this happens with volume 4 of batman: tas, too, and i believe both were helmed by paul dini. while the guy is often cited (along with bruce timm, who is also a mess) as the magic man who made the DCAU go 'round, i think he may actually just be a fucking idiot whose one or two good ideas got amplified by everyone else around him. real george lucas situation, but i'd argue arkham asylum and its sequels are dumber than any of the prequel movies.Mischief Maker wrote:Because the psych evaluation tapes for all these supervillains make a mockery of the idea that they could be cured.
really fucking pisses me off, too - batman: tas very passionately argued in favor of rehabilitation and forgiveness and took to deeply nuanced depictions of traumatized and broken individuals at the edge of their rope. batman didn't just beat the shit out of Crazy Folks, he tried to set them back on the right path and was often broken and worn down by his inability to help some people. i still cry at some episodes, and the show has obvious, tremendous bones to pick with modern society. bruce becomes an anti-hero or even outright villain in his own show by batman beyond, clearly having been pushed across the edge and having lost what was holding him together as a compassionate individual. most interpretations of batman *across the board* since batman: tas completely lack nuance or taste and just delve into nonsensical hyperviolence and "the mythos." the batman beyond bruce - a broken, decrepit, angry man ready to murder and on the road to dying angry and alone - is all you see today, only rather than being criticized and seen as a cautionary tale he's uncritically heroic. eugh.
frank miller occasionally writes decent bats, too, and is probably the only guy to able to take him to a point of insane hyper-violence successfully. while he occasionally goes off the deep-end and nearly into alex jones crazypants territory on a few stories (the man went insane for a while after 9/11 lol), he's got some damn sharp wit mixed into some of his comics and a lovably violent, satirical bend that is pretty worthwhile. i often wonder what his politics are and he sometimes veers more right-winged than i'm comfortable with, but the guy probably hates republicans more than even alan moore.