Batman and the Justice League

[superfangirl1]

Batman #35


Bruce Wayne has a new bat bunker in Gotham City and having a conversation with Alfred and Julia. Until he gets attack by Wonder Woman.













Batman #36




Batman got dead red sun particles bass knuckles on his right hand courtesy of Ray Palmer





Jokerized Superman proceed to tear apart Batman battle armor and fly him into the sky above Gotham pier.

Comments

[filthysize]

Let me get this straight... Bruce spent over half of the world's military budget on something that allows him to beat his friend in a fight?

I don't even know what to say to that.

He's more like a Frenemy.

[7dialsmystery]

Technically Bruce (and Luthor) spend f--k tonnes of money on weapons that can kill a Kryptonian. That's not really a bad idea considering how often Clark gets mind controlled or some Big-Bad jail breaks the Phantom Zone.

[big_daddy_d]

Would you ever expect any different?

[grumman]

No, not over half the world's military budget, over the respective budgets of over half the world's countries. As in, he spent more money on this suit than Cyprus spends on their military in a year. That sort of money only gets you three or four F-22s, which seems a fair price for a suit that can stand toe to toe with Superman.

[espanolbot]

Well considering Superman and the rest of the Justice League are possessed or mindcontrolled on a pretty frequent basis, it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it, right?

[obsidianwolf]

Of all the ridiculess. Good grief I knew this was going to be stupid and I was right.

Why do writers keep doing these ridiculess fantasy power trips where Batman gets to beat up a mind controlled league. Since if the league was actually going for lethal with no concern at all he'd be dead a dozen times over before he got to say Alfred get the thing I embezzled billions from my company to build out.

[nyadnar17]

Because if Batman can't beat one of his teammates with one-side prep time there is no point in having him on the team. Do I wish the writer's solutions were more elegant than "Bruce Wayne throws money at them"? Yes, yes I do. But I think the urge to write this type of story is more than an ego trip.

[lucean]

I actually really liked the takedown methods, as they were somewhat imaginative and go far beyond John's "Batman has a single briefcase for each member". I somewhat especially liked the Wonder Woman takedown.

I also truly loved the comment about who would win in a fight between Superman and Batman.

[silicondream]

I liked the way he took out Barry, not because it's terribly plausible or anything*, but simply because Batman realized that the entire thing had to be completely automated--he wouldn't have time to take a single action himself. That's rarely acknowledged in fights between speedsters and non-speedsters.

*Oh no, the Flash encounters a slippery surface! That has never happened before and he has no countermeasures whatsoever.

[jaybee3]

I really dislike these kinds of stories especially since the last 20 years or so have been full of them. I'm a bit disappointed by Snyder. Uber-Bat vs The League. Guess who wins...Yawn.

It would be nice to be different. How about an acknowledgement by the JLA that Bruce Wayne could take them out if he wanted and had several contingency plans (I remember pre-reboot there was mentions of this) so a full-on attack wouldn't work. Or have Batman beaten. Beaten clean. And have him figure someway out of it.

Also, if Julia Pennyworth a thing? I mean, do readers really like her. Was there a point bringing her back that couldn't have been filled by an established character or I don't know...Cassandra Cain?

[obsidianwolf]

I have always hated the Batman could take the members of the league out. It has always been silly. His role in such a scenerio should be strategist like if Superman goes bad then contact super powered heroes A. B. C and D as together they stand a good chance of stopping him. It shouldn't be oh I have a suit of armor and kryptonite weapons that will let me slug it out with him alone even though he could heat vision me from space or crash a asteriod into Gotham wiping it off the map and me with it no matter what fancy weapons I have.

It always leads to other heroes being written as nothing but brutes who want to go slug it out with him instead of being the smart capable people they are who could see through these silly plans writers come up with constantly. Not to mention it leads to things like the Joker having to be upgraded into this super terror to even explain why Batman hasn't managed to contain him once and for all if he could beat the league.

[icon_uk]

So Batman spends more money than God earns to develop a suit of armour powerful to take down a rogue/mind-controlled Superman but forgets that a rogue/mind controlled Superman might not play nice?

Pulling out the "Myth you've ever heard of because we just made it up" bullshit to take down Wonder Woman is just scrabbling for a plot device IMHO.

And isn't Hal immune to the yellow weakness thing nowadays?

[jlbarnett]

it takes extreme concentration to do it.

[shingi70]

Heh, its funny how most long time comic book readers hate this stuff when the general audience loves hero vs hero.

[tianyulong]

God this is just so stupid. Thank god the story line has become higher quality once the Justice League was out of the picture

[starwolf_oakley]

Bruce probably has two difference contingency plans: One for when the JLA are mind-controlled (or mind-swap with villains) and one when the JLA are doing something Batman doesn't like.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, but does pouting in a corner of the JLA satelite REALLY count as a contingency plan? ;)

[captainbellman]

I swear Capullo just mirror-reversed that Gal Gadot pic and did a quick sketch. Probably as a cheeky reference rather than a trace, but it's still jarring.

[servant_iskandar]

IMHO, I don't see that.
For one, different tilt of the head, different expression... different costume design as well, since we are at it. Besides, Diana's being meant to be affected by the relic in those panels.

I rather think Capullo gets WW's build and stance pretty well, but that's obviously just my two cents.

[night4345]

Plot device after plot device.

[thanekos]

On the one hand, the plot devices are fun and their potency really helps sell how dangerous the League are as opponents (and what lengths Bruce has to go to).

On the other hand, there's that brief but brutal Countdown Ultraman vs. alt!Batman fight.. good times, that. Good, good times.

[sagrada]

I wonder sometimes if these Batbrawls are supposed to be power trips not for the writer, but for the presumed audience.

Obviously that's an incredibly crass and presumptuous thing to write, but that's seriously how it looks in my head. Batman defeats all these people who have crazy gifts, had good families, so on and so forth, with his underestimated and massive reserve of knowledge and cunning and tech savvy. He's suffered real hardship, stuff that other people just can't understand, and it's what made him so dedicated and mysterious and powerful. Batman is the superhero we all think we could be, because hey! all you need is what you already have, just honed to a razor's edge. Well, if "what you have" includes "notable disposable income", but if you're reading comics than surely you either have that or are removed enough from the world of finance that spending the budget of nations to make a battlebot to fight Superman makes perfect sense.

It's times like these I wonder how different things would be if Detective Comics Comics Entertainment was Sensation Comics Comics Entertainment. Or something. For real.

[sagrada]

Also, for the love of Heaven why isn't the science team that works on the Joker's pet projects a comic? Would read that. It would be dumb as Hell itself, but I'd read it.

All this just makes me wish even harder that the Clown Prince of Crime was some international, mysterious dude like Ra's, only faceless and devoted to a Comedian-like quest to prove that the world was an enormous joke at the expense of its inhabitants. Like a slapstick Dr. Claw.

[icon_uk]

Marvel had the Tinkerer, a low key elederly little man who designed and built most of the gimmick villain weapons for the New York area.

Gotham has The Carpenter, who designs and builds themed supervillain lairs because she loves the challenge.

But yes, Mad Science Inc. (We're not the "Mad", that's our boss) is a title I would read the hell out of.

"He wants cybernetic guinea pigs? By Friday? With battlesuits...

WE CAN DO IT!"

[writeofway]

Where's Captain Marvel/Shazam during all of this? Isn't he a league member, too? Did he have school when the League went to the charity thing and got drugged (which you'd think would have affected them right away instead of over time).

[night4345]

He was playing ping pong with Cyborg.

[jaxjyls]

so Batman builds a suit to fight an evil Superman but was completely unprepared for Superman doing something evil like dropping a building on him? some strategist

[icon_uk]

You never like to think that badly about your first real crush.

[damar148]

I genuinely love Kryptonite Gum.

[icon_uk]

I'm also vaguely reminded of the ridiculous costume Bruce had somehow or other created/come into possession of (I don't think there ever was anything remotely akin to an explanation) in" The Return of Bruce Wayne", which casually allows him to replicate most of the powers of the JLA; Invisibility, speed, strength... and with no apparent side effects, one has to wonder why he doesn't use it all the time... (Okay, I know the reason is that he's Batman, but it's lazy writing to introduce a god-level powersuit, without expecting a few questions)

[night4345]

The Insider suit didn't have enough power for long term engagements.

[michaelhealy]

What good is an anti-Superman plan that doesn't take removing his moral compass into account?

If he's being mind controlled, brain washed, or in any other sort of altered mental state, as seen here his morals aren't going to be a factor.

If it's for Zod, Bizarro, Alternate Universe Supermen or some other rogue kryptonian then once again the morals aren't a factor.

[lego_joker]

I got nothing for "other villains who happen to have Kryptonian powers", but I guess you could always BS it that Superman himself is really, REALLY hard to fully brainwash. You could slap a dozen mind-control doohickeys onto him, and he'd still be fighting commands that go against his moral center tooth and nail.