All-Star Batman and Robin #8

[history79]

Trigger Warning for Violence

Comments

[cyberghostface]

There's just something hilarious about Joker having a topless henchwoman with swastikas on her nipples.

[icon_uk]

Not seeing the humour myself.

Doesn't she show up in Dark Knight Returns as one of the Mutant gang?

[cyberghostface]

It's just the absurdity of the situation. He doesn't have clown henchmen or even Harley Quinn waiting for him outside his hotel room he has a neo-Nazi with swastika nipples.

She showed up in DKR but just as some thug Batman encountered.

[icon_uk]

Thanks, yeah, I was sure I'd seen her before... I rarely forget a topless, swastika-nippled, neo-Nazi.

[miramira]

I'm glad poor Harley hasn't gotten roped into this.

[quatoria]

Didn't he also use swastika pasties in Sin City? Is there some, say, particular reason Frank Miller really likes combining the image of a swastika with a bare breast? I certainly wouldn't imply that he was just aiming for cheap outrage to pump up book sales. I certainly wouldn't.

[cyberghostface]

I don't recall anyone being outraged.

[jlroberson]

There's also RONIN and the racist gangs.

[pyynk]

Yup that's Bruno alright. Was surprised she actually popped up in the animated adaptation of DKR as well.

[ozaline]

At least in the animated version of DKR the ex-mutants with her say "She Joker's Squeeze, man," is that not in the original?

[cyberghostface]

I don't recall but I don't think so.

Edit: nvm the comic says she was with Joker.

[jekylls_salvation]

You're probably not the Joker's target audience.

[silverzeo]

A shame that the Joker himself doesn't seem to find it funny...

[icon_uk]

I've typed and erased about five different commments on this sequence, trying to put into words the revulsion it makes me feel, but I don't think I can. adequately express it.

The smart, sensible woman attorney who has prosecuted child abusers (some of the most emotionally manipulative bastards going) is apparently putty in the hands of someone as clearly weird as the Joker to the extent that despite her noting that this isn't her usual behaviour and even after he mentions he IS the criminal Joker, she doesn't seem to register it as something to be wary of. Was she drugged?

And then the horrible, lingering, murder sequence is also just... I don't the words for it, but I'd notice that he's not restraining her wrists and she's fighting back, and yet even with long nails, she doesn't even manage to scratch him.

It's just so repellent on so many levels.

And yes Bruce, we know you're smarter than Hal... big deal.

[randyripoff]

When she said that she was joking about him having slipped something into her drink, I'm assuming that he did do so and that's why she was acting the way she did.

[mrwalker]

Same here.

[lego_joker]

And the really amazing thing is that this doesn't even crack the Top 5 worst Joker takes of all time.

(Top 10, though... yeah, it's probably in there.)

[jekylls_salvation]

A criminal who does criminal things and is also insane? How is this off base?

[lb_lee]

Lots of people are smarter than Hal. Hell, my roommate's cat is smarter than Hal, and he tries to steal my sandwich while I'm eating it.

[torporish]

So is the Joker's humorlessness meant to be a callback to the character's first appearence, or something? Because it's otherwise kind of remarkable how little this character even resembles the one we see in the Dark Knight Returns...

[beardedjellybean]

It's probably not a good sign for the quality of a Batman comic when Joker is portrayed as a humourless bastard, and in another scene Batman giggles like a lunatic and has a thought process of a really mouthy 13-year-old.

[cygnia]

Horrifying thought: has Frank Miller & Mark Millar ever collaborated on anything?

[lego_joker]

DON'T. GIVE. THEM. IDEAS.

[crinos]

It would be a perfect storm of OH GOD NO.

[alicemacher]

No, no, no. Think bigger:

Miller, Millar and Ennis.

With Jacen Burrows on art.

[agharta75]

With Liefeld drawing the feet.

[alicemacher]

I should clarify that I suggested Burrows on art not because I think he's a bad artist--on the contrary, I think he's a good one--but because Burrows seems to be the go-to person in the industry for drawing all the sorts of horrific, why-God-why scenes that no one else could stomach drawing.

[jlroberson]

stop with the giving avatar ideas

[silverzeo]

Also. saw on CBR that we will FINALLY get some insight to Hal's time as a green alien from the Strikes Back story.... and it has Hal confronting 3 women in shrouds who seem to get weird when he shows his glow....

[captainbellman]

So it's all "clever" because in this, the Joker is a grimacing bastard and Batman is a giggling maniac. And, what, were they meant to put on goofy metal helmets connected to a gigantic machine in the finale and have their personas swapped?

[shadur]

"What a creep. I don't like this guy at all"


Yes, Miller, we get it. You think absolutely everyone who isn't Batman or the Joker is a moron.

But that was just fucking awful.

[wizardru]

I pretty much can't stand Hal Jordan. I think he is quite literally the WORST Green Lantern...and even I think this treatment of him (and the upcoming 'yellow' scene) are just ridiculously bad. I mean what's the idea here, that everyone but Batman is a stooge? Superman was running in that last issue because he doesn't know he can fly, but somehow Batman has figured that out? Green Lantern's ring limitations are well-known,b ut there are ways around it that even the dumbest lantern should know.

It's like Miller wanted to drop DKR Batman into the Silver Age DCU without changing anyone else. And this is some of Lee's weakest art, IMHO.

[cyberghostface]

He's said a number of times that it's because Batman is the protagonist. I.E. he's a fan of Superman IRL but his Batman is not and the story reflects that.

[captainbellman]

What the hell was that cover, anyway? Did Neal Adams really think he was creating some kind of ground-breaking optical illusion? It looks like John Carpenter's "The Thing" got into somebody's stash of silver-age comics and thought of giving some of the designs a go.

[icon_uk]

I actuall sort of like the cover, the indistinct intersection of Batman and Joker, sanity and insanity, humour and humourlessmess.

[dadcastellanos]

the more of this I see, the more grateful I am that I never spent any money or time on it. holy cats, batman.

[tigerkaya]

Well this is just revolting and DC with WB is basing most of Millers work into the DC movies.

[skinrash]

Why is Batman so needlessly hateful in this comic? I don't get his attitude towards GL, Superman and Robin.

[icon_uk]

I'd like to think it's an Miller giving indication of the road Batman might have gone down full time if he hadn't taken in Dick Grayson and become more of a human being.

I should also note that I like to think all politicians are fundamentally decent, world hunger can be easily solved by mutual co-operation and a can-do attitude and that unicorns frolic in my front garden.

[beyondthefringe]

This series.
I... just...
GAH.
Can't even.
Nope.

[mrwalker]

...okay, I'll confess that I've also thought before about the things I could do to straighten the world out if I had something like a power ring.

[jekylls_salvation]

This is actually a pretty good marriage of Joker concepts.