Even so, there is a line that shouldn't be crossed. And with the upcoming animated series Beware the Batman, someone at DC or Warner Bros. has just skipped merrily over that line without a care. For evidence, I summon forth a recently-debuted character focus sheet, found in a recent issue of a DC Nation kids' magazine by the folks behind the DC Women Kicking Ass Tumblr:
Can't see the problem yet? Let me take a page out of CSI here. ZOOM. ENHANCE.
Alfred's preferred weapon is a f***ing pulse rifle.
A pulse rifle. Which, let's be clear, is a gun. A gun being used by Batman's butler/assistant/best friend.
Remember how Batman's parents died? Remember how awful that was for him? Remember how it basically made him vehemently opposed to the very idea of ever using a firearm?
And boy I really hate it when I have to use Frank Miller as
an example of Batman done 'right'...
And yet, here he's totally okay with letting Alfred tote an automatic rifle.
No. No. That isn't 'interesting new take', it's a violation of the character's foundations and it's utterly pointless. You want to have an Alfred who's more action-oriented, who helps Batman out of tough scrapes by throwing down with the bad guys? Sure, you can have that, but there's no reason he has to do it with a gun. Just have him wail on guys with a golf club - or, given that here he looks the spitting image of The Goon, his enormous ham-fists of justice. But not a gun. Never a gun.
And yes, I'm sure that (this being a kid's show etc.) the rifle will be some sort of non-lethal tazer thing rather than a Colonial Marines-endorsed murder machine, but it's still providing all the wrong sort of imagery for a Batman ally. And I really have no clue why it's happening here.
I just don't want it to ever happen again.
No comments:
Post a Comment