Batwoman in Red

Alex M. Parker

Alex Parker is a policy writer in Washington, D.C. with 15 years of journalism experience.

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11 Responses

  1. J_A says:

    “Fuck Batman,” Robin growls, ….

    At the risk of being extremely un-PC, for which I beg the moderators, and the general public forbearance, and after disclaiming not having seen either the trailer or the most recent three or four movies (*), meaning, any movie after the Michael Keaton one…..

    That quote immediately bought to mind ideas that have floated the internet, and, before that, the public restrooms stalls, since forever, about the nature of their relationship, and of how and why Batmat recruited and “groomed” Robin.

    What can I say, they do look a bit (or a lot) like that. Not that there’s anything wrong on a couple fighting crime, hehe.

    (*) Batman is Adam West, the rest are mere copycats. ‘Nuff saidReport

    • Saul Degraw in reply to J_A says:

      In the summer of 1995, I was part of a visual arts summer program for precocious and pretentious high school students.

      We had a different artist speak to us during one night a week. Some of these artists were pretty out there (a lot of them were in their 20s and just out of undergrad at the time. They seemed much older). One woman who was now part of what we would call the LBGT community did a video piece on how a homophobic whispering campaign killed Robin off. I guess this is when the theorizing started.

      Interesting to see it change to “grooming” now.Report

  2. Oscar Gordon says:

    Enjoyable post, thank you.

    One thing that always bugged me was the why of Robin’s costume? I get that it was originally meant to hearken back to the trapeze artist of the Grayson family, but why did it persist for so damn long?Report

    • The Question in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

      Jason Todd explain why Robin costume is so colorful in the last episode of Titans he said it’s because they’re there to draw the attention then Batman in his all blacked out outfit drops in and starts dishing out merry hellReport

  3. she’s a bookish librarian by day and a fearless, sexy adventurer by night,

    And has an incredible figure once she lets her hair down and takes her glasses off.Report

  4. Doctor Jay says:

    “…a world that’s just a little more fallen than ours.”

    That’s perfect. Thanks for the piece.Report

  5. Jaybird says:

    My idea of Batman is that of the loner (Legends of the Dark Knight remains an amazing collection of stories) but I like the idea of him being haunted by the people with whom he teamed and they (those who aren’t dead) are haunted by him.

    He’s always out being a loner and thinking about whether he’s going to leave them a better world than he got. Whether he’s going to leave them “safer” crime. Heck, maybe there’s an Elseworlds Batman story in there. “I killed Joker not because I thought it was right. But because I couldn’t leave a world behind where Nightwing had to fight him.”

    As for the Bat-family, he’s always this ideal in the back of their heads as they’re out and about solving mysteries and thwarting crimes and, occasionally, they screw up. And Batman shows up to save the day. And he expresses disappointment. And leaves. Man, those stories get me right *HERE*.

    That’s how Batman is done best. Batman is haunted by his “children” every inch as much as he is haunted by his parents.

    His “children” are haunted by Batman.

    Occasionally, they wonder what it’d be like to have been someone else. Someone who isn’t haunted.Report

  6. Fun piece. Thanks for sharing it with us.Report

  7. DavidTC says:

    How Batwoman is going to exist in the Arrowverse without Batman is interesting. And…I guess slight spoilers, although the OP sort of asks specifically about this.

    Mainly, he does exist, we’re just not going to see him.

    Batman was operating under ‘urban legend’ status, as it’s sometimes presented in the comic books. No one was sure he existed. He’s a guy who ran around terrorizing criminals, and pretty much everyone else thought he was made up. Especially everyone outside of Gotham.

    And he hasn’t been seen in years regardless.

    I’ve read all _that_ somewhere. I’ve actually seen a preview clip of Oliver arguing that Batman wasn’t ever a real thing.

    The rest of this post is speculation:

    How that tracks with _Bruce Wayne_ still being a famous ‘random rich guy that someone could be framing as the Green Arrow instead of me’ that Oliver jokingly mentioned is unknown. Bruce clearly has to be around still, or at least was a few seasons ago. Perhaps it’s a ‘The Dark Knight’ style situation, where Bruce has been injured. Or perhaps Jason Todd was killed or Barbara Gordon paralyzed, and he’s hung up the cowl.

    Speaking of Barbara Gordon, there’s the ‘Oracle is taken’ joke from Oilver when Felicity got the name Overwatch, but that could have just been a reference to the software company. It’s hard to see how Oracle could be known as real if Batman isn’t. (Or maybe she’s contacted Oliver, just not mentioned anything about Batman. It’s not completely improbable.)

    And I’m suspecting the plot of the crossover (Besides the reality-warping stuff) is going to be Batwoman’s debut in-universe, also, where she is encouraged, by the known vigilantes of Star City and Central City, to take up the possibly imaginary mantle of ‘The Batman’ in her home of Gotham. I.e. she’s not inspired so much by the actual Batman as by the stories of Batman, she’s trying to make him real, not realizing…he already was.

    The actual weirdest thing in all this…Batman pretty explicitly exists on Supergirl’s earth, Earth-38 They’ve basically mentioned Superman working with him several times, a weird guy with the gadgets and pointy ears, stopping just short of saying his name. Which makes it weird he exists on Earth-1 also, because so far Earth-1 and Earth-38 don’t seem to share any superheroes, unlike all the other Earths that Earth-1 visits…except Earth-X which somehow seemed to have everyone.

    It’s going to be especially weird in the crossover, as the crossover will _have_ Superman in it.

    I guess they could retcon that guy as….Ted Kord or something. (Who _also_ exists on Earth-1, or at least his company does.) Granted, the Blue Beetle outfit doesn’t normally have ears…but it could.Report