This Old Comic Addict Presents Good Idea versus Bad Idea

Good Idea vs Bad Idea on Guns in Comics
Featuring Batman Gotham Knights Issue #24 and Protectors Issue #5

Retro! Retro! Retro! Retro comic topic? Right here... yes, I know alot of the content here is brand spanking new and all but... sue me, it helps with my budget until my next purchase from Things From Another World. Anyway this is the sub topic Good Idea versus Bad Idea. Each time we'll look at one good and one bad idea in comics from past and present, and we'll see how they rack up. Today? It was on this day (January 16th 2013) that President Obama signed up nearly two dozen executive orders to begin slowly but surely handling gun violence in
America. It won't be a quick fix, and it will be a long time we'll need to discuss and ultimately find ways to curb gun violence, but we'll get there one day... these two comics? In one way or another have gun in their topic. Figured that would be a good way to kick off the topic. Starting off? Bruce Wayne finds himself at odds over guns
with... Batman... yeah, it's one of those issues.

Good Idea(?) - Bruce Wayne and Batman argue about guns... with each other.

Batman Gotham Knights #24
DC Comics
February 2002
"The Devil You Know"
Writer - Devin Grayson
Pencils by Roger Robinson
Inks by John Floyd
Seperations by Wildstorm FX
Lettering by Bill Oakley
Assistant Editor - Nachie Castro
Editor - Bob Schreck

After a night of busting the heads of gun totting guys, Batman returns home (back in the day when he used to have that bodyguard Sasha... remember her?) only to get a call from a local gun shop. Seems his gun is all ready to be picked up, only Bruce seems to be in denial because he doesn't remember ordering a gun. So off to the Batcave he goes, where he has an argument with the only one who could have done it... Batman... soooooo Bruce is having an argument with his other self, represented by a brooding Bat cape and cowl that lords over hiim
insisting that Bruce needs to get over his phobia with guns. Why? Flashback time!

Apparently we go back a week prior, and it seems Lucius Fox had a stroke and is in pretty bad shape. Doesn't help the situation none as Bruce, typing up an inner office memo on the subject, is confronted by a gun totting employee who blames Bruce for what happened to Lucius. The situation is quickly resolved, but instead of feeling anything over the accusation and any feelings over Lucius' condition suddenly Bruce gets all obsessed with guns... gee, thanks Bruce. You're all heart.

So long story short "Batman" forces Bruce to go get the gun, in the end having him hold the gun in front of the portrait of his parents before he throws it in disgust and collapses crying. Overall? I would say this would have been a pretty strong well done story, the whole Bruce Wayne and his alter ego Batman having a debate
over guns and Bruce's phobia about them... only as it turns out the exact next thing that happened was the whole Bruce Wayne Murderer? slash Fugitive storyarc where this Vesper Fairchild lady (if I remember right) ends up murdered in Wayne Mansion and Bruce Wayne is the prime suspect, so I am guessing this just set that all up and wasn't actually meant to really address the actual topic of guns.

Nice to think it did, but I am not going to hold my breath. A ultimately not as impressed as I wanted to be 3 out of 5. Hence the ? at the start with "Good Idea" by the way... this conversation? It WAS a Good Idea... just it ultimately just sets up the next major Batman storyarc going through all his titles and ultimately feels lesser
because of it. If it was just that, and we didn't have this big storyarc about murder next (and I think it was probably a shooting death as opposed to, say, death by bat gadget) they I probably would ultimately have been more impressed. It wasn't, I'm not, moving on to another topic that I have even less love for. Horrible gimmicks in
comics.

Bad Idea - Worst Gimmick Ever! Bullet hole through comic gimmick!
Protectors #5
Malibu Comics
January 1993
Write - R.A. Jones
Pencils by Thomas Derenick
Inks by Deodato
Lettering by Clem Robins
Cover Artists - Thomas Derenick and Mike Miller
Cover Colorist - Albert Calleros
Interior Colors - The Malibu Pack Rats
Interior Color Designs - Tom O'Connor
Seperations - Edd Hendricks and Mark Christy

There are, to date, some horrible horrible gimmicks out there. Some, like multiple variant covers, live on to this very day. Others, happily, died way back in the day. One such gimmick? Shooting a hole through a comic with a gun... seriously, shooting a hole through a comic with a gun... then selling the comic with said hole through it.
True gimmick, I swear. Type down "bullet hole comics" and look it up yourself. Thankfully the gimmick was very short lived, and so far from what I read it was only done once for real. This one, Protectors #5, it was punched by a machine. And done badly.

While the original comic had it's creators actually incorporate the hole into the stories within? This comic didn't even attempt it. It's basically just a pointless hole punched through a comic. What is the comic about? Well, Protector's #5 (about near the end of the first story arc which lasted six issues) is about how a young hero of this
super hero group called The Protectors rushes off to try and capture this major villian named Mister Mondayk, only to be  brutally murdered by said villian. Oh and if your wondering? It's a bullet hole cover showing him being short through the chest by a bullet hole, despite the fact Mister Monday didn't even use a gun to kill the hero in
question! He basically zaps and beats him to death, writing the rather quaintly stupid message "Monday Rules" in the boy's own blood for his teammates to find.

The hole is entirely pointless. It is just there as a horrible horrible pointless gimmick. And, if you think about it, a possibly last minute gimmick as nothing was done to even incorporate the hole into the comic! Pages were not drawn to accomidate the presence of the so called bullet hole, advertisers were not warned (and they were
rather peeved about that when they got their copy and saw their ads messed up by the hole), and not even the death of the character in question fit the gimmick... at the very least he should have been, oh I don't know, SHOT TO DEATH BY A GUN!!

Thankfully it's been just over 20 years, and to date this is just a sad little note in comic book gimmick history that thankfully nobody has ever again tried to emulate. And given the present nature of the discussion of guns in today's society I have a feeling it would not go over well with people is somebody tried to bring back the "gimmick". Oh well.

Next time I hope we have a cheerier topic to Good Idea versus Bad Idea!

Post Script
Apparently Bruce Wayne's thing with holding guns isn't done yet, as it looks like, from the cover of the upcoming Batman #19 from the new 52 Universe, he's actually shooting a gun at someone... but this is the new 52 and Batman from 10 years ago can't possibly be to blame for Bruce suddenly shooting people, right? Let's blame the Joker... or something. Seriously though what's up with that cover? Maybe I should look into that for OMGComics!... stay tuned!