8/6/2023 0 Comments Blackfire batman![]() ![]() Batman eventually breaks his conditioning, but its after-effects make it difficult for him to capture Blackfire. Blackfire captures and brainwashes Batman, temporarily making the Caped Crusader a member of Blackfire’s cult. Blackfire uses this army to begin a violent war on crime, which escalates into him taking over the entire city, resulting in it being isolated form the rest of the country. ![]() During The Culthe forms an army in the sewers beneath Gotham City, largely composed of the homeless and derelict. Blackfire craves power and destruction, and orchestrates his movements toward these goals. He had discovered the secret to eternal youth, bathing in buckets of human blood. That’s thousand dollar electronic equipment, folks.Deacon Blackfire was a con-man and cult leader and over 100 years old at the time of his death, despite appearing much younger. I mean, this is a Gotham City where street gangs have the audacity to highjack VCRs and sell them on the street. “The Cult” is definitely possible because of the effect that “The Dark Knight Returns” had on the landscape of Batman comics, but it subverts some of those truths about Batman and about the world of Gotham. In a short span of time, you really get a sense of how chaotic Blackfire’s reign over Gotham becomes and as a result I’m not sure Gotham City has ever looked more grim and gruesome. It becomes shocking, how tattered and lost Batman is. Certainly not the stoic and invincible Batgod that we’ve come to know. There are a number of times where Batman looks really bad – downright pathetic. “The Cult” is as a gritty as Batman stories get, and the lengths that the creative team goes through to show Batman’s spirit being beaten are quite impressive. But perhaps his legion of new followers and supernatural abilities will be formidable enough, without gaining the same kind of control over our hero.Īs an aside, Starlin and Wrightson’s storytelling power really shines in these moments especially. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a featured player or bat family character lured in somehow, though. Will Blackfire be able to break Bruce Wayne down in the same way in “Batman Eternal”? I doubt it, as I think the writers are smarter than to tread that same ground. Grant Morrison killed Bruce Wayne and he didn’t even seem this hopeless. Aside from having a broken back, this is as lost and helpless as we’ve seen the Dark Knight. At each turn, he finds evidence that Blackfire is right and he himself is wrong. We watch as Batman tries to reason his way out of Blackfire’s holy vision for the world. Yes, he’s drugged and manipulated along the way, but for a decent chunk of the story, Batman is under Blackfire’s thumb. What occurs from there is one of the greatest twists in Batman’s history: he succumbs to Blackfire and becomes a “believer” of sorts. Do they turn to Deacon Blackfire once again?Īs Blackfire begins to accumulate followers, Batman takes notice and gets lured into his snare. But the homeless, poor, crazed, and directionless folk of Gotham have been kind of left out, for the time being. In both stories, total control of Gotham City were the stakes, and lawlessness ultimately reigns for a good long while. Now look at “Batman Eternal”, where we’ve had the GCPD and the Falcone family kinda teamed up against the Penguin and his more outlandish gang of goons for control of the city. Blackfire only needs believers and goodwill. That’s power that someone like the Falcone gang needs money and muscle to buy. Blackfire promised (and delivered) things that they never had before, all under the guise of something good and righteous. He’s like a overtly religious Lyle Lanley trying to sell Gotham City a monorail to heaven. It’s the classic tale of a snake oil salesman. The key to Blackfire’s character is that he gives Gotham’s hopeless something to believe in that isn’t immediately villainous or terrifying. “Batman: The Cult”, written by Jim Starlin, beautifully drawn by Bernie Wrightson, and colored by Bill Wray, tells the story of Deacon Blackfire’s subjugation of Gotham City’s homeless and poor, his rise to power over the entire helpless city, and his eventual (obvious) downfall. You’ll probably get a sense of what broadly happens over the course of its four oversized issues, and that’s only because Blackfire’s current “circumstance” in “Batman Eternal.” With that in mind, I suppose I’ll mark this article as having light spoilers for the events of “The Cult” and recommend that everybody read this tremendous Batman tale either way. As I always try to, I’m going to explain to you why this story is so very good without spoiling the whole thing for you or giving you a detailed plot rundown. ![]()
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