Batman Inc. 7 - Well that confirms what was ambiguous in the last issue

[espanolbot]

Sort of spoilers.

I'm sad now. :( For both Knight AND Squire.



I don't know, first the Joker kills her boyfriend to make a point about the differences between UK and US supervillainy, and then her new friend Stephanie Brown evaporated like the morning mist. Boo!

Comments

[his_spiffynesss]

Yeah, Beryl has been getting the short end of the stick for quite a while.

[espanolbot]

I'm just counting down until someone calls her weak for getting upset about it or letting it happen.

Despite, you know, recovering from Knight just restarting her heart after she was technically dead when Heretic got the drop on them.

Because, as some of the Korra fandom have taught me, grief, depression and fear in female fiction characters are "signs of weakness". Blargh.

[shadowpsykie]

Because, as some of the Korra fandom have taught me, grief, depression and fear in female fiction characters are "signs of weakness". Blargh.

hey now! not all Korra fans are like that. hell, being emotional is not weakness, Michael Landon cried in many an episode of Little House on the Praire and i defy anyone to call Pa Ingles WEAK!

[espanolbot]

I'm part of the fandom, that's why I said "Some".

[shadowpsykie]

oh i know didn't mean to suggest that about you. :D i have read your reviews on the show (and incidently can't wait for it to start up again:)

[greenmask]

Michael Landon cried in many an episode of Little House on the Praire and i defy anyone to call Pa Ingles WEAK!


That is a delightful way of framing this fine argument.

[shadowpsykie]

those were some of my favorite episodes, because it showed that this man, working in a saw mill, who could best many people in a fight, out and out breaks down and cries and feels no shame for it. His baby dies in childbirth, his daughter goes blind, his adoptive son asks if he can call him "Pa". he was never afriad to cry infront of his family and friends, and no one would DARE not call him a "Man".

also there were MANY women in that show who defied Stereo types. Laura Ingles was an out and out Tom boy and (despite initial swooning) would NOT suffer Alonso "Manly" Wilder's (rare) chauvanism. Hell, Mama Ingles was willing to cut off her fucking LEG to stave off an infection. When these women cried it had NOTHING to do with weakness.

Hell, Johnathan (his best friend) the manly grizzled mountain man even cried from time to time.

crying does not make a man less of a man, or a strong woman weak. if anything, it makes them stronger.

wow.... i didn't mean to... well that wasn't really a rant... preach? anyways, didn't mean to write so much but apparently i feel passionate about this show/subject.

[his_spiffynesss]

Worse yet, what's likely to happen to Beryl as a solo character.

They are likely to turn her all dark and broody if she takes the mantle of the Knight. That's assuming she's given any screen time in the future at all.

[mrstatham]

Given Morrison's guided the course of these two characters since Cyril's reintroduction, I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't stay a solo character for long. Morrison could easily write her as taking on one of the freed Leviathan kids when Talia's plot inevitably falls apart.

[darkknightjrk]

Agreed--it can be argued that they probably tried to put too big of a story/character growth in the character when they didn't think they'd have enough episodes to do it, but that's an issue of pacing, not of character.

[darkknightjrk]

What makes this even more heartbreaking to me is that she's saying this to Dick. It reminded me of the Blackest Knight arc of B&R, when Dick is explaining why he's trying to revive Bruce with the Lazarus Pit, he says: "And me and Batman, we had an arrangement..."



Now that I think about it, I wonder if that Lazarus Pit will come back into play?

[silverhammerman]

Heartbreak aside, this issue really underwhelmed me. I think I'll enjoy this series a lot more if/when I reread it all in one go, but reading it in singles I find myself rolling why eyes at the story a whole lot. I'm just incredibly uninterested in Leviathan and Talia and Bruce's bizarre large scale lover's spat.

[jlbarnett]

Hope she becomes the Knight

[superfangirl1]

Ditto. I very much hope so also.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

That's Gordon, right?

I thought he retired.

[pallas_athena]

A rule of the Batman drinking game: Gordon retires/quits/is fired, take a shot.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Things like this make me glad I don't drink.

[mrstatham]

Nope. Guy got given the Commissioner's position again as of OYL, post-Infinite Crisis. Because, you know, god forbid that the books actually try to move forward every now and then.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I was going to add a bunch of laughter with the word "change" thrown in there somewhere, but I was worried that might be too cynical.

Which is all the more ironic, given New 52 and all that jazz. I don't even know any more.

[beyondthefringe]

You quoted Assassins.

That is awesome.

The death of the Knight makes me sad.

[thespis]

Wait, what

WHAT

Dammit, no! Cyril was fantastic! And he and Beryl were such a great pair! And they had brilliantly silly adventures with evil Morris dancers and Twitter wars with zombie Richard III and everything was joyous and nothing was grimdark (well, except for the bit where the Joker went on a killing rampage, that pretty much sucked for everyone) and, and... ;_;

[mrstatham]

The Joker's popping up in K+S at least served a purpose, though, one that was absolutely lampshaded by the Joker declaring that one character was going to have a 'gritty, realistic death'. That basically reeked of Cornell hitting the Fourth Wall button, pointing at the Joker and saying 'this is why the character's so dull'.

[espanolbot]

I took it to be a reference to the difference between UK and US comics personally, with the majority of UK-based comics (excluding 2000AD, natch) tend to be more on the lighter, jokier side compared to most US-based comics, and how the latter could be having a toll on the former when one considers darker and grittier to automatically be BETTER.

Kind of ironic, as most of the independant UK-based comics have folded since then, with even the Dandy getting folded into the Beano (itself more of a magazine rather than a comic these days) and everything.

[thespis]

Oh, I wasn't necessarily making a criticism of that story; it was just a throwaway remark. I loved the whole Knight and Squire mini. Cornell's commentary on grim-and-gritty versus fun - and, as you said, on the character of the Joker - was fairly blatant there, though, yeah.

Mostly my point was... I really hate that they killed Cyril. Because he was a great character and I loved him and Beryl as a duo, and all their madcap adventures, and... ugh. Poor Cyril. :(

[mrstatham]

It really does sting, yeah. I liked Cyril too - Morrison made him and Beryl such a great pair, and I would have loved another miniseries from Cornell at some point.

It just reeks of Morrison trying to enforce some kind of loss on us, really, through one of the only characters DC could possibly consider expendable, at the moment.