Michael : Initially I found the premise very intriguing, despite it being yet another “killing criminals is the only way to clean up Gotham.” I feel like right now there is a special interest in cult-like communities that rapidly spin out of control and this storyline taps into that in a major way. Zum Inhalt will ich nicht viel sagen, es handelt sich um eine durchaus komplexe Handlung, die den Namen Graphic Novel verdient. Insgesamt sehr düster, aber das ist bei Batman nicht ungewöhnlich. Dass die Story sehr kontrovers aufgenommen wurde und warum dem so war, läßt sich im Internet gut nachlesen. Love Interests • Origins • Other Media • Publication History • Recommended Reading • Storylines • Video Games • Batman Family Gotham City has many legends, and you can bet that many of those aren’t something good, and this one isn’t the exception…

Batman: The Cult | Batman Wiki | Fandom

Michael : This was my first time reading it and unlike our previous selection, I was not at all familiar with it. This story also requires you to suspend your disbelief and buy into the fact that an army of homeless people armed with a few guns and a bunch of knives/blunt objects easily defeated the army and a special forces unit by taking potshots at them from the sewers/building windows. Josh: Yeah, the lift here is quite apparent, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing. This is definitely where you see a tonal shift within the story. At this point, I think the element that makes the sequences actually work are the interviews with Gotham citizens. Casper: I like it for the most part, but my favorite bits aren’t the bits with the homeless. I like the scenes where Batman’s basically tripped out of his gourd, and I like the bit where he’s in Central Park a lot. But the homeless stuff…you know, at the start of the story it’s all right, it works well enough. But then we get to a point where the National Guard comes in, and they are unable to stop homeless people who behave like a bunch of wild, out-of-control animals rather than actual people. I really can’t take that seriously. Why can’t the army stop the homeless? It just becomes unintentionally hilarious! What is this? An episode of South Park? The controversy comes, in part, from the murder -- the one Batman apparently commits. Armed with a machine-gun and hallucinating, Batman opens fire on what he thinks is the Joker. The dying man then changes to look like James Gordon and finally the truth is revealed. However, the murder is shown in such a fashion to one could argue Batman didn't actually do the killing. But those are just the hardcore unable to accept the truth -- Batman murdered a man while under the influence of a cult, incapable of controlling his actions or trusting his own senses.

I had heard about Batman: The Cult but I hadn’t a clear idea of what was about, but I knew that if I have the chance to get it, I haven’t to hesitate about it.

Batman Comics That Bombed But Became Cult Classics - CBR 10 Batman Comics That Bombed But Became Cult Classics - CBR

Josh: Matina mentioned Robin earlier, so I want to make sure we give him the credit he’s due, especially since this is Jason Todd. Now, there aren’t a lot of great Jason Todd/Robin stories that come to mind, so this, for me, really stands out for Jason’s career as Robin. Batman gets brainwashed in this story, and we see him like never before. He mows people down with a machine gun in one instance, and acts like a coward in many other instances.You know that you’re about to get a thrill, when Jim Starlin is writing and even more if it’s something for DC, and even more and more if it’s about Batman. My problems with this book are many: Batman gets captured by the brainwashed homeless. Ok, so apparently homeless people become highly effective fighters once brainwashed. Batman gets caught in the most banal way, a situation he's been in countless times, but somehow falls victim to this time. Then he undergoes brainwashing which includes torture, starvation and hallucinatory drugs - he couldn't escape in the days he was chained up? It was literally a pair of handcuffs around a metal pipe, surely he could've escaped? It’s yet another situation Batman's been in before countless times which he could've easily gotten out of. But then there wouldn't be a book if he escaped- it's so contrived and out of character.