So Alfred is going to be gone for a while until a chalky-skinned dude calling himself The Outsider shows up.
Ha.
(Little nod there to the awesome Forever Evil version).
So Alfred is going to be gone for a while until a chalky-skinned dude calling himself The Outsider shows up.
Ha.
(Little nod there to the awesome Forever Evil version).
"They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you. My only son." - Jor-El
Regardless of stances on the issue as a whole (for my money I absolutely loved it, think it was this run's best in a good little while, and think King revealed himself here as one of the precious few post-Morrison writers who can do Damian's voice properly): in the extremely unlikely event Alfred's actually dead, "Not in front of the boy" is a TRANSCENDENTALLY perfect choice of last words for him.
Buh-bye
In a universe where the Lazuras Pit exists, Bat-deaths are not shocking unless you get desintegrated.
Pulls: Batman, Detective Comics, SiKtC, Catwoman, Nightwing, Titans, Godzilla, Wonder Woman, Batman & Robin, Brave and the Bold, No/One, Kill your Darlings, and Deviant.
My runs: Batman #230-, and Detective #420-
I made the correct call. Glad I dropped this book again. What a mess.
"So you've come to the end now alive but dead inside."
Is Julia Pennyworth in Rebirth? I wonder if she'll take Dad's place.
Pulls: Batman, Detective Comics, SiKtC, Catwoman, Nightwing, Titans, Godzilla, Wonder Woman, Batman & Robin, Brave and the Bold, No/One, Kill your Darlings, and Deviant.
My runs: Batman #230-, and Detective #420-
One thing that King did right with this issue, and it's something that has always bothered me about Damian.
Damian is a 13 year old boy. No matter how highly trained he is, he's still a kid who routinely goes up against bigger, stronger adults. In this issue, he took out to bigger guys. But when he went up against Thomas, while he got one or two hits in, all it took was one punch and a curb stomp to take him out. And honestly, THAT'S HOW IT SHOULD BE.
i don't know getting curb stomped by a guy who stomped batman. taking down GG a meta on the level of superman [linking it to the confrontation in Rules of Engagement] Bullet timing feats. for a 13 year old? while A total asspull having Damian take down GG like that.
Fighting wise Damian walked away with great feats and abilities he's never displayed in story.
That should be the bothersome part not that he couldn't beat a guy that batman couldn't and who spars with Bane evenly.
king needs a better handle on power levels.
Last edited by dietrich; 08-21-2019 at 08:56 PM.
I think I didn't hate this issue.
I still don't quite get some of the thematics King is playing with here. A "Bane Takeover" story is one thing, and a "Flashpoint Batman with Gotham Girl ersatz Robin" story feels like another thing. What's the Psycho Pirate connection, then? Is there some greater relevance to that, then? And the odd non-sequitur of Bruce all beaten up and Catwoman carrying him around. I'm actually not sure how all the threads and arcs feel consistent with the earlier parts of the run. Alfred has effectively been a non-player in this run, other than feeding bats in the Rebirth issue and being a comic element, driving the Batmobile and wearing a costume in I Am Gotham, and then getting Bruce a dog. Or being Bruce's best man.
I will say at least that Damian, whether I like how he's used or not (I thought he was actually serviceably "Damian" this issue, FTR) feels fairly consistently utilized. Damian here feels like Damian in Rules of Engagement or even Damian in Grayson (A Fine Performance, Robin War). The weird grandfather dynamic actually made me kind of yearn for the wrap-up to the Flashpoint Batman storyline to be that Ra's al Ghul kills him, actually, in some weird grandfathers revenge angle.
What else? Oh a couple of Janin's panels are really good. Really really good. He's an artist I really like but definitely an artist who occasionally exhibits a bit of stiffness because his characters are so realistic. But that vertical panel of Robin stomping Scarecrow is one of the best panels I've seen in months, and actually the ballistophobia panel of Scarecrow (and his Scarecrow design, overall) was also really evocative and lively.
Thinking about the length of this arc and thinking back on like ... Knightmares dragging ass as a storyline, I can't help but wonder if like ... we're going to get like four more issues of Bat-Family members trying one thing or another and failing before glorious Bruce actually comes back and does anything.
On Alfred ...
I mean I'm like everyone else who kind of just wonders how long before the whole thing gets reverted back to status quo. Regardless of the quality of the story or the issue it takes place in I'm actually ready for a big change like that to actually stick. I think "The Guy Who Killed Alfred" actually suits Bane's bonafides. He's a schtick 90s villain who "Broke the Bat" and didn't do much ever again, so like "came in and did another bad thing" fits his themes and his nature ... I mean like his "meta nature", his nature as a character who is a tool of the writer used to do a big bad thing to Batman. I don't expect it to stick, and I don't expect DC Editorial to have the cajones to carry it forward (at least until the next reboot, or the next big name writer who's like "yeah but I want to bring Alfred back.")
But just for posterity's sake I'd like to at least be able to clock this run as the one where that thing happened and it stuck.
Retro315 no more. Anonymity is so 2005.
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