the formatting of this post went screwy somehow

[3goodtimes]

I apologize in advance for making this rather personal. Feel free to skip my emotional commentary and go straight to the scans.

Before last year, I was never attracted to superhero comics. I was living in quirksville with Clowes, Crumb, Gloeckner, Pekar, and others with some Gaiman and manga smooshed in between. What really pulled me into DC was, ironically, a series that most regard as some of their worst work—Identity Crisis. Specifically, the plotline that dealt with Tim Drake losing his father. Because I was grieving the loss of my own dad at the time (and still am to some degree), Meltzer and Morales’s depiction of mourning hit close to home. Though I’m now aware of how much continuity had been twisted in that title (and even at the time I was aware of the disrespectful use of rape as a plot device), I still love portions of it if only for the truth of the emotion. After I finished that title, I kept reading. I suspect DC nabbed me when I found a treasure trove of father-child relationships to enjoy—Oliver and his brood, Bruce and his family, Clark and his father (not to mention Christopher, however abortive that relationship turned out to be), Roy and Lian, Jim and Babs, Ted Grant and heroes he trained, etc, etc…

It’s been cathartic for me to experience Tim’s (and other character's) grief along with my own, even if real life loss is rarely as planet-shaking as it is in these pages. And it's been wonderful to read about father-child moments now that my opportunity to create new memories with my dad has been taken away for good. I like to rant about the stupid ideas that DC pulls out of its butt on a regular basis, but I stick around because I truly feel that some authors have contributed to my life in a positive way. I’m grateful for that.

So I’m putting up some Tim and Jack Drake pre and post death moments today in memory of my dad on the anniversary of his passing. Hope you get something out of them.

A nice moment in Robin #131:





Jack himself has been more of a plot device than a real character. He’s inconsistently written. Is he the sweet, concerned dad? The neglectful father? The downright violent, crazy guy? Hard to say. But the Jack in the scans above is probably one of the more likable versions.

Then of course, we have the events of Identity Crisis #5. The links for this scene, if they have been posted (it’s hard for me to tell the exact pages), appear to be broken. I hope you don’t mind me putting them up again.





The utter denial is probably familiar to some here who’ve experienced being with a dying person. It’s certainly familiar to me.






God, the transition from shock, to terror, to horrifying realization is so vividly painful. Rags Morales is excellent with facial expression. Some people find the dialogue over-dramatic, but I don't mind it.

Identity Crisis #6:

Makes me cry every time. My only complaint is that the last page turns Bruce into a symbolic monster of sorts, which perplexes me. The image is almost a copy of one drawn in Tim’s early days, when Bruce ‘comforts’ him during his father’s illness. Batman, at his best, is a symbol of justice and hope for those who suffer loss. I much prefer that imagining of him to this ‘his death curse will eat you alive’ interpretation.

Of course this scene, from Identity Crisis #7, just makes me cry more!



Answer the phone and accept your Dick hugs, Timothy!

After that, I need some Teen Titans cuddles. Issue #20:

Oh yes Tim, let’s model our grief after a man who had to cope with death by dressing up as a giant bat. That
seems healthy.

The demon-saint thing is a bit heavy handed.





Ooooh. *cues the music*

Hey, it's an enraged, grief!beating. It's like you're a grownup superhero already, Tim, you little over-achiever.



Finally some decent, physical comfort! Thank you Cassie. Just try not to go too far next time and make out with each other or something.

Comments

[parusmajor]

Batman's "not again" is supposed to be gut-wrenching callback to certain origin stories but instead, it makes me groan like "dammit, comics, do you have to keep killing off all the non-superpowered characters?". For once, I'd like to see a superhero's parents/friends/family to live a long happy life and die from a natural, non-violent cause. That "not again" line just made me think of the constant senseless killings and sounded too much like a black humor punchline; it reminded me of stuff in this TV Tropes page (I couldn't help but read the line in John Hurt's voice in Spaceballs).

Other than that, these pages were beautiful because of the very human emotions they portrayed. Tim's expressions are heartbreaking :( I love the last moment with his teammates trying to console Tim and asking him if he wants to talk about it. When you've experienced something bad that really hurts and pains you, the best course of option is to simply talk about it with people who care about you. But sometimes the thing hurts so much that you don't want to talk about it; you try to hide it from everyone, keep the pain inside you, and pretend everything is okay (as Tim tried to do here).

It's even worse with Batman's influence over his bat-clan; Bruce just isn't a really good rolemodel :/ On the one hand his childhood ended when his parents died, but on the other hand he never truly grew up. He was never able to cope with his parents' death and never got over it. He dedicated his whole life and ambitions to the death of his parents, and sometimes I wonder; would Martha and Thomas feel proud of Bruce, or would they feel sad that their son never got to just be happy and live his own life? Anyway, it's a really bad thing that Tim's initial reaction was to mimic Bruce's coping mechanisms; I'm happy he realized in the end that he's got to stop thinking like Batman. That scene with his friends comforting him is made of bittersweet awwwww<3

I'm not all too bothered about the "symbolic monster" look on Batman though. There are lots of panels where he's comforting a scared kid while looking creepy as usual. It creates an interesting visual contrast, and Batman works okay for me in these kinds of panels. What bothers me is the huge pool of blood (again, I dislike killing off minor characters graphically for shock value) and Tim almost sitting on top of his father. It somehow feels wrong; as if Tim's not worrying that he might be stepping on his dad or squashing him with his feet. I'm extremely squeamish about any kinds of actions that might be considered disrespectful towards a deceased person. Dead people are gone and they probably won't mind, but the idea of mistreating their bodies still terrifies me.

Thanks for posting this and sharing your thoughts on the pages, and thanks for opening up about a very personal issue <3 I love it when people here take the time to analyze comics and provide their own unique viewpoints for thought fodder.

[3goodtimes]

Yeah, that issue of the Titans really made me love them as a team. All of them coming together to comfort Tim! Wonderful.

Re: sitting on Jack. I'm not sure the fact of his father's death had sunk in for Tim yet. It takes time to make the transition in your head between 'this person is alive' and 'this person is a corpse.' Tim, despite Bruce's commentary, was half-way in save mode when he found Jack. And of course, everyone's different in terms of how they feel about that kind of thing. I'm almost opposite of you in that a dead body is painfully meaningless to me. It ceases to matter without life, which is part of why I hate going to wakes and seeing bodies all waxy and dressed up.

Generally, I don't mind the contrast of creepy and comforting Bruce, but when it comes to his Robins, I like for the man to emerge from the Bat a bit more. I admit that's utterly biased, and probably would have taken away from the message of this particular story though.

Thank you. I'm glad this post worked out okay. <3