So, finally, someone has laid out the ground rules (assuming, of course, that Barbara Gordon is qualified to lay out dead Bruce's ground rules):
What, Stephanie was Robin, hanging around in the Batcave, and never noticed Batgirl's case before? Some detective...
Anyway, now that all the furor has died down about why Stephanie didn't have a trophy case, can we get back to the real issue--why doesn't Azrael have one?
Jean-Paul Valley WAS Batman for a year. Not Robin, not Batgirl--he WAS The Batman.
After that, he continued to work for Batman. The last 53 issues of his mag were titled "Azrael--Agent of the Bat." Look, they even had a special logo:
And the little Batman cowl logo appeared on the cover, showing that he was part of the Bat team.
Frankly, he is far better qualified for a trophy case than Stephanie Brown ever was. Aside from from meeting all of the criteria Oracle lists--being murdered, becoming someone else, being shot--he also had the advantage of actually being, you know, dead. And he played a more significant role in the Bat family than Stephanie ever had.
So, everyone who agitated for Stephanie to get a trophy case--where's the outrage for Jean-Paul? Where's the internet petitions, the questions for Dan DiDio at conventions, the accusations of nefarious motives for the exclusion?
Just askin'...
Stephanie/Babs confab from this week's Batgirl #2
What, Stephanie was Robin, hanging around in the Batcave, and never noticed Batgirl's case before? Some detective...Anyway, now that all the furor has died down about why Stephanie didn't have a trophy case, can we get back to the real issue--why doesn't Azrael have one?
Jean-Paul Valley WAS Batman for a year. Not Robin, not Batgirl--he WAS The Batman.
After that, he continued to work for Batman. The last 53 issues of his mag were titled "Azrael--Agent of the Bat." Look, they even had a special logo:
And the little Batman cowl logo appeared on the cover, showing that he was part of the Bat team.
Frankly, he is far better qualified for a trophy case than Stephanie Brown ever was. Aside from from meeting all of the criteria Oracle lists--being murdered, becoming someone else, being shot--he also had the advantage of actually being, you know, dead. And he played a more significant role in the Bat family than Stephanie ever had.So, everyone who agitated for Stephanie to get a trophy case--where's the outrage for Jean-Paul? Where's the internet petitions, the questions for Dan DiDio at conventions, the accusations of nefarious motives for the exclusion?
Just askin'...
Stephanie/Babs confab from this week's Batgirl #2
'cos he's shit? might explain stephanie, too.
ReplyDeleteHmm, wasn't Stephanie Robin for a while and then "became someone else" (Spoiler and then Batgirl). She also appeared to "murdered" whilst she was Robin. She's also "been shot" in the shoulder. So all three apply to her.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the murdered Jason Todd has since been resurrected (like Stephanie) but his costume is still on display.
So, it still doesn't make sense.
Regarding Azrael, perhaps Batman only keeps trophies of his ex-sidekicks and not the guys who pretended to be him?
Nimbus--Jean-Paul wasn't pretending to be Batman. He WAS Batman, with Bruce Wayne's blessing (for awhile). And "sidekick" or not, Bruce regularly sent him on missions post-Knightfall, and was more of an agent of The Bat than Barbara Gordon really was.
ReplyDeleteAlso, to get hyper-technical, Stephanie was "murdered" after she was fired from being Robin, and was acting as a rogue.
Maybe if Azrael was missing a Y Chromosome, there'd probably be a steady drumbeat for him to get his own display case.
ReplyDeleteI miss Jean-Paul; SWORD OF AZRAEL is one of my favorite Batman stories and I loved the idea of the Order of St. Dumas and their avenging angel; it made this Templar/Hospitaller freak happy to see some of those elements wend their way into the Bat-mythos.
ReplyDeleteOf course now he's dead, which I'm still a bit fuzzy on and the third Batchurian Candidate is walking around in an all-white outfit with a supernatural sword and armor as the new Azrael. Which is. . .okay. . .but bringing the supernatural into a character in the bat-universe should be sparing, if at all. The odd Deadman/Ragman guest-spot is fine, but bringing in magic to the gritty urban adventures of the caped crusader on a regular basis? That I'm not so sure of.
It'd be nice if Dick gave Jean-Paul a little shout-out, as I thought they bonded a bit after he recovered from his breakdown.
Stac