The death of Batman's rogues... Good or Bad?
I'm REALLY enjoying the One Year Later story by James Robinson that's currently running through Batman and Detective Comics... but I'm torn at the deathz of some of Batman's rogues.
Batman has some of the richest villains in comics... and probably the best gallery of bad guys. Even second and third teir villains have potential as Geoff Johns showed in The Flash.
The recent death of Magpie got a resounding... meh... from me as she wasn't even a Q-lister having appeared in one... maybe two stories since she was introduced in the 80's.
But then the KGBeast was offed. Now granted he's been a joke for a long time... but his introductory story was awesome and, while it may not be among the best Batman stories, it also introduced the NKVDemon (where Batman had to go to Russia!) which was a fun story. He's been relegated to 3rd rate hired thug for the last decade... and the collapse of the Soviet Union sure didn't help... but there was always underlying potential.
THEN Scarface/Ventriloquist was killed in Batman 652. Now that's a decided step up in the villain chain from KGBeast and a huge leap up from Magpie. And I know that Orca is possibly next... and she's another Magpie... but I think DC is making a mistake.
As I said, Johns proved ANY villain (Magpie excluded :p ) could become a legitimate threat and taking out 4 villains, one of the calibre of Scarface will, in the end, hurt the Bat rogues.... add to the fact Two-Face is "cured" you're down 4 villains. One of them is a BIGGIE, another is a dummy (literally! :D ) while two others aren't as big, but have/had potential!
The problem with death is that it eliminates a character from a lexicon that will not ever end. Since we all know Batman will be Bruce Wayne forever (maybe with the odd exception for a story purpose) the character will not age and cannot die.
BUT if that's the case, after 60+ YEARS of stories you start running out of good villains and stop someone else from potentially enjoying a good story. If they had kept the Joker dead the very first time they killed him, waaaaaaay back in Batman #1 he wouldn't have become the iconic villain he is today, would never have been on the TV show or in the movie and his death would have stopped all those cool Joker stories (read The Laughing Fish!) over the years.
If villains truely great were easy to create then there would be a bunch of Magneto's, Dr Dooms, Jokers... but in fact there aren't... because a good villain is (I believe) harder to create than a good hero.Those second and thrid string villains give the big ones a needed break now and then.
Normally I don't mind death in comics... Marvel used Scourge to kill a bunch of lameass villains in the mid-80's... and it appears DC is doing something similar now... but Batman is known for his villains... and DC is eliminating them one by one.
What about everyone else? Is this bothersome? Yay! Nay!! Go away Shadow? LOL
Comments??
Batman has some of the richest villains in comics... and probably the best gallery of bad guys. Even second and third teir villains have potential as Geoff Johns showed in The Flash.
The recent death of Magpie got a resounding... meh... from me as she wasn't even a Q-lister having appeared in one... maybe two stories since she was introduced in the 80's.
But then the KGBeast was offed. Now granted he's been a joke for a long time... but his introductory story was awesome and, while it may not be among the best Batman stories, it also introduced the NKVDemon (where Batman had to go to Russia!) which was a fun story. He's been relegated to 3rd rate hired thug for the last decade... and the collapse of the Soviet Union sure didn't help... but there was always underlying potential.
THEN Scarface/Ventriloquist was killed in Batman 652. Now that's a decided step up in the villain chain from KGBeast and a huge leap up from Magpie. And I know that Orca is possibly next... and she's another Magpie... but I think DC is making a mistake.
As I said, Johns proved ANY villain (Magpie excluded :p ) could become a legitimate threat and taking out 4 villains, one of the calibre of Scarface will, in the end, hurt the Bat rogues.... add to the fact Two-Face is "cured" you're down 4 villains. One of them is a BIGGIE, another is a dummy (literally! :D ) while two others aren't as big, but have/had potential!
The problem with death is that it eliminates a character from a lexicon that will not ever end. Since we all know Batman will be Bruce Wayne forever (maybe with the odd exception for a story purpose) the character will not age and cannot die.
BUT if that's the case, after 60+ YEARS of stories you start running out of good villains and stop someone else from potentially enjoying a good story. If they had kept the Joker dead the very first time they killed him, waaaaaaay back in Batman #1 he wouldn't have become the iconic villain he is today, would never have been on the TV show or in the movie and his death would have stopped all those cool Joker stories (read The Laughing Fish!) over the years.
If villains truely great were easy to create then there would be a bunch of Magneto's, Dr Dooms, Jokers... but in fact there aren't... because a good villain is (I believe) harder to create than a good hero.Those second and thrid string villains give the big ones a needed break now and then.
Normally I don't mind death in comics... Marvel used Scourge to kill a bunch of lameass villains in the mid-80's... and it appears DC is doing something similar now... but Batman is known for his villains... and DC is eliminating them one by one.
What about everyone else? Is this bothersome? Yay! Nay!! Go away Shadow? LOL
Comments??
posted by He Said... She Said at
6:12 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home