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setting aside my earlier theory that it's the bat-computer, i still think batman himself is at least a finger, if not the outright palm, of the black glove.
i'm not sure dr. hurt started out "bad." or if he was from the very start, i think when batman lost his mind post-isolation experiment, even that mind-addled batman was STILL himself enough to overcome/dominate dr. hurt in a battle of psychological wills (i always think back to the coolest unwritten story grant morrison has ever referenced, which is the years-long exploits of a captured batman playing and ultimately winning the ultimate battle of wills with desaad in 'rock of ages'). so, even thought dr. hurt got some sort of mental hooks into batman, i think the damage/influence was mutual.
i think it's significant that dr. hurt apparently wasn't content with only eradicating batman. he wanted to replace him with three batmen, and was persuasive and trustworthy enough to get official backing and support in his efforts.
GM has said that he has told us the "who" and the nature of the black glove from his very first issue on. and in his first issue, something that established itself as a running theme (getting referenced explicitly in interviews around that time with GM) is 'what does batman do when his mission is over?' a better question is: 'how will batman KNOW when his mission is over?'
i think the black glove is the program/system/indications that it's time for batman, or at least bruce wayne, to finally rest in peace, mission completed. i also think that the addled batman rambled some sort of explanation to this effect to dr. hurt, or in the isolation tank with dr. hurt listening in, and now both batman's beneficial early-warning system AND dr. hurt malevolent appropriation of it is running concurrently.
jezebel jet, far from being THE black glove, is another attempt to create/replace a batman. her father was assassinated, i believe in front of her, right? at the very least, she found herself in a similar situation to young bruce wayne. bruce reacted to his situation to become the ultimate hero, the batman. maybe dr. hurt had jezebel's father killed to create the ultimate villain, hoping the same conditions that grew a batman from bruce wayne could be scientifically replicated.
i can see GM doing his typically brilliant job weaving all these threads together, allowing alfred to be part of the good black glove without seeing/understanding the action of the bad black glove (jezebel jet's sudden influence on bruce, dr. hurt's being broken enough by a superior intelligence to become convinced he himself is thomas wayne). and naturally, the only one who can see through all these tangled threads is the joker, who doesn't process logic and reason in any way close to the way we and the pattern-seeking batman does.
just a guess. count me as someone completely blown away and satisfied with GM's whole take on batman regardless of how this turns out, though. if for no other reason than batman's journal entry about how he didn't really anticipate things like costumed villains and constant exposure to dangerous chemical compounds is EXACTLY the sort of genius detail i want in my batman comics. fantastic! |
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