A Sense of Doubt blog post #2322 - WHAT I AM READING PT.4 - Batman, Lisey, and Antiracism

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2322 - WHAT I AM READING PT.4 - Batman, Lisey, and Antiracism

How would I get along without reading? I think about this idea often as reading is one of the most important things in my life.

I am so grateful to be able to read.

So, I am always reading comic books. Recently, I read this collection of Black Label prestige format issues from Snyder and Capullo: Batman: Last Knight on Earth. It was GREAT!! I loved it.

My current audio book is Lisey's Story by Stephen King. I read the book back in 2007.

I wrote about that reading experience WAY BACK, here:
https://sensedoubt.blogspot.com/2008/12/old-blogs-that-never-got-posted-pt2.html

I still READING in the traditional way Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow, but I am not going to share about that one today until I get farther in it. Lately, I have been crashing at night and do not get too much read before sleep. So I have been trying to read at other times.

I am always reading snippets of stacks of non-fiction and assorted poetry and short fiction, such as (right now) Brian Eno's Diary: A Year With Swollen Appendices and A Year In The Country: Straying From The Pathways book from A Year In The Country among other things.

And I still have more to share about HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST by Ibram X. Kendi, and I still have more to share about the experience of reading that book, and I am going to continue to share until I am all shared out rather than making a huge post about the book that I may never finish because it's too daunting.

I must make a note of this site:

https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/

It has scans of comic books!!

AS USUAL, 

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, first up Batman: Last Knight on Earth. 

I know they make "trailers" as promotions for comic books, but I almost never seek them out and watch them.

But this one's kinda cool...

REMEMBER: Usually COMIC BOOK ROUND UP links have to be copied and pasted and not clicked.

https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/trades/reviews/dc-comics/batman-last-knight-on-earth/-collected

COMIC BOOK ROUNDUP reviews were very high, all above NINE: 9.3, 9.1, 9.2 for the three issues.

Here's my GOOD READS REVIEW:

Batman: Last Knight on Earth by Scott Snyder
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Why had I not yet read this???

I came to this graphic novel in the collected edition after seeing repeated in-house DC ads over and over and OVER in comics, especially as I caught up on the Nightwing back log.

I also kept forgetting that I wanted to read it when I was in the comic shop and what it was called.

I could have asked for the comic with Batman in some white frock holding the Joker's head in a jar, and the owner of the shop would probably know what I meant, but I didn't.

It was usually more of an "oh yeah, I had meant to look for THAT book."

And then I remembered. I even put it off a week, having it held for me.

And then on a work break on Sunday I decided to start it rather than diving into the BACK LOG (The Detective Comics back log is pretty huge... may be four years worth).

And though I couldn't finish it on Sunday, I finished it last night.

WOW. I had loved the Snyder/Capullo run on BATMAN, and this is in that vein. Redefining characters, origins, history, and yet telling a compelling and powerful story in the NOW (or in this case, the future).

GREAT stuff. One of my new favorite comics. Though THE DARK KNIGHT was ground breaking in its time, this is a better story with better writing and a better BATMAN story.

READ IT.

View all my reviews



"Greg [Capullo] talked about how lucky we are that the fans have supported us. And this story is also meant as a big thank you.

Joker says at one point to Batman in it, he thinks they’re about to die, and get stomped to death by these giant Green Lantern babies, and he says, I wrote you a poem. It’s everything I ever wanted to say to you. And I don’t want to spoil it. But that statement that this is a love letter to Batman is really about the story being a love letter to the fans. It’s very true.

I’m sort of speaking through Joker’s disembodied head." -- Scott Snyder





EXPANDED TEXT OF GOOD READS REVIEW ABOVE:

Why had I not yet read this??? 

I came to this graphic novel in the collected edition after seeing repeated in-house DC ads over and over and OVER in comics, especially as I caught up on the Nightwing back log.

I also kept forgetting that I wanted to read it when I was in the comic shop and what it was called.

I could have asked for the comic with Batman in some white frock holding the Joker's head in a jar, and the owner of the shop would probably know what I meant, but I didn't.

It was usually more of an "oh yeah, I had meant to look for THAT book."

And then I remembered. I even put it off a week, having it held for me.

And then on a work break on Sunday I decided to start it rather than diving into the BACK LOG (The Detective Comics back log is pretty huge... may be four years worth).

And though I couldn't finish it on Sunday, I finished it last night.

WOW. I had loved the Snyder/Capullo run on BATMAN, and this is in that vein. Redefining characters, origins, history, and yet telling a compelling and powerful story in the NOW (or in this case, the future).

GREAT stuff. One of my new favorite comics. Though THE DARK KNIGHT was ground breaking in its time, this is a better story with better writing and a better BATMAN story.

READ IT.

I meant those comments. I feel that this is a better story start to finish with better art work than THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS (TDKR). I know some hardcore fans will consider such comments to be heresy. 

How can I assert such a thing?

First examine the premise, actually, a similar premise. In Miller's TDKR, Batman has retired and comes out of retirement to face the increasing crime wave of Gotham as well as a few others reasons (Robin, Superman). 

In this story, after a harrowing encounter with a dead child, Bruce Wayne doppelganger, Batman/Bruce Wayne wakes up in Arkham Asylum as Bruce Wayne and learns that the Batman is all a delusion but that Alfred paid for drug therapies that brought him back to "reality."

Alfred reveals to Bruce that he killed his parents and constructed this elaborate Batman scenario to cope and that Batcave artifacts like the giant penny or the T-Rex were toys hidden in special crevice behind the padding in his padded cell.

Later, we learn that this is not the original Bruce Wayne but one of many youthful clones, which is why he's so young.

Batman is resourceful and escapes the fake asylum and the fake Gotham, all a construction of the Toyman. The illusion breaks and this Batman confronts the real Alfred, a very old man, who constructed this scenario to reclaim Bruce Wayne with a youthful clone who has many of Bruce Wayne's memories.

Bruce leaves the fake Gotham and that's when the story takes a very weird and amazing turn. Batman climbs out to the surface in red sand desert with the Joker's head in a jar.

The post-apocalyptic world is much more frightening than anything DC has created thus far. Giant "slingers" zombie people with Green Lantern rings manifesting giant killer babies. 

Batman encounters a ragtag group of survivors, the resistance, led by Diana, Wonder Woman.

The backstory of what happened is even more of a high premise and a Batman-centric problem.

Capullo's art supports the story beautifully and Snyder's writing is lean and mostly dialogue driven with some intermittent narration by the Joker head.

By the second issue (or part five in the collected edition), Batman is back in a modified version of his suit and more apocalyptic future concepts, like the Flashes caught in a deadly Speed Force maelstrom and a gigantic Swamp Thing weapon.

OMEGA

Of course, Batman seeks the help of "Superman," which turns out to be a bunch of Superman robots controlled by Lex Luthor. And eventually, Wonder Woman returns to help Batman in his pursuit of the big bad, OMEGA.

Entry into Gotham is not easy, but Batman is further aided by Nightwing who now runs THE COURT OF OWLS as a rebel force against Omega in Gotham.

The character stuff both in writing and art work is impeccable and riveting.

The Joker's transformation as a helpful Robin-bot is genius and adds much needed comic relief as does some of the other character interactions.

It is not a huge revelation that OMEGA is actually the original Bruce Wayne (not dead as believed).

In the end, the Batman who is pure of heart and embodies the true spirit of who Batman is and what he stands for prevails and kills OMEGA.

OH YEAH, There's also a mind control machine with the MARTIAN MANHUNTER at the core.

This comic book is just fantastic. It soared to the top of my list of favorite Batman stories of all time.

Here's a good review of ISSUE ONE and some pages from the FIRST ISSUE:

https://bigcomicpage.com/2019/05/30/review-batman-last-knight-on-earth-1-dc/

Publisher: DC (Black Label Imprint)
Writer: Scott Snyder
Pencils: Greg Capullo
Inks: Jonathan Glapion
Colours: FCO Plascencia
Letters: Tom Napolitano
Release Date: 29th May 2019

---

Last Knight on Earth opens like any classic Batman mystery, with a voiceover leading the Dark Knight down the rain-drenched black streets of Gotham on the trail of another mysterious foe. However, we quickly learn that everything isn’t as it seems, and that not only is Batman’s safety in question, but so too is the very nature of his reality and his future.

This is already beginning to feel like something a swansong for Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Their work together from the New 52 onwards has been nothing short of spectacular, and Last Knight on Earth provides the perfect send off to all those stories. However, rather than leaving with a vague nod to these stories, this makes the previous loose ends part of the story, explaining just how Batman found himself where he does in the future. More than that though, the duo have such a distinctive feel to their collaborations that it’s hard to imagine anyone else creating a story quite like this.

The switch to the Black Label imprint isn’t massively noticeable in this first issue, but it does leave us with the unnerving feeling that there’s no telling quite how screwed-up and dark Snyder and Capullo may go as this story unfolds.

Played out over chapters, this is one of those “Elseworld” stories that hark back to classic post-apocalyptic films like Mad Max, the original I Am Legend, or indeed the comic Old Man Logan. The use of distinctive chapters is an interesting approach, and feels like splitting the story into episodes, each with their own feel and progression of an overall story. And while Snyder sets out a completely hopeless chain of events, in just a few lines he brings you back to the core of the Batman character and shows why Scott writes him so well. In the face of his greatest battle it all comes down to a boy being consoled by his hero.

Capullo, inker Jonathan Glapion and colourist FCO Plascencia paint a beautifully haunting world, with each chapter having its own distinct feel in the choice of colours and tones. The slight alteration to the well-known cast in the second chapter I thought was very well done, but the wasteland Bats finds himself in gave me a bleak, desolate feeling in the pit of my stomach, enforcing that fact that Batman is well and truly alone – well, aside from his bodiless companion scaring the poop out of me on the last panel.

We’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of this epic, and there’s already so much to get excited about, and so much I didn’t want to spoil in my review. Go buy it now and find out for yourself!

Rating: 5/5.

Lisey's Story

Pronounced "Lee-see." 

This book is brilliant and lyrical. One thing I am noticing as I reread is how much of the book I should dissect and learn from.

Much of the book takes place in the past as Lisey recalls her relationship with Scott Landon and the history of bool hunts, bad gunky, and Boo'ya Moon.

I really like the way King weaves in the flashbacks. My current novels will not unfold that way, but I am hoping to learn from some of the story telling techniques as he unfurls the back story.

King also brilliantly invents a vocabulary used by Scott and Lisey during their marriage, much of which comes from Scott's abusive childhood. 

The turning and returning of this language and the book's phrases creates a lyrical quality that adds to the pastoral nature of the alternate reality of what Scott called Boo'ya Moon.

One takeaway so far, which connects to other touchstone novels for my work, is the presence of an adversary, a threat, which I had in my book already but came up with a way to introduce it from the very beginning.

HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST

I have already written about this book in the previous installments of WHAT I AM READING.

As a young man, I did not realize the ways in which systems in which we place our trust can create racial divides and perpetuate racism, such as standardized tests.

"The use of standardized tests to measure aptitude and intelligence is one of the most effective racist policies ever devised to degrade Black minds and legally exclude Black bodies" (Kendi, 101).

Modern standardized tests continued to perpetuate the myth that Black people are inferior and less intelligent than white people, a concept that science attempted to prove in the 19th Century. These so-called scientists attempted to and felt they succeeded in proving that Black people are intellectually inferior.

But it's all about money which provides opportunity, which is why the "achievement gap" concept was renamed the "opportunity gap."

Just think of the greater OPPORTUNITY that a grad school candidate has to score highly on the GRE if he/she can afford a $1000 prep course versus the person who cannot. Not that all people of color are too poor to pay for such a course but this disparity of opportunity exists at every level.

Worse, people of color believe that these gaps measure actual intelligence and have to overcome to myths of our society.

It boggles my mind that given these simple explanations that anyone can deny racism and how systems perpetuate it.

"As a high school student," Kendi writes, "I believed standardized tests effectively measured smarts and therefore my White and Asian classmates were smarter than me. I thought I was a fool. Clearly, I needed another shaming lesson about how King died for me" (Kendi, 99).

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2106.27 - 10:10

- Days ago = 2186 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.