The Killing Joke: Hard Pass.

So, this week in Doing It Wrong, it turns out that DC's animated adaptation of Alan Moore's Killing Joke story holds true to DC's long standing tradition of taking things Alan Moore did and making them worse. It's been leaked that the movie takes a Batman and Batgirl's relationship down a different road. Long story short....they fuck.

idk how to feel about this pic.twitter.com/gsBGHsYet5

— ☕ (@AcroNite7) July 22, 2016

It's not enough that DC would be so socially out of touch with their audience's current social issues that they would think it's a good idea to bring back an infinitely triggering story with questionable gender politics. It's not enough that they have to go the extra mile and strain an already borderline non-existent relationship with a creator they've alienated countless times over the years. But then they have to change a story to make it twice as problematic at a time when readers seem to enjoy Barbara Gordon as Batgirl (one of the few things the New 52 reboot got right in retrospect), kicking ass. Why open yourself up to even more feminist critique than this story already deserves (and make no mistake....it deserves a great deal of feminist critique)? Just for context, we're talking about a story where even Moore himself, who has a long history of writing super rapey books, admitted that the editorial team at the time should have stepped in and stopped him. We're at a point where we shouldn't still be having rudimentary conversations about using women as props to anger men into battle to slay the dragon.

It's not even necessary in a Batman story. The character has virtually every reason to be pissed off built into him already. He's a traumatized orphan fighting in the most crime-y city ever in the history of comics. And, really, that's just if the writers in question decide he even needs a reason which, according the Arkham game series, he doesn't. Now, you have to give him yet another pseudo-girlfriend to house all his commitment issues? DC seems to be wearing their inability to "get it" right for women like an awarded badge of honor. The Killing Joke is their acceptance speech.



My comic reviews for the week on Star Wars and the exponentially bad Green Lanterns are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing enjoyment. And don't forget my webcomic collaboation with Katie Coats, Neverland: the Untold. This week was a double page week to get us back on schedule so check out Pages 31 AND 32.

Why Suicide Squad Might End Up Being Trash....

So, I wanted to talk very briefly about why I'm less and less excited about Suicide Squad.

I'm not even going to touch on the problems with making a movie based on a comic that has probably been rebooted no less than three times and has likely sold about as many copies in six years.

When the trailer first debuted, it looked fantastic even though it's not really fooling anyone into believing that it's anything other than a vehicle to introduce Harley Quinn and Jared Leto's Joker. And it seems to be doing a lot of things right. It's a diverse cast taking the DC universe in a direction Marvel hasn't explored yet (even though I would pay ungodly sums of money to see Marvel do a Thunderbolts movie). But now that Batman v Superman has come and (thankfully) gone, it's brought a bit of context to the kind of world we're being sold. Check it.



"What if Superman had decided to fly down, rip off the roof of the White House and grab the President right out of the Oval Office? Who would have stopped him?"

First of all, depending on how this election shakes out, I doubt anyone would have a problem with that so that's not the scariest imagery one could invoke to establish Superman as a threat (which is the main thing wrong with BvS, but I'm not having that discussion anymore). Second, if Superman did go rogue and attack the White House, what in the WORLD WIDE FUCK are Deadshot, Harley Quinn and Katana going to do about it aside from die screaming? The problem with these "hit squad to stop the most powerful people on Earth" scenarios is that they always involve recruiting people that stand NO CHANCE of stopping the most powerful people on Earth. I mean, sure, it's a good move to feature Batman in the movie to show off how badass the Suicide Squad is up against A-listers, but let's be honest, y'all. The ONLY reason Batman was able to contend with Superman in Yawn of Justice is because the script required Superman be an unfathomably stupid chump to even be goaded into a fight in the first place. So, right there, you're not going to convince me that Killer Croc is the go-to guy if Superman decides to say, "fuck it."

Most importantly, the Suicide Squad's whole thing is that they're badasses willing to do things the good guys either can't fathom doing or don't have the balls to do. But the first two movies have Batman and Superman, DCs two standards for how heroism works in their universe, going about as far as you can go....which is murder.

If Superman isn't above murder and Batman isn't above murder (because OH SWEET JESUS, HE MURDERS SO MANY PEOPLE), why does it matter that the Suicide Squad's bread and butter is murder? I'm not saying this movie doesn't still stand a chance of being fun to look at or that we won't get some epic moments from some key characters. I know I'm pretty excited about the prospect of a Batfleck/Joker car chase. But I'm cautious about a movie that has negated all of its most obvious stakes and reasons to care before the thing even started pre production.

Just something to think about.