Man-Bat #2 - Not Liking Bruce Jones More And More (Spoilers)

Okay, I'll admit this from the start: Man-Bat holds a special place in
my child's heart from reading about him as a kid. It was just such a
silly concept, but it thrilled me at the time. And while his place in
Batman's life has been little more than a clone of the relationship
Curt Connors has with Spider-Man, I still retain a fondness for him,
the long-suffering Francine and their family (especially the little
Bat-boy). This is why I'll at least look at something where he shows
up. The kid in me won't have it any other way. Even that mini-series
that somehow turned him into Man-Bat-Al-Ghul got a glance and so did
the new series with Bruce Jones. Even though Mr. Jones has trashed
Nightwing more than Devin Grayson (yes, it's *that* bad), I understand
he's not really a superhero writer and perhaps something he would be
more in his mileu with Man-Bat and his Jekll & Hyde conflict,
especially since he'd already had practice during his run on the Hulk
(which I've learned is liked though admittedly flawed). End spoiler
rant.

He killed Kurt's wife and children! You ***! Well, he
*apparently* killed them. It is a comic book after all and they could
be alive somewhere, but for now, it appears that Francine and the kids
have be slaughtered, supposedly by Kurt, but it's never the man-monster
in these stories who does the killing, so we know it will most likely
not end up being him. But will his family remain dead?

I hope not. The needless killing of supporting characters is work of
only the lamest writers and the final proof that perhaps Mr. Jones
needs to stay away from mainstream superhero comics, as he obviously
has nothing new to offer if this is a good idea to him It makes me
think back to the Grant Morrison Animal Man run when Buddly raged at
Grant Morrison about the killing of his family simply because it made
good drama, but it really isn't. It's just tired cliche.

I rather liked the idea that Kurt had become a family man whose issue
is no longer with being the Man-bat but that it created a son who would
always be a Man-bat. HIs burden was no longer curing himself, but his
son. Not to mention, I thought it was pretty obvious this kid would
eventually join the other superhero kids of the DCU, especially after
meeting Batman & Robin. Between this and him being a scientist, a good
writer could carve out a nice supporting role for Kurt Langstrom in the
DCU. Sadly, Mr. Jones is not that good writer. Oh, where are you,
Grant Morrison!?!

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