Batman vs. Ra’s al Ghul // Cliff Chiang
Posts tagged ra's al ghul
Ok, I’ll admit it. One of my favorite tropes from comics (especially Batman comics) is when we get to see the rogues gallery together as a group. Even though realistically (outside of maybe the Gotham City Sirens and a few choice bromances) I think most of the villains are way too self-involved for any meaningful team-ups, I have a soft spot for scenes where the villains get to hang out together and do something villainous en masse. Some of my favorite panels ever involve two or more rogues talking between themselves, and I think it’s fantastic when a writer can really capture their villainous rapport correctly. (How the rogues talk when they’re monologuing to Batman and how they act when they’re playing poker in Arkham together, I think, should be completely different. Do they let their guard down around other villains, or do they become more defensive? Do they have nicknames for each other? Do the more famous rogues look down on the less successful ones? Things like that, at least for me, really help to flesh out a character…but that could only be because I spend way too much time reading Bat-villain fanfics.)
I’ve lost my train of thought all of a sudden.
Ah. Though I am not familiar with this panel in particular, it would seem to be a scene similar to the ones that I am fond of. From the context, it appears that the villains are holding some sort of funeral/trial for Batman, and even though that’s been done to death and it never seems to work out for them, I admire them for their perseverance. Getting to what my actual point was in this rambling mess, my FAVORITE part about this panel, and old comic panels in general, is the appearance of a few of the more obscure villains in the top right as part of the peanut gallery. You never really see them as much anymore, and it makes me wonder (because again, I spend way too much time thinking about things like this)…what happened to the more obscure villains within the comic book universe? I mean, I know what happened in real life…the characters became less popular over the years, and were dropped in favor of the more famous ones. But those villains didn’t just “disappear” in the comic book world. Were they just slowly phased out of the rogues club? Stopped being invited to things, stopped getting calls from the other villains to commit crimes, stopped being recognized on the street? When was the first time it dawned on the forgotten villains that they stopped being part of the main rogues gallery? Again, because it’s me, I like to imagine various scenes…like, Captain Stingaree shows up at the next one of these villainous soirees with a crock pot full of chili and knocks on the door, all ready to put Batman on trial again, and the door opens and everyone just sort of looks down at their feet and Two-Face goes “Oh! Karl! You’re here. Everyone, um…Karl’s here. Everyone, shut up, look who it is.” So they stand there awkwardly and look at each other for awhile, but no one actually invites him in so eventually he just sort of steps back and says “Well…I should…I should probably get going, I guess.” And Two-Face goes “Oh! Ok, well, it was really good to see you again, Karl…you have my number, right? No, definitely, you should definitely call sometime. Alright, well, later!” And as soon as the door closes you can hear Two-Face from the other side of the door being like, “Guys, who told him? Waylon, was it you? Dammit, Waylon!” Or the first time Killer Moth got thrown in Arkham and found out his cellmate was going to be Crazy Quilt, or something, and spent the night sobbing over 
^ that picture, wondering how he went from being on par with The Joker and Lex Luthor to this.
I like old comic panels like this one. It’s just nice to think that at one time, villains like this weren’t just obscure laughingstocks, but valued members of the supervillainous community.
And then I have to tell myself: This is why I don’t have friends in real life. Because these are the kind of things I think about.
