Thread by @NerdGerhl

Let’s do this

In the abstract, Bane’s origin story is one of my favorites of any rogue. In practice, Dixon’s “Vengeance of Bane” is full of ... is there a word for “anachronism” but instead of revealing the writer isn’t from that time period, it’s that the writer isn’t from that race?

Like, Santa Prisca is clearly supposed to be Cuba-with-the-serial-numbers-filed-off, but then Bane’s whole Look is Luchador (I.e., Mexican) inspired.

Boy this highlighted bit would have aged a lot better if Bane’s father hadn’t been retconned from “failed revolutionary in a banana republic” to “literally a knighted mercenary from the whitest empire of all, the UK”

*sniff* that’s my boy

Bane’s indifference to his own nudity is kind of a minor theme for the character but used almost only in ways that just make him seem more invulnerable and detached from humanity, and I love it.

Arbitrary obsession with Batman, similar power set, inverse morals, inverse origin story, created circa 1993 and given greater character depth and longer life in publication when converted into an anti-hero character —

Bane is the Venom of Batman. In this essay, I will...

Vicki I’m pretty sure “boob-height notches in lapels” was not a trend even in the notoriously tacky 90s.

*Ron Howard voice* The word Bruce was looking for was “burnout.”

In all seriousness, if Knightfall is effective for any reason it’s for painting a picture of Batman experiencing burnout, which, for a character who has narratively mandated hyper-competence, is tantamount to a horror story.

It’s like when Gandalf starts showing up late and talking about how tired and old he is in The Fellowship of the Ring, and you go “Fuck, if YOU’RE not OK how are any of us going to be OK?”

And then when his death happens it makes it feel very real.

Sticks m’leggy out

Oh, I don’t much like this coloring error at all

Actually, maybe the artists just like wide boy batman

Timothy NO don’t do that google search

Saved, by writers who don’t know about latex kink.

That’s because it’s broken, Bruce, and you think you’re too busy obsessively not sleeping so you can stay up in the Batcave looking for clues to where Black Mask is to let Alfred set it for you good god sometimes I don’t know why I married you

I love Jim Aparo but this is both a very bad design and, in some way I can’t quite explain, a very Jim Aparo design.

Oh my gosh what a cute and contemporary reference to the launch of Batman: The Animated Series!

(And Tim was right.)

Timothy Jackson Drake I have never heard this word before in my LIFE

Batman: I’m very tired, could you please train Jean Paul Valley, a sweet computer science boy who has been subliminally conditioned to murder for his whole life
Tim: Traditional Batfamily hazing, got it

Nothing bad will come of this.

Tim, later: I think I accidentally gave Jean Paul a villain costume
Me: OH YOU THINK

Ahh, Shondra Kinsolving. I remember thinking you seemed so cool when I was twelve.

Your whole biz is gonna get fridged so Bruce can walk again in time for the third act. 😑

Aww, John Paul is wearing a Superman armband (right now the Superman books are smack in the middle of his funeral arc, not that you’d know from any indication in these Batman books other than this).

Part of me kind of misses Jeremiah Arkham, the biggest sad sack of a pencil pushing wet paper towel psychologist the world of fiction has ever seen.

Arkham has a ward specifically for the henchmen who shout “IT’S THA BAT” in the panel where Batman is already there, as seen here: