This interview with Chuck Dixon has been inspiring a lot of reaction across the comic blogosphere.
Point:
Steven of the Roar of Comics is impressed by the interview and Mr. Dixon’s capacity for writing stories belying his own personal politics:
Excerpt:
Specifically, he states that he’s pro-death penalty, which surprised me, because Joker: The Devil’s Advocate is one of the best arguments against the death penalty I have ever read.Now, I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a Dixon fan but Devil’s Advocate is a cut above. Not only does it feature some of Graham Nolan’s best art ever, as well as a Joker that is intelligent, vicious, crazy, and actually funny, it presents the ultimate test case for the death penalty: The Joker.
Counterpoint:
Girl-Wonder.org’s own Mary finds certain of Mr. Dixon’s remarks inconsistent:
Excerpt:
Uh, Chuck, dude, remember that time you had a pregnant Spoiler preached to by Robin about how she shouldn’t keep her child, even though she wanted to, because it deserved to grow up with a mother and a father, not be raised by a young single mom? Despite the fact that having both parents in the family unit hadn’t exactly helped either Stephanie or Tim grow up fitter, happier, more productive?
January 11th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
The idea that the Batman triumphs by freeing the Joker from the death penalty (one imposed, presumably, for the one crime the Joker did not committ) struck me as one of the most asinine ideas ever used for a comic book.
It might be a great philosophical debate for law students but seems far too self-conflicted.
January 11th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
While I disagreed with some of his answers, I do applaud Dixon for not avoiding the tough questions. I’d love to see some others follow his lead (cough-Quesada-coug-DiDio-cough)
January 12th, 2007 at 7:58 am
what…
January 12th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Great use of a Radiohead line there, Mary.
January 12th, 2007 at 11:02 am
I don’t understand Girl-Wonder’s remarks. She critizes him for putting words in Robin’s mouth about an article where Chuck basically says that he can write things that he may or may not personally beleive.
Besides, I think that Tim was raised by his dad only, right. He has a step-mom later in the series, but I thought that his real mother died a long time ago. Also, Spoiler’s dad was essentially never there, being a Super-Criminal and all. I can see why Robin would express the opinion that he did, both He and Spoiler being from essentially single parent homes.
January 12th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Tim’s mom died soon after he started training to be Robin, but before he went to streets. His parents were kidnapped by some voodoo-guy, and Batman was only able to save the dad.
January 12th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Joker: Devil’s Advocate never had anything to do with the death penalty.
It was about Batman not being able to let the Joker serve any type of sentence for a crime he knew he had nothing to do with, regardless of the fact that he had done so many other crimes and truthfully deserved to be killed in any case.
Justice was not being served by letting (at least for this case) an innocent man take the rap.
Always loved the fact that Tim just understood exactly what Bruce was doing and why and just went along with it. Made sense to me too. Still does.
January 12th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
“Justice was not being served by letting (at least for this case) an innocent man take the rap.”
That’s a bit of a problem when your whole premise is of being a vigilante dispensing justice and protecting the innocent.
I am sure that any version of Batman has no illusions about Joker being an innocent man by any but the most technical definition. So the whole idea puts the character in a moral quandry that is irresolvable.
January 12th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Yeah, but no matter the mmuddled morality of the case, the Joker is by no means an ideal test case for the death penality. He is crazy. His real life analogues are not responsible for what they and hence usually are kept in protective custody if treatment is impossible. The Joker was only ever able to get amass the body count he has because Arkham’s security is a joke, which in turn it is for story reasons.
(In other words, another case of serial fiction starting to take its own trapping seriously and stumbling in the process.)