Originally published on Patreon
Things get a little strange towards the end of this issue of Future State: Gotham as the five Batman clash on the rooftops of Gotham City.
With Dick having beaten the rest of the Bat-Family last issue Barbara follows him across Gotham, trying to find a way to stop him from his plans. However, when she arrives on the scene she's shocked to find four other Batman, Talia al Ghul, Jason, and Hunter Panic all there fighting or injured. Thanks to her databases, she's able to confirm that Bruce is who he says he is, bringing Jason onto his side. After some convincing Jace join them; but unfortunately Damian is still under Hush's sway, and manages to take down Dick.
After escaping into the night, the others agree to work together to go after Damian and stop whatever's to come. But Dick claims he's the only one who can stop it, and flies off. Following them to the bat crater, the group learns that Hush has gained control of the Court of Owls, and he unleashes Talons to attack them. Worse still, he manages to unleash an evil spirit that had caught a ride out of hell inside Damian, turning Damian into Joe Chill.
This is certainly a choice. Not necessarily a good one though. I'm not sure why the series has gone this way, but I guess Joe Chill has a vendetta against Batman so strong he can claw his way out of hell to try and kill him. Which is a new thing for sure.
The rest of the story is fine enough, and the addition of the Court is a nice touch, but I honestly don't know what the series is planning to do with the Joe Chill thing, and can't help but think that perhaps it would have been better left on the cutting room floor.
Now to the back-up feature, which tells a story of how Batman finds out a couple of gangs who're trafficking woman and abusing them have beaten Selina up so badly she's paralysed for life. In his rage he goes and beats the shit out of them all, making sure than many of the injuries will stop them from ever walking again as a kind of payback. But, he learns that Selina faked the injuries to get him angry enough to take down criminals who'd normally be too small for him to care about.
Okay, so I'm not against Selina doing some manipulation on Bruce to get what she wants, it's who she is after all, but this crossed the line for me. Bruce makes a point that he went through this with Barbara, and you can see how the guilt of that is a huge trauma for him. And Selina knew that and still used it to manipulate him? That's absolutely abhorrent and evil. And I don't believe for a second she'd do that to someone she loves.
I also had a lot of problems with the repeated use of the word cripple. It's never, 'she's paralysed' and always 'she's crippled'. The word gets used so many times here and I hate it. Sadly, it's a word that most people will never think about, but for many in the disabled community its a horrible word. I'd hate if someone ever called me that. Its use, and over use, here felt gross every time, and it kept throwing me out of the story. The writer absolutely needs to do better.
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