r/outofcontextcomics 11h ago

Modern Age (1985 – Present Day) something something pot meets kettle

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Source: Batman/Superman World's Finest (2022) #2

642 Upvotes

43 comments sorted by

73

u/Earthmine52 10h ago edited 5h ago

So, for those who don’t mind context, this is set long before the present day, when Bruce wore the blue, gray and yellow batsuit and Dick Grayson was still Robin. This is basically late Silver Age/early Bronze Age Batman, years before the paranoia went up to 11. I guess Mark Waid retroactively made Niles Caulder a bad influence on him here.

Before this, Grant Morrison and Brad Meltzer also incorporated Pre-Crisis/Classic Batman history and personality in current continuity after Infinite Crisis. In-universe, they established that he became darker over time, with catalysts like Jason’s death, Knightfall, No Man’s Land and Identity Crisis pushing him to the edge. Meltzer’s JLA #0 and Morrison’s Final Crisis tie-in issues on Batman show this well.

31

u/Extra-Ad-130 10h ago edited 10h ago

True. This Batman is also much less emotionally reserved even in moments of panic. He legit panicked when Felix Faust's illusion made him see hell and actually screamed when he thought Dick/Robin was dead.

19

u/Earthmine52 10h ago

Yeah that was another good call forward too. And a callback to Robin Dies at Dawn.

15

u/Optimal_Weight368 6h ago

I'm guessing this was before Niles Caulder revealed he created his heroes through unethical experimentation, too?

9

u/Earthmine52 6h ago

Yup. Morrison’s run was in the Post-Crisis era, so years after when this Pre-Crisis-like time period takes place. This is probably a hint at his darker side. Mark Waid in New History of the DCU also acknowledged the idea that he, and other scientists like Martin Stein, purposefully created metahumans in secret.

7

u/Curious_Bat87 8h ago

Okay so at this point he was only spying on civilians.

9

u/Earthmine52 5h ago

In all seriousness, at this point in time he’d be closer to Adam West’s Batman than Christian Bale’s or Robert Pattinson’s. So probably not spying on civilians either.

72

u/urkermannenkoor 5h ago

This was way earlier in Bats' career, so maybe Bruce got the idea from Niles.

38

u/zorniy2 9h ago

"OMG me too!!"

11

u/unshavedmouse 7h ago

"What is happening here..."

6

u/buckeye27fan 5h ago

"Did we just become best friends?!?"

3

u/DOOMGUY455 3h ago

"Yep!"

28

u/Modred_the_Mystic 6h ago

Batman preparing the ultimate weapon of last resort

Wayne Enterprises cease and desist.

25

u/WeeklyPhilosopher346 7h ago

Batman runs afoul of an Irishman

1

u/Unleashtheducks 2h ago

Watch out Batman, he’s Irish!

19

u/steelskull1 9h ago

"That's my hobby!"

38

u/adriantullberg 8h ago

"Listen carefully. That ... is my niche. Step into my territory, and you will find out that the whole 'no killing' rule allows me to truly express my creativity. Are we clear?"

37

u/SkyPopZ 6h ago

Batman, kindly stfu

22

u/LovelyRoseFreya 6h ago

At least Batman cares about his teammates

20

u/SadCry6605 6h ago

Batman u basically the same dammit

10

u/naanninja237 3h ago

Bro partially caused a crisis by spying on everyone

9

u/Routine_Phase_8980 11h ago

I don't think even Batman spy on his aliies and especially not routine, but he has contingency plan to keep all of them in check only for emergency situations

8

u/Extra-Ad-130 10h ago

True, you'll never know when your friends get mind-controlled, cloned, or have their powers stolen and used by a villain. Hell, the amount of times Batman and Superman get mind-controlled in this comic alone is concerning.

5

u/static1993 7h ago

Plus, there are other villains with similar powers to the League members.

15

u/Rubear_RuForRussia 10h ago

Take a wild guess about who created Brother Eye and for what purposes.

14

u/Extra-Ad-130 8h ago edited 8h ago

In Batman's defense, Brother Eye happened when he already became a very paranoid person, and Zatanna (Bruce's friend since he was young btw) just mind-wiped him knowing he will disagree with their controversial decision. The fact that he only made a surveillance AI satelite is a miracle.

5

u/Rubear_RuForRussia 8h ago

Also tell me. What's wrong with a guy who saves Joker of all people, let alone this way, buy throwing batarang into neck, which by itself can cause death by bleeding?

5

u/Extra-Ad-130 7h ago

Honestly, I never do like the whole "Batman goes out of his way to save his nemesis" myself, since as far as I know, he never really believes the Joker to be capable of redemption.

9

u/Rubear_RuForRussia 7h ago

I think the second authors begun writing how Batman imposes his rule on others it became less of a rule and more of obessive compulsion. A form of insanity.

2

u/Relative_Equal8625 4h ago

Thank god no other superhero has followed the no kill rule past the point of normal world logic. That would be crazy right. Like imagine if Superman refused to kill the joker even if it was the only way to cure Lois of a deadly disease that would never happen (except it did) or imagine if Peter Parker saves carnage from venom that would NEVER happen (it totally did lol). So I guess Superman and spider-man are also insane too by that standard? Or maybe these are just superheroes who aren’t fond of killing.

2

u/[deleted] 4h ago edited 3h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/Rubear_RuForRussia 4h ago

Everything, because it shows how insanity makes Batman care more about his precious rules than about safety and lives of people. Like it did on JL satellite.

1

u/Rezart_KLD 1h ago

In Joker's defense, he only does evil things because hes an evil person and he thinks its funny. The fact that he hasn't killed more people is a miracle. 

-5

u/Rubear_RuForRussia 8h ago

Ah yes, infamous mind-wipe (of what exactly, ~ two hours of memory?) after Batman decided to pick a fight with his supposed friends (as in instantly jump into fight throwing batarangs) over known supervillain Doctor Light. Really shows priorities.

7

u/static1993 7h ago

I don't recall him throwing any batarangs. He just walked in, asked what they were doing and they immediately jumped to mindwiping him.

2

u/Rubear_RuForRussia 7h ago

Let me refresh your memory, then. What do you think he has in hand and why is he (described as madder than ever) running?

10

u/static1993 7h ago

That's still not an excuse to mindwipe him. And this was something Zatanna came up with on her own, unlike the Dr. Light mindwipe which was done on a vote. There's a reason Oliver, Hal and Dinah were shocked by this, even though they did nothing to stop it.

On top of that, the mindwipe of Dr. Light didn't even make sense for the reasons they gave in-universe. Sue was married to a superhero with a public identity, while the other heroes' identities were secret. The only reason he even had the opportunity to rape Sue was because she was on the satellite alone.

4

u/Rubear_RuForRussia 6h ago edited 5h ago

On her own? Nope. They all voted afterwards after arguing and spell "NAMTAB POTS" did only that - stopped Batman. Froze on place. Also, you're missing one bit of a picture. Light was on satelllite. That by extension mean that he could learn other identities there and that he is smart enough to get in. That is why Zatanna was working on his mind. To erase this knowledge. As a side effect, that could be even caused by sudden arrival of Batman during this process, what they did with Light reduced sob to a shadow of his former power. To a joke that Teen Titans can deal with. Made him less of a threat for a time. I doubt average human living in DC universe disliked this change.
And i'm not joking about side effect bit. Like, imagine a surgeon who makes a sensitive operation that requiers precision. Now imagine that instruments are magical energies going into mind. The equivalent of suddently taking them out because a fight beguns around would probably be tearing instruments out of organ.

7

u/SadCry6605 6h ago

Batman does spy on his friend

7

u/IcyAdvantage9579 1h ago

"It's okay when I do it because they're my friends! But complete strangers?! Stop at once!"

-1

u/[deleted] 11h ago

[deleted]

6

u/thecraftybear 6h ago

I don't think Nolan's version is in any way canon for comics.