tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post8250916081116818175..comments2024-02-22T02:31:34.108+00:00Comments on Too Busy Thinking About My Comics: On One Single Panel In Batman Incorporated #8Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-2134285958091798252013-05-16T16:16:35.065+01:002013-05-16T16:16:35.065+01:00Hello Jeremy:- Thank you for being a splendidly go...Hello Jeremy:- Thank you for being a splendidly good egg about our taking different positions here. Yes, I do find the idea of torture as an everyday marker of heroism a pernicious business, and the idea of it being funny even more problematical. It is always something that characters such as Batman and Daredevil need to be used to discuss, of course. When there's some kind of debate about that on show, I'm all for it. When there isn't, it all comes too close to the "human rights serve the cause of evil" school of thought. <br /><br />Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-3013963508663815552013-05-16T14:59:04.902+01:002013-05-16T14:59:04.902+01:00Hey, I get it, my man. Everybody has their own lin...Hey, I get it, my man. Everybody has their own line for this comic book things. I still remember you were pretty upset about that one time with Batman holding Prosperous Rex over the side of his speeding motorcycle, when for me it was kinda business as usual for Batman, always striking fear in the hearts of criminals with his scary presentation and the threat of violence(and often times, actual violence). Jeremyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12219137212221355997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-1746609909085148802013-05-16T08:21:02.861+01:002013-05-16T08:21:02.861+01:00Hello Jeremy:- I do think there's a vital dist...Hello Jeremy:- I do think there's a vital distinction between a scene showing the graphic disembowelment of a ten year old boy and that of a grown super-woman. I'd also suggest that both the context and depiction of Elektra's death was far less prurient. In fact, I can't help but think it's amazing that the slaughter of Robin was even more graphic than that Elektra's end. Yet as you say, it could've been far worse.<br /><br />I would have agreed with you about Morrison's Batman prior to this particular issue. I fear I'm finding it hard to retain my admiration for the run now.<br /><br />But, horses for courses etc etc. Just because I hold this opinion doesn't mean that I have the slightest problem with being very much in the minority here. Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-44182389775900916612013-05-16T04:27:46.991+01:002013-05-16T04:27:46.991+01:00This is actually the edited version of the death, ...This is actually the edited version of the death, it was actually a bit more gruesome originally<br /><br />http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/14/how-the-end-of-batman-inc-8-was-changed/<br /><br />As for the image itself, I'm no more repulsed by it's "pointlessness" than I am by Bullseye running through Elektra. Then again, I don't read any other Nu52 books, so I don't have that same perspective as you, just one more drop of blood in a violent ocean. As far as I'm concerned, Morrison's DCU is the only DCU I care about. Jeremyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12219137212221355997noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-32597133084485541582013-05-14T16:32:18.946+01:002013-05-14T16:32:18.946+01:00Hello Flying Tiger:- Though I can't recall hav...Hello Flying Tiger:- Though I can't recall having seen the death of Bwana Beast in the B&b, I do entirely agree with your point. I have little patience with the grim'n'gritty school of comicbook death, although there are exceptions to the rule. But even as with the death of Lightning Lad back in the early 60s, a lighter touch can bring a far greater degree of pathos.Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-15189291530320347102013-05-14T12:29:23.851+01:002013-05-14T12:29:23.851+01:00I compare this death to Chill of the Night from Br...I compare this death to Chill of the Night from Brave and Bold toon.<br /><br />It is possible to tastefully cover extremely serious issues and even meaningful character death.<br /><br />kid batman's demise compares unfavourably with the cartoon passing of Bwana Beast.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04355521785297533930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-65680354444277817262013-03-05T09:48:28.285+00:002013-03-05T09:48:28.285+00:00Hello Sergeant Hartman:- Absolutely. I just don...Hello Sergeant Hartman:- Absolutely. I just don't think that Morrison would do that. I don't think he needs to. I think he might play with the conventions of comic book deaths, or satirise the market's apparent desire for SHOCK, or the Nu52 obsession with spectacle ... but not death for a sales kick. Morrison just wouldn't do that, I really believe that.<br /><br />Damian may just return in the next issue of BI. If Morrison is playing with convention, then an immediate return would really screw with the strategy of the long-delayed, much-hyped return. I certainly suspect that a form of Damian who gets to grow up - for awhile, at least - free of either of his parent's influence is on the cards.<br /><br />But then, what do I know?Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-47229019481295114142013-03-05T02:26:56.220+00:002013-03-05T02:26:56.220+00:00I agree that Morrison doesn't seem like the ty...I agree that Morrison doesn't seem like the type of writer who would kill a character off just for the sake of a short-term sales boost. Turning Damian's death into a media frenzy was no doubt engineered by the higher ups at DC.<br /><br />By this time next year, it wouldn't surprise me if Damian makes his return in a special polybagged issue with multiple covers each with a different set of trading cards. :)Sergeant Hartmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-33534856765666589322013-03-04T09:30:20.903+00:002013-03-04T09:30:20.903+00:00Hello Martin:- Sorry if cats were let escape from ...Hello Martin:- Sorry if cats were let escape from the bag there! I'm sure you found those issues abandoned at a railway station, left in a bus or thrown beside a golf course anyway ...<br /><br />... and I am strangely looking forward to reading them :)Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-46748235898453427662013-03-04T01:11:51.385+00:002013-03-04T01:11:51.385+00:00Psssst! I'm publicly pretending to have droppe...Psssst! I'm publicly pretending to have dropped this after #1! Oh well, hello world. I'm dropping it after #5. Obviously. Martin Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09574149543260175962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-37488551078429592402013-03-03T23:37:05.685+00:002013-03-03T23:37:05.685+00:00Hello Vik!:- I hope you see my reply here and don&...Hello Vik!:- I hope you see my reply here and don't think I've ignored you. Please don't worry about sounding stilted etc That's the nature of talking in comments, isn't it, and adapting and refining ideas as we go is one of the advantages of the form. <br /><br />I do agree with you about the experiment of the 20 panel page. I believe that the issue was produced Marvel-style - as was in the High Sixties - so it's even difficult - IF that's right - to know quite what the division of responsibility was here.<br /><br />But I agree that there is a strange mix of humour and horror there. I think the two things clash partially because of the fact that Damian is a child. A very young child. The scene relies upon us loving him, and yet at the same time, there's a sense that we're not to take things too seriously, as if we're being told that this is all just part of the super-book's cycle of death and rebirth. But that leaves confusion rather than a well-judged sense of ironic distance. When it comes to deaths of well-loved characters, and in particular those who are nippers, the irony - or whatever it's supposed to be - creates not questions so much as fatal contradictions. The issue falls apart if we don't care, and yet there are times I look at that sequence and think that we're also being told it's all a game. The very presence of such complications seems to me to suggest that this is a scene which hasn't been well-constructed.<br /><br />Or so I've struggled with it. I'm not claiming that's an objective reading.<br /><br />As for 'Kid' Loki's death in Journey Into Mystery - be careful, it really IS a gut-wrenching experience. I'd advise you to start at the beginning of Kieron Gillen's run on the series and stick with it. It really does work like a novel, and each step counts for something in the end. Good luck with it!Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-37935269401804706942013-03-03T23:27:38.854+00:002013-03-03T23:27:38.854+00:00Sorry; that should be "Are "awesome"...Sorry; that should be "Are "awesome" .... rather than "Is "awesome" ... <br /><br />I don't dare delete and repost for fear that other comments, such as yours, will be removed too. But that mistake did read BADLY. Pah and sigh ...Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-76757280179109297672013-03-03T23:25:21.773+00:002013-03-03T23:25:21.773+00:00Hello Andrew:- We might quibble about the interpre...Hello Andrew:- We might quibble about the interpretation, but having had my say in the above, and lots of replies too, it would seem to me to be bad grace to stamp my old feet and say "That is weird! You're wrong!" With my interpretation out there, I'm interested to see other folks see things.<br /><br />I will emphasise that my piece above focused on one particular shot. As such, I'm not considering in context beyond my interpretation of Damian's "Mother. Call your dog off" line just before he's skewered. (I don't have a copy with me as I type this, so forgive me for the paraphrasing.) And that one shot, which the scans above are of, is in itself - and in my opinion - one that I find deeply worrying. It doesn't seem to me to tell us anything that an off-panel event would, which means, with its 10 year subject ..... ah, but there I go again, when I said I wouldn't. Mea culpa. <br /><br />I'm not sure there is such a thing as misinterpretation when it comes to art. There may be different cases, and each has the responsibility, if its holders choose to, to try to make the best case. And I certainly see what you mean about Damian's defiance. I wouldn't disagree with that at all. It's just that I'm disturbed by the context, and lack of it, in the scene, and you're not. Bless you for expressing that difference, and doing so with such precision and friendliness. <br /><br />I'm not sure what the scale of gruesomosity is!! How much gruesomosity does it take to earn "iconic" status, and what are the grades below that? Is "awesome" and "cool" below "iconic"?<br /><br />As you imply, these are strange, strange ways of looking at the world :)Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-42043025112578659682013-03-03T22:24:17.829+00:002013-03-03T22:24:17.829+00:00Ah, I didn't mean to attribute something to yo...Ah, I didn't mean to attribute something to you that you didn't actually put forth (my Jason Todd/Elektra line)--I'm sorry. It was a reactionary paragraph to your mention of those reviewers who compared the death to other major comic book deaths. <br /><br />(It's weird, commenting here makes me a bit apprehensive. I start off with an off-the-cuff thought or reaction, and then I try to grow and refine it, and I still end up coming off as stilted. Stilted and impolite! I know I'm over-thinking things.)<br /><br />I totally agree with you: while the sequence will be placed in context next issue, it shouldn't have to be. <br /><br />And thank you for reminding me about the Bane homage! I remember feeling that the panel was significant but I think I just glossed over most of that page on subsequent rereads, focusing more on the arrow-piercing and pleading parts. I opened the comic to that page just now and even managed to miss it again. <br /><br />I don't know what to make of the entire page. There are 20 irregular panels with most balloons holding short single words. Are Morrison/Burnham hurrying us through it? Did they want us to go through that entire sequence quickly, so that we could be met with the impalement? Maybe that was the only "tasteful" way they could get to the climax, as a more protracted sequence would be even more unnerving.<br /><br />The pages seems to be drafted with... levity? The aforementioned Bane panel, the "Fall!" panel, the panel following "NNAOW!" and and the two panels featuring Ellie give me a sense that Damian might not actually die. I look at the child with his legs wrapped around his foe, punching him in the head, the child with his arms raised against someone twice as big as him, and the idea that the same child will die a page later seems ridiculous. Ellie contributes to that sentiment by looking absolutely gnomish in that first panel, like a cartoon. The sequence of panels where Damian spits into his foe's face set me towards thinking that Damian will ultimately meet his end--and then Ellie's expression--lip bit as if wincing, yet not looking away--reels me back in. And then the last group of panels on the page sets me right back towards thinking that Damian will die. I must be reading it wrong.<br /><br />I've read a lot of good things, here and elsewhere, about Kieron Gillen's Journey Into Mystery. I will read it. Vik Gillhttp://wondersaremany.tumblr.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-15505585431243220422013-03-03T21:49:10.823+00:002013-03-03T21:49:10.823+00:00Colin, maybe this is a weird interpretation, but I...Colin, maybe this is a weird interpretation, but I actually read Damian's death as him being defiant to the end. Particularly, with the Bane homage, as Leviathan (I think that's the character's name? Or is that just the organization?) demands he "break," only for Damian to simply reply, "No." The entire sequence consists of Damian either ordering his mother ("Stop! Fighting! Father!") or berating her lackeys/his monstrous twin (referring to them as "Cowards"), and he never stops fighting back (I've likened it to Robert Shaw's death in Jaws). Even when he calls for his mother, Damian does so not in a pleading manner, but in a demanding one ("...Call him off at once..."), which has been a core part of his character.<br /><br />It didn't even occur to me until reading your essay that Damian might have been portrayed as helpless (though the eyes in that panel do support that reading). This may be because of the overall tone of the book, celebrating Damian and Robin in general (which makes "The Boy Wonder Returns" an apt title for the issue as well as an ironic one), and his stubbornness in the panels leading up to his death; or it could be I misinterpreted the whole thing.<br /><br />P.S.: I'm also scratching my head about those fans and critics who say this wasn't "gruesome enough." What measurement is there for such a thing? Is it in metric or US customary?Andrew Taylorhttp://leftinflyovercountry.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-72281094743183825572013-03-03T20:02:43.529+00:002013-03-03T20:02:43.529+00:00Hello Brigonos:- I don't think of it as derail...Hello Brigonos:- I don't think of it as derailing. I consider it "re-contextualising". And a splendid recontextualist you are too.<br /><br />I have to say, I'm quite a fan of Star Trek. Dump all but 2 episodes of Voyager and most of Enterprise before the fourth series and I'm quite alot of a fan. Not a cosplay level fan, but I've as much of a regard for it as I have for, say, Doctor Who.<br /><br />And any recontextualising you care to add which nudges me off in that direction is fine. Mind you, I can't say I'm a great admirer of either TSC or TDOTD. But they still bear key traces of heavy Trekosity.Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-65078594820309699822013-03-03T18:55:08.564+00:002013-03-03T18:55:08.564+00:00I am a bit disappointed that I have somewhat derai...I am a bit disappointed that I have somewhat derailed the comments, Colin - when I derail your comments section I usually like to do so by making the conversation about Star Trek. Erm... if anyone asks, just say I was banging on about The Savage Curtain or The Day of the Dove episodes of TOS, I mean they're pretty much the same premise as Avengers Arena and I have my reputation to think of.Brigonoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05284882511370405132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-10105331438522585202013-03-03T12:19:22.910+00:002013-03-03T12:19:22.910+00:00Hello Sergeant Hartman:- That's good stuff fro...Hello Sergeant Hartman:- That's good stuff from Sean T Collins, isn't it? I wish I'd written that instead ...<br /><br />I do understand your concerns about the corporation's cynicism. Yet Damian has been a sales success and I doubt DC would kill such a character off. Even given that the general public associates Robin with Dick Grayson, that's not how the Nu52 chose to go. By which I mean, so much that the Nu52 does makes sense only in terms of a fusion of incompetence and self-interest. Yet getting rid of Damian would seem only to make sense in terms of the former. And any short term spike in BI's sales would surely be undermined by the long-term loses of having Damian taken off the board.<br /><br />I also can't see Grant Morrison going along with any editorial desire for SHOCK and COLUMN INCHES. This is, after all, a writer who many sources suggest hasn't had very much to do with the Nu52 at all, and even to the degree that he doesn't seem to have told the powers that be what he's up to. So in that sense, I think that this was a Morrison project, and that may be one of the problems. Because if Damian's death had existed seperate from the context of the Nu52, it might be read differently. But its hard for the reader to see BI and its SHOCK as existing in a different context to the Nu52. Perhaps it would all have read if Morrison wasn't working in the hacked-together DCU that he is.<br /><br />I too have been won over by Damian. If there's one thing I regret, it's less the character's death and more the way it was done. Just as I appreciate how Kieron Gillen had used the death of Kid Loki to talk about the fear of dying in a purposeless universe, I'd have appreciated it if Damian's death was about something more that, well, Damian's death.<br /><br />But who knows? The next issue may well see a grandstanding reverse. A Lazarus Pit that turns Damian into a super-villain, or returns him to a sense of innocence where neither Talia or Bruce's influence remains? Some kind of clone-to-clone mind transference, or another clone-Damian to promise future boyish super-heroics? After all, if Morrison doesn't do it, then there's the threat of some idiot making a hash of the project.<br /><br />And of course, it will happen. Only Uncle Ben stays dead forever.Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-53682449035981189542013-03-03T11:45:49.958+00:002013-03-03T11:45:49.958+00:00Hello Lorrie:- Well, thank you for saying so :) Th...Hello Lorrie:- Well, thank you for saying so :) This blog hasn't been, shall I say, too warmly received in certain quarters either. I've even heard of folks who've been kind enough to post a link to it on Facebook receiving less-than-pleasant responses. Which strikes me as a bit daft. But there does appear to be a group of fans who associate the very idea of questioning such scenes with ... well, a host of things, from emasculation to censorship. Odd times.<br /><br />Comments are, however, always warmly received here at TooBusyThinking. Well, apart from the aggressive, ill-reasoned ones, which get hit by the 'delete' button every time :) <br /><br />Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-82721554375066009452013-03-03T11:33:40.852+00:002013-03-03T11:33:40.852+00:00Hello Brigonos:- Martin Gray of the splendid TooDa...Hello Brigonos:- Martin Gray of the splendid TooDangerousForAGirl blog has offered to send some Avengers Arena in my direction now that they've passed their use-by date when it comes to reviews. I'm very much looking forward to reading them. <br /><br />Is there really "an 11 year-old girl version of Deathlok"? It sounds TERRIBLE. Yet I seem to remember thinking that when I was first told about Kid Loki, and, how can I put it, I was REALLY wrong there.Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-64980826281352946392013-03-03T11:28:08.444+00:002013-03-03T11:28:08.444+00:00Hello Vik:- I did try not to speculate on Morrison...Hello Vik:- I did try not to speculate on Morrison and Burnham's motivation in the above post. It was the response of reviewers which interested me. I have chin-stroked about that in the above, but I hope I've never said that I knew the answer. Indeed, the problem with the panel is that it's hard to grasp what the point of the scene actually is, which means that it's the violence of it all which stands out. However, there are aspects of the sequence which make it seem as if Morrison and Burnham are commenting on previous comicbook deaths, or SHOCK moments, such as the Miller ninja-arrows, the homage to Bane breaking Batman's back and so on. What these mean is hard to say. Are they part of a commentary on comicbook deaths. Irony, satire, homage, self-indulgence? I don't know. What I am sure of is that if either Morrison and Burnham were out to out-gross the competition - and I don't think they were - then they'd produce something far more appalling. This scene does, as you say, focus on Damian's youth and suffering. To my mind, it's a cruel miscalculation, but not something deliberately more-gross-than-thou. In that, it's not the scene itself, but the context, or lack of it, which for me damns it.<br /><br />And I do have a strong suspicion too that it'll all be placed in context next issue. My objection to the possibility of the murder scene relying on other issues for its context remains the same, however.<br /><br />Finally, I agree with you that less, and a great deal less, could function as more in today's market of SHOCK!!! And given that most extreme developments in pop culture tend to provoke a counter-reaction, I suspect that it won't be too long in arriving. Indeed, the lack of blood and the excess of feeling in Kid Loki's terrible end surely shows that all that SHOCK does little good on its own, no matter how extreme it might be.Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-68331640654174468252013-03-03T02:51:48.802+00:002013-03-03T02:51:48.802+00:00Here's what Sean T. Collins had to say about D...Here's what Sean T. Collins had to say about Damian's Death:<br /><br />"If we were to take a look at the coroner’s report, we’d no doubt find “franchise maintenance” listed under “Cause of Death.” <br /><br />"It’s tough to imagine “Batman as dad, Robin as his son” taking off in the public imagination to the extent it could be used as the backbone for a blockbuster film, or even an animated series. “Batdad,” as an image and as a set of ideas about that character, simply doesn’t square with his pop-culture profile as an avatar of terrifyingly badass hypercompetence and black-clad angst."<br /><br />He makes an excellent point about franchise maintenance. The majority of non-comic book readers aren't familiar with Damian and typically associate the role of Robin with either Dick Grayson or Tim Drake. Being the hardened cynic that I am, I can't help but feel that this is just another in a long line of shameless gimmicks that DC has been employing to counteract their declining sales, and it apparently worked considering that Batman Inc #8 is already on its second printing. <br /><br />With that being said, I hated Damian when he was first introduced, but over time the little punk grew on me and I was very saddened by his death. I know that Bruce is going to come under heavy criticism for having another dead Robin on his head, but honestly, he didn't really have a lot of good options when it came to Damian. He wasn't aware of his existence until the boy was ten years old, and by that time the League of Assassins had forged him into a terrifyingly efficient killing machine. If there's anything Bruce can take solace in its that under his guidance, Damian forsook his upbringing and saved a lot of lives during his tenure as Robin.Sergeant Hartmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-23148690357779139802013-03-03T01:42:11.151+00:002013-03-03T01:42:11.151+00:00Thank you for addressing something that had been b...Thank you for addressing something that had been bothering me. On a forum elsewhere, I mentioned that I thought it was odd that no one was even questioning whether such a brutal on-panel murder of a young child in a mainstream superhero comic was going too far, even in a genre that now has titles solely devoted to killing off young characters. My comment was not warmly received.Lorriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16799438375116101818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-43699833529739152392013-03-02T23:35:21.353+00:002013-03-02T23:35:21.353+00:00Pah! Good luck making those patents stick when my...Pah! Good luck making those patents stick when my blood is 50 percent Guinness.<br /><br />I would definately say that Avengers Arena is worth checking out, but more because it's a real state-of-the-union title for Marvel as a creative entity because they admit as much in their first round of PR that it started off as a frustrated joke about how they just couldn't seem to make teen titles that sell worth a damn and a title that was being talked about for its own sake was now the best they could hope for - though Waid's name is notable for its absence from proceedings, as he hasn't been so much as name-checked in the title. I have a suspicion he just thought the book having an 11 year-old girl version of Deathlok was a bit silly.Brigonoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05284882511370405132noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-21798046672133371282013-03-02T20:26:44.757+00:002013-03-02T20:26:44.757+00:00It does feel a bit unnerving how much of a spectac...It does feel a bit unnerving how much of a spectacle a 10 year old boy's death became. He's riddled with arrows, he's pleading for his mother, he's /helpless/ in the panel-climax above, and then Batman's holding his body in a way that's reserved for such spectacle-deaths. And DC's going to the major news outlets and advertising the death as the issue's selling point--as if you needed any more proof that they've adopted a "bread-and-circuses" mentality in attempting to satisfy its readers!--<br /><br />--maybe that last part was a bit much. My major sentiment still stands.<br /><br />You've pointed out that Damian is undeniably a 10 year old child in the panel above--he has "child's hands," a child's build, a child's expression... I don't think the Morrison/Burnham team ultimately drafted the panel-climax in such a way as to one-up Jason Todd's death or Elektra's death or... etc., but to emphasize that he's a /boy/. I'd like to think they're aware of the terrible implications behind a panel like that and chose to use it for some other, more significant end than the spectacle of it. I'd like to think they'll "redeem" themselves somehow, next issue.<br /><br />Unrelated aside: you wrote an article a while ago about The War That Time Forgot and it made me think: I wonder how major deaths like this one would be handled if they were a transient sort of "don't pay attention and you'll miss it" thing. A hero dies but we don't really realize it until long after it's happened--in 2013 that'd be extremely horrifying.Vik Gillhttp://wondersaremany.tumblr.com/noreply@blogger.com