The Thing that Made Golden Age Batman Awesome

[aeka]

From Brave and the Bold #197, I present you...

The Autobiography of Bruce Wayne!

9 pages out of 24:



...and became my wife.

Bruce then reminisces over the event that made him realise what he wanted most in life. It all began with attending the wedding of ex-girlfriend Linda Page, who eventually tells him "I don't know what secret pain you're hiding, Bruce. But whatever it is, I do hope you make peace with it."

The wedding however doesn't go as smoothly with Scarecrow crashing with fear toxin. Among those who get gassed is Batman himself, who realises what his biggest fear is.





Feeling that all the important people in his life have disappeared on him, he turns to the one person left who could help him track down the Scarecrow. An old foe!



Once recruited, Batman and Catwoman track down the Scarecrow at Gotham University, where they unsurprisingly fall into a trap. Needless to say they don't find the Scarecrow, but they both exchange their epiphanies.

Bruce goes first.



Sometime during their pursuit of the Scarecrow, Catwoman lets slip that she hadn't forgotten her past as Catwoman and that the whole amnesia/flight attendant story she initially fed Batman was all bull. So she finally comes out with the truth behind the origin of the Catwoman identity.





Then finally the big reveal!





Dawwww! He wants to be remembered as a good man who led a good life. Now if only main DCU Bruce could be more like his Earth-Two counterpart...

There's hope for main DCU Bruce yet!



Superman: Oh yeah...you married Catwoman and fathered Helena Wayne. We called her the Huntress.

Batman: the Huntress? (You mean that Italian mafia princess was my daughter?) *heart attack*

Oh come on. you know he thought it.

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

those last two panels.... his eyes and the look on his face in the final one... he desperately wants this to be true...

[icon_uk]

Loved that story... And the bit about the scar tissue on his back managed to convey the cost of his mission so well without us having to see anything. I quite like the Alex Ross image which uses the same concept, but this is so much more subtle and effective.

Though I did wonder what Robin and Batwoman were doing for the rest of the story. Did they try punching Batman perhaps? Just to see if he'd register THAT (and possibly working off any pent up aggression they might have).

[icon_uk]

I hate to say it though, but 9 pages out of 24 is one over the 1/3 limit.

[aaron_bourque]

And the bit about the scar tissue on his back managed to convey the cost of his mission so well without us having to see anything.

But then Jim Lee of Jeph Loeb fucked with it by showing us.

::sigh::

Whatever happened to leaving things to the imagination? Whatever happened to letting things stay as they were, not needing to be reinvented for a modern audience?

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque; where have all the cowboys gone, and where's my happy ending?

[icon_uk]

Alex Ross had already shown it to us years before that

They did the same with Nightwing, but then sort of undid it by showing him casually swimming with a nice scar-less back.

[aeka]

"Though I did wonder what Robin and Batwoman were doing for the rest of the story. "

Considering Scarecrow crashed the wedding by gassing everyone with fear toxin, it's probably safe to assume they stayed behind to try and keep things under control. They probably also figured Batman would still be able to take care of himself despite being under the influence of the toxin.

"I hate to say it though, but 9 pages out of 24 is one over the 1/3 limit."

It was admittedly difficult deciding on the pages to post for this one, though I do normally keep it below or at the limit.

[detective_deathman08]

I just wish Earth 2 superman had as good a send off, vaporized in blackest night after being beaten by superboyy-prime is no way for the champion of the oppressed to go out.

[biod]

"The world needs Superman and Batman together"
When your bromance is so powerful that it keeps the world spinning, you're doing things right.

[nezchan]

So that's why they're breaking up Lois & Clark.

When one door closes, another one opens...

[abriel]

That is definitely a better origin for Cats than the Frank MIllar prostitute one. *sigh* What could have been....

[icon_uk]

Not so much "What could have been" as "Was"

[xammax]

Really? Amnesia? I know you guys hate the old Miller backstory, but come on. That was cliche when they wrote it in the 1970s. By cliche I mean hack material for Days of Our Lives

[aeka]

I didn't find the amnesia backstory any more appealing myself, but I was referring to the "I became Catwoman to empower myself over my abusive ex-husband" backstory as being better than the Frank Miller version.

I still think it is.

[chipsnopotatoes]

It is.

[icon_uk]

The amnesia story goes back to Batman 62 in 1950.

[thehefner]

This story is a masterpiece, but Selina's post-Crisis origin is the stronger one thanks to what subsequent writers did to build upon Miller's origin. Compared to what Selina became thanks to everyone from Miller to Moench to Carlton to Brubaker, she was a far more interesting and complex character than "Amnesiac airline stewardess with a Batman crush."

[chipsnopotatoes]

What amnesia? This story did say she just pretended she had one.

I disagree that the prostitute origin is the stronger one. It just seems to be the one being promoted by DC Editorial for god knows what reason, so they've explored it ad nauseum.


And you're the first person I've read thanking Bronwyn Carlton for writing Catwoman.

[thehefner]

May I request that this include a tag for the author, Alan Brennert? He literally only wrote nine comics for DC over a couple decades, but each and every one is a little masterpiece (this one being among the very best).

He doesn't get any recognition, which is a damn shame. If there were any justice, they'd do a collection for him just like they did a complete DC stories for Alan Moore TPB.

[don1138]

Brennert was great. The scars-on-Batman's-back thing was a revelation to me at the time. We'd seen Bruce shirtless from front and back many times before, but once Catwoman commented on it, I realized the utter obviousness of what Batman's back would really look like. Along with another of his Earth-2 BATB stories (the one with Hugo Strange: "Sometimes the closest thing you have to a friend is an enemy that knows you well.") also blew my mind at the time.

For me, the "vibe" of these two stories close out the DC bronze age (Crisis was the tombstone) and begin the era of "how would super-heros work in the real world?". Moore may be the poster boy for the movement, but I'm thinking Brennert may have sparked it (again, post-Bronze Age).

[blackruzsa]

Awwwwwwwwwwwww
I was all for Bruce/Selina this whole post but then the last panel made me err.

[an_idol_mind]

This is one of my favorite Batman stories of all time. My other favorite Batman story happens to be another Golden Age story where he confronts Joe Chill. It's a bit odd to me that my favorite Batman stories were written about 40 years before I was even born.

[icon_uk]

This story comes from 1983, so unless you're a time traveller born after 2023 I don't think that's quite right.

[an_idol_mind]

Well then...let me hop into my time machine...

[chipsnopotatoes]

This is a great story indeed. Best batcat ever.

[aeka]

I felt that Pre-Crisis BatCat stories were some of the best I've read in DC's publishing history. :)

They even gave us Helena Wayne, the original Huntress, until they decided to retcon her in and out of continuity, the wankers. :(

[myhovercraftisfullofeels]

Can we just bring back badass!Selina and BatCat back with the nU? Can we just get that one little thing? Pretty please?

[rickperry]

I HATE that dress Catwoman costume. Tho i do like this art. Batwoman Kathy Kane <3!! I never understood her costume, yellow pandex with... black shading?