Just Another Batman Blog

   Comics as a medium have always reflected the time period in which they are created, like all other artforms, really. In the 1940s, comicbook heroes were pitted against fascist Nazi adversaries. In DC Comics this included Doctor Poison, The Baroness, Captain Nazi, and a pelethora of Nazi soldiers, generals, and of course Hitler himself. However, as time goes on, American sentiments change. Nazis are still a favorite villain. Even alternate versions of our heroes have had Nazification treatments. I've written about Nazi Batman before. The deeper into the Cold War we get though, comic book villains shift from Nazis and Fascists to Communists, and Soviet spies.  Aside from breaking up a Nazi spy ring in Batman #14, the caped crusader seemed to stay out of international conflicts. But, as the real Cold War goes on, Batman's storylines expand out of Gotham and into other spaces. By the 1980s, Batman is ready to move from Nazi spy rings, to Soviet spy rings. In 1988, late in...

  There is a long list of assassins in Batman's villains gallery. I have a post devoted to a gang of them .  Deadshot is another assassin, another character with excellent training, no superpowers, and impeccable aim, who "never misses" his intended target. The most recognizable iteration of this character was resurrected in 1979 for Detective Comics #474 by Terry Englehart, Marshall Rogers, and Terry Austin. They gave him his signature iron clad, robot eye, arm mounted guns look. Technically, the character was created by David Vern Reed and Lew Schwartz in 1950 for Batman #59. However, as the image below shows, there doesn't appear to be anything similar. They could be considered 2 separate characters. However, they do share a name and origin. Floyd Lawton debuted in 1950 as a child of rich parents, like many other characters on this blog, including Bruce Wayne, Tommy Eliot , Jaina Hudson ,  Roman Sionis , Charise Carnes , and Oswald Cobblepot .  Like these other ch...

  This is a group whose membership changes depending on the era, the writer, and the medium. The League of Assassins, also known as the League of Shadows, was originally created by Danny O'Neil and Neal Adams for Strange Adventures #215 in 1968. I already featured a few members of the League in this blog.  According to DC canon, The League was founded by Ra's Al Ghul in 1013 AD. However, if Ra's Al Ghul is intended to be the historic imam Hassan-i Sabbath, than the League was actually founded in 1090. The League carries out missions to destabilize, destroy and allow reformation of what they consider to be decadent and irredeemable societies. The League is a global terrorist organization, with a purpose seemingly higher than usual terror groups whose goals are more oriented toward national or religious solidarity.  The League first appeared in a Deadman story, but due to its global nature, is also an opponent of the Green Arrow, Richard Dragon, Black Canary, The Question...

 Tell me if you've heard this one...  "the only good criminal is a dead criminal". This idea of a character going on a crusade to rid the world of the criminal element can be found all over. It's the plot of The Boondock Saints. Kick-Ass is built around this premise. In Gotham there are a few characters that attempt to be vigilante killers. The Red Hood kills. Anarky kills. The Clownhunter kills. Nobody kills. This Batgirl villain, The Spoiled Slaughterer, Daybreak, the Butcher Brat herself, Knightfall also kills.  Created in 2012 by Gail Simone and Alitha Martinez for Batgirl #10, Charise Carnes has an interesting origin story. Daughter of a shady Gotham real estate mogul, Carnes is betrayed by her first boyfriend, forced to watch him torture and murder her family, and then gets framed for it.  While in Arkham, Carnes befriends Jim Gordon Jr, Commission Gordon's serial killer son. She decides certain criminal minds can't be rehabilitated and should be termin...

  Earlier I wrote about the Terrible Trio . This gang of three white collar criminal dudes hide behind animal motifs, The Great White Shark, the Vulture, and the Fox. Gotham also has another threesome criminal gang, all women, all arthropod aliases, all criminal.  Created in 1966 by Robert Kanigher and Sheldon Moldoff, these three vamps debuted together for a Poison Ivy driven story. The Silken Spider, Tiger Moth, and Dragonfly made such a name for themselves criminally, that they became known as the World's Public Enemies, and went by the aliases Public Enemy Number 1, Number 2, and Number 3. They appear to be high stakes thieves in their original incarnation. Poison Ivy apparently is jealous for some reason and wants their fame.  Later, they are rebooted as members of the League of Assassins . I'm a fan of this idea, I don't think you can have enough agents for the League. Kevin Smith gives Tiger Moth a cameo in his unfinished Batman run.  This Tiger Moth incarnat...

This character will be forever attached to a few other characters. However, Talia is as important to Batman and his character arc as the Joker, the Riddler, and Bane. She is Talia, daughter of Ra's al Ghul, who has his own post here . Sometimes she is given the surname al Ghul, or Head, but that doesn't seem to be necessary, as her father's name is more of a title than a formal name anyway. Also, mononyms are way cooler. Created in 1971 by Dennis ONeil, Dick Giordano and Bob Brown for Detective Comics #411. She actually appears a month before her father, and returns in Batman #232 during Ra's Al Ghul's first appearance. Writers early on attempted to make her the next Catwoman, a femme fatale character worthy of Batman's new global, mysticism, macabre storylines. While her relationship with Batman is never truly romantically reciprocated, they are mostly amicable to each other. Her character is tied up pretty closely with her family. Throughout her publica...

Marv Wolfman and George Perez created Slade Wilson, Deathstroke the Terminator, 4 years before the James Cameron's film the Terminator. Originally an antagonist for the Teen Titans, Deathstroke has grown into a credible threat to Batman, the Green Arrow, and others. As a mercenary and assassin, Deathstroke's motivation is always tied to someone else's bank account. He operates in a similar fashion as Killer Moth was probably meant to function. Deathstroke's motivations revolve around money, but he also forms grudges against Dick Grayson (Robin/Nightwing), Green Arrow, and Batman. All three of these heroes frequently get the better of him. Originally, Deathstroke came off as pretty creepy, and kind of lame. A middle-aged mercenary who teams up with a teenage girl (Terra) to infiltrate and destroy a team of teenage superheroes (Teen Titans) seems as cringey as it is pathetic. Certainly a dude that stoops to fighting underage heroes cant possibly be a serious threa...

Comics, like most western media, has had a diversity problem. With origins in the late 30s and early 40s, born of pulp fiction magazines, comics character creation relied heavily on stereotypes. Asian characters were treated particularly badly. We still have trouble today creating Asian characters who are not martial artists, or wise old Eastern mystics (also kung fu masters somehow). However, a martial arts based character, depending on the martial art, probably should be Asian. Richard Dragon was one of those characters, with his own title, in the early 70s. In 1975, Lady Shiva made her first apearance in Richard Dragon #5, created by Dennis ONeil, and Ric Estrada. Like most stereotypical Asian characters, Lady Shiva is a master martial artist, an assassin, has a mentor/teacher named O'Sensei, and has a daughter with a dude named King Snake, and has aliases that include names like the Paper Monkey, and the Jade Canary. Over time, the Lady Shiva character has been refined a...

Ra's Al Ghul [pronounced Raysh , Rash , Raz ,or Rays al Gool depending on who you ask] is a character developed and debuted in Dennis ONeal and Neal Adams' run on Batman in 1971. His name means The Gallu's Head in Arabic. A Gallu is one of seven demons from Babylonian mythology. He appears to be based on Hassan-i Sabbah, the Isma'ili Arab who founded an order of Nizari Ismailis in 1080 known today as the Hashishin, the first assassins. Most of the history of the order has been lost, or never existed in the first place, and what we do know about them was written and shared by their enemies. not your typical comics villain The Ra's Al Ghul character is very intriguing, as it allowed for Batman comics to expand from noir crime dramas into mysticism, and gothic horror. Batman moved from fighting crazy costumed criminals with gimmicks in one city, to confronting a worldwide centuries-old demonic order capable of mass genocide. And this may be the first time a c...