MY PARENTS ARE DEEEAAAD!!! (But that's ok!)

[omgwtflolbbqbye]

espanolbot 's post about Martha Wayne's underrepresentation in Batman stories inspired me to post pages from Greg Rucka's and Klaus Jansen's 2003 miniseries Batman: Death and the Maidens.



Rucka's run on the regular Batman titles culminated with Batman realizing that he's still Bruce Wayne at his core, and that he should be nicer to his family for the x time.

When Rucka came back to write "Death and the Maidens" he simultaneously reinforced his previous points while attempting to plug one of Bruce's other persistent wells of angst and drama: the perpetual mourning over his parent's death.

And in doing so, he gave Martha one her most extensive roles in a Batman story that I can think of.
















Batman's tail turns out to be Ubu, who explains that Ra's Al Ghul, wants to meet him at the Batcave.

Ra's estranged daughter, Nyssa, has been waging war on her father by destroying as many Lazarus Pits as she can find, leaving him without the means to rejuvenate himself for longer than normal, and certainly longer than he can bear.

Upon seeing him it's apparent that father time is collecting on the years owed by Ra's, plus interest.

Since Bruce also has information on the remaining pits, Ra's offers him something for that information: "Your Parents."

.

While Bruce believes that Ra's claims are sincere, he still runs tests to check if it's the real deal, but they come up inconclusive. After some hesitation, he gives in to temptation and drinks the elixir which instantly knocks him out. Either to dream, or elsewhere...












































Thomas: I asked you a question, son.

Bruce: ...I...I don't understand. I don't know what to say.

Thomas: This from my son who was never at a loss for words? Odd what can change in a quarter of a century. My precocious boy who always had a question on his lips, the voracious reader, the endless inquisitor, the one who talked so much I brager to my colleagues that you'd be president one day... finds himself speechless. (To Martha) You were right. I don't recognize him... I don't recognize him at all.






















Bruce tells Alfred about what he saw the next day.






Bruce goes out as Batman to investigate what Nyssa is doing, stuff happens, long story short: Nyssa kills Ra's, brainwashes Talia into becoming her personal henchwoman, and assumes leadership of the League of Shadows. Batman confronts Nyssa at her new digs to find out what happened to Talia, as well as plead for her to quit while she's ahead, since she already got her revenge for all the atrocities Ra's committed against her and her own family (all part of Ra's Xanatos Gambit this whole time, as he also found out).



Nyssa shows off Talia's new brainwashed personality and attire, and they both ask Batman to leave them to scheme against him and the world.



 

Comments

[mrstatham]

I do like that Rucka pretty much takes a swing at the 'my parents are dead' variant of Batman by making the pearls - so often grossly fetishised and made a ridiculously prominent visual element in the Wayne murders - fakes. It does a good job of putting across that it's maybe not so much the Waynes dying that matters, that someone died AT ALL. By making the murder of his parents so profoundly personal to the point it's all about him, I think it kind of misses the point and almost suggests Batman should've just stopped at Joe Chill. In the best incarnations of the character, it should just be about making sure that no-one else goes through the pain he has; Which is still personal, but not self-obsessive to a horrible degree. And I think that's what Rucka's getting at here; It might not be emotionally about his parents any more, but clearly it's important for Bruce to have them in mind constantly as a reminder.

I just wish more people took a page from Rucka's book, given right after the resolution of the Brubaker/Rucka run (Yes, I know he was a complete dick during the run, but the resolution had a point) he went back to Batdick, and this was done pretty much in the midst of yet more Batdickery.

[lego_joker]

Bringing in Jeph Loeb right after the Rucka/Brubaker era was probably a bad idea, in that regard...