Random Back Issues #164 - Batgirl #63

New city, but Cassandra's managed to find another older redhead encouraging her to have fun. 

It's been a hot minute since we've looked at Cassandra Cain's first book (almost six years!) In the aftermath of the garbage fire that was War Games, Batgirl is operating in Bludhaven, and has been messing with the Penguin (who moved in after Blockbuster was killed, I think in the pages of Nightwing.) Enough so, Cobblepot approaches a quartet of shadowy figures - (Alexander) Luthor's Society of Super-Villains, because we're in the run-up to Infinite Crisis - about getting rid of her. Specifically, he asks Deathstroke if he wouldn't mind handling it, describing it as a 'feather in your cap.'

Let's maybe keep Deathstroke away from underage girls, shall we? 

In the meantime, Cassandra's completed a morning workout routine she's done since childhood, though she changed the ending to where she doesn't decapitate the final dummy. Heading out to get a coffee from the shop near her loft, she overhears Brenda, the owner, talking about how the Wayne Foundation got her a grant to help her keep her store, and she's hosting a big party to celebrate. Brenda invites Cass, who demurs, claiming she needs to work tonight.

After thanking Batman for helping Brenda, and being warned the Penguin is looking for new alliances (see above paragraph), Cass decides to attend the party. But what to wear? Cass hasn't been to a party before, minus that cruise Barbara took her on 20 issues ago where Cass encountered Superboy. She tries a dress skirt and jacket that make her look like a mid-40s real estate agent for some firm in a small Midwestern town, but correctly notes it's no good, and makes some modifications.

Brenda seems to like it, but Cassandra is more interested by the mosh pit, and possibly some boy she sees bouncing around. Party Time is interrupted by an explosion and fire at the neighbor's across the street and Batgirl is soon Kool-Aid-Manning through a wall - to find Deathstroke holding Mrs. Brauenstein by the throat, Mr. Brauenstein already dead at his feet.

Batgirl asks 'stroke to put the woman down, so he breaks her neck and drops her. The fight is on! This is what got me to hunt down that issue of Nightwing discussed in Sunday Splash Page. While it's more involved here, Deathstroke is played as being in control. Within the first page he's shot a hole in her cape, shot off one of the cowl's ears, and gotten her to dodge a shot that took out a pillar and dropped the ceiling on her. Batgirl's monologue describes his body's movements as like a choir. 'Many different voices. All at once. But singing too fast. Too loud. The message is lost. Until it's too late.'

Batgirl escapes before the house collapses, the chase moving to rooftops. Noting Slade's deliberately moving slow, she opts to change the game, passing up an chance to attack, instead vaulting him and running, to an old churchyard. Deathstroke tangles her legs with a net, but she's able to pin his sword between her legs and kick him in the chops, cutting herself free as he gets hold of the net. There's a bit of flipping around before things end up with Batgirl pointing Deathstroke's sword at his face. But he knows she won't kill. And that's fine, because this is really a test for his daughter Rose, aka the Ravager!

Batgirl will handle that, but Deathstroke eventually uses Chemo to blow up Bludhaven and drugs Cassandra into taking over the League of Assassins (thanks Geoof Johns and Adam Beechen, you hacks!) But Deathstroke will also lose a fight to Green Arrow, so it's not all wine and roses for that creep.

{2nd longbox, 70th comic. Batgirl (vol. 1) #63, by Andersen Gabrych (writer), Ale Garza (penciller), Jesse Delperdang and Andrew Pepoy (inkers), Wildstorm FX (colorists), Pat Brosseau (letterer)}

Does The Reference Fit?

I keep seeing this scene from Christopher Priest's Deathstroke series online. A group of grieving mothers, their children killed by gun violence, have hired Deathstroke to kill the people responsible, which he is doing. The cop is frustrated by the fact nothing seems to get done to curb gun violence, and the reporter questions the wisdom of hiring a killer to kill killers. Both of which are fair points, but being me, the thing that grabbed my attention was neither of those things.

The reporter, and that's Jack Ryder, aka the Creeper, is getting his movie reference wrong. A Fistful of Dollars isn't about a town hiring a gunfighter. It's about a gunfighter entering a town of his own accord, and trying to play the gangs vying for control against each other for his financial benefit. The townspeople, such as they are, don't hire Joe. Silvanito, the innkeeper, tries to get him the hell out of town, figuring nothing good will come of his presence for anyone.

But ultimately Joe's actions weaken the Baxters and provoke the Rojos into destroying them. And then Joe kills the Rojos (for revenge for the ass-whupping they gave him or to protect Silvanito, take your pick). Granting a decent portion of the town burns down or is blown up, the few townsfolk we'd seen up to then are alive and free. Marisol is reunited with her family. I confess I don't know what those people will do for a living, but the Rojos' gun-running and the Baxters' liquor didn't seem to be creating many jobs, despite what I'm sure were very friendly tax rates (as in non-existent). Maybe more people needed to get in on the lucrative coffin-building industry. Still, I wouldn't say things worked out badly for the townspeople (excluding the crooks selling guns and booze), especially since they didn't waste any of their non-existent money hiring Joe to do this. Unless Ryder is counting the Rojos and Baxters as the townsfolk. I guess technically they would count, but the analogy definitely wouldn't fit in that scenario.

My best guess is Ryder is thinking of High Plains Drifter, where the cowardly, backstabbing townspeople hire the guy who killed three people and raped a woman his first half-hour in town to protect them. And he proceeds to take all their shit, let them humiliate and degrade themselves bending over backwards for him, and gets them to essentially help destroy their town. Although equating a bunch of moms who are angry and griefstricken over the loss of their children with a bunch of people who hired gunmen to kill a marshal to hide one crime, then framed the gunmen for theft to have them locked away, then hired more gunmen to protect them for when the first group of gunmen were released from prison, then hired the guy who killed the second group of gunmen for the same job, is a bit of a stretch.

The thing is, Christopher Priest seems like a pretty thoughtful guy, so I'm wondering if he got the reference wrong deliberately as some kind of point about Ryder, or he's just approaching it from a different perspective. Obviously the idea that hiring someone to kill people who killed others isn't going to solve the underlying problem of why those people took a life in the first place, or how they were able to have guns to do so. That there could be retaliation, escalation if the friends of the people Deathstroke kills figure out who pointed him in their direction and decide for some payback. Relying on killing to solve the problem of people killing people is not a sound strategy.

But going off either of those two films, what were the options? In High Plains Drifter, the townspeople could have opted not to mine on land they weren't supposed to, or accepted the punishment for doing so, or not framed Stacey Bridges for robbery. But having done those things, what were the options left if not to hire gunfighters? They did, at the drifter's urging, trying fighting for themselves, and failed miserably. They could have abandoned the town, scattered to the winds. Or they could have stayed and accepted whatever vengeance Bridges brought upon them. Fight, flee, suffer through it. None of those seem like viable options for the grieving mothers in the comic.

With A Fistful of Dollars, again, what's the option? None of the townsfolk have a prayer of confronting either of the gangs directly. The militaries of both the U.S. and Mexico use the town as a convenient meeting point for clandestine sales of weapons and booze. Neither of them is likely to step in and help. The sheriff is the head of the Baxter clan (and an incompetent boob to boot), so law enforcement is useless. I have no idea what political body they could appeal to, if any. It almost seems as though their best hope was to keep their heads down and hope that once one side won the struggle, things would get easier. But assuming that happens, and assuming it doesn't get them killed or their homes destroyed in the process, they're still living in fear of the remaining gang, which can now act with impunity because there's no risk of being attacked on an exposed flank if they overreach.

Maybe it shows that Ryder is well-aware of the limitations of the approach of using violence to eliminate violence, but has no viable solutions. Like me, he's good at picking out the flaws, but struggles to correct them. And hey, it's easy to criticize (fun, too). Or that he ignores the emotional element in this, the pain and frustration that would drive these mothers to this decision.All he sees is some vague way it could go wrong, not recognizing that from their perspective, it's already gone as wrong as it can.

How to Get Shot in the Head and Only Lose an Eye . . . Stuff I Think About #4

So this is Slade Wilson, known as Deathstroke the Terminator, or is it just Deathstroke now (Image courtesy of Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin)? As you may notice, he's missing his right eye, hence the patch. The thing is, I'm not sure how that could have happened based on the description of events.

See, Slade lost his eye at the hands of his then wife Addie. She was somewhat, shall we say miffed, that he hadn't told her he was an assassin, and that his work had led to their son Joseph getting kidnapped, and his vocal cords being cut, because Slade would not reveal the name of one of his employer's.

Here we see the set-up. Slade's getting ready to go on another mission. Addie comes in, telling him about Joseph's condition. Addie raises the gun, with the barrel pointed up slightly, to compensate for Slade's greater height, cocks the hammer, and fires. But Slade's a little too quick. As Addie puts it 'his reflexes saved him. I only shot out his right eye.'

I have to ask, how? How do you dodge a bullet fired at the back of your head, so that it only takes your right eye? Wouldn't it pass through your head, doing at least some damage to the rest of your skull, like your brain stem, or your upper jaw at least? Did he turn, in which case it should have grazed his eye socket, or at least the bridge of his nose?

So, since that story is obviously bull, I ask you, what is the REAL story behind Slade Wilson's missing eye?