BATMAN
November 14, 2009 | Posted by Chris Sims
–Batman #15
Categories: The Many Emotions of Batman | 
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November 14, 2009 | Posted by Chris Sims Sponsor
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November 14, 2009 | Posted by Chris Sims
*ahem*
http://tabletopfetus.com/fdx-batguns.jpg
Well, there goes my childhood.
Taking bets here: dream, trick, or imaginary tale?
Meanwhile, Batman’s obscure but likewise badass contemporary The Phantom (whom Australians love) manages to not use firearms and maintain his badassery despite his comic being published in the Australian Women’s Weekly back in the day.
Because The Phantom a family man, things were different back then.
the Phantom uses handguns all the time in his newspaper strip…
The .50 cal is an awesome weapon that Batman routinely mounts on his various planes, motorcycles, etc, so I’m not sure why it’s so unnerving to see him with his hands actually firing one.
Isn’t the Phantom a, like, remnant from the Colonial era and is like a white guy running around Africa telling people there what to do? Or am I thinking of the wrong phantom?
I find it funny that thanks to the History Channel, I know what that little canister below the barrel is for.
@Rusty – Shouldn’t the cation in the lower right-hand corner read “BAT-a-tat-tat”?
probably, it was 2006 when I did that and Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story” was in heavy rotation. Also I wore an onion on my belt as was the fashion of the time.
“Rubber Bullets.
Honest.”
The only thing that could make this panel any better would be, while Batman’s leaning on the hammers and laughing like an open drain, having Alfred pissing on the barrel to stop it melting.
And Seth, BAT-a-tat-tat is genius.
[IMG]http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u51/The_Mutt_pics/Batmangodddamnit.jpg[/IMG]
Gosh darnit!
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u51/The_Mutt_pics/Batmangodddamnit.jpg
it might be bullets going in, but it looks like a laser beam shooting out. so, it’s totally ok for Batman to use a laser
It was the 40s. Back then, everyone was mowing down Bad Guys with a machine gun.
“Eat Lead, Bedouin Thugs!”
“the Phantom uses handguns all the time in his newspaper strip…”
But he shoots to wound, not kill. To have the Phantom as your direct executioner, you really have to cross the line. Modern writers won’t remember that, however, and I don’t recall a story where the current Phantom (a few of his ancestors, including one DC story that I remember, but even then it was rare) was ever forced to make that call.
I promise you it’s impossible to only wound someone with a 50 cal. That thing destroys whatever it hits and it sends rounds everywhere.
Judging by the comments here, Batman’s not the only one excited to see the hot well-oiled action of a machine gun in use.
This is just how Batman likes to ring in the New Year, all on the rooftop of GCPD headquarters, outlining the bat-symbol on the side of a dirigible…
1943? Batman makes an exception for Nazis. And who could blame him?
In the current storyline the Phantom’s doing, he’s all angsty because someone killed his wife and he knows that if he goes to confront this guy then he’s going to shoot him.
The guy is named Chatu (or the Python) and he had his henchmen blow up an entire building full of people to kill the Phantom’s wife, and he did this from prison. He really hates the Phantom.
To clarify, the Phantom knows that he will shoot Chatu if he goes to the prison to confront him.
This WAS ’43, so he was probably fighting Nazis.
Even the anti-gun Batman is okay with shooting Nazis.
…And possibly Japanese soldiers. It was a troubled time.
If mass fire-bombing of civilian targets, illegal submarine warfare, and concentration camps have taught us anything, it’s that compromising your moral principles is totally okay if you win. :3
When a howling pack of Krauts are running at you up a French hill with bayonets fixed you’d be surprised how one’s moral code suddenly doesn’t seem so ironclad anymore.
Uh, thats 1914 tactics, not the other one. Anybody notice how, judging from the smoke and capes, the gun is expelling wind in all directions?
I always liked Chuck Dixon’s take on Batman’s attutude toward firearms. In Nightwing it showed a flashback to Batman teaching Robin how to fire a gun. Robin called him on the fact that he hated guns, to which his reply was, “Yes, but I’m not afraid of guns.”
He doesn’t like them but he knows that he deals with them every day in the hands of people who rely upon them for courage and he would have to be a complete moron not to recognize that some day he might need to know how to fire one (or even practice throwing them) when they are the second most common thing he will encounter in his line of work.
I spat beer on my keyboard again, you would think I would remember not to take a mouthful before clicking on a Sims link.
It ain’t a .50 cal. That’s a Vickers MMG, a British world war one era machine gun that was also used in world war two.
How interesting that Batman prefers British guns… I guess even he knows about the Vickie’s AK-47 like reliability. :P