Thomas Wayne acting like a jerk

[whitesycamore]

A recent post sparked some comments on the role of good and bad parents in the bat mythos, and how Thomas and Martha Wayne are almost always shown as damn near perfect. I thought I'd post a few scans from Batman 430 (an issue about a rooftop sniper about to go on a killing-spree) which contains a flashback to Bruce's childhood and casts the Waynes in a different light.



This issue immediately followed Death In The Family, but there's no mention of Jason apart from one page. Thematically though, this story is all about anger, death and guilt.























I'm conflicted about this. It's pretty horrible to see Thomas Wayne backhand Bruce, but I do like the idea that Bruce's memories of his idyllic happy childhood might not quite match the reality. In particular I like the contrast between Bruce's memories of being "very, very rich" and money being zero concern, and Thomas' financial worries.








I can't imagine that Bruce would ever say " I don't love him no more". It's not just the sentiment, it's the grammar, damn it! But the brattiness and the anger over his father's rejection is all very reminiscent of the conflict between Bruce and Jason only a few issues before.













I've noticed that Starlin's Batman stories tend to have everyone acting more dickish than they do usually. Still, I really like the subtext that the events of DITF have caused Bruce to revisit his relationship with his own father and possibly to understand him better. Thomas Wayne is portrayed less than favourably here, but he's also a bit more human and fallible than he's usually shown.



Suggested tags

title: batman, char: batman/bruce wayne, char: jim gordon, char: thomas wayne, char: martha wayne, creator: jim starlin, creator: jim aparo

Comments

[icon_uk]

As noted, not keen on the story, but Aparo is firing on all cylinders here and the colourist is to be commended too, especially given this is well over 20 years ago now so the computer colour options were limited, if available at all.

[whitesycamore]

No doubt. I really like the panel on page 13 of Bruce climbing onto the roof - there's some palpable menace there.

[sleepymax]

From what I can remeber, Aparo's artwork doesn't look good when digitally colored. I remember reading No Man's Land and thinking "How could you make Aparo's pencil's look so bad?"

[cmdr_zoom]

Motto.
It helps that Aparo's style was the Batman I knew as a kid.

[jlroberson]

Aparo is the great underappreciated Batman artist. And there are almost no artists today with his way with character emotion. I still look to him for tips, and even gave a name to one of his things I snatched, the two or three little lines indicating agitation from the brow he so often uses: I call it the Aparo. It's very useful.

[thebigapricot]

This is true. It seems like he gets short shift behind Adams.

[jlroberson]

Because there's more of him, and he stuck to the character even long after his style wasn't really that great anymore. So he was taken for granted.

[mad]

I agree. I love Jim Aparo's pencils. I could be wrong, but I have it in mind that he drew Bruce (and possibly others) in those awesometastic 70s disco-y suits during that time.

I love it when characters in comics are drawn wearing the trendy fashions of the day. It's so cool to look back and be able to place when it took place because of the fashion. (Which is partly why it bugs me when comics artist of *today* don't have a clue what real people wear.)

[jlroberson]

That's not such a problem unless you're trying for a realistic appearance. But as most do nowadays...

Then again, the whole reason for skintight suits is that there are more comics artists who can draw naked bodies(and at the pencil level, that's what they are dressed like that) than there are Chaykins who can also draw how clothes work and what they look like.

[mad]

Oh, I wasn't even thinking of the costumes, more the civilian clothing.

But yeah, if you're more skilled at drawing the naked body, skintight clothing on everyone all the time.

[jlroberson]

>>Oh, I wasn't even thinking of the costumes, more the civilian clothing

That's what I mean: that's why the costumes, for the most part. They're easier to draw than real clothes.

Although, as someone who's drawn smut, one thing I found when drawing actual naked bodies over and over was that I was longing for clothes so that I wouldn't have to try to get all the anatomy consistent to that degree from panel to panel.;)

Speaking of civilian clothing: Kirby and Ditko even had an influence on the Hernandez Brothers, and they said it was in those scenes where you see characters wearing ordinary clothing. They once cited in particular a scene where Stark first met Pietro & Wanda as having a big impact.