Why Owlman Works and The Batman Who Laughs Doesn't

[Music] remember how in my last video I said I wanted to talk about Owlman and remember how in my last video I said that I refused to talk about the Batman who laughs well as fate would have it partly because I want to treat myself and partly because I hate myself I'm going to be talking about both characters before I go further I want to quickly talk about why I chose not to include these and others in the last video my previous video was talking about a very specific niche of anti- Batman ones that not only mirror him personally but mirror him in terms of tactics costume motive so on so forth so please if I get one more comment about how the real anti Batman is Bane or Joker or freaking Deathstroke I'm going to scre scream please God stop while I already sing my Praises about Alman in the last video the reason why I fed up by saying I didn't want to talk about the Batman who laughs isn't because he's complicated or convoluted or anything even though all of that is true probably the reason I said I didn't want to is because I don't like him yeah it might be a divisive take depending on who you are but I don't really like the Batman who laughs he stinks and I don't like him sure he might look cool and sure he got really powerful at some point which like who cares but overall he's just a shallow character and once you get into the meat of him you realize that he's just cold steel if he was a Batman character nothing personal kid feel but obviously I'm not just going to tell you all these things without explaining why I feel that way so we're going to take a look at why the Batman who laughs is the Batman who tries too hard and how Owlman is basically just him but better in every single way which isn't saying much because the former sucks so let's talk about the Batman who laughs the Batman who laughs first appeared in the dark Knight's Metal Event back in 2017 where he and multiple other Batman from the dark Multiverse were invading Earth Prime in the dark Multiverse everything sucks everyone's going to die and all the people in it are glorified creepy pastas of beloved characters with the amount of horror and creativity that match the capacity of a wet fart and on Earth 22 we have the wetest fart of them all belongs in the trash his origin comic opens up with admittedly a pretty cool monologue about stories and cards though that's probably the highest praise I can give the whole thing our story opens up on the Gotham City in flames and Batman tied up as Joker is blowing up hospitals and killing all sorts of people including the likes of Jim Gordon and all of Batman's villains which I don't need to even explain how I find that dumb there are tons of villains in Batman's Rogues Gallery who are either smarter than than Joker stronger than Joker or sometimes all of the above how did he Slaughter all of them at once more on the torture porn Joker is killing a bunch of kids parents in crime Aly to mimic Batman's trauma and can I just say something real quick I think that this one shot just kind of Echoes a lot of the problems about Joker in modern Comics a lot of the time now he's just shock value torture porn slock turning out a bunch of nothing Burger stories and a lot of what Joker is doing in this comic to me is just kind of echoing that and cranking it up to 11 in any case Batman breaks out of his confines and starts wailing on Joker before finally snapping his neck causing Joker's famous Joker juices to leak from his mouth and turn into vapor I'm sure that's not important right afterward Batman and Superman talk about Joker's death as Batman reassures Superman that he's not going to go down a dark path and give Joker the satisfaction of becoming a repeat killer additionally all the children Joker orphaned who have been infected by his Joker juices and have now turned into Joker Juniors it seems that they're all far gone and like biting people's tongues off and upon learning this Batman lets out a little giggle like a chronically online Forin user looking at Gore later on we cut to Nightwing backgirl Red Robin and red hood we're going through a grueling and dangerous training protocol call that has lasted for 3 hours straight Batman explains that Joker's juices have infected his mind and have slowly started to rewire Batman's Immortal core with Jokers that's something I don't really buy as the whole thing about Joker Is that the reason he's the way that he is comes from a certain Breaking Point like one bad day was what made him who he was the only thing chemicals really caused for Joker at the end of the day was give him a Michael Jackson makeover the bat family offers their support as Batman says that their help is not why he's brought them to the Batcave they would be the first to act if Batman were to ever start acting strange or changing and they would be the first who would attempt to stop him something Batman says he can't allow before pumping them all with lead you mean to tell me that the bat family people who have been trained to be Master detectives martial artists tacticians people who have just heard from Batman that he is slowly becoming a psycho murderer didn't bring them to the Batcave for their help and cannot allow their interference while he's turned around and slowly reaching for something in his cape and they don't Dodge out of the way don't think to catch Bruce off guard while his back is turned don't do anything other than like take it you really want to know what would actually happen in this scenario uhoh Bruce is clearly reaching for a weapon and acting crazy we better Dodge out of the way like we're supposed to so after he 4V ons the bat family it cuts to him killing the Justice League off screen I'm sorry but you can't be serious the whole Batman wins with prep time is [ __ ] no matter how prepared Batman is if Batman just started killing a bunch of members of the Justice League someone's eventually going to get the upper hand especially since if Batman had just had started to slaughter them in a streak within the Watchtower wouldn't he get overwhelmed by someone eventually someone like flash Martian Manhunter Wonder Woman basically like I don't know anyone who does he think he is omn man to come here before finishing off Superman Batman reveals that he brought Lois and JN up to the Watchtower which if Lois and Jon had gone missing before Superman arrived there wouldn't he know pretty quickly I'm pretty sure he would catch on if Batman kidnapped his family and let alone started his whole murder spree in the first place given his little Joker slip UPS in their last encounters and not only that that but he had managed to corrupt Damian as well as turn all the jokerized orphans into a bunch of his own dark Robins it's actually quite similar to how DC somehow brainwashed everyone into thinking that this guy is cool so then like Batman just kind of Chuck some modified Black Kryptonite Superman and then both he and John kill Lois off screen or something I don't know man I'm just I'm tired to talk about this stupid story The baboon who large then goes on to talk about how he managed to destroy everything and everyone thrown at him whether it be heroes villains alien tyrants which implies that his body count also includes dark side or something which come on are you kidding me afterwards he's approached by Barbados who asks him to join his pirate crew in search of the one piece which just means destroying Earth prime or something then after that the Batman who laughs story just includes a bunch of spectacle stuff and blah blah blah anth metal blah blah blah secret 6 blah blah blah James Gordon blah blah blah Perpetual blah blah blah Multiverse who laughs blah blah blah Dr Manhattan who laughs blah blah blah Darkest Night blah blah blah I don't care then he's finally killed by a Wonder Woman Who throws him into the sun thank thank God the Batman who laughs was the kind of character you thought was cool for like a total of 2 seconds he's got a serviceable look a cool on paper gimmick and a lot of spectacle but at the end of the day spectacle is all he really is the Batman who laughs is never really able to tell a truly compelling story outside of just wo I'm evil shock value or glazing himself and God modding to make him look like the most powerful guy ever Wally West himself literally even calls him the Batman who tries too hard because that's exactly what he is he's a man who tries way too hard to be cool all of his extravagant events in storylines and scales are just compensating for a bland one notee character he's all barking no bite all Style no substance and all that style was literally just stolen from a Judge Dread character copy my whole [ __ ] flow word for word bar for B the writers took the concept of what if Batman killed a joker and executed it in probably one of the most shallow action figure bait stories ever in fact I might even just go on a limb here and say that the Batman who laughs is literally just Sonic.exe of the Batman Mythos both are corrupted characters that a turn evil both somehow kill everyone in their world with minimal effort and both are tryhard edgelord schlock that are written like dog water and they're somehow also very oversaturated for whatever reason at the end of the day the Batman who laughs is the kind of character that people would only like if you're like an edgy 13-year-old or a power scaling Glazer I'm just so sick of talking about this idiot and I'm so sick of people gassing him up like he's the coolest thing ever when he's just the textbook definition of mid someone please just someone just ended already I'm tired just do it already I can't do it anymore I just want to die hey you can talk about the better character now wait I can I want to live owl man my goat my glorious King the gracious Lord who hath brought me salvation for everything I've criticized the Batman who laughs about they do not apply to Owlman depending on the interpretation that is because oh my god there are so many of them DC why can't you be consistent with Earth three you alen is the true dark reflection of Batman the Twisted mirror image of the worst version of Bruce Wayne in many versions which is pretty much most of them for being honest Owlman isn't Bruce Wayne but rather his brother Thomas Wayne Junior but they're pretty much the same character anyhow so it's not like it really matters in the long run like I said there are many different versions of Alman because DC really does does not like to be consistent when it comes to Earth three rightfully so because it took a long time to find his footing and to this day kind of still struggles to find its bearings and hit the right Mark but when it Cooks It Cooks as a result of this Alman has many differing origin stories some good some being real stinkers I'm looking directly at you new 52 I am literally looking into your your soul I am looking into your very core and reminding you that Thomas Wayne junr killing his parents because he thinks they're using their money wrong is stupid as a result of this though I'm going to try to have to find a version of Owlman that really showcases why he's such a great character and a great foil to Batman [Music] H around every now and then I get a little Teri and then I see the look in your eyes turn around by thighs every now and then I fall aart and I need you now tonight and I need you more than ever and if you only hold me tight we'll be holding on forever I'm going to be sticking to the version of Alman that was introduced in the crime syndicate Min series written by Andy Schmidt as well as the adaptation of Owlman seen in the crisis on Two Earth's animated movie I'm doing both as I think those versions are pretty similar enough the former pretty much being heavily inspired by the latter in a couple of ways so without further Ado let's get right into it starting with alman's origin story introduced at the end of crime syndicate number two after seeing his parents and brother murdered in an Alleyway by corrupt police officer Harvey bulock Thomas Wayne Jr begins training around the world to physical and mental perfection in order to begin his waron crime at the corrupt just like Bruce Wayne did in our world as opposed to the bat flying into his window however the right side of Thomas's face was scratched by the talents of an owl providing his own furry Awakening as well as giving him an idea onto his very own fur suit after becoming the Owlman he Tracked Down Harvey Bullock and was ready to turn him in for his crimes which included the murder of his family however Harvey bulock revealed that he had to kill them as the rains were secretly corrupt and had murdered boss Gordon's son in an attempt to take over Alman realized that his entire life purpose of bringing Justice to an unjust world was built on a lie as he for his entire life believed that his family were innocent people that were killed by the criminal element but the Revelation that his parents were in truth corrupt murderers completely shakes his world view as he realizes everything he's worked towards has been for nothing at that point Thomas completely snaps completely giving up on any morals or ideals that he had before as he lets bulock plummet from a skyscraper as in his words he now knows that nothing matters this is the perfect origin story for someone like owman I'm very much fascinated and Technical about morality swap universes so I was a little apprehensive at first about him trying to be a crime fighter from the get-go at first but I think that in this origin story that idea is pulled off incredibly well and it shows that he didn't start Breaking Bad without reason it's sure as hell a lot more interesting than oo Thomas Wayne Jr thinks his parents are using their money wrong so uh kills him because an eight or 10-year-old could totally just do that yeah I won't go to into too much detail about the crime syndic comic as I recommend that you read it for yourself but the whole thing is that after Alman killed Bullock and discovered that he was actually a for Channer he basically controls Gotham from the Shadows employing the usage of his own Talent soldiers to keep control of Gotham and slaughtering any and every hero that gets in his way keeping their corpse as trophies in the Owl's Nest and eventually after the invasion of staro and the defeat of the Legion of Justice he joins forces with the likes of Ultram man and Superwoman which is a really stupid name for an evil Wonder Woman by the way in creating the crime syndicate now since we have the basics of the crime syndicate covered I think it's time we talk about the appearance of alen that is the most wellknown which is for good reason let's talk about Justice League crisis on Two Earths a personal favorite of mine and boy their version of Al man is a dooy and I have a lot to say about him in crisis on Two worths the crime syndicate are plotting to bomb the world with a giant super nuke and to do so they need an obligatory McGuffin called the quantum trigger the bomb was initially meant to be used as ransom for the crime syndicate to take over the world but as it turns out Owlman has has ulterior motives that only Superwoman knows about he explains that every decision people make creates an alternate universe where they make the opposite choice this fuels alman's nihilistic view on not only Humanity but reality as a whole he says there's a world out there where he calls Earth Prime not to be confused with you know the actual Earth Prime Earth Prime in Al Man's eyes is where all life originated and he beli believes that if he destroys that Earth then every other Earth will completely crumble after Superwoman's goons Han Alan the quantum trigger and he traveled to the coordinates of Earth Prime Batman steps in a Johnny quick flavored portal to try and stop him once he does he finds Alman on Earth Prime with his big multiversal weapon with greater bomb proportions Than The Flash movie it's also stationed on a very conveniently placed platform was it on that platform by the time that Alman got there because no way he's able to place the bomb all the way onto there even though the image of that is really funny anyhow as Batman arrives Alman prepares to give Batman a really fascinating monologue I'm just going to let it play as I probably wouldn't be able to do it justice with words Welcome To Earth prime before there was thought there was this place one Earth with with a single history but with the coming of man came the illusion of Free Will and with that illusion came chaos with every choice we make we literally create a world history branches in two creating one Earth where we made the choice and a second where we didn't that's the secret of the universe you know billions of people making billions of choices creating infinite Earths some so similar to each other you could spend a lifetime searching for any distinction others so radically different they defy comprehension and all of the branches originate here every version of reality balances precariously on this singular Earth it seems so different from the Earth's Ren know I can't imagine what series of decisions led to this world hurtling out of its orbit but I know this the source of the cataclysm was the same as it always is man you can't be sure sure of that anything you know better man is a Cancer and I've chosen to cut out the disease you were talking about killing everyone who ever lived whoever will live I choose to make the only possible real [Music] Choice you're insane does it really matter there are alternate versions of me that you would find quite Charming one thing I'd like to bring to light about this conversation is alman's emphasis on man and how it's a cancer he of course talks about his nihilistic views on choice and Alternate Earths but what I think is most important when talking about alman's character is how he says that man is a Cancer and man is likely what brought Earth Prime to the ruin it is now making the ultimate real choice is definitely a part of alman's motivation but I honestly think that it's more so a secondary motivation or at least a motivation that's codependent of another one Alman doesn't just have a disregard for human life he actively despises it and despises Humanity as a whole the cosmic nihilism of the Multiverse added only fuel to the fire and made Alman certain of how meaningless everything is and as such he's adamantly determined to bring the bomb that crime syndicate were going to use for blackmail and use it to commit Mass omnicide the 1 V one continues and Alman frequently calls to attention the similarities they both have when it comes down to tactics attitude costume and general manorisms if we really alike you know this is wrong you must have been a good man once no not good never good after all I'm only human eventually Batman manages to keep Alman trapped to the bomb and gets a hold of the teleporter which gives us hands down one of the hardest Batman lines ever there is a difference between you and me we both looked into the abyss but when it looked back at us you blinked that's what talk that's that's why there is so much to impact with this fight everything that these two characters stand for is on display here they are both complete reflections of one another two people that went through similar experiences but went down two different paths but why exactly does this four chainer Doom scrolling nihilist Fury Rick and Morty fan work so well as Batman's ultimate dark reflection it's about time we unpack it so to know why Alman works so well it's important to know the fundamentals of what makes up Bruce's character we all know the surface level aspect of Batman The Dark Knight of Justice born from tragedy who strikes fear into the hearts of criminals a brilliant tactician detective and a master combatant who's always one step ahead of his foes but underneath the Persona of Batman Bruce Wayne at his core is someone who doesn't want anyone to go through what he did and who doesn't want anyone to die if he can help it the reason that he doesn't kill his worst enemies no matter how much he may want to isn't because he'd end up killing non-stop or something stupid like that the real reason is that because of the senseless death of his parents Bruce believes in the absolute sacredness of human life above absolutely anything else Bruce Addis core believes that everyone deserves a chance to live no matter how Wicked he believes that everyone at the very least deserves a chance to try and be better to try and allow the help that they so desperately need and no matter how horrible and cursed Gotham is Bruce never backs down on this belief Batman's one true superpower is his indomitable willpower and compassion for human life that however is absolutely not the case with Owlman while Bruce's parents were killed by a desperate mugger Thomas's family which includes not only his parents but his brother were killed by a corrupt police officer someone who you would think upholds law order and justice but despite this Thomas tried to find that same sanctity in human life that Bruce did so that he could bring their killer to justice but with the re ation that the WIS were just as bad if not worse than the man that ended their lives every ounce of faith in humanity that Thomas had died that night while Bruce finds human life to be sacred Thomas actively despises it he can find no good in humanity as he does not believe that at Humanity's very core the capacity for Compassion or goodness can ever be found despite how one might pretend to have it in his own words he believes that man is a Cancer and as such he dedicated the rest of his life as Alman to finding a way to cut out the disease once and for all to find that nothing that he craves Batman fights to make sure that nobody has to go through the pain that he has and so that they can live to see another day but not owl man despite what his more generic incarnations would leave you to believe killing for Alman isn't just a means to an end his active Pursuit is death and Agony he sees humans even himself as less than nothing not good never good in that line of thinking is ultimately what brings him to his permanent [Music] end [Music] it doesn't [Applause] matter okay yeah I talked talked about Alman way longer than I talk about the Batman who laughs huh well that's probably just because talking about Batman's ultimate dark reflection that shows why his philosophy and values are so important why showcasing what would happen if he chose the alternative path is a lot more interesting than Batman getting terminal jok ritis and looking like a poor man cenobite the Box you opened it I came ultimately long story short is that the reason Alman or at least the version I chose of him works is that he isn't just an evil Batman he is an interesting and in-depth opposite of everything that Bruce believes in and overall is just an actually compelling character with an interesting motivation meanwhile the Batman who laughs is a glorified fanfiction his entire character can be summed up as Batman if he kin shifted into Joker and became an EB boy that's literally it owl man's battle of wits and values with Batman will always be more engaging than anything the Batman who tries too hard could come up with as a matter of fact you want to know something funny in the death metal comic event there was a comic in which the new 52 version of Alman has captured John Stewart and ruled that he was willing to help the hero stop perpetua and the Batman who laughs as he believed that it was him who was supposed to be the darkest smear of Batman in the Multiverse but eventually he comes to the realization that in the midst of every single crisis the Multiverse has ever endured Owlman has managed to survive each and every one of them no matter how many times he dies ultimately both Owlman and the Batman who laughs die in this event Owlman dies shortly after his realization by taking perpetuous towers down with him and the Batman who laughs dies when Wonder Woman hurls him into the Sun and you know what the funny part is Owl man was right after the end of death medal the Batman who laughs has never returned and After Infinite Frontier A New Earth three was created and with it Owlman had once again been Reborn stop smiling you're about to die you don't get to enjoy it yes I do you see I'm going to live forever as long as there's a Batman in this Multiverse there will be an Owlman his true dark reflection I'm too good an idea but you evil baby Batman from the dark Multiverse with all your stupid rainbow Batman you're a dumb idea and nobody is going to remember you please I'm just a widow so yeah that was my video talking about Alman and the Batman who laughs the literal hydrogen bomb versus is the coughing baby uh I know I said last video I wasn't going to talk about the Batman who laughs but that was kind of just a thinly veiled cover up for me to eventually talk about the Batman who laughs when I wanted to and how much he sucks originally Alman and the Batman who laughs were going to have their own separate videos but I think I thought it would been a lot more fun if I just combined the two and I I think I'm pretty happy with it uh so yeah I want to say um thank you all for over 100k views on the last video I'm really Overjoyed with all the support I've been getting recently and I cannot wait to continue to make content for you guys um if you guys have any video suggestions for me to cover like anything that not a lot of other Batman creators talk about please do let me know as I would love to so anyway uh goodbye um I'll think of an outro when I feel like it um bat Spectre out

Channel: Batspecter

Views: 1,273,838

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Id: F3bZptQX0Rc

Length: 32min 41sec (1961 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 26 2023