Annotated 16-5
The most positive way to view Batman, I think, is as a guy who experienced childhood trauma, spent some time broken, and reforged himself (with Alfred’s help) into somebody designed to prevent that trauma in others.
And let’s take a moment to consider just what it means for Byron to dress in Cultist robes long enough to maintain this little subterfuge. When Batman does “Matches” Malone, “Matches” comes off as a parody, like Bruce can only pretend to be a criminal by being an outrageous cartoon criminal. But the unity of the Cultist robes means that Byron is dressing just like whoever murdered his village, as far as he knows. It’s more like Batman trying to do a convincing Joe Chill. Just as well he probably didn’t have to speak before this.
As usual, Phil does a good job keeping the Cultist patter lively before the heroes show up, establishing these guys are stone cold evil, sure, but giving them little, relatable foibles and frustrations. I think I’m on the henchmen’s side here: “kids” is one of those words where the more common meaning is usually assumed.
bu dum ting! Sacrifices.
Is there a reason all the visible cult members are from the savage races? Besides the humans just being invisible within the black of their hoods.
The human is visible in panel 4, and you can see as much as you can see from any other race: From the nose down.
That’s Byron, though. You can see the same cultist is next to him in both panels.
I would like they are just invisible since the cloaks were probably made by humans to disguise them better anyway.
Would non-humans use the word ‘kids’ to refer to human children? It is the correct word for young goats, but it’s more of slang usage for young humans. Is there one default language for all races?
Most people think the pivotal moment in Batman’s life is the death of his parents. This isn’t true – a lot of people lose their parents in tragic circumstances. No, the pivotal moment is when he swears on their graves not to let anyone else experience the same tragedy.
My headcanon is that the white-on-black speech balloons sound just like the regular ones, except to the cultists themselves, who think they sound mysterious and menacing. ^_^
With how lacking in intelligence landsharks seem I’m surprised any of them could be cultists without killing all their fellow cultists.
Wait, aren’t landsharks a hive intelligence or some-such? How do landshark cultists work?
To be honest, I asked Phil the same question. I think he’d say that just like with the avians, there are variations in land shark mentality, though less pronounced and less frequent.