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[TA]

Begging a threadsplit, maybe, but the Joker is who I always hold up as an example of where the death penalty can be appropriate.  He cannot be rehabilitated, and he cannot be isolated - if left alive, he will cause further death, no matter where or how he's imprisoned.  That explicitly leaves no alternative.  Either the state puts him to death, or someone else will die.  Sanity has nothing to do with it; if he can't be fixed and can't be contained, then he is beyond the capacity of the justice system to keep alive.

[Brentai]

The nice thing about comic book Joker is that there is no particular reason why it has ever had to necessarily be the same person.

If they actually ever use that angle it'd be a copout, but implicitly it makes perfect sense.  By design, he has no real identity, no true origin, and is nothing more special than a really wacked-out man.  The Joker could be anyone, literally.  He's as much of an icon as Batman is, so even if you were to kill the man known as Joker, you can be almost certain that someone in that city-sized nuthouse is going to drop his face into some acid and take up the mantle.  And he'd be no more or less The Joker than the last guy.

The really mindbending thing is that it fits in perfectly well with the assertion that The Joker is the same person from incarnation to incarnation.  He could just as easily be one person acting several different ways, or several different people acting one way, or any combination of the above.

[Thad]

Morrison, of course, is famous for the "Joker has a 'super-sanity' and reinvents himself periodically" take, which posits that, yes, Caesar Romero Joker, Jack Nicholson Joker, Mark Hamill Joker, and Heath Ledger Joker are all the same guy.

Again, that backwards "J" may have something to do with that angle.

[Romosome]

Oh, I forgot if this was mentioned, but in that Arkham Asylum game they're making, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are both reprising their voice roles for Batman and Joker.

[Rico]

Which is fucking stupid because if Batman believed in our system of law and courts working properly he wouldn't be dressing up as a bat and beating the shit out of people illegally.

Seems like pointing out the obvious here, but Batman dressing up as a bat and beating the shit out of people illegally is due to the police department's inability to get the job done, not the judiciary.

[Thad]

Oh, I forgot if this was mentioned, but in that Arkham Asylum game they're making, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are both reprising their voice roles for Batman and Joker.

And Dini wrote it.

[Romosome]

Which is fucking stupid because if Batman believed in our system of law and courts working properly he wouldn't be dressing up as a bat and beating the shit out of people illegally.

Seems like pointing out the obvious here, but Batman dressing up as a bat and beating the shit out of people illegally is due to the police department's inability to get the job done, not the judiciary.

I realize that crazy people and comic book characters (like batman) don't have to be consistent, but I'd just imagine that someone whose entire modus operandi is outside the law wouldn't bend over backwards to ensure the technicalities of the court go through.  It seems a very fine distinction to make.

Then again, it did strike me as something Batman would do, even though it was fucking stupid.  It was unhinged in just the right way.

However Alfred would've probably just hit him over the head with a frying pan, let the Joker die, and then lecture him afterwards and tell him to take a fucking vacation.

[Royal☭]

I haven't been reading the comics. Is there any meaning to the three letters the scratches on the penny are pointing to? Or is it making fun of me for thinking that there might be?

DER

I noticed that the letters next to the ones the scratches are pointing to are OWT.  But I doubt it means anything.

Which is fucking stupid because if Batman believed in our system of law and courts working properly he wouldn't be dressing up as a bat and beating the shit out of people illegally.

"Justice" is independent of our court systems.  Because the system is incompetent, Batman takes an active role in correcting the mistake.  Batman helping a criminal falsely accused clear his name matches his m.o., even if he may personally believe the system is broken.  He is doing what he can to fix it.

[Royal☭]

So, uh, I'm wondering:  What exactly does Final Crisis #6 have to do with Batman RIP?

[Thad]

Is that a before-reading-it or after-reading-it question?

Because I haven't read it yet.

[Thad]

Matt Brady @ Nrama breaks down what the fuck happened, what [spoiler]the Omega Sanction does[/spoiler], and how this sets things up for Bruce to eventually come back.

He mentions a few of the Morrisony metafictional elements, but IMO misses the biggie:

[spoiler]The Omega Sanction moves its victim sideways through reality, forcing him to live through a series of progressively worse lifetimes.  But, as Morrison has hammered home repeatedly during his run, that's EXACTLY what Batman's been doing for the past 4 or 5 decades.  Actually, it reminds me a bit of Ellis and Cassaday's excellent Planetary/Batman: Night on Earth.[/spoiler]

Anyway.  All that aside, we've finally got a full-size, two-page version of the teaser image, but I didn't really notice anything new by looking at it.

[Thad]

20Q w/ DiDio:

6. Let’s talk about Final Crisis #6 – the book, as you mentioned, did well for you, and sold out, but that was the “conclusive” death of Batman, despite the conclusion of the “Batman R.I.P.” storyline in the Batman series in December – and no one really paid attention. I mean – [spoiler]you showed the body[/spoiler]...?

DD: I agree – and as I said, the book did sell out, but also, it’s issue #6 of a 7-part series, so that issue #7 is one of the things that we want people to read to understand the full scope of the story that’s unfolding.

Also, we’ve been pretty upfront about what our plans are for Batman and the Batman family, and I think that everyone needs to hang on until Final Crisis #7 hits the stands. Following that, we can open up the discussion on our publicity for it.

7. When it does come to seeking and getting mainstream media attention on a big story such as the “death” of Batman, is it what it appears to be, that is, a delicate combination of not wanting to go to the well too many times for what may be seen as trivial twists of story as well as not wanting to try to hook someplace like The New York Times with something that can seem like crying wolf?

DD: Again, I think some of that will be answered with people see Final Crisis #7. If we went over the top with issue #6 in presenting the conclusion of that issue, we would have looked very foolish at the conclusion of issue #7. At this moment, I’d rather let the product speak for itself.

If I'm reading my DiDio Doublespeak correctly, it sounds like we may be getting a death cheat a lot sooner than anticipated.

It bears noting that, in an interview awhile back, Morrison acknowledged that he'd knocked around the idea of having established DC superheroes become new New Gods -- say, Bruce Wayne gets Lightray's powers or somesuch thing -- but that it was tossed out largely due to the question of attribution ("Batman created by Bob Kane, Lightray created by Jack Kirby", that kind of thing).  Still, that doesn't necessarily mean the whole idea was scrapped, just the idea of combining characters.  Bruce could still pull a Hal and ascend to a higher plane or somesuch.

That said, I think what we can expect from the new New Gods is what Morrison's already been doing with them in Seven Soldiers and Final Crisis -- the Kirby characters taking over mortal bodies.

[Disposable Ninja]

Latest episode of Brave & The Bold: it's good stuff. The world will miss Platelet.

[Thad]

Enjoyed the first half of Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? quite a lot.  Very Gaiman-y, which as it turns out makes for an excellent chaser for Morrison.  (Gaiman's working with as many layers as Morrison is, and similar themes of reexamining past continuity and the essence of the characters and questions of reality, but ultimately the story works by itself and doesn't require a trip to Wikipedia to understand.)

It feels a lot like Sandman, and particularly World's End, in how it focuses on characters as storytellers and examines the nature of life, death, the mythology of heroic figures, and the question of what is real, anyway.  It's also full of sly nods to continuity, like [spoiler]Alfred telling Kirk Langstrom he can sit on either the allies' or enemies' side at the funeral[/spoiler], and [spoiler]the 1940's Catwoman wearing a cat mask[/spoiler], and cameos like crazy -- but, as the narrator notes throughout, it's NOT strict continuity; some of these events "actually happened" and others are new twists Gaiman's put out.  And the last page reveal [spoiler]suggests that the person Batman is talking to is, in fact, Death -- though, on the other hand, she denies it, sort of[/spoiler].

It also evokes a bit of Ellis's Planetary/Batman: Night On Earth in how it iterates through different eras' versions of Batman (and there is a very clear [spoiler]Timm Joker[/spoiler] in one shot), and I would say the ending of the second story is very similar to Mike Allred's Batman story from Solo a little while back.

A neat read, especially for Gaiman fans and people who are interested in superheroes-as-mythological-figures deconstruction (one of my favorite subjects, as you all know by now).

Looking forward to part two -- we've heard from Selena and Alfred so far; I'd say Dick's almost certain to tell a story in the next one but I'm curious who else.  Joker, a Gordon?

[Romosome]

Latest episode of Brave & The Bold: it's good stuff. The world will miss Platelet.

PLATELET! 

[Thad]

Upcoming Batman comics revealed at NYCC.

Dini's off Detective Comics (which will become Batwoman's book for the time being), but they say he'll be working on at least one of the new books, and, well, given that there's one called Gotham City Sirens coming out that DiDio says will feature Catwoman, Harley, and Ivy -- well, it doesn't take the World's Greatest Detective to figure that one out.

[Arc]

Dark Knight breaks billion dollar box office mark.

This is the most important news since November 4th, 2008.

[Büge]

Oh. They re-released it. I thought it just took four months to finish adding up the money.

[Thad]

Dini's off Detective Comics (which will become Batwoman's book for the time being), but they say he'll be working on at least one of the new books, and, well, given that there's one called Gotham City Sirens coming out that DiDio says will feature Catwoman, Harley, and Ivy -- well, it doesn't take the World's Greatest Detective to figure that one out.

The other one revealed at WonderCon as Streets of Gotham.

Dini said that he’s still breaking down what will be in the books, saying that Streets will take place all over Gotham City and involve a lot of people – from cops to citizens to other super heroes and villains, anyone who has a connection to Batman, but don’t know who Batman is. Their perceptions will offer a different view of the character than has been seen.

“You only know Batman as much as the people he confronts know him,” Dini said of the book’s approach. Dustin Nguyen will illustrate Streets of Gotham.

Sounds good -- as you all know by now, I love street-level stories.

Asked if Commissioner Gordon will play a role in Streets of Gotham? Dini: “Yep.”

Oh, I LOVE me a good Dini Gordon story.

MEANWHILE: Nrama interviews B:TB&TB producer James Tucker.

Apparently, there is a musical episode coming up.

And speaking of Batman musicals, it turns out Tucker was the director of Out of the Past, the best Batman Beyond episode EVER, which explains a hell of a lot actually.

[Disposable Ninja]

You know, I'm really hoping to see Power Girl or one the Shazam crew in an episode of B&TB. I just like their outfits.

Or Oracle. That would just be an interesting episode period.