Sunday, November 22, 2009

What If JMS Had Written Batman All Along?

Picture, if you will, Detective Comics #33 (1939), as scripted by J. Michael Straczynski:

Amended dialogue borrowed from Brave And The Bold #29, featuring Batman and Brother Power The Geek.

You know, if there's any DC comic that should be fun with a capital F, it's B&TB. And if there's any DC mag that's been less fun since JMS took over, I'm at a loss as to what it could be. Ambitious, perhaps...but also plodding, moralizing, depressing and the apotheosis of what a team-up mag featuring DC characters shouldn't be.

Here a quote from DC's The Source blog, where JMS was describing what he intended this issue:

And I’ll tell you this much: after this issue, nobody’s going to wonder why on earth I’d use the Geek in a story with Batman. And a lot of those who laughed at the notion, won’t be laughing by the end of the issue.


Well, sir, many of us weren't laughing in derision, we were laughing in delight at some of the story possibilities. But you're 100% right, Mr. Straczynski: we definitely weren't laughing by the end of the issue.

Note: I must acknowledge that Caleb did a much better job of picking on the dialogue than I did, and does a better job of picking out reasons why the JMS run on B&TB is so annoying...

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