Batman: Year Two, Your thoughts?

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Hey guys.

 

 

I just finished the new Batman graphic novel, Fear the Reaper which contains Batman: Year Two and the rare, Full Circle. I was wondering what you thought of the following topics before I reviewed it.

 

1. Todd McFarlane's style. (The cape in particular.)

 

2. Batman uses a gun.

 

3. Batman's alliance with crime.

 

4. Joe Chill as the Waynes' killer.

 

5. The Reaper as a villian.

 

 

My Thoughts:

 

1. Joke about expanding capes all you want, but McFarlane *got* it. Batman is not Superman. He is a smiling protecter and champion. He is an urban legend, he is a myth; seldom scene and always by a friend-of-a-friend. The cape is simply what the criminal sees when he is paralyzed with fear: An exaggeration.

 

2. Batman never kills in the book, and I can see why he would use a gun to counter Reaper's, but still: Didn't he train for his whole life so that he didn't *need* to resort to guns. Anyone can pull a trigger, but Batman is one-of-a-kind.

 

3. This I hate the most. The Batman I know would see a truce with the mob as an admission of weakness, and, by proxy, defeat. How can he inspire fear if he's running around making backdoor treaties with the enemey?

 

4. Chill is *perfect* by having Batman's creator be an ordinary hitman and not some evil super-genius is great because it allows for *any* criminal to become the killer in Batman's mind.

 

5. Reaper has a cool look and some nifty weapons, but he's so-so at best. he's just another example of the crap that was being pushed during comics' dark era.

[Guest Sassquatch]

I'll bite.

 

1. Todd McFarlane's style. (The cape in particular.)

 

At the time Toad had the makings of a great artist and a true pioneer in the business but he stagnated as an artist and he never evolved into what could have been a diverse career.

 

Toad's Batman is overall nice to look at but nothing to get worked up about. There is a reason why not a lot of buzz surrounding Toad's run on Batman is around and that is because his run was really nothing special.

 

2. Batman uses a gun.

 

When Batman was forced to use a gun against the Reaper it showed Batman in a humane light and showed fans that even the Batman can be desperate in times of struggle. We have all had to compromise what we believe in at least once in our lives for whatever the reason. Batman made a compromise with himself and broke a promise he had made to himself which is just another example as to why Batman is one of the easiest characters to relate to.

 

3. Batman's alliance with crime.

 

Not an issue.

 

As was stated above, in this case involving the Reaper, compromises had to be made and promises had to be broken in order to bring down a man that the Batman once thought was on his side but proved to be a force to be reckoned with.

 

Batman could have taken down the mob at any point in time and they knew this or else they would have never allowed an alliance to happen.

 

4. Joe Chill as the Waynes' killer.

 

Crime has many faces and sometimes you might not recognize one of them.

 

5. The Reaper as a villian.

 

I'm going to respond to what you said Zsasz since I feel some things need to be cleared up:

 

he's just another example of the crap that was being pushed during comics' dark era.

 

You couldn't be further from the truth.

 

Batman: Year Two was never trying to market itself as a "dark," "moody," or "violent" story like other books did years later. Batman: Year Two was the retelling of a story that took place which we, the readers, had not been aware of and therefore we got a little more insight into Batman's first couple of years as a crime fighter. He struggled at times and was very rough around the edges when it came to handling situations that went beyond his one-on-one combat situations which he had been accustomed to.

 

Unlike the novelty of using gore and violence to sell a book, the Reaper's story was much more than any of the "Dark Era" villains that had been slapped together just so they could get wasted two books later. The Reaper was Batman's final test in finding out whether or not he had what it took to be a crime fighter and seeing if in fact he was the toughest and smartest guy in the city.

 

When Batman first met up with the Reaper in the alley, and confronted the Reaper about his return to crime fighting, the Reaper's next move after that basically gave it away that the Reaper was totally gone and that there was no hope for him being reformed or finally settling down with his family. He acted out like a dog would if someone were to stare at it too long and soon the Reaper was all over Batman and showing him no mercy or remorse.

 

The Reaper represented the side twisted side to the beliefs Batman held as a crime fighter as the Reaper once did as well. But over time, his values and ideas of ridding the city of all crime became more sinister and soon he became no better than the men and women he murdered.

 

That is deeper than nearly anyone of Wolverine, the Punisher or any other "gore and action for fun book" that came out during the time period when violence and dark personas sold.

 

Year Two came out just a couple years before the dark and moody era had emerged as the number one way of selling books and then late the number one way of pissing away any long term fans along with the long-time readers. While it did deal with subject matter that was darker than most books had in them at the time, to categorize the book or any of it's characters as a by-product of the gore scene that would explode a couple years later is asinine and foolish since it had never been the intention of story itself to compete on a graphic level or gratuitous violence.

 

Simply put, this book and its characters have a deeper meaning and a stronger core than your run-of-the mill dark and moody book which was clearly lacking in several areas which make a book great.

 

The Reaper as a villain himself, with the back-story he had and the impressive beat downs he laid on Batman which make him okay in my book. He truly did represent the route Batman could have gone and in the process he took Bats to Hell and back in such a way that nearly none of Batman's other foes were able to accomplish (The Joker and Bane do not count because the Batman was confident in himself each time he has met one of these two and while shaken up, he never compromised his promises or beliefs in bringing either one down which was a result of desperation).

[Guest HellSpawn]

1. Todd McFarlane's style. (The cape in particular.)

 

Im a McFarlane fan, so, I have to say I love his art, it was before he became a superstar, and you can see issue by issue how he became more confident with Bats, (in a Wizard special he said he hated the way he was inked, thats why #4 is all by himself). You can see #2 is sometimes a lil' bit cartoony but by #4 is pure McFarlane, look the way it looks The Reaper killing Mr.M in #4 and tell me didnt looks cool. Capes IMDO is one of the coolest McFarlane's issues.

 

2. Batman uses a gun.

 

Remember this Batman is only in his second year, he could've trained to be a lethal weapon but at that momment, he wasnt, and after the beating he had on his mind he thought that was the only way. If you read "10 nights of the beast", you can see now a very experimented Batman and 2 ways he handle the Beast, 1) Now he didnt use a gun, he no longers fight fire with fire, and 2) He said it at the end, He no longer needs to prove anything, a last man standing fight wont be worthy.

 

3. Batman's alliance with crime.

 

The old proverd... Lesser of two evils.

 

4. Joe Chill as the Waynes' killer.

 

Perfect. I dont know why DC later screw that in Zero Hour. Imagine this, the Greatest Crimefighter, Mr. Detective. And was created by a single felon, one awful night, one unlucky night and TheWaynes meet Chill, a simple burglar turned killer.

 

5. The Reaper as a villian

 

The reaper was a cool villian and a mirror to Bruce, he learn what he could be if he didnt keep himself in control. Sass already said better than me the story of Reaper, so I'll add a #6.

 

#6, Batman almost Quit. They say Love can heal everything. And this time, He isnt the one who moves away from love, he is rejected !!

 

Of course, Im sure you'll know that this is the foundation for Batman: Mask of the Phantom, the animated movie.