Batman 370
Detective Comics 537
“Up Above the Sin So High”
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| This scene DOES happen in this book! |
Detective Harvey Bullock's been
trailing the elusive and comically named Dr. Fang for a
several stories now. Fang's poised to take over the criminal
underworld, although we're not really sure how or how he's taken
seriously given his sobriquet. Regardless, Bullock's done the leg
work, but now it's time for Batman to meet Dr. Fang. One Dracula
cosplayer to another.
Fang's been on the fringes of the
Gotham City underworld, making small power plays in the protection
rackets, shaking down bar and arcade owners as well as other small
businesses, and he's eager for the big time. So eager, that when Sgt.
Harvey Bullock of the GCPD just appears claiming he's a crooked cop
and that he'd be willing to part with information helpful to Fang for
cash compensation, the falsely-named doctor just sees this as his
opportunity to make the big time. Too bad for Fang that as soon as he
has an in and some information on the organization, Bullock's on the
phone with Batman telling him who to punch and where they'll be so
some punching can occur.
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| Dr. Fang. Don't laugh. You'll hurt his feelings. |
The first part of this story is the
exciting part: Batman and Robin act like a team for the first time
since Jason Todd came on board and proceed to kick the shit out of
20-25 of Dr. Fang's hench-people in a battle royale that starts in
the back alleys of Gotham before spilling out onto her streets. I
like when Batman sneaks around in the dark and really puts the fear
of god into some asshole, but I REALLY enjoy it when he takes on all
comers, pummeling people until there's no one left to hit. At one
point Batman shows off my favorite move: slamming a trash can over
some chump and then punching him. Taking out the trash, yeah!
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| Hot trash can action. |
In all the excitement and broken bones,
Dr. Fang makes his getaway and then the more boring second half of
the story begins: the search for Fang. Why would this be boring?
Because it ends with Fang still missing; not much of a story there.
Batman does manage to help one bum who lives in the sewers though,
but he also oppresses and punches out another bum who lives in the
sewers, so he's neutral on the 'helping bums' thing.
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| Robin kicks a guy in the junk really hard. |
As I've mentioned numerous times
before, I enjoy sub-plots. I enjoy the continuing story in a comic
book series where sub-plots weave into the main plots and give the
impression that the audience is not just reading a story about a
character but taking part in a myriad of stories that make up this
particular characters life, no matter how fantastic it may seem. In
that respect, I've enjoyed the build-up of Dr. Fang from a shadowy
menace to a full-fledged character as well as how this build-up has
included side characters like Harvey Bullock. The problem for me here
then is Dr. Fang. He's not a believable threat, even in a city with
crime as crazy as Gotham.
Fang is an ex-boxer and ex-actor, who
decided that in order to force criminal gangs to follow him and
ordinary citizens to fear him, would dress up as a shirtless man in a
cape with a penchant for fake fangs. Even in a fictional universe
where a clown is the gravest threat, I just don't see how Fang is
able to take over the underworld as Bullock posits. Sure, he looks
like an asshole, but he's barely above the level of shaking down
people for protection money. He's no gangland, he's a common street
criminal. It's disappointing that character full of possible pulpy
appeal like Fang turns out to be another chump that will eventual end
up in prison on the other side of Batman's fist. Another sub-plot
soon to bite the dust.
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| He's punch-drunk here. |
On the flip side, in a back-up feature
to this story, Green Arrow is introduced to the Post-Crisis
Post-Script.
Green Arrow is a former billionaire
Oliver Queen as well as a former member of the Justice League of
America and a master archer. Clad all in green (obvious) he acts like
a modern day Robin Hood, protecting those without power in the social
sphere from the crooked politicians and other white collar criminals
that would prey on those without power or voice.
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| Real arrows would just be too bloody. |
While
moving into an apartment in a new neighborhood Green Arrow becomes embroiled
in a plot by a crooked landlord to wrongly evict residents from
low-income housing. When the evil landlord resorts to trying to burn
his own building down, the Emerald Archer catches him red-handed.
Green Arrow appears as a back-up in the
Detective Comics series, and I'll be covering the stories as they
wrap up for the foreseeable future.
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