective term; War Games is not 'good', The Killing Joke - no, I don't care what the fanboys say - is not 'good'); every now and then, after reading through five issues of Bruce being an insufferable idiot you get payoff moments like the one above, from Murderer/Fugitive. Or something like Neil Gaiman's Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, which I was re-reading the other day. The book gets mixed reviews, but man, I always tear up whenever I read it, especially the last few pages with the 'Goodnight, Moon' sequence segueing into 'Hello, Bruce. Hello.':
*clutches heart*)
And now, contrast: Jaime Reyes. Like Bruce Wayne, and most other superheroes, Jaime has plenty of reason to angst - he came home one night after an adventure only to learn that he had been missing for a year and that his family thought him dead. His mother was angry and horrified when she saw him transform into the Blue Beetle; his sister was so terrified that she ran away. And Jaime was understandably hurt (he never wanted to be a superhero; his secret ambition? to be a dentist), but then you get something like this:
Because it's his book, and it's about him, but it's also about the various people in his life. They're supporting characters, but they're not just props to his story. (The most prominent supporting characters in Bruce's stories aren't props, either. Thankfully.)
And then this:
Because if Batman - no matter how many Robins and Batgirls he keeps adding to his crew - is ~the dark knight, fearsome in his lonely splendour, Jaime's Blue Beetle is the exact opposite. His family is allowed to love him. He is not ~FOREVER ALONE. He doesn't have to go through a near death experience to be comforted by his mother - in fact, he's quite the momma's boy:
See that, bad guys? His mother didn't raise him like that!
And what happens when Batman meets the anti-Batman? HILARITY, that's what happens.
Bruce's glare, bwahaha!
Shh, Bruce, Jaime actually thought you were funny in a dry and sarcastic way.
On a non-Blue Beetle note, I'm also convinced that this is meant to mock Bruce's ~FOREVER ALONE angst:
ALOOOOOOOOOOONE!
+
I cannot believe I've failed to mention this here, but Bryan Q. Miller said he liked gabzilla-z's Oracle!Steph comic. \0/
no subject
Date: 2011-06-18 11:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-18 02:26 pm (UTC)I am very excited for Blue Beetle #1 in September!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-18 02:17 pm (UTC)And also why Bruce is much more palatable when he's got people calling him on his bullshit or at least mocking him for it.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-18 02:39 pm (UTC)And also why Bruce is much more palatable when he's got people calling him on his bullshit or at least mocking him for it.
Yes, that's why I tend to go for the Bat-family books rather than the Grimdark Knight books. Or JLA, for that matter.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-20 12:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-20 06:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-20 06:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-01 03:47 am (UTC)I love Batman's "I have people" in this context. Batman's people are tools and possessions, Jaime's are, you know, people