To that, we can add that their wide mouths, sharp teeth, and bug eyes look uncomfortably like old-time racist caricatures. Robin, Champion of Justice, openly advocates for their genocide. They're cannibals, but they'll bow and flatter if you beat some sense into them.

Hudson and Wolkin give a lengthy list of the racial stereotypes the loc-wearing, dark-skinned creatures embody: They accept worthless trinkets as valuable currency. Speaking of Talia, Batman and Bok's quest to retrieve her and Bok's wife Tatsinda isn't necessarily sexist, but the sheer amount of times they refer to them as 'our women' makes it hard to call it anything else. How? No explanation is given, which, as Hudson and Dworkin observe, might as well be the motto of the whole series. Suppose I reverse that charge.' And then he does, sending all the electricity back to Trigger. Batman hardly seems to notice, only saying, 'Massive charge. Trigger thinks he has Batman on the ropes when he shoots him full of darts from a giant stun gun. Slattern has built himself a futuristic suit out of all the confiscated weapons at Arkham and now insists on being called Trigger.

When you're Batman, you can reveal you have a completely invisible bulletproof shield you've never used before just because you've been written into a corner.īy Part 6, he discovers that Dr. All through a hilarious full-page montage as his body's whipped back and forth, blood flying everywhere. Deadman's ghostly powers mean he needs to inhabit someone else's body every time he does interact with the story, except when they're underground, for some reason, meaning we get a couple of issues of Batman running around with the Joker.įirst, when Batman discovers a bomb on a train in Part 1, he has to open the detonator to make sure the button can't be 'un-pressed.' Then in Part 2, we see Batman get shot. However, he shows up without any more explanation than Aquaman and spends most of his time in Part 1 without interacting with the plot except to kvetch about Batman. Aquaman follows and tells Batman to stay out of his territory by summoning a whale, which somehow sneaks up on the World's Greatest Detective so badly it startles him into thinking, 'A whale? A whale? A whale?!!!' And then Aquaman's never seen again.ĭeadman has a larger role, no doubt, because Adams' run on the character was one of his biggest early hits. This?' continuing after an interruption from Talia, 'Shut up! Who?' Aquaman casually saunters up to take credit. In Part 4, Batman is on a boat fighting Ra's al Ghul's bodyguard Ubu, when suddenly a stingray appears on deck and takes Ubu out of commission (don't worry, we'll get into that).

Deadman, Book Two by Neal Adams