NML Crossing, Episode 080 – Batman: Shadow of the Bat #88 (1999)

3 thoughts on “NML Crossing, Episode 080 – Batman: Shadow of the Bat #88 (1999)”

• I laughed out loud at the mention of the GCPD Wolfpac.

  The GCPD schism has been a long time in coming but it has been inevitable since the beginning of No Man’s Land. Gordon has blood on his hands but Pettit has the need to spill blood. Gordon’s morality still drives his actions and Pettit seems to have no morality. Pettit didn’t just shoot the False Facers, he shot their hostages too.

  The Poison Ivy storyline doesn’t interest me much. It feels, to me, that we are too deep into the No Man’s Land story to be introducing new characters that are not moving the overall story towards it endgame. Maybe if she was introduced earlier and was a simmering subplot throughout the whole story I would care more now, but for me it’s too little too late.

  It is nice to see Batman and Robin teaming up to investigate the Robinson Park goings on. It seems like Bruce and Tim haven’t been on a case together since before Cataclysm. And the revelation of when Bruce had the multiple mini-Batcaves constructed is a nice call back to the Prodigal storyline.

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  • 1) I like the way you put this, Chris U: “Gordon has blood on his hands but Pettit has the need to spill blood. Gordon’s morality still drives his actions and Pettit seems to have no morality.”

    Exactly my opinion of this divide, which makes me think anyone supporting Pettit is overlooking a huge personal failure that will eventually come out and hurt him and his followers (which, slight spoiler?, I think one of the followers ends up being Huntress). It’s a pairing that makes sense even if I think it regresses Huntress a bit after she tried to play by Bat’s rules, although I think it’s also meant to show what Bruce’s rejection of her does to her. So maybe he was too hard on her?

    I know Chris U said he was just giving the same expectations to her as he has for himself, but they were unrealistic expectations that I don’t think he always holds other members of the Bat-family to. Even holding himself to those expectations, I think he’s let himself slip up more than he let Huntress as Batgirl do so, which is partly why that scene felt a little forced to me, in terms of taking Huntress as Batgirl off the stage – I say this, by the way, as a die-hard Cain Batgirl fan, especially of the series she was about to get.

    2) I’ve been listening to all episodes but haven’t commented in a bit because I was in the midst of buying a house and moving into it. Still settling in, so I’m sure my comments will be a bit inconsistent in the near future too, but I wanted to let you know why I was radio silent for a bit.

    Also, I’ve started to catch up on BadaBin (first two episodes listened to/watched) and I’ll be sending an email to the BadaBin email sometime with some of my thoughts and questions. Probably will be a mass one when I finish the next few, but it might make more sense, and be more timely-ish, if I send one before I catch up, so we’ll see.

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• One other thing to respond to from Chris’s comment:

  I agree that if Poison Ivy was set up earlier that it would make this story feel more connected and work better (I still like it and Poison Ivy/Clayface as villains). We can somewhat say, though, that this story was set up in the Young Justice special, although I think it’s also fair to say that it’s not much set up.

  I wonder if the above mindset/qualm also conflates a view we sometimes have of NML as one single storyarc, maybe due to the way modern comics work, when it really works more as a new (albeit temporary) status quo. When viewed that way, I think it makes sense that we have a lot of stories that don’t add much to the larger storyarc and instead just explore the NML world, along with how the many Bat-villains adapt to it.

  I think for NML to work as a single storyarc instead of a world/new status quo, lots of Bat-villains would have to be sacrificed, along with some of the other subplots and supporting characters we have. That might be more pleasing for the larger storyarc, but it also seems a little unrealistic to have less villains appear and would make the story have a smaller scope with a smaller cast, which also doesn’t seem fitting for such a huge event.

  I think most Batfans would want to read stories about all or most of the villains in this new status quo, so I think it makes sense to do these arcs that are more one-off, like the Fear of Faith one. I also like how it gives a bit of breathing room and adds some variety to the type of stories were getting, so I’m all for it (in moderation, of course).

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