Amazons Attack was the best story in years. Everyone had perfect characterization. The plot made complete sense. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it at all.
Sadly, yes. He said one word and suddenly Circe was powerless for 48 hours.
Apparently where Shazam, Zatanna, the Shadowpact and Phantom Stranger tried and failed, Batman had the magical mojo to stop Circe and take down her forcefield....
__________________ Harry Callahan: Well, when an adult male is chasing a female with intent to commit rape, I shoot the bastard. That's my policy.
The Mayor: Intent? How did you establish that?
Harry Callahan: When a man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher's knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn't out collecting for the Red Cross!
On the magic + Batman aspect .....while the writers probably went a tad bit too far (understatement), there is some historical precedence on Bruce knowing some level of magick.
Case in point: There have been several instances where Batman has been shown to be familiar with magick/occult facets. A couple of examples are like when he was searching out a reason for how Jason Todd had come back to life, or for that matter his conversations with the Demon Etrigan on the occult. Batman has an understanding of the occult (ranging from true magick to occultic artifacts to supernatural phenomena like the alchemical lazarus pits and how they are made/destroyed).
Thus it is within his locus for him to be able to use a magical word, particularly if it had been given to him by someone like Zatanna. It was a word, not a complex intricate magical ritual (if i remember correctly the thing that was bothering him was whether or not he could PRONOUNCE it right, meaning that it was the word that had the power).
The ONLY reason why I am not for Batman using magic is this .....per his conversations with Etrigan, he is not for magic. It is too easy. He may know some of it, but he would never use it (unless it was a very special case, and maybe the thing with Circe qualifies).
In a way using magic for Batman is like him using a gun ......not exactly the same (since the gun has certain psychological trauma connections for him), but along the same lines.
Another way of looking at it is that Batman doesn't like 'external' help, be it from a gun, or magic.
Think about when he went to Apokolips, and the only thing that kept him alive (when he was being punched by Darkseid) was the MotherBox ...it barely kept him alive.
Now, when Big Barda told him later that he should let the Mother Box heal his wounds, Batman REFUSED. He said that he had his own methods, and he would rather use them.
He refused INSTANTENOUS healing .....why?
For the same reason he would not use magic, or use a gun.
Thus, my problem is not whether or not Batman knows magick (he does, although on a theoretical level and DEFINITELY NOT to the level of a Strange/Fate/Zatanna/ on even other lesser magick users). My problem is that he USED magick .....it is against his character.
Unless one argues that the case with Circe was a 'special' case.
KMC Community Forums
Sep 19th, 2007 06:30 PM
