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Old 11-29-2017, 11:42 PM   #312
Disco King
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Sounds pretty interesting. Yeah, I also find that stories often introduce sociopolitical issues without really giving them more than a cursory exploration. Kind of just stick to the status quo, and don't have the hero question their own ideals all that much. I checked out Detective Comics when Manapul and Buccellato were on it, because the art was phenomenal, but I quit after a couple of storylines because they were pretty dull. One of them had riots break out after a cop mistakenly shot a youth, but then it turns out that the rioters are all being mind-controlled as part of some villain's plan who doesn't even care about the police shooting, it's just part of his convoluted scheme to exact revenge on some other villain. By having that sort of plot development, you can put a hot topic like police brutality and state violence in your story, without ever having to make any kind of meaningful statement on it because the story isn't really addressing it at all. There's no moral complexity because it's just "lol, the villain isn't a real anarchist, he's just a bad guy, so we don't have to deal with the philosophy of anarchism; the rioters aren't really rioters, they're just mind-controlled, so we don't have to deal with the topic of civil unrest; the cop isn't really mishandling his power, it was just an accident, so we don't have to deal with the idea of abuse of authority." To top it all off, the story has Alfred get on a megaphone and tell all the rioters to stop and to obey authority, pretty much making him the stand-in for the white rich guy who tells disadvantaged people they should communicate their displeasure in ways the people who are oppressing them are comfortable with. The story does nothing to challenge this or offer an alternative point of view. Pretty uninspired, safe writing that's sure to offend nobody.

Interesting bit of trivia: the character Anarky was originally introduced to eventually become Batman's new Robin after Jason Todd died. The creators (Grant and Breyfogle) didn't know that SC already had plans to introduce a new Robin, Tin Drake. It's interesting to think of what could have been, if Batman took on a young anarchist as his partner, and they over time learned from each other and evolved their perspectives by challenging each other.

 
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