By now you ’ve probably discover about the moment in Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo’snew DC Black Label series Batman : Damned , where a completely - naked Bruce Wayne ’s member is seen on panel . Go on , take a moment , and let the bats out of your belfry .
As eye - catching as that particular jury is , it ’s the least interesting part of a fascinating comic that twist and tangles everything we know about the Dark Knight and what Bruce Wayne think he hump about himself . Likeall of DC ’s Black Label Word of God , nothing about Damned is technically consider canyon — but , apocrypha or not , the story it ’s telling is one that adds a Modern depth to the larger Batman mythos .
Though Batman : Damned is n’t an origin level in the traditional horse sense , it is a news report about Batman ’s ancestry and the forces at work in the dark that put Bruce Wayne on his path toward enormousness . In this world — hauntingly realized by Bermejo ’s moody , dreamlike illustrations — theJokerhas mysteriously give way just as Batman takes a fall from a bridge into the Gotham River and nearly drowns to death himself .
Fighting for his life-time , Batman manages to get his head above the water and occupy his lung with air , but as he ’s thrashing about in the river , he catch a momentaneous look at a spectral vision of his numb parents standing on the bobtail that both shocks him and gives him the strength to commit himself ashore .
Despite his plans to return to the Batcave with Alfred ’s help , Batman crack up in a nearby back street , quickly losing blood and his grip on realness just in time for Batman : Damned ’s actual storyteller to show up in all his undependable , chain - smoke glory .
The larger mystic implications ofJohn Constantine’spresence in Batman : Damned immediately upgrade the book , and is one of the first clues that the visions Bruce is beginning to have with increasing frequency might be more than flights of fancy .
With the Joker ’s demise unexplained , Batman discover himself unmoored , at least briefly , as he tries to piece together who or what might have been capable to accomplish what he could not ( taking the Joker down ) during his time as a vigilante . The street of Gotham are full of mystery story invisible to the au naturel oculus whose universe Bruce is keenly cognisant of , and wary of , because of the ways they pull and prod at his perceptions of world .
Characters like Deadman and Zatanna make their way into Bruce ’s life as he ’s working this Modern , most personal case , but they never present themselves as their on-key selves . They seem in camouflage , profane the the great unwashed around them to various ends ; all the while , Bruce ’s flashbacks to his time as a child become that much more immersive and disorienting . There ’s something anathemise ( in a magical good sense ) about Bruce Wayne and his relationship to Batman that ’s realized in a scene deep within the Batcave where Bruce is at his technical safe and most psychologically vulnerable .
reason that his hallucination might be the answer of physical trauma or exposure to an unknown nitty-gritty , Bruce strips down to his skivvies in guild to bleed a complete diagnostic on his body which , unsurprisingly , does n’t turn anything up . But a voice — the vox — in Bruce ’s head invites him to begin considering whether whatever ’s going on with him might be an offshoot of his imagination , or worse , a completely broken intellect .
In case you were wondering , while early versions of the amusing leger did , at one point , admit tasteful , full - head-on Batman nudity , the digital edition of the comedian have been curiously edited to to the full dark Bruce ’s junk .
Given how this scene is , presumably , meant to highlight Bruce ’s exposure , it ’s an odd choice that only jumps out when you live what ’s miss from the page . Also , consider that this is a history being told byJohn Constantine , and remember it ’s a Black Label book for “ adult ” consultation .
Like a brain-teaser , the mystery Batman : Damned presents us with is n’t at all straightforward and the mite this first issue drops are purposefully meant to make you question the veracity of what you ’re reading . We all bang thatMarthaandThomas Waynemet their tragical ending in a Gotham bowling alley at the hand of a two - morsel crook . But , Batman : Damned , suggests , there ’s much more to the story of how they died than Bruce has ever let himself fully consider .
Bruce has always blamed himself for his parents ’ last and by the time you make it to the closing of this first issue , you might be swayed to study that perhaps , just maybe , Bruce was decent all along .
Edit Note : An earlier translation of this post put forward that physical copy of Batman : Damned had Batman ’s Batawang censored out . It has been update to reflect that only digital written matter of the comic have been censored .
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