currently going on a re-read-through of every bruce wayne appearance ever published, and also heavily procrastinating working on essays for my substack.
the thing about comic piracy discourse that i feel a lot of people misunderstand is that those of us who actually do use piracy to gain access to books that are out of print (and maybe even have been for decades), fanzines that cannot be printed but contain insider looks into the industry and the fandom surrounding a particular IP, and fan stories in the form of magazines, as well as newspaper comic strips with significance, are actually not kidding about just how many comics are inaccessible. there are even entire runs or issues you would think would be popular enough to be re-printed, but simply aren't.
so yes, when you see people who primarily have an interest in comic book history and the archival efforts of that history sound alarm bells, it actually is that serious
i hope that no matter what happens, people will always remember me as that weird batman fan who kept advocating for DC to let him smoke his pipe like he did back in the day
duke thomas spends 10+ years getting comics and growth and plot and hes "too new" and people "dont know him well enough". superboy prime gets five minutes of character development and hes suddenly a fan favorite getting shipped with every character under the sun. i hate this fandom.
would love to remind everyone that the world's greatest detective & strategist's plan to make arthur curry remember he was Aquaman, was to just dunk his head in a fish tank and hope for the best
trying to read a comic run and seeing a crossover event pop up, so you just kind of have to accept your fate and read the event otherwise the next few issues won't make sense
a character study of these two, and the big elephant in the room after secret six. i wanted to write a comic that properly captured both of their perspectives, and did not mention jon at all (because who gaf). takes place rough between issues 6 and 8 of Batman by Matt Fraction
i unironically like how bitter & sarcastic bruce is in these scenes. the alfred line is very obviously a joke, but it gives such a nice glimpse into the mind of someone stressed & teetering on the brink of mental decline, because a mental state like that is never pretty
it's a private moment, so bruce is less reserved about coming off wrong or choosing his words, and while he's definitely mean, it's just so unbelievably raw to me. gotham is on the edge of imploding essentially, a lot is hanging on his shoulders and he's trying his best to get them out of this situation, and here comes Alfred criticizing him for something unrelated. his first response is an annoyed and snappy retort & it's just so human to me. who hasn't snapped at someone while they were irritated ?
i also like this focus on infallibilty, because as people will recall, gotham war essentially happened because Bruce didn't calculate impossible circumstances, therefore i think it's accurate to see him hunker down on everyone being absolutely perfect, which alfred calls out.
bruce has this really repressive flaw of closing in on himself whenever he makes a mistake, and it is understandable considering lives Are on the line when he messes up, but constant perfectionism Is Damaging, to not only yourself, but also others, which is what happens between Bruce and Damian.
Confronted with his own meager understanding of what's happening in Gotham, Bruce snaps at Damian by telling him he 'knows nothing', when really it's projection. Bruce has very little idea on that Vandal is up to, everything bruce says to damian here can be applied to himself, in fact, i'd argue that the way he confronts Damian is the way he'd confront himself privately, which is what goes wrong here.
Damian did accidentally mess up, but Bruce confronts him with a level of strictness & cruelness he usually only reserves for himself when he messes up AS BATMAN. he also uses intimidation tactics he would use as batman, like punching the punching bag to make Damian focus on him. it's such a fascinating scene.
it's also not lost on me that Damian also learned this habit of beating himself up from his father, it also is probably a trait of their trade considering the high stakes they deal with all the time.
anyways back to bruce's mental state, what i really appreciate about both moments is that while we see Bruce lash out, be mean and irritated, you can still see his more rational self immediately regret those explosions of emotions,
of course, alfred acts as another alley of showcasing his subconscious thoughts. it shows us that while he does mess up with how he reacts, this anger doesn't define him and more importantly, he doesn't want it to define his relationship with damian, therefore he goes straight to making it up to his son
despite so much bad faith reading of these scenes i've seen out there, i'm glad they were included. i like it when my superheroes act human, and that includes snapping while being irritated and stressed, which is a common experience of parenthood i feel lmao !
anyways i just wanted to break down little moments of this conflict because i have so many other thoughts but i needed this out there because i'm very enamoured with how human bruce feels in this run
Yes. Bruce gets on Damian for being arrogant and entitled, and yet often acts like arrogance and entitlement are requirements for the job. What I mean by this is that the root of both arrogance and entitlement is confidence: If you are a hero, and you don't think you're good enough to be arrogant, and you don't feel entitled to the things you need to do your job, what fucking good are you?
Bruce's own "proper" upbringing and his notions of what makes a respectable gentleman actively clash with what hero life demands of your mental state. Like, humility is great. Up to a point. If you're too humble in this line of work you're no more than a doormat for the people who'd take advantage of that kindness, as we've seen happen to numerous heroes before. You need that spine.
Damian's arrogance and his entitlement are traits that do hinder him, often socially, but they also often shield him from the kind of pressure that would kill literally anyone else in his position. Save Duke and Steph, Damian is under far more scrutiny than any of the other robins. He gets treated like hes a time-bomb, waiting to turn evil at any moment. The fact he has a "ill show you!!" attitude is what has kept him from dying when no one else has his back because often, nobody does.
And Bruce should know what that feels like. Its his arrogance and entitlement that keeps Bruce able to walk amongst the people he does, the Gods and Mages of the world. But one of Bruce's big problems is that when he gets frustrated he forgets his empathy. Empathy is often treated like its innate (problematically, since this idea is often used to sanist ends), but it is often a learned skill, and learned skills are the first to fall out of you when you're under stress.
i unironically like how bitter & sarcastic bruce is in these scenes. the alfred line is very obviously a joke, but it gives such a nice glimpse into the mind of someone stressed & teetering on the brink of mental decline, because a mental state like that is never pretty
it's a private moment, so bruce is less reserved about coming off wrong or choosing his words, and while he's definitely mean, it's just so unbelievably raw to me. gotham is on the edge of imploding essentially, a lot is hanging on his shoulders and he's trying his best to get them out of this situation, and here comes Alfred criticizing him for something unrelated. his first response is an annoyed and snappy retort & it's just so human to me. who hasn't snapped at someone while they were irritated ?
i also like this focus on infallibilty, because as people will recall, gotham war essentially happened because Bruce didn't calculate impossible circumstances, therefore i think it's accurate to see him hunker down on everyone being absolutely perfect, which alfred calls out.
bruce has this really repressive flaw of closing in on himself whenever he makes a mistake, and it is understandable considering lives Are on the line when he messes up, but constant perfectionism Is Damaging, to not only yourself, but also others, which is what happens between Bruce and Damian.
Confronted with his own meager understanding of what's happening in Gotham, Bruce snaps at Damian by telling him he 'knows nothing', when really it's projection. Bruce has very little idea on that Vandal is up to, everything bruce says to damian here can be applied to himself, in fact, i'd argue that the way he confronts Damian is the way he'd confront himself privately, which is what goes wrong here.
Damian did accidentally mess up, but Bruce confronts him with a level of strictness & cruelness he usually only reserves for himself when he messes up AS BATMAN. he also uses intimidation tactics he would use as batman, like punching the punching bag to make Damian focus on him. it's such a fascinating scene.
it's also not lost on me that Damian also learned this habit of beating himself up from his father, it also is probably a trait of their trade considering the high stakes they deal with all the time.
anyways back to bruce's mental state, what i really appreciate about both moments is that while we see Bruce lash out, be mean and irritated, you can still see his more rational self immediately regret those explosions of emotions,
of course, alfred acts as another alley of showcasing his subconscious thoughts. it shows us that while he does mess up with how he reacts, this anger doesn't define him and more importantly, he doesn't want it to define his relationship with damian, therefore he goes straight to making it up to his son
despite so much bad faith reading of these scenes i've seen out there, i'm glad they were included. i like it when my superheroes act human, and that includes snapping while being irritated and stressed, which is a common experience of parenthood i feel lmao !
anyways i just wanted to break down little moments of this conflict because i have so many other thoughts but i needed this out there because i'm very enamoured with how human bruce feels in this run
people will look you in the eyes and say Bruce suggesting Damian go to college in Batman #3 and it leading to them having a little disagreement in the same scene is on the same level as full on child abuse because they are incapable of understanding that sometimes you just disagree on certain things.
he's not forcing damian to go to college. can we be serious? He's suggesting it as a way for Damian to expand on his desire to go into the medical field, especially because the focus lately has been about both bruce and damian keeping in touch with their civilian identities instead of repressing themselves into their vigilante roles. it's the exact opposite of child abuse, he's making sure his son knows he's able to pursue a life outside of crimefighting, is able to partake in socializing with people and experiencing as much of a normal life as he can give him.
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