My friend Jesse, who’s occasionally helped-out with stuff on this blog, started a comics blog a little while ago called The Endless Cosmos. Today, I posted an entry that reviewed a bunch of new comics that came out last Wednesday or last, last, Wednesday, so check it out:
“One of the best scenes in Issue 2 of ‘Batman: Deathmask’ is when Bruce Wayne’s sensei discovers him training in the evening- verifying Wayne’s training goes beyond “spiritual strength”- and respectfully asks him to leave the dojo. Again, it’s basically a scene that’s occurred in Batman stories before, but that same story from the perspective of a Japanese gives it some added weight. Wayne’s not presented as a horrible American or disrespectful guy (even though he kinda is), what matters is his basic drive to train and become a superhero. In our post-’Watchmen’ era of comics, it’s fun to highlight heroes’ flaws and turn every guy in a cape into a self-involved fuck, but it’s great how Natsume retains the Byronic, radical individualism of Bruce Wayne and celebrates the mix of glory-grabbing and selfless sacrifice that turns him into Batman. That duality is also familiar territory but by tossing-in the influence of the Oni-essentially a demon- on the creation of “The Batman”, it adds some complexity and was a way for Natsume to make this very American superhero his own.”
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