For example, why wouldn’t Deacon Blackfire unmask Batman while the Caped Crusader is in his custody? Now, Batman will live in a mental prison that will make him see the world according to Blackfire’s words. The dynamic duo battle through legions of Underworlders until the Batman finally confronts Deacon Blackfire in single combat in an arena. Batman himself falls victim of the cult built by Deacon Blackfire and he’s submitted to a maddening process of brainwash. Hanging bodies everywhere and women being torn apart was a little too horrific for me, and didn’t quite fit in with the wacky feeling of Batman driving a tank and especially not with the more psychological edge the first two issues had.

It's such bad plotting because these hurdles could’ve been jumped by any one of them if they actually behaved as they would rather than how Starlin wants them to. When the officer attempts to help Batman, the dark knight has a bad trip and knocks the policeman out. It wasn’t until I was a few dozen pages into the story that I realized Christopher Nolan had used this as the basis for The Dark Knight Rises. Starlin’s run on Batman seemed to pick up where Miller left off, by presenting a hardboiled Batman, but The Cult is more overt about its influences. That kind of connects to what I was referring to about the story being mean-spirited, in that the plot revolves around Blackfire causing those suffering under poverty and crime to turn on themselves, rather than rallying them under an uprising and moral crusade that he was speaking of.Batman is eventually freed from the cult, but takes a long time to recover from his treatment at their hands. I’ll admit that it’s been a while since I read it but, from what I remember, it was a good story that presented an interesting “what if” future for the DC universe. The Cult is a well-told Batman story, that, despite being 20+ years old was rather refreshing in this reader's eyes because it harkens back to a time when Batman was still a vulnerable human being, learning the ropes of superheroing, and not the goliath able to overcome all odds he is often painted as in today's stories. I was less thrilled when he justifies letting a woman get torn apart by rabid homeless people for the greater good. With a career dating back to the early 1970s, he is best known for "cosmic" tales and space opera; for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock; and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters Thanos and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu.

Some of the actions that are taken are definitely mean, but it’s the villains committing or influencing these actions.Here in 2019, where truth is a mutable, highly personal concept rather than an absolute, decidedly less so. What follows is a violent and horrific display of how all aspects of Gotham’s society were torn apart by the cult of Deacon Blackfire.

in the times of the colonization, the Miagani, a Native American tribe, based on what would eventually become Gotham City, dealt with a strange menace, in the embodiment of some kind of shaman, finally locked up in cave that later imprudent colonist liberate him. So, I’m curious, what were your thoughts on the core plot of Deacon Blackfire manipulating the vulnerable so that he can take control of the city?Batman gets caught in the most banal way, a situation he's been in countless times, but somehow falls victim to this time. At least with Nolan’s adaptation in replacing Blackfire with mercenary Bane, it’s a little easier to believe. Here though, it feels like many members of the community turn into “monsters” (Batman’s words) for little reason, and the “mass brainwashing” they allude to doesn’t really hold up to me as a good justification, after spending so much time on the individual brainwashing of Batman. Blackfire somehow manages to not only subdue Batman but also the Gotham Police Force, the National Guard, the United States Army - all through brainwashed homeless people!

Though in the end, Batman believed that what Blackfire preached was a hoax, he wanted to make sure nothing supernatural was real. During the fight, Batman comes to realize that Blackfire wants to be killed so that he will be seen as a martyr and the Underworlders will continue his cause. Not only does it provide readers with the possibly darkest adaptation of Batman it also displays how harmful cults and the spreading of fascist ideas could have on society. Fire Keeps It Dead: An indirect version, as Batman knows not risk Blackfire's totem being a legitimate mystical item and sets fire to it to keep Blackfire dead.His mission is to purge humanity of those he deems undesirable — and in his warped mind, that's just about everyone. Michael : This was my first time reading it and unlike our previous selection, I was not at all familiar with it. They use the sewers as their base of operations and everyone knows this but nobody goes down there to take them out, they just allow them to skulk around and pop up. The two eventually escape to Wayne manor where they can finally eat and recuperate from the trauma they endured.