Post by /\/\att on Apr 10, 2005 5:17:09 GMT -5
I saw this over at Scott's message board, and felt it was definately worth everyone reading!
Chuck Dixon and I pitched LAST LAUGH with the implicit understanding that we wanted Dick to kill the Joker... out of rage over Dick's belief that Mister J. had killed Tim Drake... but knowing full well that we just couldn't have Dick kill without consequence.
So we went in knowing that Batman would give the Joker CPR and bring him back from the brink of oblivion.
The Joker thought he was dying anyway, and he believed that suicide-by-superhero was a fitting end... especially because he'd have pushed a Bat-Character over the edge. It was his final kick in the teeth to Batman.
We wanted Dick to suffer the consequences of having CHOSEN to kill the Joker, even if he didn't pull it off. Ultimately, he was to be ostracized from the Bat-Family for a while, at least until Batman came to understand that Dick was willing to do what Batman couldn't (or wouldn't), mostly to defend the family he so loved.
After what Joker did to Babs and Jason, it makes sense.
And down the line, had Chuck and I completed the story by tying up the loose ends, we would have learned that Dick didn't attack the Joker without help.
In the end, we would have learned that Rancor, Joker's evil toady with the meta-power to ENHANCE negative emotion, had pushed Dick to the brink.
He wasn't in full control of himself.
Thus, we never compromised Dick's goodness, thus upholding at least one unwritten role of not making such a beloved hero and DC icon into a murderer.
Make sense?
Scott B.
Chuck Dixon and I pitched LAST LAUGH with the implicit understanding that we wanted Dick to kill the Joker... out of rage over Dick's belief that Mister J. had killed Tim Drake... but knowing full well that we just couldn't have Dick kill without consequence.
So we went in knowing that Batman would give the Joker CPR and bring him back from the brink of oblivion.
The Joker thought he was dying anyway, and he believed that suicide-by-superhero was a fitting end... especially because he'd have pushed a Bat-Character over the edge. It was his final kick in the teeth to Batman.
We wanted Dick to suffer the consequences of having CHOSEN to kill the Joker, even if he didn't pull it off. Ultimately, he was to be ostracized from the Bat-Family for a while, at least until Batman came to understand that Dick was willing to do what Batman couldn't (or wouldn't), mostly to defend the family he so loved.
After what Joker did to Babs and Jason, it makes sense.
And down the line, had Chuck and I completed the story by tying up the loose ends, we would have learned that Dick didn't attack the Joker without help.
In the end, we would have learned that Rancor, Joker's evil toady with the meta-power to ENHANCE negative emotion, had pushed Dick to the brink.
He wasn't in full control of himself.
Thus, we never compromised Dick's goodness, thus upholding at least one unwritten role of not making such a beloved hero and DC icon into a murderer.
Make sense?
Scott B.
