Comments on: Monday PSA: Batman — Seduction of the Gun

By: Let your baseball cap go, son. | NotGraphs Baseball

Let your baseball cap go, son. | NotGraphs Baseball — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:30:50 +0000

[...] remember this Batman comic, which I owned and adored during the same time as I coveted said Starter parka. It depicts [...]

By: Gilbeto Gonzalez

Gilbeto Gonzalez — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:02:56 +0000

Everybody seems to be missing the point, that the comic was designed to bring awareness regarding the senseless death of a human being. A young life was murdered by the use of a gun. Who cares where the proceeds went. The comic had to be graphic to make it’s point. Instead of whining about semantics why not have a little sympathy for the family of this victim and learn the lesson, that there is absolutely only one use for a handgun, to kill a human being.

By: Su

Su — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:01:23 +0000

I realize I’m very late in commenting, but I just found this website. I read this book and I remember really liking the cover art because it looked like a painting rather than a sketch on cheap paper. I did feel that the ant-gun thing was really being pushed; however, I felt it was sort of being put in Batman’s mindset. That version of Batman hated guns. In the original Batman comics of the 1940’s, Batman actually used guns and killed people.

It is a bit funny for me to see people complaining about superheroes in comics being used to push political agenda because, in a way, that is what their original purpose was. Captain America fought the Nazis. There were actually advertisements with Superman saying “You can slap a Jap– with War Bonds” (which is not only political but very racist). Comics were used to push anti-smoking, anti-AIDS hating, anti-gay bashing, anti-drugs, and anti-guns. At other points they were pro-killing criminals. But times have changed and I admit it is annoying when comics are overtly pushing a political agenda. Peter David was very anti-gun and angered a few fans of Young Justice. I found Devin Grayson’s pro-gay inclusions to be way too forced in Nightwing. I’m going to stop there because Devin Grayson is one of the reasons I completely stopped reading comics.

By: Blue Spider

Blue Spider — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:06:01 +0000

It is indeed anti-gun in concept, which is why Chuck Dixon passed on the writing assignment.

He refused to do a political tract. even to feed his kids.

By: Douglas

Douglas — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 20:41:40 +0000

I read this issue when it was first published, and upon finishing it, was, to put it lightly, extremely angry that DC was now pushing partisan political issues. I have to disagree with you…the message was very much anti-gun, period, and the writers and editors were upfront about it. I’m a political junkie myself, but I feel that these characters belong to everyone, and it’s a kind of crime to hijack them for your pet causes. Should Superman stump for tax cuts? Should Wonder Woman crusade for abortion rights? I don’t think so. Once the character starts picking sides becuase of a writer’s politics, you alienate part of the fanbase.

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 01:32:37 +0000

Loren,
The last page of the comic is a text page that states in part: “the proceeds from Batman: Seduction of the Gun are going to the John A. Reisenbach Foundation for gun-control education activities.”

By: caleb

caleb — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:14:02 +0000

I read that book in high school, and really, really enjoyed it. As you say, it was prety much a sstandard Batman comic…I enjoyed it the same way I would have a Batman annual.

Regarding the politics of it, it didn’t strike me as heavy-handed, although there was a lot of talk of statistics and politics (At the time it was published, other Batman writers, like Alan Grant, would do similar things in terms of couching an issue or subject in a Batman story having all the characters talk about it, whether it was something like the environment or just cats in general, if that makes sense).

And really, if there’s one superhero who can be excused for being asn anti-gun as possible, it’s Batman. I mean, if Batman did want to break into your house and steal your guns, could you blame him? The guy was so profoundly affected by a gun that it made him dress like a bat.

By: Loren

Loren — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:42:41 +0000

I haven’t read this issue, but I recall a letter in another Batman issue regarding it. The letter-writer, IIRC, was somewhat sympathetic to the book’s agenda, but was terribly annoyed to reach the issue’s end and discover that his money had been donated to an interest group. Not being pleased that this was not disclosed upfront, he donated an equivalent amount to the NRA, to balance things out.

Out of curiosity, what was the foundation that the money was donated to?

By: moon_custafer

moon_custafer — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:40:30 +0000

There’s been a great deal of anxiety and anti-violence initiative here in Toronto because
a teen, Jordan Manners, was shot in a school hallway a few weeks
ago. The good, news, such as it is, is that it’s still a rare enough thing to be shocking.

Most of the shootings here seem kind of random – when I’m feeling cynical, I say that if guns
can’t be kept off the streets, then criminals should be given firearm safety lessons
so at least they hit their rivals and not some guy watching tv in his living room down the
block, or a woman on the opposite site of the dance floor who was just out for an evening
with friends. :(