Ask Chris #19: Manga Recommendations and How To Make a Batman
July 30, 2010 | Posted by Chris Sims
It’s the first Post-San Diego installment of my weekly Q&A column, and this time out, I shockingly write a thousand words about the purity of Batman’s origin story and how small changes affect the metaphor.
I also recommend a handful of manga series to interested parties, and if you happen to be among them, here’s a handy way to pick up the ones I talk about:
You may notice that while it gets a mention in the article, there’s no link to purchase Love Hina. And that is because I don’t hate you all.
Well, most of you.
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12 Comments »
“And that is because I don’t hate you all”
At first I was like :D
“Well, most of you”
And then I was like D:
A most excellent discussion on Batman’s origins. I think it also applies to the Punisher, and was part of the reason the movie was terrible. From the story perspective, for the character to work best, it doesn’t matter what criminal killed their families. As you put it, Crime (with a capital “c”) killed their families, and that’s what’s important. It’s not about the criminal, it’s about the crime.
Or, for you kids today: they don’t hate the playas; they hate the game.
I agree with you completely that Batman should not be responsible for his parents’ death, but I don’t have a problem with the odd story in which he *feels* responsible, because he asked his mother to wear her pearls, or in the tweaked movie origin where he gets freaked out by the bats in Die Fleidermaus. It’s not that he in any way caused his parents to be robbed and killed, it’s survivor’s guild, irrationally blaming himself like any child who survives his parents’ murder like that would. Of course, that has to just be a small part of his motivation. Joe Chill (or his nameless equivalent) are responsible, and his rational mind (such as it is) recognizes that. He has to, or else Bruce Wayne would have probably stuck a gun in his mouth decades ago instead of dedicating himself to fighting crime.
If I remember my remedial comics math:
Project A-ko = Dan Slott She-Hulk(Dan Slott) + Archie
Sounds like primordial Chris Sims to me.
Apologies, I added an extra Dan Slott into the equation. My bad.
But I don’t think Batman should feel responsible. Like I say in this week’s column, I think it muddles the point and turns his motivation into guilt rather than altruism, which diminishes it.
It works either way — I like Batman Begins just fine and I’m all about the Morrison run even with the readdition of Lew Moxon and Joe Chill — but I prefer it to be a matter of random chance leading to “no one can go through this again” rather than one of survivor’s guilt and “I must have my vengeance on crime.”
Project A-Ko is Superman and Wonder Woman’s daughter going to school in Japan.
I don’t think Batman having moments/flashbacks where he feels responsible for the attack or thinks of ways he could have changed things automatically changes his motivation. Anybody in that position is going to have moments of survivor’s guilt; it doesn’t have to define their life just because it’s there.
I shall reiterate that Urasawa’s other works, 20th Century Boys and Monster, are quite excellent, and you should read them.
And such is Sims’s respect for my opinion that upon reading that, I am positive that he shall go out and purchase them forthwith.
The only thing that can screw up Batman’s origin is if he made a promise as a child to catch his parents killer, but was forced to live in a bathhouse after forgetting that promise with six criminals, one of which may or may not have been the murderer of his folks. With “sexy” escapades abound.
Yes, I am bitter.
You prove once again to be the world’s foremost Batmanologist.
I agree with you on all points, except for the fact that I like Joe Chill being identified (and later confronted by Batman), maybe it’s just me because it’s been part of his mythology for such a long time now as well. Joe Chill wasn’t even a super-villain (one of several un-Batmanish things about the Tim Burton movie), just a regular hood, and as you say, it was SENSELESS. The story where Batman reveals his identity to Joe Chill is awesome. His response isn’t to punish (i.e. kill) Chill any more than another villain, but he shows Chill what his actions have led to, the creation of the world’s greatest crime fighter and the scourge of Chill’s kind.
Plenty of bad revisions to Batman’s origin, like rock ‘n roll being evil (ugh). The supreme example of this to me was not so long ago when it was revised so that Joe Chill wasn’t the murderer and Batman could also be on a never-ending crusade to discover who really killed his parents. I can see the attraction in this idea as whoever came up with it wanted to add a continual personal mystery subplot for Batman to drive towards, but it just dimishes him as a character for the reasons you say.
Hi Chris, long time reader. I got to say that I´ve bought a lot of comics based on your recomendation, loved to read your manga recomendations(ive already read Pluto and yes, its very good)
Have you read Phoenix, from Tezuka, Its 12 volumes, going from historical manga, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic stories and so on, that manga is awesome
And I loved Apollo’s Song, also from Tezuka, but I don’t know if you are into sci-fi love stories
Thanks Chris, and if you excuse me, im going to add Yotsuba to my amazon cart