Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Battle for the Cowl

There's something I've been wondering about when it comes to this Battle for the Cowl thing. Writers and editors have been talking about how (and I'm paraphrasing here) "when criminals discover Batman is gone things go to hell."

Basically I think they're saying that Batman serves as a deterrent to crime more than anything. There are plenty of costumed heroes running around Gotham, but it's Batman that really makes the baddies stay in at night.

The question then becomes: what about the year of 52? Batman was gone for a whole year. Heck, not only Batman but Nightwing and Robin. And I don't think Batgirl was around either. Basically the only people there were Batwoman and Harvey Dent.

But as far as I can tell the crime rate didn't shoot entirely through the roof. At least no more than usual. Apparently Harvey Dent (Harvey Dent?) did a decent enough job of keeping things running smoothly with the help of Kathy Kane.

What I'm asking is: do they really expect us to buy the fact that everything is going to fall apart now? Or is this different? Is it a matter of the 52 period being "Batman's gone but watch yourself because he's coming back" while Battle for the Cowl is "Batman's dead, feel free to go crazy"?

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5 Comments:

At 11:43 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes... absolutely no effect at all. Except for Intergang/Apokolips moving in and nearly transforming Gotham into a new series of fire pits.

I'd consider that a fairly noteworthy "something"

 
At 4:11 AM, Blogger kalinara said...

Jake: Granted it's been a while since I read 52, but I wasn't under the impression that it was Batman's absence that caused intergang/apokolips to decide that moving in would be a good idea.

I rather suspect that they would have decided to do that whether Batman was there or not. (And really, I'm not sure that it really counts as "unusual" in comic book terms anyway. :-P)

It is a weird thought that criminals would think that this is such a big deal. Wouldn't it be more, "eh, Batman's gone again?"

 
At 10:17 AM, Blogger SallyP said...

Yes, but remember, criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot...and apparently illogical as well.

Stupid criminials!

 
At 7:03 PM, Blogger Scipio said...

No,they expect you to forget 52.

Which, actually, is quite easy to do.

 
At 7:19 PM, Blogger Diamondrock said...

True enough, Scip. All I really remember are the Booster Gold parts. And those are pretty hazy. I think Countdown damaged my brain after the fact. I try to forget that but I can't.

 

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