30 Days of DC Meme: Day Twenty-Eight
Aug. 18th, 2010 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwenfrankenstienMost Memorable Death
Okay, I'm going to go with the obvious one here...
Jason stayed dead for what, fifteen, sixteen years, which is like, a millennium in comics-time. His death was, well, a sick marketing ploy, but it worked, and it would have been stupid and dishonest to bring him right back. (I sometimes wonder what would have happened had the phone-in poll gone the other way. The story is clearly set up for Jason to die, as far as I'm concerned.)
Of course, it doesn't help that his status as The Dead One was constantly reinforced in-story. Everyone from Tim to Alfred saw his ghost or felt its presence. He had a memorial right in the middle of the Batcave, where it could be smashed for instant drama every time there was a fight in the Cave. Tim spent the first part of his career trying to be more like Jason; Steph spent hers being like Jason, and being punished for it.
Robin is one of the absolute biggest names in the DCU. If Robin dies, that is a big fucking deal. I would say it's even more of a big deal than if an adult hero dies, because when a kid gets killed ding something dangerous there's always the idea that it's the parent-or-guardian's fault. So with DitF you have the death of not just a hero but an icon, and Batman is partially responsible. The message is unmistakable: This ain't your Adam West Batman anymore.
To me, Jason's death really cemented the Joker's role as Batman's arch-enemy. Before the eighties, he was just this weird, creepy clown, who did weird, creepy clown things. Even Babs was shot to get at Jim, not because she was Batgirl. With Robin dying, that makes the Joker the first person to deliberately try to hurt Batman and win (that I can think of, I'm sure people who have read more pre-Crisis stuff can dispute this). And that... Is fucking terrifying, the idea that sometimes, even in the escapist fantasy world of comic books, the good guys don't always win.
Okay, I'm going to go with the obvious one here...
Jason stayed dead for what, fifteen, sixteen years, which is like, a millennium in comics-time. His death was, well, a sick marketing ploy, but it worked, and it would have been stupid and dishonest to bring him right back. (I sometimes wonder what would have happened had the phone-in poll gone the other way. The story is clearly set up for Jason to die, as far as I'm concerned.)
Of course, it doesn't help that his status as The Dead One was constantly reinforced in-story. Everyone from Tim to Alfred saw his ghost or felt its presence. He had a memorial right in the middle of the Batcave, where it could be smashed for instant drama every time there was a fight in the Cave. Tim spent the first part of his career trying to be more like Jason; Steph spent hers being like Jason, and being punished for it.
Robin is one of the absolute biggest names in the DCU. If Robin dies, that is a big fucking deal. I would say it's even more of a big deal than if an adult hero dies, because when a kid gets killed ding something dangerous there's always the idea that it's the parent-or-guardian's fault. So with DitF you have the death of not just a hero but an icon, and Batman is partially responsible. The message is unmistakable: This ain't your Adam West Batman anymore.
To me, Jason's death really cemented the Joker's role as Batman's arch-enemy. Before the eighties, he was just this weird, creepy clown, who did weird, creepy clown things. Even Babs was shot to get at Jim, not because she was Batgirl. With Robin dying, that makes the Joker the first person to deliberately try to hurt Batman and win (that I can think of, I'm sure people who have read more pre-Crisis stuff can dispute this). And that... Is fucking terrifying, the idea that sometimes, even in the escapist fantasy world of comic books, the good guys don't always win.