Batman: The Cult #1 (of 4)

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But other than that its still a solid read and makes for an interesting Batman story of him dealig with mysticism and mad men who break him and take over the city which requires him to save Gotham. However, the issue of whether Deacon Blackfire really is an eternal remnant of the original Native Americans or is merely power crazed is a distraction that The Cult could stand without. Faux Affably Evil: As sadistic and cruel as Blackfire is, he's superficially charismatic enough to make his cult members think he's the Messiah.

The book starts incredibly well, and creates an interesting, dark, and brutal look at society, how they view the world, and how easily people can be manipulated into a belief. Now, there aren’t a lot of great Jason Todd/Robin stories that come to mind, so this, for me, really stands out for Jason’s career as Robin.Josh: I think when things really take a turn, though, is when Blackfire starts targeting leadership and the elite within Gotham. The Batmobile and Batbike frequently have machine guns and missiles, making the criticism a little hypocritical. For example, why wouldn’t Deacon Blackfire unmask Batman while the Caped Crusader is in his custody? But we see the GCPD fail, the National Guard fail, and Batman fail, to defeat simplistic tactics by homeless people with guns and knives. Starlin plays well to Wrightson’s strengths – at one point, Bruce is attacked by zombies of his parents, in a scene that works much better than it should.

It seemed to hold together as a story while I was reading it, but on analysis the holes are… maddening. Make Sure He's Dead: At the end, Batman sets fire to Blackfire's totem to destroy it and make sure that it can't be used if it's indeed mystical. One of the Underworlders by the name of Ratface takes Batman to the surface on an unauthorized attack on a civilian. Batman: The Cult is a 1988 four-issue mini-series written by Jim Starlin, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, colored by Bill Wray and edited by Denny O'Neil.I promise we’ll talk more about the ending later, but I want to focus on the homeless attacking criminals for a second because I think this is a really raw, disturbing, and unexpected aspect of this book.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.And the Army don't get involved because a newsreader (there's an abundance of newsreaders overused throughout to serve as both narrators and the Greek chorus - they become a hindrance to the flow of the story and tedious to read long before the end) informs us the President thinks it would be too costly to send the Army into a city in mainland US soil that's under siege! Honestly, it feels quite derivative of that story; not only due to the over-reliance on news reports as a crutch, but also because of the imagery of the final battle. Jim Starlin's dialogue is a bit dated in spots, and the look and feel of the book is definitely 80s, but this is a story that has held up well over the years all things considered. I love this style of coloring and I hope they never recolor this stuff as some publishers are apt to do.