BANANA MUFFIN BATMAN

[alschroeder3]

From Batman/Superman #29, a delightful issue on many levels. The writer really knows the dynamic between Supes and Bats, between the sunshiney smiler and the midnight brooder. Just three pages from this...

and a code phrase to live through the ages.

"Banana Muffin".

Batman and Superman are investigating the murder of a giant alien on the moon. There is reason to believe another Kryptonian is being held somewhere. And...

Batman really, really, REALLY doesn't like asking for help. We saw that last issue, when Supes helped him against Clayface. And now...

I love the look in Batman's eyes. I love the sunshiney optimist vs. the ultra-competent, brooding Dark Knight.

Of COURSE Bats tried to figure out GL's ring. Granted even a Reed Richards probably couldn't do it, still he's going to use it to get all the advantage he has.

I also like how Batman admits that Superman is the better at talking to "people", at communicating...no matter what type of "person" we're talking about.

Later the two split up---Superman going to a giant yellow sun where they are holding the person they think is a Kryptonian, and Batman figures out the giant alien knows more than he lets on. The giant alien says, complimenting Batman on his deductions,"I don't know how you fit a brain like that in such a tiny head."

Then Lobo's voice comes from one side. "It doesn't matter..."

Superman can't make it in time. I'm not going to tell you how, but Batman bests NuLobo with characteristic forethought and planning, and cons him out of some transportation, to boot. Nice surprise at the ending, too.

However...

I hope if Clark's in bed with Diana or Lois...or Bruce with Selina or Silver St. Cloud...neither one of them mutters in their sleep:

"Banana Muffin."

Or else they may have a lot of explaining to do...

Comments

[silicondream]

Dialogue's nice, but I really can't see Batman managing to reverse-engineer anything from a power ring, let alone a universal translator. Interstellar civilizations take millennia to achieve that tech level.

[beyondthefringe]

Not to mention, the power ring is essentially magic. It's an Arthur C. Clarke level of do-anything technologium, not a widget with definable functions. There's no "here's the life support function, here's the universal translator, here's where it creates energy constructs through a telepathic link with the owner's mind, here's the flight plan to OA..." You think, it does.

Batman is good, but I don't think he's "reverse engineer something created by the Guardians of the Universe a billion years ago" good.

[bruinsfan]

Yeah, the rings are the crowning technological achievement of beings who managed to alter the fabric of the universe so that anyone looking far enough backwards in time sees their made-up origin story instead of the truth ten billion years earlier. I don't know how you'd even begin examining something like that unless you are yourself a billions-of-years-old telepath.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

In fairness, it could just be a rudimentary approximation based on what Batman could figure out. We don't know that it's a perfect replica of the function, do we?

[alschroeder3]

Besides, there has to be something translating the aliens' words into English. They can't all speak Interlac ---can they?