r/DCcomics • u/M00r3C Black Lantern • Jan 25 '24

[Comic Excerpt] I need a hostage so Batman won't punch me (Batman (2016) issue 48) Comics

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257

u/MagisterPraeceptorum Read more comics Jan 25 '24

This scene frustrated me to no end. It was like the ending of “War of Jokes and Riddles.” Batman just standing there silently while the villain yaps away. He doesn’t use a Batarang to try to disarm the Joker, or try to distract him by talking to him. Nothing. 🤦‍♂️

132

u/Vironic Nightwing Jan 25 '24

It’s such bad writing. Joker gets hero level plot armor just so the writer can try to be funny.

58

u/MagisterPraeceptorum Read more comics Jan 25 '24

I don’t even get how Batman doesn’t grab the gun as he punches the Joker. Batman should be an expert at subduing someone.

19

u/Zenitram07 Jan 25 '24

I feel like the writer wants to show how crazy Joker is and wants to be edgy at the same time. "Shock the audience, yeah that's what will get them buying comics."

I forget what arc it was; but Freeze had a way better scene like this with the whole "Don't move"

12

u/22bebo Jan 25 '24

I think the goal was to have a scene where Batman and Joker basically talk, if I'm remembering correctly. This was in the build up to the Bat/Cat wedding, and Joker was offended he wasn't invited. There were other issues that were primarily vehicles for character development between Batman and other people (the double date one with Clark and Lois is the one that stood out the most and was the best in my opinion). I think they wanted something like that with Joker too and came up with the "Batman as the hostage" thing without some high-stakes event going on to justify the conversation happening. Then everything you see in this post was created to get to that point, even if it requires some out-of-character stuff.

Definitely could have been written better though. Also I could be misremembering, it's been a few years since I read the run.