Honor Jackson doesn't approve.

It's Sunday, November 7, 2010, I kan't speel, and this is The Side. I've attempted to put together some information about literary characters. I've begun taking a bit of an informal poll about them and have come up with some interesting results. However, despite being present on a few social media outlet, I've not gotten as much information as I'd like, but will still go on to post up my findings on Wednesday one way or another.

Lot of birthday's this time of year. My niece's birthday is today and she's 7 now. Delightful young lady. Her party last night consisted of all of us parking our cars sideways in the front yard while my brother set it up so that a movie was going to be projected on a big sheet strung up from a tree and a step ladder. There was a little ticket table and concession stand too. So we all popped our tailgates, grabbed some blankets and watched THE HANNAH MONTANA MOVIE, which is now totally my favorite movie EVER!!

In other news, reading back through previous posts I have discovered that I am indeed a semi-literate e-troglodyte and a total spell check invalid. Maybe I should wait until I've actually had some coffee before typing this stuff. So, to my glorious readers, I apologize and will try harder to actually make this stuff readable.

But enough of this stuff. Its time to talk about Batman. Again.

COMIX!!

Events in the Batman corner of the DCU are moving forward, which is cool. Grant Morrison is working his way through his "The Once and Future Batman" with his return of Bruce Wayne to the role, and we'll be seeing him going around the world creating a "Round Table" of Batmen in the upcoming BATMAN INC title. Its been obvious that Morrison has been driving things with the character for a while now, and other have for the most part been pretty well on board. There's been some things that fit nicely with the narrative (WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE CAPED CRUSADER?), some needless but harmless fluff (BATTLE FOR THE COWL), and some pretty goofy hiccups from those who didn't seem to be paying attention but wanted to play too(BLACKEST NIGHT). All said and done the character has made very cool and thoughtful progression in the last few year.

However, that's not sitting quite right with some people. They want the dark, angry, fractured psyche Batman. The thing with an iconic character like this is that there's room for different interpretations of him. This is how you can have cartoons like THE BRAVE AND BOLD and also have a depressing marathon of pseudo-terrorist porn like THE DARK KNIGHT. Everyone's happy. In comics though we do have continuity. We have editors who, supposedly, are to keep track of this stuff and keep things something resembling consistent. So if a hero has a major change in costume or powers or attitude that happens in their core book, if that character appears elsewhere in another book that change is to be reflected, or a not can appear "This story takes place before the events of...." Which smart because you might make a reader curious as to what exactly happened in that story and the reader could buy another book. So continuity in comics is pretty important. Just ask any hardcore fanboy. They'll argue continuity for days.

So we have Batman as a character moving in one direction. Its a definite thing that obvious to all that have been keeping up and not writing reviews for GAME INFORMER. But now we have a new comic coming out featuring Bruce Wayne as Batman, and the writer makes this statement in an interview.

I've read a lot online about how people think that, ever since Dark Knight Returns, Batman has been to dark and gritty. But I don't agree. That's what made me love Batman. I think a Batman that is too fun and happy and has a little sidekick dog and all those types of things doesn't speak to me at all. This is the character that speaks to me: The dark, angry, vengeful, almost hateful character. That's what I love. And that's what I'm doing. I want to push that as far as editorial will let me push it.

OK, fine, BUT writers have spent the last few years moving Bruce Wayne AWAY from being that guy. We had our fill of Batdouche. It started with INFINITE CRISIS, and I've had a lot of brutal criticism of Geoff Johns, but in this story he started Batman on the road away from being a complete prick. He reached out his hand and trusted Hal Jordan, despite his history with him. He didn't kill Alex Luthor despite Luthor nearly killing Dick Grayson. From there we moved onto 52, which has Batman along with Grayson and Tim drake traveling the world and finally had Bruce chilling in a cave for a month for meditative purposes and to get his head back on straight. Then there was his return to Gotham and we saw him handled by Grant Morrison and Paul Dini on writing duties. Dini had Batman handling a bunch of fun interesting cases which invoked fond memories of his old 90s animated series. Morrison began his epic which had Batman facing ultimate evil.

Batman has not beaten ultimate evil because he was HaRdCoRe or more badass than the devil. It was, ironically, because he killed a man, sorta. A bum told him that he had a nice face. Batman had a couple hundred buck in the glovebox of the Batmobile. Seemed like a harmless little moment. What he didn't know is that the bum in question would use that money to buy drugs that would cause him to overdose. That bum's spirit in his final act before moving on, would aid Bruce Wayne after Doctor Hurt left him drugged and out of his mind. An act of kindness turned the tide.

Now we have a Bruce Wayne who is still a driven and formidable character, but also values his family and friends. He's kind to people who deserve it. He's kind to people who may or may not deserve it, but being kind would be more useful than scaring the crap out of them. We now have a well balanced and full on awesome character, not a charactiture.

But, there are still those who want to seem him in that nearly insane light. These are the people, and I used to be one when I was young, who thought that Batman was only one step away from being The Joker. They tout the "one bad day" theory from Alan Moore's "THE KILLING JOKE" despite the fact that the work is a repudiation of that theory. So despite the fact that everything I just laid out has been going on for the last five years and everyone's been on board with it one guy want to go the exact opposite direction, like a trout trying to get up stream.

I'll probably buy the first issue for review purposes, but its not something I'm looking forward to. I need Batdouche back like I need a hole in the head.

MUSIC!!

Hey, speaking of holes in the head...



Alrighty, hopefully you folks remembered to fall back with the whole Daylight Savings time thingie and won't be late for church. Because after reading the stuff I write y'all probably need some chuchin'! See, y'all Wednesday.