Batman: The Deal

[cyberghostface]

This is a fan story that was posted online at Moonhead Press (I.E. not affiliated with DC) by Gerardo Preciado and Daniel Bayliss. It's gotten a bit of attention from various news sources. Here is an interview with the creators (don't read until you finish). I'm posting the whole thing given its free nature.

Warning, it's pretty gory.

Comments

[icon_uk]

Hmm, the art is VERY like Paul Pope, which isn't a bad thing, but technical skill to one side, I don't really see anything new in this that I haven't seen in a dozen fanfics, or had implied in multiple media, some in canon, and often more subtly expressed than this.

[randyripoff]

Yes. As Batman kept saying "Why?" I was doing the same.

[lego_joker]

Just for fun, here are a few thoughts I've come up with about the Batman/Joker relationship that I don't think anyone (professional or fan) has really explored...

... the Joker actually has a twisted therapeutic relationship on Bruce, in that he's a being of such pure malice that there's no chance of Bruce feeling bad about beating the crap out of him. Every time that Bruce begins to question whether morality isn't so black and white after all, begins to think about the fact that so many of the criminals he fights must have families or a life predating their criminal career, the Joker pops up to assure him that his crusade is justified... at least against certain opponents.

... the Joker, in a way, represents what Bruce in his darkest hours wishes he could be. The Joker has dedicated himself so fully to his own personal crusade (the spread of misery under a veil of laughter) that his mind and body have become a well-oiled machine, admitting absolutely no distractions. Bruce becomes tempted by Selina's or Ivy's charms? The Joker couldn't be attracted toward women (even Harley) if he tried. Bruce finds his Wayne Enterprises responsibilities weighing down on him? The Joker does not busy himself with such trivialities like "a civilian life".

... taken at face value, the Joker is actually the less ridiculous of the two, and he knows it. I mean, exactly one of these two men puts on pants when he goes outdoors at night, and it sure as hell ain't Bruce. From a meta perspective, it's even worse. "Homicidal clown" is a bit cliche these days, but it's still a valid choice for an antagonist even in most non-superhero works, and a lot easier to take seriously. Batman, on the other hand... I think that these days, the only way that Bruce can get away with a "Noun-man" superhero name (not to mention all the themed gadgetry) is because he was grandfathered into it.

[althechi]

This is really nitpicky, but if Batman's wearing his "Chemical Syndicate" costume, none of the other characters would exist in the forms they do in this comic.

- Batman had already switched to his more familiar look when he recruited Robin.
- Batman met Robin before the Joker, and hence wears the standardized costume when they first met. (The link is technically from the second Joker story, but it's in the same issue.)
- Alfred wasn't thin and moustached before the first Batman serial.
- The first time Commissioner Gordon was ever depicted as a young man was well into the Silver Age. (I almost was going to say "To Kill a Legend" but I remembered this other story.)

[icon_uk]

Robin being present for the debut of most of the major bad guys has long since been retconned. Between the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths, up until the New 52 Batman didn't get a Robin until about his third year as Batman, and by the end of that he'd had his first encounters with the Joker, Catwoman, the Riddler and the Penguin (and most likely Two-Face).

[althechi]

But then again, Batman never wore the purple gloves in the rebooted continuity, so that begs the question of what continuity this comic is meant to occur in or evoke. After all, Golden Age Batman would have had reservations with, but not major objections to, killing uncontrollable enemies or letting criminals die.

[michaelhealy]

Yeah, I think it's an intentional continuity anachronism. Not drawing on any particular part of Batman's past but the icons all jumbled together.

[icon_uk]

Seems likely....

[cypherfdp]

What?

[donnblake]

Huh.

That was sure a thing.

[doodleboy]

I did like the Bill Hicks ending...

[glprime]

...Yeah, literally no clue what this is supposed to be. It's a jumble. And throwing Bill Hicks' words on top as if that "fits" as if it "deepens the message." No.

[mrstatham]

Yawn. The art's very, very nice, frankly, but this doesn't do anything other than attempt to lampshade an aspect of the Joker/Batman relationship, and that's been done a thousand times before. I'm reminded of the final Joker/Batman scene in The Dark Knight, where the Joker explicitly spells out how their relationship will work in the future, and some people said that Nolan got it, that he understood it perfectly, but to me, it was just lampshading what we all already knew.. And yeah. This is just yawnworthy and, as pointed out, has been done a thousand times over. It's not a take on the characters I subscribe to, but then I generally loathe the notion that Batman is as damaged as his enemies...

But again, the art's very pretty.

[sadoeuphemist]

This is the opposite of TDK though. In TDK, the Joker was all, "we're destined to do this forever." Here, it's "hey, let's not do this anymore."

[mrstatham]

Yeah, but it's still lampshading an argument that is oft-made for the characters. Namely that the Joker keeps doing what he's doing because Batman encourages it, which.. I'm just not fond of that idea.

[sadoeuphemist]

Well the point of the comic is that neither Batman or the Joker are real people, and all of the suffering and pain that Joker has inflicted are an illusion. And if that's the case, why hate and fear each other? Let's just love each other instead.

[sadoeuphemist]

I like this a lot. It looks like it's going to be unbearably serious and dark and po-faced at first, and then they both bliss out of their roles and we're treated to a Bill Hicks monologue about choosing love over fear and and ending war and helping the poor, set to a background of two comicbook characters in a double murder-suicide pact. It's delightfully absurd.

[nate_abril96]

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!

I'm sorry I'm done laughing now. It's just that I find it hard to take this seriously after seeing Bruce's face in the third panel on the second page. He looks like a Simpsons character burping. Rest of the art is really good though.

[icon_uk]

He looks like a Simpsons character burping

Cannot unsee...

[sadoeuphemist]

Speaking of the Simpsons, imagine this redone as an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon, oh my god. The one duo more absurd than Batman and the Joker.

[icon_uk]

I think I'd have enjoyed that more!

[nate_abril96]

Oh my God, that would be perfect. Someone make this happen NOW!

[chrisdv]

Dear God, YES!

You could use Poochy in Alfred's place, and the after the current ending, cut to Krusty, cigarette in mouth with a WTF expression on his face!

[kurenai_tenka]

...well I really liked it. ^^; It's not a new concept, but I thought the execution was pretty good. Rather surreal.

[damar148]

I think Joker wants to die, but wants it to be Batman, and Batman won't, so Joker will just push him until he does.

I thought 'the deal' was going to be Alfred willingly sacrificing himself to Joker in order to motive Batman to finally kill Joker.

[icon_uk]

"Jokers Favour" in BTAS more or less proved that, and much better I think, when the Joker's pet project realises that he CAN hurt the Joker, by denying him the thing he knows he wants most. (If the link doesn't take you to the right moment, the important scene starts at 2:30)

[lego_joker]

It's a nice moment, but I still dislike the deus ex machina of Joker randomly having a fake bomb lying around, AND the fact that Charlie somehow knew it was fake. A bit of foreshadowing would've been nice...

[icon_uk]

I don't think the Joker had a fake bomb, I think Charlie gimmicked it to be a fake bomb (There'd be enough pieces lying around). Charlie's evil grin suggests that he knew he had just out-bluffed the Joker.

[damar148]

There was also his 'deaths' in Phantom and World's Finest, where he ends up laughing because he thinks he succeeded.

[silverhammerman]

The art's nice. I mean, the writing is rubbish, but the art's nice.

[captainbellman]

Well, some college kid thought he was being really *profound*, huh.