Red Hood: Lost Days #6 (Spoilers!!!)

[benicio127]

AKA the final issue of this mini-series and the issue where I was like omgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomgomg

cuntfucius, levy and whitesycamore will be giddy about this.




Four pages.









Whoa! WHOA! WHOA!! Hotter than I expected. Ahem! He wakes up and she's gone. She leaves him with a note and another very important gift, which I was so, so, so glad to see in this.



Oh hey, look! Jason uses gmail. Mary Borsellino will be pleased to know about the dagger in this.
Here's her entry from evenrobins.net on Jason's dagger. Quoting from the entry:
Red Hood’s weapon of choice is a dagger with a waved blade. This edge design has been popular in numerous cultures throughout history, with a variety of connotations attached to the distinctive shape.

In simple, practical terms, a waved blade allows for a longer overall edge distance than would be present in a straight dagger of the same length. Waved blades in longer weapons, such as Flamberge swords, have the added advantage of causing the other weapon in a duel to vibrate, thereby making one’s opponent uncomfortable. This would not be true to any noticeable degree in a weapon such as Red Hood’s knife, however.

The origin of Red Hood’s knife within the Batman comics themselves is most likely the story “The Lazarus Pit!” from issue #243 in 1972. One of the original Ra’s Al Ghul stories by the O’Neil/Adams/Giordano team, this issue saw Batman forced to duel against a man who owed debts to both Ra’s and Batman. Both opponents weilded waved daggers.

As Judd Winick, the writer responsible for the entire Red Hood arc, utilised the Al Ghul family as a significant plot element, it seems likely that this classic storyline was one of the key inspirations behind Red Hood’s dagger.

Just as with the history of waved daggers in the real world, however, the element of pure aesthetic interest must be taken into account. Placing a waved dagger in a panel is more visually interesting and suggests a greater degree of ritual — whether the reader is aware of the legacy of the Keris blade or not — than a simple knife can.

Whatever the reasons may be, Red Hood’s dagger has developed iconography of its own, and now casts a shadow of specific meaning forward over any future appearances of such weapons in future Batman stories.


I'm so sad to see this mini-series end.

Comments

[whitesycamore]

Sorry, maybe I'm showing the snob in me, but I sure as hell wouldn't bother with someone that's on my payroll.

I think you rather are. Either that or making serious generalisations about the kind of men women should want, and for what reasons. And I think if she'd been treated as a princess all her life, with her body assumed to be a prize given only to the "best" man (by whose criteria? Her father's?) then it would make perfect sense for her to want to unwind with someone who has no stake in that game.

[pepperspray101]

Regardless of my personal preferences (which is besides the point and I'm not about to defend myself), as sistermagpie pointed out, the al Ghuls have shown elitist behavior in the past, with Damian's elitist atttitude being the most recent example. Perhaps that is why my impression of Talia being like that has been reinforced. Furthermore, as I mentioned to a mod, Talia has in the past appeared very PICKY about who she INTERACTS with, and now I'm supposed to believe she'd "scratch an itch" with some no-name minion. People have also mentioned Bane as being from another world, but in his case, his strength & skill set that rivaled Batman put him in the warrior status that interested her father.

But hey, even so, Talia didn't like him and goes to show that not even that is enough to impress her. I dunno man, I can only suspend my disbelief so far.

[daggerpen]

Didn't Talia sleep with the minion guy when her father had pretty much put her on house arrest, and he was her only real trusted contact?

[pepperspray101]

I dunno, what issue was that?

[daggerpen]

Second issue.

Am I remembering it wrong? I thought Ra's was pretty much watching her every move and just about had her on lockdown for a bit.

[benicio127]

No, you're not remembering it wrong at all.

[daggerpen]

I didn't think so. Thanks for the confirmation!

Yeah, so even if Talia weren't usually inclined to sleep with men in her employ- and I stress the "if"- I really can see her doing it in that situation, if the guy's one of the few ones she can trust and all.

[benicio127]

Honestly, I don't think it matters who she sleeps with as long as they are consenting adults.

[daggerpen]

I'll agree with the contingency that I do kind of care if she sleeps with Jason, just b/c I did see it as a mother/son kind of thing and, while I don't think it's OOC or incredibly squicky, it was still kind of a newsflash for me. But I'm arguing that, even if she weren't normally the type to have sex with someone she's attracted to because she damn well wants to- which I think she is, for the record- or if she were the type to eschew someone of "lower" status as a sex partner- again, don't agree- it's still a situation where she could well be interested in sleeping with her underling.

[pepperspray101]

Yeah, and that's the guy that I'm having to suspend my disbelief on.

[whitesycamore]

But what if she just finds that "no name minion" sexy? I'm picky about who I interact with too, but my criteria for who I want to *make friends with* and who I'd like to have casual sex with are VASTLY different (for a start, there are far fewer people I'd really like to befriend).

And I wouldn't think of criticising your personal preferences; I don't know what they are, and it's certainly wouldn't be my place to judge if I did.

[pepperspray101]

Thanks! I appreciate that.