Can you whitefont what happened in the issue?

Batman #644 was the conclusion of the 4-issue "War Crimes" crossover (2 issues each of Batman and .... 'Tec, I think), which dealt with the question "Did Steph have to die from her Black Mask-inflicted injuries, and if not, then whodunnit?"

We find out that Leslie (and here I'm including nonsense text so that the spoiler space doesn't give away whodunnit just by the shortness of her name) did it. No, really.

I don't have enough incoherent rage in me to convey how totally totally fucked that is. I'm not sure I've ever seen another character in any fictional medium act MORE out of character.

But she's ... she's ... she's gooder than good, isn't she? Definitely more uncomplicatedly good than Bats, right?

Can it be a mislead?

Uh, no. The person mentioned confesses.

It's insane.

But true.

It sure doesn't seem like a mislead.

This is the explanation, as stated by the character: Leslie withheld treatment that would have saved Steph because she (Leslie) had finally had enough of the caped crusader bullshit and so she wanted to make a point to Bruce.

Okay. How many ways is that 100% out of character?

1. She's a DOCTOR -- do the words "Hippocratic oath" mean nothing?

2. Clearly DC Editorial has chosen to forget all of NML, when Leslie risked her own fucking LIFE rather than allow Zsasz to be killed -- so, DC Editorial is saying that she'd protect a serial killer but allow a teenage girl to die?

3. Leslie would NEVER kill someone to make the point that the caped crusader lifestyle is dangerous. NEVER.

Since I haven't read the issue, it's simple enough for me to believe it a bald-faced lie.

So I shall.

Steph, I'd add #4 -- How was that going to work??? It's not just OOC for the action, but to me it looks OOC a) for Batman it really worked or b) for her if she thought it would and it didn't.

Did it work?

Nope. Didn't work.

I mean, Jesus. She knows who he is. She wants him to stop, all she has to do is turn his ass in.

Yes! What Pleides said.

It's stupid.

Plus, even if there were some way that DC Editorial could make me believe that that character would actually do such a thing, the entire run of War Games didn't even HINT at it. And that was a lot of issues of a lot of titles, so DC could have at least planted a tiny hint somewhere.

To do something like that and have it work (though I don't *really* think it could ever have worked, period), the writers have to EARN it. And they didn't.

The way they did it, it's a total asspull. A retconned asspull.

Batman dancing the Batusi would actually be less OOC than this.