Hello Nerdy Birdies!
How are you doing today? I hope that the week is treating you well so far.
Today I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on the latest event to occur in DC Comics, which is the Gotham War saga between Batman and Catwoman.
This will hopefully give me the push I need to talk about comics more often, sharing my opinions on storylines and what not.
This post won’t be a review so to speak, and will follow more of a stream of consciousness style as I go through my thoughts and feelings regarding this event. So I am sorry if this comes off disjointed or choppy. I will do my best to keep it coherent.
Please note that I am writing this after the release of Batman #139, which is the issue following the events of Gotham War, setting up the ‘Mind Bomb’ storyline. Any suggestions I make are also based on my opinion and interpretation of Gotham War.
I suppose I will start with my expectations going in. I’ll admit that I was mostly intrigued with this event because of Jason Todd/Red Hood’s involvement, more so than any strife between Batman (who I will be calling Bruce from this point on) and Catwoman (who I will be referring to as Selina). As Jason is my favourite character in DC media, and his inclusion was important enough for him to have his own single issue comics; that was enough to get me invested in the story from the beginning. That was my ‘hook’ to read the storyline, so to speak.
Having said that though, I was definitely interested by the idea of Bruce and Selina facing off, at least from an ideological standpoint. What would happen if they were unable to compromise, or reconcile, the difference in how they think? I went into Gotham War thinking that this is what it was going to be. Bruce and Selina fighting over Gotham, and the nature of crime in the city.
As I read Gotham War, I wish that this was the premise that they had stuck with – two people who care for each other deeply, but have very different world-views, coming to blows and then having to compromise when the conflict threatens everything. It’s a simple premise, but between Selina and Bruce specifically, I think it could have been something really special, with both of them emerging as people changed.
I even like the inclusion of Jason in this premise, he’s definitely the wild-card of the Bat-Family, able to instigate things between the pair, and maybe being the one to help them find the compromise that ends the conflict.
Sadly, that isn’t what we got.
Getting into the actual events of Gotham War, I’ll start with the inclusion of Vandal Savage. I don’t hate Vandal as a character, I just don’t think he was needed as an antagonist here. I understand that he still has role to play in future storylines (as per the ending of Gotham War and the beginning of ‘Mind Bomb’ in Batman #139), but I feel as though that could have been developed separately from Gotham War.
For example, he could have taken control of Selina’s collection of Cat Burglars after the events of Gotham War had concluded. Everything with finding the meteor shards could have happened afterward, including Selina falling into the Lazarus Pit crater with Vandal. I just think that moment would have been more bittersweet if she and Bruce had found common ground in the aftermath of the War, if they were on the same page again.
I think everything I say is going to come back to one major point, there was a lot of potential in a conflict between Batman and Catwoman, but I feel as though the writers of this event lost focus on that conflict to include other things that didn’t need to be there. As far as I am concerned, the Gotham War should have only been about the ideological differences between Bruce and Selina, and how their feelings for each other complicates the matter even further.
I suppose next I will talk about the schism of the Bat-Family.
Again, I feel as though this aspect of the Gotham War had a lot of potential; unlike the core conflict however, I do think that this lived up to its potential a little bit more.
I like that most of the Bat-Family decides to stay neutral, at least in the beginning, as this genuinely strikes me as the action that most of them would take. The exceptions of course being Damian, who is Bruce’s son through and through, and Jason, who can use the situation to antagonise Bruce. The rest of them though, I think they would be able to see things from both sides and would only interject if something serious happened that would tip the scales.
As far as Jason goes, I do think he agrees with Selina for the most part, but I also think that he sides more with her to get Bruce’s goat. I have a whole separate post I want to make in regards to Bruce and Jason’s relationship, and my thoughts on it.
I suppose that brings us to the elephant in the room, and that is the actions that Bruce takes against Jason specifically. Not only does he kidnap Jason, and hold him against his will, he chemically changes his body, so that any time Jason experiences heightened adrenaline, his body will respond with a fear response. Bruce’s reasoning is that this will stop Jason from being Red Hood and will essentially force him to live a ‘normal’ life.
This entire decision on Bruce’s part is honestly just stupid, on top of being wrong. If you can’t understand just why it is so wrong, then I don’t know what to tell you.
And this is not a justification on Red Hood’s illegal actions; if you want him to be held accountable, then hold him accountable – this isn’t that. This isn’t punishing him for crimes he has committed. This is fundamentally changing someone against their will. In doing so, Bruce robs himself of any moral standing him, and his arguments, may have had. It also destroys and modicum of trust he and Jason may have had, as well as jeopardizes the trust that the rest of the Family have in him.
You can see this in what occurs between Bruce and Dick.
If I try and see it from the writer’s point of view, I can kind of understand that this is a drastic action for Bruce to take, and with Zur lurking in the background, is this a hint that he is more compromised than he thinks? To me though, it just reads as Bruce making irresponsible decisions and expecting everyone to go along with it, without him having to explain himself in any way.
As this post has gone on for quite a while, I also don’t really care for the involvement of the Joker at the end, though I do find it interesting that this goes on to tie in with The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing. I just think the Joker is an overplayed element now – but that’s just my personal opinion, coming from someone who has enjoyed The Man Who Stopped Laughing.
TL;DR – I went into this storyline/event with hope for the potential that the conflict at it’s core had – though as I read more and more, the disappointment was just compounded for a multitude of different reasons. I’m tired of Bruce being abusive towards the people that he claims to live – this way of writing his character has just gotten old. I do prefer him in the gray area, in a lot of ways, but not when it comes to that. And yes, I do think what he did to Jason was abusive, his intentions and reasoning does not matter.
I’m sad that this story didn’t stay focused on the characters in it’s title, and for me it was just a flop.
I did however, have a couple of good moments with the art and story, such as Bruce and Jason bantering with each other; and the Bat-Siblings trying to be there for each other.
Despite all that I had to complain about, I am looking forward to ‘Mind Bomb’ and seeing how it ties together the Gotham War and The Man Who Stopped Laughing. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for something interesting happening between Zur and the Joker, and that Bruce can somehow reconcile with his family.
And that’s it for this lengthy post. Honestly I just had a lot of thoughts about Gotham War and I needed to get them out. What were your thoughts on Gotham War – did you enjoy it? Did you hate it? Did you skip over it? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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This is W. Elorda, signing off, and until next time, stay nerdy my friends.
Bye!
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