Busting in to ask a question. Ben watches Static Shock, and Batman makes an occasional crossover. Ben wants to know why Batman is always so grumpy. He watches JLU, once in a while, but hasn't seen enough to get a feel for Batman's personality from it.

I don't want to mess up canon for him. Is the story from the first Michael Keaton Batman film, basically correct--that is, Joker killed Bruce Wayne's folks? Is there a reasonably concise answer I can give to him?

The movie is not exactly canon. Bruce Wayne's folks were killed in a mugging, just not by the Joker. Bruce still has lots of issues resulting from the death of his parents, so that's why he's so grumpy.

Bruce Wayne's parents were shot when he was eight years old, in a street alley, while he watched. In the movie it was the man who would eventually become the Joker. In the comic book, it wasn't the Joker, it was just some random mugger.

"Grumpy" is one way of describing Batman. "Really pissed off" is another. He hates criminals, he hates crime, and he hates guns.

Ben is probably to young for it, but the Batman movie that is coming out this summer goes a lot into this background.

Asking whether or not Batman is crazy is likely to lead to a 2000-word essay by Plei.

Asking whether or not Batman is crazy is likely to lead to a 2000-word essay by Plei.

Ben says Bruce doesn't seem to be grumpy when he's Bruce--just when he's Batman. I don't know if he's taken that from Static Shock, or from JLU. Does that sound right?

If I wanted to start him on Batman comics, which would be a good one? Are they too dark for a 9 year old? Are there current (i.e. not old collector's issues) series that might be good for him to read?

The voice actor who does Batman does a really good job of it. When he's Bruce Wayne, he uses a completely different tone of voice than when he's Batman.

However, Bruce Wayne is just pretending to be a pampered, billionaire playboy. Bruce Wayne is the disguise, while Batman is the real person.

However, Bruce Wayne is just pretending to be a pampered, billionaire playboy. Bruce Wayne is the disguise, while Batman is the real person.

Oh. I'd never thought of that before (because my only exposure to Batman is the Adam West Series, and--I think two of the films), but that's quite true.

There's a Saturday morning cartoon, called The Batman, which is aimed at a younger audience than even the JLU cartoon is. An all-ages comic, called The Batman Strikes! is based on the cartoon.

Bruce Wayne's parents were shot when he was eight years old, in a street alley, while he watched. In the movie it was the man who would eventually become the Joker. In the comic book, it wasn't the Joker, it was just some random mugger.

They've retconned it to 10 now, I think.

(Of course, post-Crisis, pre-Zero Hour, Batman had learned the identity of the man who shot his parents, and they retconned that, too, which means that Full Circle is out of continuity, drat it.)

Still, canon, comics or 'toon, starts with the basic premise that Thomas and Martha Wayne went to a movie with their son Bruce, were mugged and shot in front of him, leaving him a rich and emotionally scarred orphan who devotes his life to fighting crime to prevent others from suffering the pain he suffered, blah blah blah.

The all-ages comic would be the only one really appropriate at his age--the rest are a bit on what you might call the grim side, plus there'd be too much backstory to explain.

Just saw last night's JLU. While it was nice to have the Flash back, I didn't care for the story itself, though this could be because I wasn't remotely familiar with any of the characters beyond Flash, Martian Manhunter and EM.

I didn't care for the story itself, though this could be because I wasn't remotely familiar with any of the characters beyond Flash, Martian Manhunter and EM.

Whereas I'm a huge fan of Jack Kirby's 4th World Stories, so it was a treat for me. You really get the sense that for this last season they just wanted to run around and play with all the toys in the toybox while they could.