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Underground > Comic Books >

Batman: Death and the Maidens

17:08 / 12.12.03

Anyone else reading this excellent Greg Rucka-written, Klaus Janson-drawn 9-issue miniseries?? It's really pretty sharp. I love Rucka more and more as time goes on (he's made WONDER WOMAN not only readable, but VERY entertaining, intelligent, and the best it's been since George Perez' first year on the book in the 80s).

But enough about Rucka and his prodigious output!! DEATH AND THE MAIDENS, set as being "The Last Ra's al Ghul Story" (and DC and Rucka claim they REALLY MEAN IT, to try to assure jaded fans that this may be the last major Ra's story for a loooong time), shows the woman Ra's took as his wife many years ago, named Nyssa, trying to get back at Ra's after all these years. So we finally meet Talia's mother. So interesting that no writer ever dealt with the idea of 'who was Talia's mother?' before. And Bats has been shutting down Ra's Lazarus Pits...Ra's tells Bats that shutting down the pits that give him immortality is tantamount to murdering him, and pleads with Bats to stop. And he's got a very enticing bargaining chip which he'll give to Bruce if he stops closing down the pits...

15:08 / 15.12.03

Ra's offers Bruce an alchemical potion which he promises will give Bruce an hour of time with his dead parents. Bruce is skeptical of this, but is consumed by curiosity and agrees to make the deal and take the potion. Bruce does indeed have a mystical vision of his parents...and it's anything but what he expected. No tearful reunion, this - Rucka gives us excellent character and psychological work without falling into psychobabble. Long story short: his parents, esp. his mother, disapprove of the brooding, lonely, obsessive man he's become and give him some serious (and well-written) intervention type shit. A very innovative concept by Rucka, and beautifully executed. (And we as readers are told it really is his parents' spirits, not a hallucination)

All this plus lots of other cool stuff with Ra's, Talia, and Ra's former wife, Nyssa (who Rucka created, it looks like). Check this book out. Janson's art is nice too.

00:42 / 29.12.03

No one else is diggin' on this?

05:19 / 30.12.03

Yeah. Its pretty good. You've nailed it well.

I really like the twist of Bruce's dad being pissed off with the way Bruce has lived his life. Janson's doing good on art as well.

05:24 / 30.12.03

A pity though that beyond this mini, the development with how his life has gone in regards to his folks, probally won't be picked up on. Although, not like I'm reading the Bat titles with Brubaker and Rucka gone, so it doesn't matter.

You reading Gotham Central Hunter? Good stuff. Brubaker and Rucka are getting better each issue.

13:45 / 30.12.03

Yeah, his parents' disgust with what he's become, and the writing of the scenes with his parents, is what's knocking me off my socks most. I love his mother's line about Crime Alley, when he says it's where his parents died: "More than that...it's where you think you were born."

And yes, sad that the stuff in here (other than the 'final' fate of Ra's, I would imagine, whatever that turns out to be) won't really be reflected in other books.

I also like the stuff with Ra's telling Bats 'stop murdering me.' Does taking away the stuff that makes an immortal guy immortal constitute murder? Does that violate Bruce's no-killing rule? And we finally get to see the mother of Talia - I'm surprised no one ever did a story about Talia's mom before Rucka.

And yes, GOTHAM CENTRAL is truly kick-ass! I hear its sales numbers are low - hope it doesn't get the ax. I've heard rumors of a trade paperback collecting the first 5 or so issues, and also rumors of a relaunch #1 to try to spark more interest in the book.

15:09 / 16.01.04

Huh -- the latest issue of this (out 2 days ago) kinda disappointed me a little. Both Rucka and Janson both seem a little off here; the scenes with Bruce's parents seem to lack the emotional punch they had in previous issues, it almost seems rushed. And I thought Nyssa was Talia's mother - now we find out it's truly her sister? Hmmm. The pacing of the story arc seems wonky. But the Alfred draws a gun on Ra's scene was primo.

08:29 / 17.01.04

Actually, I never thought Rucka had made it clear that Nyssa was Talia's mother before, so it was good he cleared it up here.

I like the theme his folks got across. He may not feel their deaths as intensely anymore, but that doesn't mean he doesn't still care. I liked that Bruce's dad didn't disapprove him being Batman, just that he's taking being Batman all the time to far, and to enjoy himself a bit. Good character bit. Again, its a bit sad this probally won't be reflected in the core titles.

"I'm a detective". Good line that. Not a superhero or vigilante. Detective.

08:31 / 17.01.04

Gotham Central was goof this week as well, capping off the Joker sniper storyline.

"I'm down with the homeboys". Good line.

foot long subbacultcha

12:12 / 17.01.04

Grr I completely missed this mini series and I have no idea how. Hopefully there'll be a trade paperback collection. Love Gotham Central, and I really miss Brubaker and Rucka on the main Bat titles. The last Brubaker story is one of the best bat stories I've read in a loooong time.

Matthew Fluxington

16:23 / 17.01.04

"I'm a detective". Good line that. Not a superhero or vigilante. Detective.

Batman (or is that Batman fans?) is so in denial! Dude, if you were a detective and MOST CERTAINLY NOT A SUPERHERO, you wouldn't be wearing the spandex/cape and hanging out with Superman on a space station!

17:06 / 17.01.04

Slight aside but I think following Matthew Fluxington's post:

One of Jonathan Lethem's essays describes Frank Miller as the guy who "belatedly called Batman on his shit." Said shit being the fact that here's a guy who does, in fact, dress up in a cape to brood about his dead parents as much as fight crime. Somewhere else Lethem points out that this is the one thing people within the Batman universe rarely question, kind of the fundamental acceptance or willing suspension of disbelief you have to accept to like Batman as a character.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

17:26 / 17.01.04

There are different levels of reality to that character though- reading some of the bats stories (esp the good ones in my opinion) makes it difficult to believe he COULD hang out in space with Superman. Then you read JLA, and to a certain extent, he's a different character.

It boggles my mind that these stories all take place in the same world as Hellblazer.

18:32 / 17.01.04

Hellblazer.
Batman.

Now there's a crossover idea if there ever was one ; )

I haven't read Batman since the pisspoor Office Down or was that Fugitive? Anyway, both were awful. I dont see how any good writer would attach their names to such stories. I did like some of Brubaker's early stuff but Rucka rarely appealed to me. There were two good Batman stories that Rucka wrote. One was where Batman takes his mask off with Gordon present, the other being the Twoface/Montoya flowers story.

Any recommendations?

Matthew Fluxington

18:45 / 17.01.04

Best Batman stuff I've seen in years: that Jim Lee thing from last year. I'm not kidding at all, either. It was silly and fun, and had all the major villains except for the Penguin in it, and it was good disposable pop. Unlike virtually every other Batman comic, it didn't take itself extremely seriously. It just aimed for populism, and it hit the mark.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

19:34 / 17.01.04

I seem to remember Knightfall being some good, but I was 10, and didn't have much access to the comics, rather the novelisation and the radio show.

I'm wrong, right?

10:15 / 18.01.04

Fellas, the "I'm a detective" came from Bruce's dad saying what are you: superhero or vigilante. Bats (Byrne will kill me

) went with the third option. I may have been a bit unclear in that before, in making it seem like in my opinion he wasn't a superhero or vigilante, but a detective. And when faced with two extremes like he was, the detective answer does fit well. Is he in denial? Maybe. But the detective and vigilante parts were part of the whole Bat mythos before the superhero angle came in.

Schalcthof Funf: Possbily my favourtie Bat story after Year One would have to be the Days of Auld Lang Syne epilogue to No Mans Land by Rucka. Excellent stuff. He fell off a bit after that though.

Matthew Fluxington

16:54 / 18.01.04

But the detective and vigilante parts were part of the whole Bat mythos before the superhero angle came in.

That's such nonsense. He's been wearing a superhero costume from day one. He's a superhero whose hook is that he's a detectiv/vigilante. Above all other things, Batman is a superhero in a blue cape. Everyone knows this. He's one of the archetypal superheroes! Only self-loathing fans want to deny that he's a superhero.

Matthew Fluxington

16:57 / 18.01.04

Also: if you go over all of the Batman stories that have been created in comics, cinema, animation, etc, the one constant is that he's a superhero. Some writers will play up or tone down the detective thing, but he's ALWAYS a supehero in a cape.

03:10 / 20.01.04

>>"I'm a detective". Good line that. Not a superhero or vigilante. Detective.

I disagree with Fluxington - I think this line is great because it's about how Bruce sees himself more than anything else... how he would choose to describe himself.

And this latest issue was pretty good, I just didn't dig it quite as much as I did the previous few. Looking forward to finding out who pilfered what from the Batcave. Will this miniseries truly see Ra's death?? Or him having no more access to the Lazarus pits and therefore set to croak? I bet it ends with an elderly Ra's talking about living the remainder of his years without the Lazarus pits. That'd be a decent way to sort of change the status quo without really changing it too much, and without killing Ra's. Most likely the editors will say 'no Ra's stories for a year or two' and then some writer will bring him back and have him discover a lost pit or come up with a formula for longevity that doesn't require a pit.

Matthew Fluxington

12:31 / 20.01.04

Hey, I didn't say that the fact that Bruce thinks of himself as a detective first and foremost isn't key to the character - his occasional denial about the fact that he's a flamboyant vigilante is part of the tension that makes Batman interesting. But if we're going to talk about what Batman as a character/cultural icon is, then you really need to separate what the character thinks he is from what he actually is.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

12:46 / 20.01.04

He's not a superhero- he's a rich guy emulating a superhero. He's pretty alone in that he has no powers other than his training and his money. I like that, it makes him more interesting somehow.