Batman: One Bad Day: The Riddler #1 - "Dreadful Reins"

[laughing_tree]

I remember there was a Paul Dini Riddler run on the Detective which I really liked where he kind of was Batman for a little while. That always appealed to me. The idea that Riddler was holding himself back, almost pulling on his own reins, and the riddles were just a kind of crutch. He was giving Batman the key to catching him […] So what happens when he drops that? Batman actually has to confront someone who is smarter than him so what does that mean? -- Tom King

Content warning: Suicide

Comments

[cainofdreaming]

Even if Eddie was secretly as smart in the regular continuity he'd never do this. Because Joker can't abide anyone stealing his spotlight.

[palgrave_goldenrod]

It's all a little... God Mode Sue. I get why everyone wants to make the Riddler a Serious Threat (TM), but... this just seems like the villain equivalent of that thing everyone complains about when Batman can do anything and beat anyone With Enough Prep Time. Like, ooh, the Riddler actually is the smartest person in the universe and was just messing around this whole time and he can talk people into killing themselves and he's so incredibly brilliant that everyone's afraid of him and will do what he says forever and ever and the only way Batman can actually stop him is to Break His One Rule and... it's all just kind of dull in practice. And that bald-with-green-eye-shadow look... eh, doesn't do it for me.

I'm no knee-jerk Tom King hater or anything, but he really can go a bit too far up his own ass with the whole "humourlessly grim deconstructive takes of goofy comic book characters" thing. At least when the Riddler's making dumb riddles and leaving obvious clues for Batman it's kind of entertaining. This is just a slog.

Also, is every one of these One Bad Day stories just going to be a story about how Batman snaps and kills each one of his rogue's gallery? 'Cause not only will that be very depressing, it's also going to be very samey after a while.

[cyberghostface]

"Also, is every one of these One Bad Day stories just going to be a story about how Batman snaps and kills each one of his rogue's gallery? 'Cause not only will that be very depressing, it's also going to be very samey after a while."

The connective tissue just seems to be that they're prestige one-shots about villains by different writers. Catwoman's for example is a heist story and Penguin's is about a gang war.

[filthysize]

A bit more than that. They're all meant to be The Killing Joke derivatives, so I believe they will all have this format of having half the book be flashbacks to the villains' life before they became villains.

[cyberghostface]

Did they say that?

[filthysize]

That these are meant to be these villains' version of The Killing Joke, yes, they did say that's the intention, hence why the titles use the same font as the Killing Joke logo, and they're all specifically 64 pages to mirror TKJ's page count.

The extensive flashback bit is just what I believe based on the Riddler one and solicits of the other ones, but it makes sense. IIRC Wilson said the Catwoman one is about Selina's relationship with her mother.

[cyberghostface]

As far as I can tell DC has just said the stories are meant to be showcases for Batman's villains:

"The Dark Knight’s greatest villains get their greatest stories yet! The Riddler, Two-Face, the Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman, Bane, Clayface, and Ra’s al Ghul-Batman’s most iconic villains all given 64-page prestige format specials that show why they are the greatest villains in all of comics, spearheaded by today’s top talent."

I'm sure some of them will emulate 'The Killing Joke' regardless because DC is all about aping Moore but even Tom King said that the main TKJ connection was to try and make Riddler scary the same way TKJ did for Joker.

https://www.cbr.com/batman-one-bad-day-riddler-killing-joke-dc-comics/

[wizardru]

Are they all about Batman's Rogues Gallery having issues with their Parents? Two-Face makes his dad kill himself, Riddler strangles his mother, Catwoman deals with her dad...does Penguin do more stuff with his Gotham family history?

This....was OK. I mean, as an out-of-continuity one-shot, sure. I really liked the idea of reformed Riddler trying to compete with Batman, but that's years ago now. Riddler is always a difficult character to execute well, so I kind of like this take, but I also hate the reference to Giant Typewriters. You can't have it both ways, IMHO, unless you're Alan Moore writing the final Superman story.

[iamrman]

For a minute I thought the title said 'Dreadul Runs'.

[blues32]

Nope. Don't like it. Some uber genius Riddler capable of just sneaking into Wayne Manor on a whim? No, no, no. He's a genius, certainly, but not that smart. "Batman: The Animated Series" was my favorite depiction. Utterly brilliant, but not quite on Batman's level. Batman solved all his riddles, but Edward got the last laugh by revealing he had been broadcasting from a plane leaving the Gotham.

[john_drake1964]

Yeah, the BTAS Riddler for his few appearances, was probably more of the Riddler I think works. Someone who can win (even if Mockridge survived his plan, in the end, he never can have another decent nights sleep out of fear of Eddie returning) but still isn't some "I know everything" mastermind.

The idea that eventually in the DCAU Bat comics (and I think mainsteam comics for a time, though I might be conflating things) that Eddie finally decided that best way to try and beat Batman was to go into the detective field as well, I think is an interesting idea to shake the general status quo up a bit.

[icon_uk]

Paul Dini went on record (in "Batman Animated") saying that Riddler was the toughest Batman Rogue to write: a super smart bad guy whose main criminal motive was outsmarting others, rather than crime for profit, or general mayhem, or vengeance. Plus riddles are tough to make work as plot devices. Also you ran the risk of writing a sub par Joker story, so that's why he appears so rarely. Three focus stories and a couple of cameos.

As such Riddler becoming a PI in the Paul Dini written Detective run was rather wonderful. The "If you can't be smarter than Batman as a criminal, be smarter than him as a detective. You get to prove you ARE smarter and people will PAY you to do it rather than arrest you!" was eminently logical, elegant and NEW.

(That's not to say I don't love me some ridiculously campy and yet convincingly scary Frank Gorshin Riddler mind you)

[john_drake1964]

One of the things I like about the idea is that Eddie becoming a PI also fits into a general idea that some of Batman's foes can eventually reform. BTAS did see Harley try and become rehabilitated in the series (Harley's Holiday) with the Batman Beyond movie hinting that eventually she did manage it for good (though only after being presumed dead.) Or how Arnold Wesker seemed to finally move on from Scarface in the end.

The idea that the villains can move on and not be trapped in a cycle of crime and the Arkham revolving door, and that Bruce/Batman does want to see them re-enter society and live happier, less personally destructive lives is something I sometimes feel is missing nowadays. Of course, it doesn't help when some of them end up crossing over a bunch of lines and have body counts that rival war criminals these days.

Spoilers for Hush!

[deh_tommy]

I liked the idea in Hush that he was able to solve Batman’s secret identity, but he can’t tell anyone because he values being the smartest man in the room too much and if the answer gets out then the question of “Who is Batman?” loses its value.

Re: Spoilers for Hush!

[lego_joker]

... how does that work? Isn't Riddler's whole thing supposed to be he wants as many people as possible to know he's the smartest man in the room? Even if he doesn't want to blab it out on live TV, you'd think he'd at least go around distributing it through riddles, see who's smart enough to pick up on the clues.

[nyadnar17]

Ok....first off I HATE this version of the Riddler compared to the War of Jokes and Riddles version.

And one of the reasons I hate it is because the issue ends the only way it can. Someone fucking kills him. Like....even if Batman doesn't kill one of the many, many Robins or a Cop or random citizen or whoever would.

There is only so far you can push the Batman literally can't kill people without going nuts conceit before it breaks down. So why do it? Doesn't that just dead end stories and characters?

[cyberghostface]

This issue hasn’t been out for a month yet.

[laughing_tree]

It's been over four weeks. If it was a monthly book, the next issue would be out already.