Showing posts with label the dark knight. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the dark knight. Show all posts

Wednesday, 31 March 2010

Why Batman Is Awesome #2: "I wanted to taste the flavor of death. I wanted to know that I had finally experienced every eventuality."

Batman is awesome.

Batman prepares himself for every eventuality, and if he can't-- well, that's impossible, he's Batman.

Bruce Wayne took a year out from being Batman to become better. To get away from his grim and gritty demons and emerge a more effective crime fighter. That involved travelling the world, having his fears cut away from him by-- well, I'll show you later maybe. But what he did was, he confronted death. Death. And then he was bad-ass-er.

So obviously, after the "Thogal" ritual, Bruce had some questions. Leading to a conversation with a monk who had some very sinister overtones going for him.



Holy shit! Batman's been poisoned! What's the Caped Crusader to do?!

Oh, wait.



Batman is so awesome that, as force of habit, whenever he dines with someone he switches cups because he's that damn effective. Even off-guard he's not meaning he's the greatest crime fighter ever. That's the point of this. Even when he's not Batman, he's Batman, and you can never trap him.



Right, so, the point: You can never stop Batman. You can leave the country (as in The Dark Knight) and he'll kidnap you right out of your own office tower. You can send him hurtling into the past and he'll fight and punch and think his way to the present, because he's the World's Greatest Detective (more on that later). Batman is awesome.

Batman!!

Sunday, 1 March 2009

The Stars Have Gone Out From Behind Your Eyes

I think we all want to change the world in our own minute way, but we don't know how to go about it. Right now, in this phase of my life, the things that change me are stories. I'm sure, in years to come, events will break me down and build me up, and events right now work on a level to shape my character, but the things that make my inspiration work are stories.

I think about all the stories that have made a lump in my throat form, and I don't think I can achieve that kind of poignancy. Moments of sheer character driven sadness that make you put down what you're reading and mourn for the lacking in your own ability to achieve such a thing.

I'm a comic book fan. And I know people look down at this for being something immature and geeky and pathetic, but look at the film adaptions for these kinds of stories. The Rocketeer. Iron Man. Ghost World. The Dark Knight. Watchmen. All these potential masterpieces that either work or don't (I accept a lot don't work. Hulk (first), Catwoman, etc), and make so much money and attract a whole new kind of readership, these are mainstream, aren't they?

There's a point to this.

The story that touched me in ways that no "classic literature" has ever done so, is called Starman. #0-80, two annuals, one special, a mini-series showcasing the greatest non-villain there ever was (The Shade), and it was such a beautiful package that is so enthralling that I think my life is the richer for reading it. I'm not going to explain why I love it, or why you should, or why so many others do, but the entirety of the run culminates in #73 and the funeral of a much loved character... I want to care. A lot of things don't make me care. So if you want to achieve something in regards to me, now you know what to do. Make me care.