Batman: The Brave and the Bold #21

[generator_rex]

So yeah, more Batman being awesome.

Comments

[stig]

'...Mostly becasuse the concept of de-evolution is utterly ludicrous even for super-science. Why the JLI let Booster catalogue the JLA's stock of super-weapons, I've no idea. They know he just makes up his own.'

Seriously, a term that stupid in a kid's comic?

[icon_uk]

Seriously, THAT'S your complaint? A ridiculous sci-fi term actually being used in a comic? Really?

If it's a good/bad enough plot point for a Star Trek episode...

[comicoz]

Don't forget Super Mario Brothers: The Movie!

[stig]

I dunno, I just don't like such generally stupid terms being used anywhere, least of all a kid's comic, especially when people's knowledge of the basics of Evolution, especially in America, isn't as high as it could be.

And if this is puzzling anything: 'De-evolution' is an oxymoron. It doesn't happen. Evolution doesn't have a singular direction because it doesn't have a specific purpose, in the same way that gravity doesn't have one either. You can't 'de-evolve'. You can just keep evolving. Even if there was a magical ray that could reduce you to a less complex form of life, not only would this not be 'de-evolution', it wouldn't even be evolution; it would be artificial selection, or changes brought about by individual interference.

[landrywalker]

stig: "It doesn't happen."

I hate to break this to you, but nothing in this book is even remotely possible. And no matter what we called it, having three guys get dinosaur heads would still be absurd and impossible. As you say "It doesn't happen."

I'm reminded of my experience at the theater watching James and the Giant Peach (SPOILERS FOLLOW).....



The movie, about a giant flying peach filled with singing bugs and a kid being hunted by a mechanical rhino and fighting skeleton pirates, ends with the amazingly huge flying peach stuck on top of the Empire State building. The crowd below reacts, in particularly one man on the street, who says something along the lines of: "We're gonna need the biggest crane in New York City!".

The next scene there's a crane, much larger than the Empire State building, hauling the giant peach off the building. Bear in mind, that, this insanely massive peach IS filled with giant well dressed friendly insects and has been hunted by a mechanical rhino and, once again, also skeleton pirates.

It was at that moment when a man in the audience loudly responded to the on screen crane as it hauls the impossibly giant peach off the building:

"There's no crane that big!"

Yeah. We know.

[stig]

...Yersss, but at the same time there's a difference between writing about something which is impossible and fun, and writing something which is impossible but in a way that might make kids think it is possible. I mean, it could easily be replaced with 'Mutation Ray' or 'Prehistoric Ray' - why go for the term which is born of ignorance?

[landrywalker]

And it's technically possible that some kids will walk away from a comic believing that a spider can give them powers, that radiation will make them powerful and a cape can make them fly. However, most kids understand that fiction is a place where absurd and impossible things happen.

Do you really think this scenario specifically is remotely confusing to children? Let's just keep context in mind here. In this 3 page story...

1: ...A ray beam designed to devolve things accidentally gives three guys the heads of dinosaurs...

2: ...So they become gangsters...

3: ...And fight a guy dressed as a bat...

4: ...And are ambushed by girls in jet packs with rocket launchers.

I think kids are smart enough to understand that this is entirely fiction.

[justinslot]

Where is that quote from? I mean evolution is generally one of those concepts that superhero comics get wrong, so I'm curious if that's a comics writer tacitly acknowledging that fact.