Believable?

June 22nd, 2004

Filed under: Comics

One of the concluding ideas of the Hush storyline in Batman was that the Riddler knew that Bruce Wayne was Batman, but that it didn’t really matter because nobody would believe him because he was the Riddler.

Barely a year later, the Joker is saving the Riddler’s life in Batman: Gotham Knights because he wants to find out from the Riddler who killed his wife. Clearly he believes what the Riddler will tell him about this, so why wouldn’t he believe him about Batman?

It seems to me that Loeb just wrote himself into a corner in Batman, then decided it didn’t matter and went for the easy way out.

Speaking of the current Gotham Knight storyline. It’s trying to make Hush into a more fearsome villain, and for the most part it’s succeeding, but Hush still has a long, long way to go. I have to ask: why bother? Hush offers nothing other villains with more style don’t already offer. Sure, he’s better then Benedict Arnold, but just barely (and Arnold’s a snappier dresser). Again, it seems that DC has painted itself into a corner by promoting Hush, and is now trying to prove (to us, and to themselves) that he is a good villain. Please don’t. Just stop now. Please!

5 Responses to “ Believable? ”

  1. David Lawson
    June 23rd, 2004 at 9:34 am

    Actually, villians would have believed Riddler. He’s keeping his mouth shut in exchange for Batman not telling Ra’s Al Ghul who used his Lazarus Pit. Or as Bats put it, “Riddle me this, how long would you last against the League of Assassins?”

    So he’s not telling anyone because he wants to stay breathing. Not because of any percieved lack of credibility.

  2. Scott
    June 23rd, 2004 at 11:36 am

    Ah, that certainly makes more sense. Can’t believe I missed that. I’ll have to track down that issue and re-read the end.

    Of course, thanks to Death and the Maidens Ra’s is dead, so will this threat still keep the Riddler down?

  3. Matt Rossi
    June 23rd, 2004 at 12:57 pm

    Ra’s will be back.

    Now I’m thinking of a storyline wherein Batman actually has to figure out a way to convince the League of Assassins that it was someone other than the Riddler…

  4. David Lawson
    June 23rd, 2004 at 2:02 pm

    There’s also one other plot point from Hush that hasn’t been covered yet.

    Riddler and co. stole Jason Todd’s body to make Batman think Hush=Jason. But at the end of the story when Batman asked Riddler where Jason’s body was, Riddler wouldn’t give him an answer, and got clocked for it.

    I smell zombie story!

  5. Matt Rossi
    June 24th, 2004 at 1:07 am

    Or possibly, now that Ra’s is dead and Riddler knows where the Lazarus Pit is…

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