Post by Jack Napier on May 17, 2008 16:14:48 GMT -5
The interview is old, but I'd like to discuss the idea in the following quote from Morrison...
forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=147734
A couple weeks ago, I finally bought the TPB of Batman And Son and read it. I think it's really intriguing to think that all of the Batman stories out there are, to a certain extent, "legit" but aren't exactly what we think they are and that Morrison's comic book run is putting those stories in context.
Take, for example, the "Black Casebook" in which all the stories from the 50s or so, with the heavy science fiction elements of space aliens and time travel, may have been hallucinations brought on by too much contact with the Joker's toxin, The Scarecrow's fear gas, and such. Certainly makes sense, doesn't it? After all, night after night without sleeping, as well as constant exposure to toxins like that, are bound to have some effect on you!
It also seems to, in a way, legitimize the "light" Batman, as a temporary period in which he finally found someone he could relate to and had to have the responsibility of raising this kid who also lost his parents and trying to have the kid keep the innocence that Bruce had lost.
And when Richard Grayson grew up and grew apart from Bruce, Bruce, alone again, went back to being the darker, grim Batman, as chronicled in the 1970s.
Now, I'm sure it doesn't entirely work for everything (i.e. Two-Face being Harvey Kent at one point, Alfred originally not being part of Bruce's childhood in the early comics), but I think this is a really cool idea that makes me look back at the early years in a different way. While it's scary to think that, according to Morrison, Batman started out at my age...you do kind of notice that Bruce Wayne looks pretty darn young in Detective Comics #27.
What do you think?
forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=147734
When I started this story, my first idea was, “What if all the Batman adventures from the 1930s until now were all part of one guy’s life, and he’s really gone through all this stuff, and it’s happened over the space of, say, 15 years, potentially?” To make it all work and still keep Batman at his peak, I settled on him being about 35 right now, so let’s say he’s been Batman since he was 19 or 20 years old.
Now try and imagine all that continuity squeezed into fifteen years. What you have is a guy who started his mission really well and was doing a great job, and then Robin comes along and that makes the job even better, the two of them start cleaning up the streets.
Then things begin to go a little bit wrong when Dick Grayson reaches college age and leaves. And then you have a succession of different Robins with disastrous results and consequences. You have the Joker’s paralyzing Barbara Gordon, you have Bane breaking Batman’s back, No Man’s Land…(laughs). All that’s supposed to have happened in the last few years of one man’s life!
So what would that do to your head? What we’re seeing now is kind of culmination of all these terrible things that have happened to him, and the fact that his mission has run into so many problems, and led to so many deaths. The psychological result of that will play directly into the storyline in the coming months, where we’ll get to see how Batman breaks down, and how he comes back from it…or not.
Now try and imagine all that continuity squeezed into fifteen years. What you have is a guy who started his mission really well and was doing a great job, and then Robin comes along and that makes the job even better, the two of them start cleaning up the streets.
Then things begin to go a little bit wrong when Dick Grayson reaches college age and leaves. And then you have a succession of different Robins with disastrous results and consequences. You have the Joker’s paralyzing Barbara Gordon, you have Bane breaking Batman’s back, No Man’s Land…(laughs). All that’s supposed to have happened in the last few years of one man’s life!
So what would that do to your head? What we’re seeing now is kind of culmination of all these terrible things that have happened to him, and the fact that his mission has run into so many problems, and led to so many deaths. The psychological result of that will play directly into the storyline in the coming months, where we’ll get to see how Batman breaks down, and how he comes back from it…or not.
A couple weeks ago, I finally bought the TPB of Batman And Son and read it. I think it's really intriguing to think that all of the Batman stories out there are, to a certain extent, "legit" but aren't exactly what we think they are and that Morrison's comic book run is putting those stories in context.
Take, for example, the "Black Casebook" in which all the stories from the 50s or so, with the heavy science fiction elements of space aliens and time travel, may have been hallucinations brought on by too much contact with the Joker's toxin, The Scarecrow's fear gas, and such. Certainly makes sense, doesn't it? After all, night after night without sleeping, as well as constant exposure to toxins like that, are bound to have some effect on you!
It also seems to, in a way, legitimize the "light" Batman, as a temporary period in which he finally found someone he could relate to and had to have the responsibility of raising this kid who also lost his parents and trying to have the kid keep the innocence that Bruce had lost.
And when Richard Grayson grew up and grew apart from Bruce, Bruce, alone again, went back to being the darker, grim Batman, as chronicled in the 1970s.
Now, I'm sure it doesn't entirely work for everything (i.e. Two-Face being Harvey Kent at one point, Alfred originally not being part of Bruce's childhood in the early comics), but I think this is a really cool idea that makes me look back at the early years in a different way. While it's scary to think that, according to Morrison, Batman started out at my age...you do kind of notice that Bruce Wayne looks pretty darn young in Detective Comics #27.
What do you think?
Karma for posting it! 
