scans_daily | Two scans from World's Finest #10 Preview (spoilers for Batman Inc #8)

see to me... this would have been a lot more poigniant if i actually believed that Damian and Helena had actually bonded this deeply... i mean it just happened so damned fast! they were fighting then suddenly between issues, or in the gutters they were sorta brother/sister besties... I would have had NO PROBLEM with them bonding, and being close, IF we had actually seen said bonding... and this dialogue... I WANT TO LIKE THIS... i WANT to feel for Helena... but i cant....

full preview here

http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2013/02/worlds-finest-exclusive-preview/#slideid-106776

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From:

darkm1993

I kinda think that the facial expression in the third panel on the first page looks hilarious and kinda distracts me from sympathising as well. There's just something about it that makes it look ridiculous and i'm thinking it has something to do with the eyes.

Though mostly i'm just trying to figure out if the apathetic look there is what they were going for or not.

From:

shadowpsykie

i THINK it's supposed to be a sad/mournful/numb look...

From:

icon_uk

I've seen the guilt that someone feels when a sibling they never really got on with has died unexpectedly, it's a very tough thing to deal with and process emotionally, so I won't judge Helena based on that.

The feelings of "What time did I waste arguing with them?" and/or "People expect me to feel bad and I just don't" can really tear you up.

From:

shadowpsykie

yeah except that apparently they WERE close... they definately seemed to have bonded rather closely between issues of World's Finest, and here she says "Is everyone I ever care about going to be taken away from me?"

which to me implies she DID care about him and she DID have a relationship with him. maybe if we had an issue like the nightwing issue that showed them bonding then maybe i would believe it.

or if she said somethign along the lines of. "I wish i had gotten to know him better." or "I didn't really know him, but..."

far be it from me to judge anyone's grief process, but maybe i am just jaded by the lost potential of this book. they showed them bond superfast (or rather DIDN'T show them bond, beacause between issues they apparently told each other thier secrets and had ice cream) and we never saw it...

From:

katya

There's a difference between mourning a person for what they were to you, and mourning what they could/should have been to you.

Two of my grandparents died before I was born. When I got older, I suddenly found myself weeping one day thinking about them. Obviously, we weren't close - we never even met - but I was suddenly in a position to really think about how close we might have been, and the things they could have taught me.

Sometimes you don't mourn because of the relationship, you mourn because of the absence of a relationship.

From:

theflames

That could be the case here, though it doesn't feel like it because of the dialogue.

From:

shadowpsykie

yeah cuz that is what i got from it. that they DID have a relationship and that while maybe not as close as siblings, they were on that road.

From:

theflames

I get what you mean. Basically this close relationship she's talking of hasn't actually been built on panel, which makes it very jarring.

I get that feeling anytime Scott Summers is cozying up with one of his future babies, especially because I joined comics like... 5 years ago, relatively early, when I see him saying all these things about Cable or whoever I just feel as though he's making it up...

From:

shadowpsykie

well the Summers' are more beliveable because they have been around for a while and more time has been allowed for between panel stuff and off handed comments. Helena and Damian BARELY met and super bonded off panel between issues of a two issue story. then not even a mention since (as far as i remember...)

but yeah. that's what i mean.

Edited Date: 2013-03-01 08:13 pm (UTC)

From:

theflames

Oh yeah, I can accept the Summers because I know they have created those bonds on panel, but since it was way back when, before I started reading Marvel comics, it doesn't feel that way, because writers reference relationships that were only actively displayed around a decade ago etc. (making it harder for a relatively new reader like me to really understand the drama).

Here, with Helena, it's just... really odd, I'm surprised they actually had her reacting in this issue to be honest. When Damian died, none of my thoughts were saying 'I wonder how Helena will take this' because them meeting felt like such a non-event. So it's a little awkward.

From:

auggie18

In all fairness to Scott, he raised Cable until he was around two. Then he and Jean went into the future and raised him until he was about twelve. They were in other peoples' bodies, though.

COMICS, EVERYONE!

From:

theflames

hahaah, That just sounds so surreal read aloud.

Comics indeed.

From:

mrstatham

I just can't take this that seriously when it comes to the little stuff like 'not-brother', which just feels more like the writer making light of the absurdity of the character's situation as a refugee from another world and less Helena trying to find the right word for what Damian was.

From:

shadowpsykie

had the relationship been build on panel or even with a significant amount of time off panel, then i would beleive it... as it is... eh...

From:

aeka

Agreed. I think Paul Levitz excels best when he writes Huntress anthology-type stories, but is a terrible choice writer for a monthly series given that he's very disorganised in presenting his ideas, has no concept of complex storytelling or plot buildup, struggles tremendously with believable character development, and reinforces clichés and stereotypes in place of giving a story (or characters for that matter) any real depth. The fact that he doesn't put enough original thought into execution makes these pages fall flat on the emotions they're trying to convey, and doesn't actually succeed at making me care about the fact that Helena lost her "little brother." The fact that I'm saying this as a huge fan of Helena Wayne should be pretty telling of how subpar the writing has been for this series with the exception of the last two issues.

It also doesn't help that Kevin Maguire's art in these pages fails to capture the right facial expressions for the feelings Helena is trying to convey. In the third panel in particular, Helena looks like Willow Rosenberg doing her cynical face. Couple that with the trite and cliché dialogue and this feels more like a skit for a comedy show than something that's meant to be taken seriously.

From:

shadowpsykie

which makes me sad. i mean i would LOVED for these two to have been close, yeah on one level they bio-bat kids. but that's not why. it's probably a reason THEY would feel closer, but the real reason is that they both have shown a willingness to do what the other bat clanners won't which is kill when they feel they have to*

* which is why i also want Helena to meet up with Jason

From:

aeka

Helena and Damian had a lot of potential for stories together that won't be happening now because the latter is dead. The two stories that we did get--as you said--didn't even take the time to build the relationship to a point where both characters could realistically bond. Levitz just established that they did and that was it. It was very forced and wasn't handled in a way that made sense for both characters.

If the only reason DC got Paul to write those two issues is because they were going to kill Damian in a few months, the idea would've been much better spent on a miniseries fronted by those two characters, written by a writer who actually knows how to write. I would say Peter Tomasi would've been a great choice for exploring these two characters more in depth since Levitz was clearly not the man for the job.

From:

shadowpsykie

the idea would've been much better spent on a miniseries fronted by those two characters, written by a writer who actually knows how to write. I would say Peter Tomasi would've been a great choice for exploring these two characters more in depth since Levitz was clearly not the man for the job.

oh now you are breaking my heart.... Tomasi's work on BaR was great. He understood damian and i htink could have done interesting things with the Helena Damian dynamic

Edited Date: 2013-03-01 11:28 pm (UTC)

From:

silverhammerman

I wonder how this will effect Helena's view of mainstream Bruce? He's had two out of three Robins under his care die in a five year span, with the latest his biological ten year old son, being killed in what's essentially a spat between Bruce and Talia. Coming from a world where her father sacrificed his life to ensure people's safety and had a happy and healthy relationship with Catwoman, I can't help but feel that Helena would have some choice words for our Bruce.

From:

sun_man

Isn't she from an alternate earth?

From:

shadowpsykie

yeah....? and?

From:

perletwo

Yeah, see, this is kind of how I feel about Babsgirl being all mournful and weepy in what we've seen of the March issues. Did they even have any on-panel scenes together? I guess they were together in group scenes in the Cave when they were all taxing Bruce over why they don't just kill the Joker in DotF, but one-on-one? It would make sense if it was Steph, because they did have a relationship built over several issues of working together - in her series, crossover events, and the World's Finest mini.

From:

shadowpsykie

see even Babs works for me because she has been around a while and has probably had a decent amount of off panel time with him. at least more plausable than him and Helena.

On top of that i want to wait to see what Gail does, she might fill in the blanks... as far as Helena so far, doesn't seem like they are going to do that... then again, those were only preview pages...

From:

perletwo

Gail's been asked over on Tumblr about Babs/Damian interactions, and she agreed there hasn't been much on-panel and nothing in particular stuck out in her memory with the two of them together. So she's definitely aware there's a blank there to be sketched in.

From:

jeyl

Is DC really doing a "Every DC character morns for Damien" here? This is starting to feel less like an overall story and more like some higher exec who loved Damien and felt that if they feel bad for his death, EVERYONE should to. We've seen characters who meant a lot more than he did go out with much, much less attention.

From:

perletwo

I think it's an attempt to make it The Death That Shook the DCnU Hero Community To Its Foundations. DCnU hasn't really had many hero-deaths since the reboot, has it? The only one that comes to mind offhand is Rocket Red in JLI (oh, Gavril *sniffle*) and hardly anybody outside of that title took any notice.

From:

chrisdv

Haven't seen anything that indicates it'll be going beyond the Bat Family, to be fair.

It's possible that a more far reaching aspect of the death will be the idea that Robin was a 10 year old boy put in this situation & used in a war on crime by his legal guardian, and the aftermath of that could bring scorn upon the Justice League for allowing Batman to do so, for example.

From:

icon_uk

Every character we've seen in the "Requiem" arc is a member of the Batfamily (The Huntress being the most distant "relative", what with being from another Earth), which seems fair enough given their family nature. What other heroes are you envisaging being impacted by this?

But then again, I'm long past the point of viewing this whole thing as anything other than a rather tasteless marketing campaign.

From:

sistermagpie

This is exactly what it feels like to me, even if it's all Batfamily people. It just all feels ridiculous. The whole thing is so fake with very little establishment of relationship with Damian. Especially when what interesting relationships did exist were retconned out with the reboot.

From:

chrisdv

Huntress's reaction makes sense to me, even though there wasn't much interaction between her & Damien.

Her mother died, then her father died, then she wound up on a different Earth to the one she called home, and then she meets her half-brother of this parallel Earth & he dies... I can see why she'd react this way, even if she barely knew Damien.

From:

arise

I like what they were going for here, but the dialogue is so stilted that it's hard to take it seriously. D:

From:

jaybee3

I wonder how many other DC writers were taken off guard by Damien's death? If Levitz didn't know Damien was going to be killed off when he had the Damien/Helena issue it may have changed how he handled things? Or am I trying to excuse bad writing?

From:

aeka

I think the reason we got those Damian issues was to establish a relationship between these two characters before killing him off. Which would explain why we went back to the Hakkou story arc immediately after those issues.

Unfortunately, it was BADLY executed with Levitz making Helena look both like an entitled brat and incompetent.

From:

ladymercury_10

I guess he was the closest thing he she had to family, and one of the few people she could trust in her new world? But yeah, it is pretty rushed since they met for what, two issues? I think it's a consequence of rushing EVERYTHING, since Worlds' Finest is only at issue ten, the reboot's not even two years old, and Damian is only ten years old and already they're going for major deaths.

Which sucks.

From:

reynard531

I sort of get this reaction. Like ladymercury_10 said, she's lost her whole family already, and now this. I mean, she lost her mother, then her father and possibly her world. She's on a planet where she doesn't exist. And since Bruce handled loss by dressing up as a bat and fighting crime, I get the feeling his daughter didn't pick up any healthy coping mechanisms for loss.

With me, I have so many family members that I see so very little that if you showed me pictures of them, I probably couldn't identify them. And if some family member I never met or don't remember dies, I can't really feel any deep sadness for it. It's sad that they are dead, but there's no memories, no emotional connection to feel loss over, you know what I mean?

You could say something similar about Helena, but I think it's more the loss of potential. She may not have interacted with Damien much, but she did start to trust him, called him brother. She started to bond, probably wanted to get to know him. He was one of the closest things to family she has left, the only brother she's ever had. And right when she could have had something, right when she wanted a brother...BAM...he's dead, like the universe slapped her in the face and spat in her eye.

So yeah, I can get this reaction completely.

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Two scans from World's Finest #10 Preview (spoilers for Batman Inc #8)

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