How Not to Arrest a Visually Impaired Person, and other Cringeworthy Comicbook Moments

[espanolbot]

More cringeworthy moments, both in and out of context for amusement and squick.

Trigger warning for sexism, racism, violence

From Penguin: Pride and Prejudice, where Oswald gets a girlfriend, who happens to be blind. Unfortunately, his being the Penguin means that when he's arrested following one of Batman's raids on his establishment she is too... and it seems to be handled in the worst possible manner.


Seriously, even if they don't know she's blind, isn't wrestling the ring off of someone's finger (while on camera, no less) while you're arresting them kind of... illegal?

Going back to the Golden Age with this one, with the third appearance of the Joker (apparently surviving accidentally stabbing himself last time), and Batman's plan for the comatose supervillain.

Oh 1940s, you so wacky. ^^ Seriously, lobotomies were far to common both in fiction and reality back then as a "cure all" for antisocial behaviour. Doc Savage used to frequently resort to brain surgery to turn criminals into productive members of society, for example.

A Flash cover that probably should come with a NSFW tag.


The first time something horribly traumatic happened to Lian Harper, namely: the time she was kidnapped (AND branded!) by a child sex ring in retaliation for the Outsiders interfering in their business,



Oh yeah, this said child sex ring also happened to be the one that, by complete coincidence, was run by a who apparently abducted and pimped out Grace Choi when she was small, until she developed her powers and launched a mass escape. Leaving aside the backwards logic of "Damn, a superteam is hounding us... we better kidnap one of their kids to sell into sexual slavery, that'll get them to stop bothering us!", how exactly could they possibly think that provoking the team that includes a previous victim who now is both super strong AND has a hair-trigger temper could possibly end well?

The infamous Tarantula/Nightwing sex scene. Where Tarantula guns down longtime Nightwing villain (and later taxidermied decoration in the Penguin's office once he moved to Bludhaven) after he finds out Dick's secret identity and threatens to murder his supporting cast. Dick feels bad about this, 'cause of the whole "No Killing!" deal, and Tarantula feels that this is the perfect time to jump his bones.






And apparently the above wasn't rape it was just "nonconsensual".

Hm, for all of Hush's money and aristocratic upbringing, you'd have thought that somewhere along the line he'd have picked up some class, wouldn't you?


No, seriously, he's really a deeply unpleasant person, even for a supervillain.




Don't worry, she gets her revenge on her own terms.

And finally, wait... what?!?

Comments

[deleonjh]

What kind of horrible dogshit is that last scan?

[espanolbot]

It's from Death in the Family, where Iran hired the Joker to be their ambassador to the UN, so he could gas everyone to death without legal repercussions or something.

[lascoden]

This may sound like an odd question, but: Why Iran? Why did the Joker pick Iran for his plot? And why did the writers pick Iran for their story?

Also: "Nonconsensual" sex? That still pisses me off.

[espanolbot]

It was the 1980s, around the time of various things involving Iran like,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra_Affair
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Embassy_siege

Etc. etc.

[golden_orange]

Bugger me, they actually used Iran?

I'd have thought they'd have least done a "no-really-kids-this-is-an-entirely-fictional-country-wink-wink" thing and called it Qiran or something.

[golden_orange]

Also, someone might need to tell Hush that his mother probably wasn't the first person to ever think of calling travelling entertainers and carnival folk 'carnies'.

[espanolbot]

His mum was a working class woman who Hush's dad happened to get pregnant, and then married to avoid any scandel. This caused her to have something of a complex regarding her social status, unleashing bile on everyone she considered to be unworthy of inhabiting her new social class. So she adored the Waynes, as they were a long established family, but she hated the Zataras because they're a) self made millionaires and b) not WASPs. She also threatened to disown her son when he became engaged to the daughter of an Irish American gangster, even though she wasn't involved in her father's dealings (at least at first, he later forced her into an arranged marriage to secure ties to other factions of the Gotham Mob).

[golden_orange]

As for that first scan, I get a definite 'cops acting tough to play up for the cameras' vibe. Hopefully still gonna get them into trouble, though.

[md84]

Why do I punish myself by looking at these posts?

Hush's total lack of class makes sense though. His parents apparently weren't the classiest people either, and whoever took over raising him was no Alfred Pennyworth. But wow, I actually felt ill reading Hush's inner monologue. His eventual fate in the comics -- financially ruined by Catwoman, later left fearing for his life when he becomes Ra's Al Ghul's pawn -- is well deserved. Hopefully we never see him again in the reboot.

The storyline with the child slavery ring almost put me off Outsiders forever. It was creepy, disturbing, and not particularly good storytelling. It was just a really out of place PSA.

The Death in the Family one...yeah, I get that they wanted to kill off Jason Todd, but demonizing the Iranian government? Really? I'm not saying that I approve of the administration of that time, but really? There's a reason most writers use fake countries when they want to use cartoonishly villainous governments.

The Nightwing/Tarantula scene...the writer did intend for that to be seen as creepy and wrong, right?

[mrstatham]

Personally, I think Hush should be around. As much as I disliked some elements of Dini's writing - his treatment of Poison Ivy early in his Detective Comics run is abominable - under his pen, Hush probably became the best 'Anti-Batman' wannabe there is; I loved how he was written up as a great, huge threat, and yet each time, he got taken down relatively easily. I thought that was an interesting approach, since Tommy was all mouth and no trousers, so to speak. So I think it would be good to have him around still.

[icon_uk]

As one writer (I think Brubaker but I'd need to check) said when finally reigning in the seemingly endless array of Al Quaeda references in Captain America "When Captain America writer wants to give him a terrorist organisation to fight, he doesn't HAVE to use al Quaeda, after all, that's what HYDRA is for."

[kamino_neko]

but demonizing the Iranian government? Really?

Why should comics have been the only medium not getting in on the fun?

[mrstatham]

I don't know, to some degree, Hush having a low opinion of people like Zatanna and Selina is hardly cringeworthy. The guy's not exactly meant to be playing with a full set of cards, he's hating on them by their association with Bruce, and that is the way some upper-class families would perceive thieves and people with a gypsy heritage.

Or, if you're referring to the bit with Selina getting stabbed, the circumstances in which that takes place is perfectly legit, too. Hardly as bad as Winnick's 'HEY GUYZ LETZ HAVE SOME ISHOOS!' treatment of child slavery rings.

[lascoden]

I've seen a lot of people criticize Winnick for throwing in "very special episode" type things into his stories. Which, from what work of his I've read, is not exactly...unwarranted. Was that the arc where they brought in some tv celebrity, or journalist, or something to help the team bust the ring?

[kamino_neko]

BTW, just FTR, the Zataras are of Italian and Homo Magi descent, not Gypsy. (IIRC, the only Romani of any note in the DCU are Gypsy and the Graysons (if they still are...who knows).) Hush's calling Zatanna a 'gypsy' is a display of ignorance on his part - either he doesn't know her actual heritage, or just doesn't care and is doubling up on the offensiveness by using 'gypsy' as a slur due to her travelling.

[espanolbot]

It's pretty much his sexism, racism and classism that I was going for in terms of cringe, which seems to be true considering some of the comments in response to it.

[lascoden]

Hush's speech brings up something I've always wondered: How unpleasant should villains be allowed to be when it comes to speech? Hush is obviously classist, and speaks like it. A character like the Red Skull is essentially an embodiment of racism, so you would imagine he would use all sorts of racial epitaphs and slurs. I doubt someone in real life would defend its use by saying "But the Red Skull said it, it must be alright", except for maybe actual Nazis. But, of course, all of that still doesn't make it Ok.
Anybody else: Opinions?

[mrstatham]

I think as long as it's established that the villain is definitely wrong in holding that opinion, and that they get theirs at the end of a story, and as long as the speech and choice of words is appropriate to the character, then it's fair game. If Captain America suddenly started spouting off anti-Semitic slurs, obviously that's totally fucked up. If it's a villain you expect to do it - and Hush is a good example because he's basically the opposite number to Bruce - who is rich but doesn't seem classist unless written badly - then sure, fine. If, however, Doctor Octopus suddenly started coming out with racist slurs, then it'd just be utterly bizarre and awful.

If these villains are meant to embody particular things, then I think it makes sense for them to have appropriate choices of words. In the case of Hush, as I say, it definitely makes sense. But again, they're meant to be villains. So them saying these things being wrong, I feel, is made as clear to the kids reading these comics as the fact that they're attacking Catwoman or trying to kill Captain America is wrong.

[md84]

It's in character for those kinds of villains to use ugly language to reflect their ugly thoughts and it's not necessarily bad writing. Still makes me cringe when I read it though. And if a writer uses that language often enough, it does create unfortunate implications.

Frankly I think it's better to be safe than sorry. But then, I prefer my villains to be over the top in their villainy, rather than see them doing things real criminals do all the time.

Speaking of Hush and Red Skull, I do like the irony of their prejudices. Hush is classist, but as the post mentioned he has no class at all. Red Skull is a racist, but he's hardly the "Aryan" ideal himself, what with the whole "Red skull" thing (a point brought up in the recent movie explaining why he was exiled to an isolated division).

[donnblake]

For the Penguin things, is that just corrupt Gotham cops taking the opportunity to steal some loot, or is supposed to be that the ring is stolen and they're taking it as evidence? The latter is what I got, although, yeah, still probably could have been handled better.

[darkknightjrk]

I would think the former--I mean, it's Gotham cops, of course they're going to be a little corrupt.

[icon_uk]

You picked a couple of top notch "Scenes that make Icon_UK grind his teeth" here.

The Joker as Iranian Ambassador to the UN is a definite example of "Things not to make light of". So much of "A Death in the Family" makes me want to tear pages apart, just in terms of plot logic... or absence of same, I could write reams on that. (I will sort of defend the way the Joker was shown as killing Jason Todd, because it's a sordid, grotesque act of violence. Essentially it's a grown madman murdering a child on panel, and that SHOULD always be shown as a sickening act without any redeeming humour or whimsy to it.

(My love of OTT deathtraps for heroes comes from their implicit built-in failure, and the assumption that none of them will ever work)

Likewise the Iranian situation at the time was a hotbed of political unrest, with America and Iran at each others throats. The Joker being a part of that cheapened the real life problems with the Iranian regime.

And the Nightwing Tarantula scene... I'm not even going to START on that, but rest assured my loathing for it is as complete as you can imagine.

[darkknightjrk]

"(My love of OTT deathtraps for heroes comes from their implicit built-in failure, and the assumption that none of them will ever work)"

I can see that--it's less of a "is the hero going to survive this torture?" but more "how's the hero going to get out of this?"

That being said, there are times where the regular torture works to counter-balance that. Casino Royale comes to mind. The Bond flicks were well known for having the movie equivilent of comic book OTT deathtraps, and when they decided to reboot the franchise and take it into a more different, semi-realistic place, what do they do with Bond? Strip him, tie him to a chair, and beat at his balls with knotted rope.

[kurenai-tenka.livejournal.com]

Hang on, they did WHAT with Lian? D=

[endis_ni]

Unexpected resurgence of this icon!

[lbd_nytetrayn]

So, why did Catwoman stop her attack on Hush? Was it the Jason Todd/Clayface thing?

[sinisterlink]

He'd done plastic surgery on his face to make himself look exactly like Bruce.

[endis_ni]

Oh dear gods. That rape scene with Nightwing and Tarantula was even worse than I remembered. He actually, properly says "don't touch me" and everything.

[cleome45]

Seriously, even if they don't know she's blind, isn't wrestling the ring off of someone's finger (while on camera, no less) while you're arresting them kind of... illegal?

I've been reading so much Occupy coverage (and following the local saga of the cop who wants to be reinstated to the force after admitting to shooting an unarmed Black man in the back). Seems like just another fun-filled day in the land of law 'n order to me. :/