Batman: The Smile Killer #1

[cyberghostface]

Comments

[thezmage]

Am I correct in assuming that the tv was either off or on static?

[obsidianwolf]

IIRC it doesn't show if there was a show on the tv or not.

the whole issue is one of those one shots that only works as a one shot. it's fundamentally a question if Batman is real or a delusion of Bruce's or not and even the ending dances around with Bruce's panel seeing the Bat Signal and the next not showing it.

Honestly it isn't bad for that type of story but it's one that should never get a sequel cause honestly directly confirming one way or the other would destroy the interesting thing about it with it becoming yet another Batman gets gaslit but is so awesome he figures it out or yet another the hero is just crazy story.

It works much better with the ambiguity.

[cyberghostface]

Just a guess but they might have been referring to old “Candle Cove” creepypasta which is about different people watching a creepy puppet show as kids and finding out as adults that they were just watching static.

I actually missed that the batsignal is missing in the last panel, thanks for pointing it out. I had just assumed the whole thing was just Joker’s mindfuckery.

[obsidianwolf]

Certainly possible since that did inspire at least one tv episode of an anthology series.

Yeah I actually like how the last panel adds just the right hint of is Batman real or not. Cause at the end when you first see Bruce out and see the Bat Signal then it's almost the typical of course Batman is alright right and then you see the next panel and it's back to or is he?

Of course the problem is this might sell really well and then someone will revisit it and give a definitive answer and that would just be disappointing.

[icon_uk]

"Candle Cove" also inspired an entire season of "Channel Zero"

[tcampbell1000]

I wrote a story like this one time, about a character who had a persistent fear of losing her mind, so it was a little more on the nose for her.

Turns out that when you write one of these stories, you end up pretty much done with them. I had a similar reaction when Buffy did this. "Yes, there are some things about Batman that require suspension of disbelief to treat as plausible. Congratulations."

But I've got your resolution to the story, kinda. Either the ending's a complete hallucination, or else Bruce is Batman, because a mental patient without access to Bruce's physical training is not breaking through that window.

[obsidianwolf]

Or it's just usual comic book logistics just like what allows Batman to exist at all since in the real world sure no patient is probably breaking through that glass but in the real world Bruce would probably be physically incapable of being batman within a few months given the punishment he's regularly shown taking.

[tcampbell1000]

Sure, but... either the comic-book magic is there so he's Batman or it's not so he isn't, you know what I mean? Like, there's a reason that ordinary joes aren't shown throwing themselves out of Arkham windows. Even for the Joker, it's not normally quite this easy.

[obsidianwolf]

Actually given how often the joker escapes form Arkham and some of the ones over the years yeah it is just about the easy.

The fact this is supposed to be a one shot and their are no planned follow ups implies this is meant to be ambiguous not a he's clearly Batman or he's clearly crazy situation.

[tcampbell1000]

If there are two or three issue numbers somewhere where the Joker, or any non-superhuman criminal, breaks out of Arkham by just deciding to jump out a freakin' window, I'll retract my statement. Usually it's more like, "Oh, we had guards and cameras and straitjackets, but darn it, those criminals are just too clever."

(Although there was that story where the Joker got objects into his cell as if by magic... but eh, still not close enough.)

I get what the story's trying to do. It's trying to work both ways. I just feel like it doesn't really work nearly as well one way as it does the other.

(But as I said, I haven't really had much patience with this kind of plot for fifteen-odd years, so grain of salt.)

[obsidianwolf]

Yes most of the time the escape is not on camera becasue at the end of the day the Joker escaping more than a hand ful of times is incredibly unlikely. You only need to look at what eventually happened to the few real inmates in Prisons/institutions that made a habit of improbable escapes to see what would have happened to the joker assuming he even lived to get locked up again and wasn't put down by a cop who shot him while he was trying to escape.

So on one hand your right it is a stretch for anyone to just jump out of a window and escape in fact realsitically Batman or not it should have ended badly for anyone in a loose jump suit. (though they could have fixed it some what by showing him throw anything else through the window first. It'd still be a stretch but.

The comic is clearly meant to be read as either possibility being real and just like any comic book it's up to the reader where their hard line is. For you it's the idea that Batman can jump out of a window and keep going despite fiction always having people jump out of windows and keep going no matter how unrealistic is a staple of the genre.

And Personally I agree with you that this particular type of story is the hero crazy or not is over done. Though honestly I actually think Batman works quiet a bit better than most with this type of story since so many of Batman's themes are built around Trauma and mental illness with most of his villains being housed in an asylum during their captive phases.

That said and while I think this is better than most of the recent attempts at this type of story over the years. This should never have a sequel and the idea doesn't need to be visited again. It works as a one shot where folks can make up their own mind but any follow up or any more stories like it would just be at best a retread and at worse running an already tired concept into the ground.

[lego_joker]

IIRC, the first (Batman) story to use this kind of plot was a Legends of the Dark Knight two-parter from the early '90s. I'll see if I can dig it up...

[thosefew]

"Masks" IIRC. Though the villain keeps Bruce sedated long enough for his muscle mass to fade. Doesn't make much sense that Bruce here is still in peak condition, unless he's been training like Sarah Connor in T2.

[icon_uk]

The TV clown puppet reminds me, for some reason, of the Hellraiser comic book story about "Mr Winky Dink", a kids TV host clown who solves the Lament Configuration and it taken to Leviathan, where he has to entertain (in a disturbing way) the kids whose obsessive curioity with puzzles opened the gates to Leviathan, but who are too innocent to be damned.