Bloody Flags and Lifeless Rodents
January 16th, 2009 by Gavok | Tags: Batman, battle for the cowl, bucky barnes, captain america, civil war, darkseid, final crisis, jason todd, punisher“All right. It’s conceivable you could beat me, Avenger. But it would take you a very long time. Tell me this, though – do you want to?”
“No. You’re not the enemy. We’re all just pawns, in a larger scheme.”
“Then we might be better off letting the others play out the events according to the desires of whoever’s pulling the strings – while the two of us try to find some real answers.”
“You’re on. Let’s go.”
— Batman and Captain America from JLA/Avengers #2
I remember back when Marvel and DC had their Marvel vs. DC back in the mid-90’s, it was my first real introduction to Captain America. Sure, I had seen him pop up in Maximum Carnage (wow, I read some shitty stuff when I was that age), but I didn’t understand what a big deal he was supposed to be until they said that he’s supposed to be Batman’s counterpart.
It was weird, since they didn’t seem to have much in common. When they did that Amalgam event and they merged Batman and Wolverine, it seemed to make some sense more based on the two of them being scowling badasses with kid sidekicks and psycho killer (qu’est que c’est… fa-fa-fa-fa fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-far better) bad guys. Even the idea of Batman being the counterpart of Iron Man worked out better, since their secret identities were virtually the same guy.
Yet Marvel and DC, despite all their differences, has written in stone that these two are not only counterparts, but equals. They’ve gone far enough to show Superman beating up the Hulk and Thor, but even when the fans vote on it, they refuse to show an actual winner in Batman vs. Captain America. I always found that interesting.
It isn’t until Ed Brubaker’s taken over Cap’s series that this statement has felt so true for me. It isn’t even just about the two of them being pinnacles in human conditioning or expert fighters or great leaders. It’s also about the presence. If Batman or Captain America walks into the room, you immediately stop what you’re doing and listen to what they have to say. I’d even say that a personal visit from Batman would be more impacting than one from Superman.
I bring up Brubaker because of the whole sidekick deal. I’ve discussed the comparisons between Jason Todd and Bucky Barnes making their villainous “I’m not dead!” comebacks. There was definitely more of a fan interest in Jason’s comeback in comparison, but there would be few to argue that Winnick’s comeback story was superior to Brubaker’s.
Now look at them. Bruce Wayne and Steve Rogers. Dead. Both of them. Not that being dead is a good way to link the similarities in people. Don’t expect me to come up with a chart of how Lou Costello and Tupac are practically brothers with different mothers. It’s just that the deaths of Batman and Captain America feel like they go hand in hand.
On a meta level, the two deaths are like opposites. Remember what was going on when Captain America got killed. Civil War had been winding down and there were some who believed that by the end of the miniseries, Captain America was going to die or something just as dramatic was going to take place with him. Come issue #7, all he did was takes off his mask, cry uncle and give himself up to the authorities.
The general reaction to that was, “Wait, what? Captain America was supposed to die, wasn’t he? What kind of weak crap is this? What a rip-off!”
Then, a couple weeks later, in his own comic book, Captain America is shot to death. There’s your payoff, albeit delayed.
In the rival comic world, Batman would later experience a similar but different situation. People were prepared to see Batman die within his own comic book. After all, the story arc’s title was Batman RIP and we knew about the upcoming Battle for the Cowl storyline. Something had to give.
Time went by and when the so-called conclusion arrived, it made people go cross-eyed with confusion and disappointment. Batman’s “death” was a joke. He made a helicopter explode and sunk it into a body of water with no sign of Batman’s body… at least for the issue itself.
The general reaction to that was, “Wait, what? Batman was supposed to die, wasn’t he? What kind of weak crap is this? What a rip-off!”
To add to the absurdity, the media had blown their wad on Batman’s supposed death, much on how they reacted when Steve Rogers really did get killed off. This despite Batman’s appearance in Final Crisis, which Morrison claimed 1) it takes place after Batman RIP and 2) it’s definitely Bruce under the cowl.
The following two issues of Batman show that, obviously, Bruce is still kicking. It links the great adventure in RIP with what’s going on in Final Crisis, the big Civil War-level comic event.
Soon after, in this big event miniseries, Batman is fried by Darkseid. There’s your payoff, again, delayed.
Say what you will about superhero deaths, especially those as high-profile as these two, but a lot of the time it can lead to some awesome shit. With Captain America, we got one of the best comic issues of the year in Civil War: The Confession, where not only do we see the final argument between Cap and Iron Man, but we see how broken up Stark is over everything that’s happened. Not only that, but with Bucky wearing the mask, I never want Steve Rogers to come back. I know he’ll be back, but I’m more than willing to let him be for a long, long time.
With Batman… well, it’s too early to say, but Superman’s super-pissed reaction gave us some of the coolest pages in recent history. That ruled so hard and we still have another issue to go.
There’s the copycat situation too. After Rogers died, we had Frank Castle, Clint Barton and Bucky Barnes take up the mantle of Captain America. Not to mention the appearance of the Skrull Captain America, the Invaders era Captain America arriving in the present via time rift and the return of Commie-Smasher Captain America.
Gotham’s about to have its hands full too with Battle for the Cowl, again with heroes and villains alike trying to fill in. I admit, I wasn’t too into the idea of this storyline until seeing Harvey Dent’s costume. Harvey Dent makes everything better.
I’ve noticed that both of the deaths seem to come full circle in ways. Steve Rogers became Captain America because he wanted to be a soldier and fight for his country. Now he’s died for his country’s sins, I guess you could say. Bruce Wayne became Batman the moment his parents were gunned down. Years later, he dies by pulling the trigger on the ultimate evil.
More important than anything else is how the two died. Steve Rogers believed in fighting against superhero registration, but gave up. He sacrificed his ideals and stood down because he saw what kind of damage it was doing. Then, later, despite the abuse of the public eye, he sacrificed himself to save a man from a sniper bullet.
Bruce Wayne always insisted on never doing two things: using a gun and taking another life. After all this time, he still hasn’t killed the Joker when it would make sense to do so. Deep inside, he still believes that the Joker isn’t beyond some kind of redemption. The Joker is, by definition, a human being despite everything. Darkseid is pure evil. He’s the Satan of the cosmos. He’s destroying Earth and even reality itself and Bruce knows what he has to do. Killing him is truly the only way. To let the world crumble and allow choice to cease for the sake of keeping a promise from a one-way conversation would be selfish. Batman’s better than that.
I should just note just how utterly awesome Batman’s final moments are. You have to look at what Bruce Wayne intended when he became Batman and how he ended his life. To defeat Darkseid is hard. To kill Darkseid is harder. But to make Darkseid fear? Just about impossible unless you’re Batman.
Steve Rogers and Bruce Wayne each stood by ideals that made them great men. Standing for freedom. Standing for fidelity. Standing for life. Both men threw away their ideals and threw away their very lives. Yet in the end, in their final moments, they died as selfless heroes.
No wonder they’re always facing off in the crossovers.
While that would be a good place to end this article, I do want to just go back to that JLA/Avengers story for a bit. It led to one of my favorite comic book conversations. I used to know this guy in college who hated everything Marvel and loved Batman to death. I explained to him that during the course of JLA/Avengers, Captain America fought and defeated Promtheus.
“That is such bullshit!”
“The thing is, Prometheus is a badass villain. Do you know want to know who they had Batman fight while this was going on?”
“…………Oh, God. It wasn’t that French leaper guy, was it?”
“:D”
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My big problem with Batman’s death? If Batman was really truly dead then they would have no problem admitting Bruce Wayne is dead. Not this halfway stuff it seemed like they were doing. The number of people who know Batman is Bruce Wayne is minimal. And Nightwing didn’t have a problem with one of them continuing to think it. Declaring his death means Wayne Industries doesn’t sink into confusion and doubt.
I can understand people being dissapointed picking up a story called “Batman RIP” and finding it’s more accurately “Batman’s Final Case” (although that would suck as a title). That said, I’ve been pretty satisfied with Morrison bringing the character full-circle (as described both here and in the Wizard Interview yesterday).
I’m still expecting a further revelation of his fate in #7, and I’m hoping the new guy has better tenure than Azbats. Marvel’s proved it can be done, so I hope DC have the balls to do it properly as well.
My biggest problem with the whole thing is that Batman wouldn’t have died if he wouldn’t have spent so much time yapping. If he would have just shot Darkseid from the shadows, he would have been alive. It makes Batman seem dumb:(
DC has been cagey about acknowledging what trulyhappened to maintain the effectiveness of the final reveal in FC#6. When they first started talking abotu Bruce beign gone in the comics they all just said “gone” “missing” “not here”, then in this week’s Nightwing, published on the same day, they’ve flat out said he’s dead. I honestly think everyone’s known that he’s dead they just didn’t spell it out for the reader.
My real question is how the hell do they plan on rebuilding after FC? The world seems to look perfectly fine in everything supposedly takign place after. Well, either that or all the other non FC comics take place in the first few issues of FC before the world goes to shit.
@rizzo: Darkseid knew he was there, chances are if he shot sooner, Darkseid would have zapped sooner.
Besides, it would have made for a really crappy scene if they did it that way.
“My biggest problem with the whole thing is that Batman wouldn’t have died if he wouldn’t have spent so much time yapping. If he would have just shot Darkseid from the shadows, he would have been alive.”
I get the feeling the omega beams would’ve followe dhim for days if he just kept running.
@Cadavers: “My real question is how the hell do they plan on rebuilding after FC? The world seems to look perfectly fine in everything supposedly takign place after. Well, either that or all the other non FC comics take place in the first few issues of FC before the world goes to shit.”
Did you miss the Miracle Machine at the start of the issue? Or how it looks like Metron’s circuit/glyph?
I haven’t read this at all yet, but this:
(wow, I read some shitty stuff when I was that age),
made me laugh and laugh and laugh.
I didn’t notice that they looked similar, which is kinda neat. I’m just kinda hoping DC has an entire year spent rebuilding the cities. I really don’t want the god machine gettign used again, it was a cool idea but I don’t want them using that as a get out of jail free card for everything they don’t wanna deal with afte rthis story is over. It’d be cool if DC spent a few months with them basically saying “wow, we really did get our asses kicked. Guess we have to pick up the pieces.”
@david brothers: Let me rephrase. I read shitty stuff that I didn’t realize was actually shitty at the time.
Nowadays I’m like “Whoa, you say this book is shitty? Let me see!”
@Cadavers: You don’t think this would get stale ?
hell yeah man
Ah ah ahhhh! That wasn’t the real Prometheus that got a face full of Cap’s force-field shield. That was the pretend Prometheus, according to the lame new retcon.
Not exactly so! During that sequence, heroes and villains were being pulled out of history from random points, so that very well could have been the real Prometheus!
Rereading this I started thinking about who else either Bats or Cap has fought to a standstill with no outs thanks to super-powers or the like. And I remember that Cap has fought Conan. Which means Batman needs to face Conan…
Yeah. Batman vs. Conan…
Batman fought Raiden to a standstill. Is that good?
I do like how in MK vs DC, the only character to get a real clean win over Batman is Sub-Zero, who goes on to be inspired by Batman’s style. Flash and Joker are tasered after their victories and Superman is talked down after beating down on Bruce.
Say what you will about that game, the story mode was awesome.
Not exactly so! During that sequence, heroes and villains were being pulled out of history from random points, so that very well could have been the real Prometheus!
I thought about that too, but DC has obviously decided that any instances of Prometheus looking weak or easily defeated have to be attributed to the Fake Prometheus.
None of which accounts for how stupid and easily beatable he was in his first appearance. One nut-shot and that’s it? All that equipment, and he forgot to wear a cup?
Nice look at the parallels, Gavok. It’s true… Batman wouldn’t waste a shot in the shadows. He’d be in front of Darkseid making him quake in his little skirt in fear before pulling the trigger. He wants Darkseid to know that it took a little man to defeat him.
Morrison’s JLA had that awesome scene in Rock of Ages. “You are so small… yet you hurt me,” Darkseid says with respect to an aging Batman before he shoots his Omega beams.
@Prometheus being schooled by Captain America: That’s the real Prometheus and I’ll stick to G’s explanation.
I’m shocked by how thoroughly FC is Rock of Ages 2.0 – and totally worth it.
Interesting thing about Captain America that I saw Wanderer point out on scans_daily is that Captain America parallels all three of the DC trinity in different ways. The WWII vet and patriotic costume: Wonder Woman. Pinnacle of human fighting prowess and strategic thinking: Batman. Idealistic and has the ability to inspire the other heroes in their respective universes: Superman.