The Iceman Goeth.

[seawolf10]

Someone requested the DCAU comic where Batman met Joe Chill. This is one of those issues that's difficult to cut down to 7 pages, because no matter how hard you try, you inevitably lose a couple pages that have a LOT of impact. Still, even the cut version's worth a read.






"You're too cool...You're the iceman...

...You're Joe Chill."

***

The guy being interviewed in the next couple panels is GCPD Detective Giella, who'd managed to take down Killer Croc...after Croc had just beaten the living shit out of Batman.




Joe turns on the TV, catches the end of the interview while flipping through channels, and discovers that he left a button at the scene of the Wayne murders.

Thoroughly rattled, Joe goes to murder Detective Giella and recover the missing evidence. (Not the smartest move, but he is cracking up.) Batman, despite not having gotten over his injuries (this is only a night or two after the Croc-Bat brawl), is keeping an eye on Detective Giella in case Croc's holding a grudge.

Unsurprisingly, when a guy with a gun sneaks into the detective's apartment, Batman crashes in through the window to stop him. There's a tussle, and Chill's getting the upper hand...

...until he pries Batman's mask off.






7 pages out of 21, from Batman Adventures 17.

Tags (if we're still in lockdown): char:joe chill, char: batman/bruce wayne, creator: ty templeton, creator: rick burchett, title: batman adventures, setting: dcau

Comments

[silverzeo]

0o0!!! Whoa! And Bruce never knew it was Chill? This is SO deep on SO many level. Thanks for posting this! Now I must BUY it!

[aaron_bourque]

And Bruce never knew it was Chill?

In this story, no. In some versions of the story, he never learned who killed his parents, not because of any depth but because of some pop psychology pap: that way "all of the criminals he fights are the one who killed his parents." Which is stupid, but nevermind.

In my favorite version, he learns who the killer is later in life, confronts him, and he's just an old "middle management" mafioso. He's no one special. And in his haste to take credit, and become someone, he blabs to his goons, who reflexively execute him for "making Batman."

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; my second favorite is what happens in Batman Begins.

[yaseen101]

In my favorite version, he learns who the killer is later in life, confronts him, and he's just an old "middle management" mafioso. He's no one special. And in his haste to take credit, and become someone, he blabs to his goons, who reflexively execute him for "making Batman."

Kind of reminds me of my own version where Batman finds out he was a just normal dude caught up on the brink of poverty. He never meant to kill the Wayne's but acted in blind panic, he lives in shame and guilt is a good citizen trying to make up for it and is raising his own family. Batman meets up with him and talks with him and decides to leave him alone. Of course, things go horribly wrong from that point.

[akodo_rokku]

Sounds a lot like the Batman Begins version.

[yaseen101]

Far from it. In Begins he was more of a common criminal. Here, he is a genuinely nice guy trying to redeem himself and raise a family and feels guilty and shameful for what he had done.

[akodo_rokku]

I dunno, in Begins he struck me very much as someone who was just desperate and made a terrible decision. And was genuinely repentant about what he had done.

[yaseen101]

He never really struck me that way and none of the characters seem to point that out either.

[insectposse]

Agreed. He SAYS the right stuff in the courtroom, but it seems to me that he's conforming to Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul's description of criminal behavior ("criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding").

[aaron_bourque]

He wasn't really a character in Begins.

[thehefner]

I'd love to see that kind of take. The young Joe Chill--the killer who haunts Batman's memories and drives him through his life--was just a common criminal, so for him to still be just a common criminal is kind of anticlimactic. But to find that he too had been emotionally changed from that night could have great poignancy, particularly with where it goes from there.

Funny, just yesterday when this post came up, I was working on my OWN Joe Chill take. I'm doing a twist on the BATMAN BEGINS version, only with young Bruce and Harvey (as a clerk in the DA's office, while studying for the bar), and a lot more heated emotion. Even there, though, Chill is kind of a non-character, even more of a non-character than he was in BB.

But that's what I like about him: he's kind of a fluid character, simply because he's almost more of a spectre, a ghost of symbolism, than a living breathing human being... even when he is one, in the above story.

[yaseen101]

I always felt like, Chill still being a criminal after all these years would give Bruce all the moral justification he needs in order to capture him. Making him The Atoner creates a bit of a dilemma for Bruce. It's also part of an AU fanfic verse I'm doing, with an 'Outsiders' spin-off. The Chill story and another story is one of my more depressing stories which ends on a somewhat depressing note.

Funny, just yesterday when this post came up, I was working on my OWN Joe Chill take. I'm doing a twist on the BATMAN BEGINS version, only with young Bruce and Harvey (as a clerk in the DA's office, while studying for the bar), and a lot more heated emotion. Even there, though, Chill is kind of a non-character, even more of a non-character than he was in BB.

I would be happy to read it. :) Though I have to say, I kinda have a dislike of stories where two friends/lovers/enemies just happened to know and meet each other in their youth. Like if a little Clark sees a young Bruce visit Smallville or Clark and Lex being lab partners in school. It feels a little contrived. :(

[thehefner]

Old school OUTSIDERS, or modern post-Winnick OUTSIDERS?

Trust me, I'm usually with you on that contrived cliche as well, but it just sort of had to happen.

This was borne out of my firm belief that BATMAN BEGINS--and those scenes in particular--would have worked much better if you substituted Rachel Dawes with Harvey Dent. Think about it! So I set out to try and prove how much better that would have been, and it kind of got away with me.

Also, I wanted to do it to spite the very concept of Tommy Elliot, because again, if they're gonna pull that shit, better to pull it with an established character like Harvey who actually has some established relationship with the character. Bruce and Harvey are friends in canon anyway, so it's hardly a stretch. Like Harvey having an abusive alcoholic father, it's a tired cliche that, dang it, actually works in this case.

[yaseen101]

You kind of have point there. If they wanted a love interest so bad, they could have gone for, Julie Madison, Vicky Vale and a host of other women that Bruce has dated.

"Old school OUTSIDERS, or modern post-Winnick OUTSIDERS? "

A bit of both I guess. I'm going for 'a group of bad ass normals who fights bad guys and save the world in secret', basically the complete opposite of the JLA. The group itself consists of Batman, Lady Black Hawk, Black Lightning, Green Arrow, Black Canary (who is 16 years old here), Grace and Katana. This 'book' is meant to act as a window to the rest of the DCU since the 'Batman' title will deal with things crime and whatnot.

[thehefner]

I kinda respect them for wanting the love interest to actually be more than just that; specifically, for Rachel to be Bruce's moral compass at his lowest moment. But honestly, how much more powerful and poignant would that have been to have had Harvey in Rachel's place? Furthermore, those lines of Rachel's would have sounded less grating and self-righteous if Harvey was the one to deliver them.

Nice! Frankly, it already sounds more interesting than either of the actual OUTSIDERS iterations.

[yaseen101]

I agree, it would have been more poignant for Harvey Dent to be there. It seems to be more about the Hollywood mindset of having one girl friend for the main hero. For example they used Irene Adler for the Sherlock Holmes movie, when Watson/Mary Morstan would have sufficed for the love interest slot since it's a canon pairing. I can see some Hollywood suits not wanting for people to think Holmes might be gay (-_-')and wanting to give him a love interest and like that they do not want people to think Bruce might be gay ( -_-' ). Batman carrying an unconscious and drugged Harvey, you have to admit, would set off a lot of people's gaydar and the fact that they were childhood friends and all that.

/edited for grammar mistakes.

[thehefner]

Which version was that? I remember the original version from the Golden Age (which was also retold in UNTOLD LEGEND OF THE BATMAN), and in those, he wasn't trying to take credit, he was freaking the fuck out at the revelation that he inadvertantly created Batman and now he's going to be stalked and haunted for the rest of his life.

Frankly, your version sounds more poignant, but unless I missed something in the reading or it was retold that way later, that's never how I read that/those stories.

[yaseen101]

Yeah, I read the original Golden Age one and the one in Untold Legends, he was freaking out at that time and I don't remember any later retcons telling it any other way either.

[sistermagpie]

That's the version I read as a kid.

[thehefner]

Damn posting limit! The kicker is Batman's reaction, the horrified puzzlement on his face as he wonders, "Why? Why was he so afraid to take my hand?"

This issue might go on my list of all-time greatest Batman comics. It's easily the best take on Joe Chill I've ever seen. This issue would be one of my top arguments as to why the DCAU BATMAN comics are collectively the finest BATMAN comics of the past twenty years.

[neuhallidae]

Motto to this whole comment. I love the sort of poetic irony that in the end, it was Chill's own fear that did him in.

[yaseen101]

IA.

[sistermagpie]

It is pretty great. It's weird I never even thought about it--Chill would know who his only witness was, but probably wouldn't have known at the time of the murders.

[howeverimprobable]

Wow.

That's actually all I can say. Thanks for posting, this was... very interesting.

[jelly_ace]

Did DCAU Bruce ever find out?

[yaseen101]

No.

[mullon]

Someone really should have told Joe...to chill.

[darklorelei]

*slow clap*

[yaseen101]

[neuhallidae]

Booooooo.

Okay, I laughed a little.

[thehefner]

YYYYYEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[yaseen101]

And once again, the DCAU Bats proves to be more awesomer than his DCU counterpart.

[mystery]

Oh, I disagree :)

[yaseen101]

Well, except the Bronze Age Bats....and the 60's tv show Bats with his 'Anti-DCAU Batman' spray.

[bluefall]

I think Bronze Age Bats is DCAU Bats, knocked into another medium by the Crisis. It only makes sense.

[yaseen101]

IA.* Though, I remember saying you did not like DCAU Babs all that much, something about being screwed up in Batman Beyond. Can you perhaps elaborate on that? If you don't mind. :)

*In the same vein, I always thought the Bat-God is a crazy-drug induced Darker n' Edgier version of the 60's 'Anti-Shark repellent spray' Batman.

[lyraeinne]

Wow, that's.... that's really an amazing story. I think it might possibly be the only version of Joe Chill I've ever seen with more than one dimension.

Clearly I need to be reading more DCAU.

[sistermagpie]

I love Bruce's face from Joe's perspective after he's ripped off the cowl. There's your worst nightmare, Joe!

[galateus]

Uh, Batman Adventures 17 from volume 1 or 2?

*still wondering why they rebooted the numbering like that in the first place*

[seawolf10]

I have NO idea.

Sorry.

[thehefner]

It's the second BATMAN ADVENTURES (the first being THE BATMAN ADVENTURES), and the fourth of the DCAU BATMAN series.