Comments on: Final Thought and Rants on Batman #644

By: Ratbat

Ratbat — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 06:43:36 +0000

Increasingly, my theory is that Black Mask is nowhere near as hard or smart as he thinks he is. And then he overcompensates, possibly doing something silly in the process as well. As for Leslie...yeh. This is someone who in recent years has been shown to be so anti-violence that she won't even defend herself when directly attacked. So she lets someone die to make a point? And what's the point? That spandex heroes die? I think Batman knows that by now. He's even lost a Robin before. Not to mention that this Robin was working completely off her own, er, bat. Against Bruce's wishes.

By: Erich

Erich — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 03:16:47 +0000

“This was also a stupid move on Black Mask’s part — recent events have shown how upset people get when judges and policeman are killed and he just murdered three of them.” I think it was obvious that Black Mask’s escape was in fact inspired by those “recent events” (the Georgia courtroom shootings), right down to the fact that it was a female officer whose gun was taken. (Although the real-life deputy, unlike her comic-book counterpart, survived the attack.) However, while this scene was “ripped from the headlines,” Willingham seems to be disregarding the massive manhunt and recapture that followed. The capture of Black Mask would be top priority for the Gotham PD after these shootings, but the way it came across in the book was “Oh well, he got away, and we’ll never find him because he’s a criminal genius. Better luck next time.”

I wonder whether they’re setting up Black Mask to be killed by a Gotham cop. Obviously, the Joker is too big a cash cow for DC to kill off, but Black Mask could easily be used to answer that perennial question “Why don’t the police make sure this psycho dies ‘resisting arrest’?”

By: Tim O'Neil

Tim O'Neil — Sat, 10 Sep 2005 05:02:46 +0000

Yeah, this is why I don’t read Batman anymore, or really ,and comic that posits that mass-murderers wouldn’t just be shot and killed on sight. Especially – jeez – how many times do we have to see Batman save the Joker’s life? Yawn.

By: Scott Harris

Scott Harris — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 15:35:40 +0000

Cracking down on Black Mask’s business, heck – he’s going to be shot while resisting arrest.

In fact, that would probably be one of the best ways to end this era of Gotham’s history –
have a storyline in Gotham Central where cops shoot down Black Mask, Joker, and Hush, and are quickly cleared of any charges of malfeasance or excessive force despite each body having about 50 bullets in it, since th ejudge and/or administrators rule that each perpetrator had demonstrated that *anything* short of immediately lying down on the ground with hands on head constituted resisting arrest and possibly assault on a police officer.

By: DrObvious

DrObvious — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 14:55:02 +0000

I agree. War Crime, and especially this ish, was a real let down after the stage was set as well as it was with War Games.

By: Marionette

Marionette — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 04:54:05 +0000

Not to mention that in the old days the Joker didn’t just kill people for the sake of killing, he was a true psychotic artist. I want the Joker back whose idea of a cunning plan was to trademark fish.

All I can say about the current run of Batman is that I’m glad there are still plenty of silver age Bats stories I haven’t read yet.