Video Nasties and Private Viewing - Detective Comics #596 and #597 (1988)

[The Laughing Fish]

I read this two part story written by Alan Grant and John Wagner a while ago. It's about Batman investigating an illegal enterprise making films of innocent people getting ambushed and viciously beaten for entertainment's sake. Batman's rescue of a college student from one of these filmed attacks had resulted in the perpetrator getting his footage compromised, and his boss Sladek orders him to set Batman up in a violent ambush to make up for that lost footage to entertain his guests on time for a tight deadline.

Grant and Wagner explores that despite Bruce feels uncomfortable about society's relationship with violence, he certainly doesn't dismiss the importance of martial arts and the unfortunate need for it to serve justice. When asked by a news reporter if hosting a boxing match for charity is sending a right message to young people in light of the college student's assault, Bruce insists that boxing is a valid sport because, in his mind, he sees it as commanding discipline and requires participants to engage in rules in spite of the volatile nature of the activity; as in, it's an art form that it encourages avoiding violence as much as possible rather than engaging in it. Does this explanation sound like a cop out? A cynic might say so. But when you consider that boxing allows an outlet for troubled youth to escape from violent crime as long as they're confined in a set of rules, as Bruce suggests, I suppose you can see his point. The irony about the college student who was nearly beaten to death is the only reason he went out in the first place was to do some research for a thesis he was meant to write about the contrasts between cartoon and real world violence. And of course, he gets nearly killed for it.

Anyway, Batman getting ambushed by a large goon on camera would have to be the most vicious beating he'd ever received in the pre-Knightfall era. And he definitely would've suffered a similar fate that Bane had inflicted on him - or worse - had it not been for the two young boxers who Bruce Wayne is acquainted with, who coincidentally happened to be in the area and tried to intervene.

The ending of this story is one of my favourite Batman comic endings ever. Despite capturing the hack director and his testimony being good enough to put Sladek away together with the depraved audience who pay to watch his crap, Batman convinces Commissioner Gordon to take everybody to the hospital room where the college student is getting treatment, and gives them the biggest moral indignation you'll ever read. It's made even better when it's revealed that the culprits who pay Sladek a fortune are an elite club of Gotham City socialites bored with their hollow lives and have become desensitised to people's suffering. One of the audience goers includes the TV news reporter who spoke to Bruce at the club earlier. Oh, the hypocrisy!

Great story. My only complaint is I wished Norm Breyfogle had done the artwork, rather than only drawing the cover for the second issue.

[thecolorsblend]

The more times goes on, the more I have a bit of a love/hate relationship going on with Alan Grant's Batman stuff. When he's telling straight forward superhero stories like Identity Crisis from Batman #455-#457, he's great. But when he tries his hand at "social commentary" using Batman comics, it's like the guy has forgotten just wtf his job is.

[The Laughing Fish]

The more times goes on, the more I have a bit of a love/hate relationship going on with Alan Grant's Batman stuff. When he's telling straight forward superhero stories like Identity Crisis from Batman #455-#457, he's great. But when he tries his hand at "social commentary" using Batman comics, it's like the guy has forgotten just wtf his job is.

Put it this way, his attempts at social commentary can't be any worse than today's comic book writers. Right?