With the 24th issue of Absolute Batman released, Scott Snyder presents a fresh take on the personification of fear and explains his downfall.
Premise
Absolute Batman is a spin-off of the DC Comics Universe, branching off from the end of the Absolute Power story arc. After the supposed defeat of the alien god of despair Darkseid, he gathers the Omega energy and forges a new universe where abuse of power is the law and the superheroes are reborn as underdogs of society. Absolute Batman, debuting on October 9th 2024, runs concurrently with various other darker iterations of DC stories like Absolute Superman and Absolute Wonder Woman, composing the Absolute Universe directed by Scott Snyder.
The story presents a role swap of the main characters. Bruce Wayne is no longer an eccentric billionaire who fights terrorists and psychopaths at night with high-tech gadgets. Bruce now lives with his mom after his father was shot at the zoo and works as a low-salary construction worker. Annoyed by the economic inequality and the crime rate, Bruce uses his passion for bats to create own Batman costume, and uses his knowledge of the city's layout to intercept criminals with his makeshift weapons. In contrast, the Joker is now a famous oligarch Jack Grimm, who has own manor, butler, and a secret cave, and is known for his philanthropy programs. But in reality, Jack runs a multinational conspiracy with an underground facility Ark M at its core, that uses genetic research to turn people into super-soldiers and he himself has a demonic transformation. The comic re-imagines classic Batman's gangsters as deeply troubled and grotesque monsters, necessitating Batman to rely more on brute strength and pragmatic tricks, rather than espionage and engineering.
Not the psychologist you know
Instead of being an ambitious professor Jonathan Crane, Scarecrow is now a friend and hitman of the Joker, called in to deal with Batman after Bane's defeat. He wears a brown business suit and is barefoot, his face looks like it was hollowed out and is hanging by red threads. Scarecrow has a rather affable and enthusiastic personality, responds to the questions with sarcasm, and uses strawman arguments to redirect concerns. His entire appearance and the manner of speech are designed to be scary and ambiguous at all times. He debuts in issue 19 by telling two farmers about their love affairs, causing one to murder the other before he snaps out from the sudden rage. The "Straw Man" arc lasts five issues.
The puppetmaster
The following contains heavy spoilers!
Scarecrow somehow causes paranoia to the former mayor Jim Gordon, who invites Batman to a rooftop to tell "something" about the so-called Project Batman, only to panic mid-explanation. He gets pushed off the edge by a sudden appearance of a flock of crows, with the public only seeing Batman above Gordon's corpse. Not only Bruce loses his second father figure, the idea that Thomas Wayne's death was orchestrated gets planted into him.
Scarecrow later appears in prison to intercept Batman interrogating Joe Chill, Thomas Wayne's shooter. The prisoner nonchalantly hangs himself using the bedsheet before Bruce can get any information about his involvement. Scarecrow inexplicably disappears after telling Bruce that he was the Joker's toy since childhood and that Thomas Wayne is secretly alive.
Scarecrow then proceeds to work with Deathstroke and Clayface to further defame Batman. Deathstroke operates the Robin Program on Joker's behalf where orphans receive enhanced suits and public support to fight crime, including trying to eliminate Batman. Tim Drake, the Robin-3, is a well-intentioned rising superstar, and ambushes Batman to bring him to justice. As Batman tries to defend his reputation, a shapeshifting Clayface appears as Batman and impales Robin-3 in public, who are unaware of the presence of a doppelganger. Batman calls Clayface a freak and a monster, who throws his insults back at him before fleeing. This is the third time someone died within Batman's arm reach in a matter of days.
Bruce tries to uncover what else the Joker was involved with, pushing away the support of Alfred, Crime Alley Kids and the Red Hoods gang, calling them "compromised" and puppets. He accuses his friends of being Joker's plants due to circumstantial parallels between their motifs and the zoo's layout where the shooting took place. As he stops listening, his wall becomes a conspiracy board where the strings become shaped as Scarecrow's face. Bruce's mind is hanging by a thread and he no longer understands what's real and what is someone pulling the strings.
Even the reader isn't safe
Scarecrow uses commentary that appears to be directed at the reader. He pokes holes in Bruce's backstory that only someone with the comic can double-check, shows that he has his iconic fear gas but deliberately withholds using it, can somehow phase into the darkness and control animals. As with Absolute's other villains, Scarecrow leaves his powers a complete speculation between a clever trick or supernatural mutation.
Everything he tells Bruce are the same questions fan theorists would likely have, as the Joker has capabilities of masterminding someone's life and it would fit the Absolute Universe's tone, but accepting it as fact would be contrary to the comic's message. Just as Bruce himself questions everything, the Gotham questions how much of Batman was a lie of a crazed vigilante. Scarecrow tries to present his exposition as a friendly advice with no strings attached, but the reader ultimately isn't told what is an Absolute Conspiracy and what is Absolute Bullshit.
He seemingly tries and succeeded causing a discourse in the fan community about the nature of his ability and Batman's role in the story, proving that hanging half-truths on a string makes an effective bait for conspiracy theorists who try to interpret small details as threads of some greater purpose. However, Scott Snyder's point is that something being presented as a batshit reveal in the story should not be treated as a confirmation, and the fear of the unknown is not an excuse to surrender to the status quo.
A spark of hope
He's just a boy who suffered the most terrifying trauma a child can. And instead of giving into to it, he goes out every nigh and faces that fear.
Martha Wayne, who is alive in this continuity, tells Bruce that this is how Scarecrow operates. A decade ago, the Court of Owls worked as a vigilante group similar to Batman, but then Scarecrow left some compromising information accusing them of working for the rich like their main timeline versions do. That made them point fingers at each other, eventually reducing them to a few members who are too afraid of getting involved with Gotham. In parallel, Alfred tells his superiors in the intelligence agency that Batman may be unreliable and is already seen as a monster by the entire city, but he did cause an inspirational wave of people now standing up against the abusive elites.
Bruce decides that if Scarecrow wants to play with him, he may as well entertain him. Ambushing Scarecrow in a straw field, Batman sets it ablaze to cut the villain's escape. Scarecrow reveals his "true form" as a grotesque wooden spider on par with other Absolute villains, but Batman responds that his entire life has all been trauma and fear, and in part because of him he has nothing to lose anyway, then proceeds to beat the monster up. This reveals it being only the fear toxin's hallucination and the criminal is left at the mercy of the one he tried to break. Scarecrow pathetically pleads that he can explain the truth of Project Batman, but Batman sews his mouth shut with his own thread and leaves him hanged to a wooden pole like his namesake. Leaving the merit of all of the reveals indecisive, Batman declares that him potentially being the Joker's puppet doesn't matter as he will be going after him either way.
In conclusion
The issue can be seen as a turning point in Darkside's dark universe. Absolute Bane was a colossal juggernaut and an early showcase of the impossible odds that new Batman has to deal with. But Bane was defeated thanks to Batman's support group and attachment to his identity. Joker's next move is to strip him of exactly that, turning Bruce from a strongman with strong bonds to a boy who's jumping at own shadows and is grasping at straws, a sad parody of his mainline counterpart's detective abilities. Still, Scarecrow underestimated Bruce's resilience, who thanks to his manipulations no longer cares if he's being puppeteered or not. We'll have to see if Batman manages to restore his public identity, but as the comic manages to re-implement the franchise's mythos, one can sure hope so.
The Straw Man arc demonstrates the danger of relying on unverified information. Someone who can control the information can control those who demand it, severing threads between friends who serve as true emotional support. Bruce's curiosity nearly lead to his mental annihilation, and the readers expecting worst case developments were cleverly played by the writer. One can easily draw a thread between Scarecrow's shadow propaganda and online misinformation campaigns in the real world. But if there's a grain of truth, it doesn't make the whole claim valid. And even if everything you know really was a lie, what's real is your decision to make a moral stance. And I'm not apologizing for the puns.
No comments:
Post a Comment