mostly British sci-fi sub-genre

So of course after saying that, I discover that both Jan Strnad and Dennis Fujitake, the creators of ‘Dalgoda,’ are Americans…

I’m pretty sure S.W.O.R.D. is meant as an homage to an old 1980s, mostly British sci-fi sub-genre, where hot take-charge space girls have comedic space adventures with their literally dog-faced boyfriends. Hence Hank’s elongated, off-model nose looking more canine than feline as usual, among other things.

The only examples of this sub-genre I can remember right now are ‘Dalgoda,’ and maybe ‘Tank Girl’ even though ‘Tank Girl’ was set on Earth and that dude had a kangaroo head not a dog head, but there must have been others.

Batman encourages you to not do bad things, or to at least plan for a potential beating if you do bad things. He does apparently inspire a very small percentage of people to put on masks and beat up bad guys, kind of like the days of the PR success of groups like the Guardian Angels.

You can depend on Superman to save you from alien psychos attacking a bank, maybe even before the shooting starts. You can’t depend on Batman even showing up before a crime is completed. Even if he happens to pick that particular crime to interrupt, he can’t travel the city in under five seconds even when he puts a jet engine in his car.

With Batman, sometimes you can only hope that he will later catch the guy that killed you. And honestly, with Gotham’s array of villains, you do have a real risk of dying due to violent crime or random acts of mass-murder. That’s on top of normal thugs popping you in a back alley or during a home invasion.

Bright and shiny Metropolis, with its headlines of Superman saving a busload of children every day, creates a feeling that things are better than they might actually be. It is easy to ignore its gangs and the average person doesn’t even know what Luthor might be doing to hurt them. Gotham doesn’t give you the same shiny, happy feeling.

The other question: if he does inspire people, what story fodder could you get about how he inspires them? I think Busiek or Johns did a story a few years back where a clairvoyant/from-the-future character claimed that Superman did more harm than good because his presence encouraged people not to do things for themselves. What does Batman’s presence encourage?

(and then the counter argument is whether those people would be around if there wasn’t a Batman. And the counter-tangent argument is how many people Batman inspires. And so on.)

“Okay, I need to hunt for a new Space Policeman to save the universe oh I’m tired here kid you’ll do have fun with this ring bye!”

There was a wunnerful Marshal Law story vaguely along those lines. “Kingdom of the Blind.” Collected in “Marshal Law – Blood Sweat and Fears,” but if you haven’t yet read any Marshal Law, read “Fear and Loathing first.”

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