Comments on: Point/Counterpoint in the Blogosphere…

By: markus

markus — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 00:47:50 +0000

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.)

By: nobigtitlesforme

nobigtitlesforme — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 20:44:54 +0000

“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.

By: Evan

Evan — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 17:11:33 +0000

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.

By: iJusten

iJusten — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:27:00 +0000

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.

By: powerboy

powerboy — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 16:02:52 +0000

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.

By: apcullers

apcullers — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 13:49:10 +0000

Great use of a Radiohead line there, Mary.

By: J H

J H — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:58:49 +0000

what…

By: Morrison

Morrison — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 03:19:16 +0000

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)

By: nobigtitlesforme

nobigtitlesforme — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:48:30 +0000

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.