The Four Color Media Monitor

Newsarama publishes a debate on whether or not Batman is responsible for the crimes being committed by the OMAC robots (Hat tip: The Great Curve).

There are plenty of interesting arguments this way and that (Troy Brownfield's is by far the weakest, IMHO), but now, to voice MY take on the whole issue, if the Masked Manhunter is guilty of something, well now, here's something to ponder: is he guilty of sympathising with a rapist, presented in the form of the one, the only...Doctor Light?

In my opinion, to make it seem as if Batman were more concerned about what the League was doing to Light than what the scumbag, as out-of-character as it was to begin with, did to Susan Dibny, wife of Elongated Man, in Identity Crisis, is quite disgusting. And let's not forget that the miniseries bore an exclusively masculine viewpoint, and totally obscured the following question: if Doctor Light committed an offensive crime of the sort featured in IDC, well then, isn't he supposed to be punished for his crimes?

IMO, yes, Dr. Light SHOULD be punished, whether by legal action in court, or even by breaking his legs, I dare say. And that IDC failed to address that part was just one more very offensive problem with it.

Speaking of which...

In this synopsis of Green Arrow #56 vol 2, we find out some very interesting things about what our oh-so super-popular adversary, Dr. Light, is up to on the west coast:

Green Arrow and Black Lightning get Killer Frost to tell them where Dr. Light is. She tells them that Light is going after Ollie's family.

In Star City, Dr. Light follows Mia, the current Speedy, at her high school. He eventually attacks the student population, forcing Mia to come out in the open to confront him. Light tells her that he'll fight her later, but first he's going to visit Conner. After Dr. Light disappears, Mia races to get to Conner to warn him. It was a trap, though, as Light didn't know where Conner was until he followed Mia to him. Mia and Conner arm themselves with bows and are about to fight Dr. Light.

Putting aside for now that the storyline here sounds as dumb as it does, I find it interesting that, while Light may not be trying to rape any of the students at the school, he most certainly does seem to be menacing them with physical assault (or, more precisely, he's trying to fry them with his photon beams). Considering this, shouldn't the supervillain population of the DCU with real moral codes of ethics be frowning upon him by now?

Labels: Batman, dc comics, misogyny and racism