Batman vs Iran - Part 2

[history79]

from Death In The Family #4

8 pages of 24

Comments

[grazzt]

You should follow this up with Suicide Squad's one mission to Iran. Probably the storyline with the funniest Ravan scenes.

[beyondthefringe]

Batman: "Iran wants the Joker to kill the entire assembly."
CIA Dude: "Yeah, well, diplomacy, AMIRITE"
Joker: Tries to kill the entire assembly.
Batman: "Told you."
CIA Dude: Is never heard from again.
Superman: Gets high on Joker gas, spends next month hallucinating plaid fish.
Joker: Dies, is never seen again. Oh wait, no, turns up as good as new sooner or later.
Jason Todd: Is dead. Forever. And ever. Really.

[tigerkaya]

Well that was stupid. Though the death of Jason was nice, such a shame they had to rescrub him.

[lordultimus]

Is it weird that I find the fake mustache to be a much more effective disguise than the glasses?

[doomedpatroller]

Better than Caitlyn Kent.

[lyricalswagger]

Who is that?

[shadur]

Drive-by troll, I suspect.

[doomedpatroller]

I was having a little fun at Bruce Jenner's expense.

[captainbellman]

Y'know, I could swear they lifted Superman's elegant solution from a Hindu story involving Shiva and a cloud of poison. It was sometime during the churning of the ocean of milk, as I recall.

[sagrada]

Draining toxic gases out of the air with the ol' Superlungs has been a staple Super-move since the Silver Age, back when 'lung capacity' was a mystery to even the most learnéd of mén.

Though now you mention it, a bunch of super-types whose powers are duplicating the various feats of Shiva would be pretty cool.

[halloweenjack]

Clark's breath is so powerful that it can compress the gas in volume so that it all fits in his lungs. Nobody sucks like Superman.

[alicemacher]

Hmm, let's see:

Batman points out to Superman and the Feds that the seemingly legit Joker can't be trusted...

Superman and the Feds tell him to back off and know his place or they'll crush him...

Superman (if not the Feds) realizes Baman was right all along, because Batman Is Always Right...

Oh, and Batman refers to Superman as a "Boy Scout"...

Are we sure Frank Miller didn't ghost-write this?

[lego_joker]

Jim Starlin was trying to ride on Miller's coattails so badly during this thing I almost pity him.

Almost.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

It would work with one dialogue change. Instead of "I wonder why I always get the feeling he knows something that I don't," it should be "How stupid does he think I am?. I HAVE heard of the Joker before. Of course I'm going to be watching him every time he goes near the UN. You'd think the world's greatest detective would figure that out and not screw it up."

[crinos]

Seriously, what is even the Hell with this?

You know, I'm not a politician or anything, but if a nation sent a flat out SUPER VILLAIN as an ambassador, I would be kind of offended.

In any sane and rational world, the response to this would have been, Joker gets arrested, and the UN tells Iran "Fuck you, send us a real diplomat and not an insane serial murderer, or we're not inviting you back."

It would be like if we sent Charles Manson as a goodwill ambassador to China. It would go over like a lead balloon.

[lego_joker]

Given that Superman's presence at the assembly apparently wasn't arranged with Batman (it's kind of ambiguous), I... guess the CIA put him there because they knew Joker/Iran would try something?

Hell, you could even say that Batman *should've* minded his own damn business, since it's Supes who saves all the diplomats. If he hadn't been inexplicably nerfed of his super-speed, I bet he could've taken out Joker and the other hired guns in a split-second, too.

[lilacsigil]

Yeah, you can't arrest someone with diplomatic immunity but you don't have to let them into the country and you can expel them. He could sit in the Iranian consulate all he wanted.

[crinos]

Okay, I know about diplomatic immunities, but there has to be some kind of limit or loophole that keeps shit like this from happening in the real world. I mean has any country in modern history ever appointed a serial killer or anything like that to a position in the UN? I really hope not.

[lilacsigil]

It's complicated issue - if you read about the eventual arrest Augusto Pinochet you will get some idea how complicated! He was a head of state, but similar rules are in place.

[althechi]

Oh man, Soviet Ambassador Andrei Chikatilo would have been the best and worst thing ever.

[cricharddavies]

According to an article I found, there's a rather horrific case of the Burmese ambassador to Sri Lanka who found out his wife was having an affair, shot her, then BURNED HER REMAINS in full view of the press and public. He was eventually recalled by the Burmese government, but damned if I can find out if he was ever punished by them.

That 1979 incident is probably as bad as it has ever gotten.

[locuatico]

okay. politics aside. Iran asking the joker to do this is KIND of a good plan...but naming him ambassador? even assuming the assasination attempt does not end with the US and multiple countries going to war until they surrender, it would be impossible for them to do any kind of denial over Joker's actions.

a better plot would have been to have Joker act secretly working with them.

[beyondthefringe]

Iran: "Oh, we had no idea that this psychotic mass murderer would do anything untoward. Clearly, he was acting of his own volition and we simply erred in thinking he was sincere in converting to our faith."

EVERYONE IN THE WORLD: "Bullshit."

[alicemacher]

converting to our faith

I was wondering about that, actually...in the story does the Joker actually "convert" to Islam? Because among the many other things wrong with the "Iranian diplomat" part of the arc, there's no way Iran would permit a non-Muslim--specifically, non-Shiite Muslim--to represent the nation.

[cricharddavies]

There's a jump from the wham appearance of Khomeini (nowhere nearly as effective as the appearance of Kissinger in an issue of Supervillain Teamup, IMHO) to the Joker showing up as the new ambassador. At no point is there EVER any suggestion that the Joker has embraced Islam, IIRC.

[alicemacher]

Just as well. That would've been even more offensive.

[doomedpatroller]

I loved Jim Aparo's Batman.

[sagrada]

Yes, it's quite grand and superheroic, rather than Dark Avenger Man. And his Joker is so deformed and bizarre he's downright frightening.

EDIT: Seriously, did James Aparo have a phobia of clown chins?

[cyberghostface]

It's kind of funny how iconic Jason Todd's death is to Batman's canon and the actual story has this bizarre thing that everyone is embarrassed to bring up.

[reveen]

Joker's speech actually seems pretty apt if you look at how the US has handled it's relations with Iran in the last decade.

Also, Iranians (well, most of them) are fucking Persian, not Arab. Not that I would expect a Reagan era comic book to have the slightest bit of insight regarding the Middle East.

"Not that I would expect a Reagan era comic book to have the slightest bit of insight"

[chortles81]

Which probably explains this entire plot to begin with.

[althechi]

Where in the entire set of scans were the Iranian people referred to as Arabs?

[lego_joker]

Are you talking about Joker's headdress? I've heard it looks more Arab than Persian...

The bottom page where Bruce's narration box talks about "Arabs" concerns a totally different group of evil middle east dudes. Joker had been working with Arab terrorists in earlier parts of the story, and I guess he brought along a couple of them as hired guns for the U.N. thing.

[althechi]

Is the line about "Insanity and a love of fish" a reference to "The Laughing Fish" or am I just giving Jim Starlin far too much credit here?

[beoweasel]

Good lord, Joker's face is half chin in some of these scans!