(This is a repost from my Tumblr blog.)
Here’s a Skype conversation I had with my friend John a month ago. I was sharing a couple of theories I had about Scott Snyder’s current run on Batman.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
SERIOUSLY, IF YOU HAVEN’T READ BATMAN #10 YOU REALLY SHOULDN’T GO ON, OR ELSE YOU’RE MISSING OUT ON A HUGELY AWESOME THING.
[5/12/12 12:29:37 PM]
Miguel Santos: Yo
Miguel Santos: batman is really good this week
Miguel Santos: snyder is possibly doing a retcon
John Amor: yeah read it
John Amor: DINOSAUR
Miguel Santos: haha yeah
John Amor: retconning what?
Miguel Santos: i have 2 theories
Miguel Santos: mostly based on the jarvis pennyworth second feature
John Amor: go on
Miguel Santos: the first and most likely one is that the court of owls was responsible for the death of bruce’s parents
John Amor: yeah
Miguel Santos: my other wilder theory is that because of the age of jarvis in the story, that the little boy in the second feature isn’t bruce.
John Amor: what makes you say that?
Miguel Santos: we see jarvis taking care of the kid
Miguel Santos: he’s never refered to as bruce
Miguel Santos: and as far as batman history is concerned, alfred has been taking care of bruce ever since he was born
John Amor: that second one’s a little weird.
Miguel Santos: i know
John Amor: but im with you on the first
Miguel Santos: but, don’t we all know that it was alfred who always took care of bruce?
John Amor: in the movie, thats true.
John Amor: but we also always knew alfred’s dad was a butler for the waynes
John Amor: we just never knew when
Miguel Santos: alfred was already old when bruce’s parents died
John Amor: yeah
John Amor: maybe he’s already middle aged in the backups
John Amor: jarvis is pretty old lookin
Miguel Sasnto: it’s a wild theory
Miguel Santos: but so far, i think it still fits
John Amor: mine is that jarvis sold the parents out
John Amor: set them up
Miguel Santos: but wouldn’t it be interesting to find out that bruce had an older brother?
Miguel Santos: crazier things have been written in the batman mythos
John Amor: Lincoln. March.
John Amor: (looks like him)
John Amor: lol
Miguel Santos: lol
Miguel Santos: too bad he’s dead now
Miguel Santos: that thread would’ve gone no where
Miguel Santos: isn’t jarvis’ (the avengers butler) father’s name alfred?
John Amor: yeah
Miguel Santos: cool
John Amor: it doesnt make sense though
John Amor: why would the owls target jarvis pennyworth in the first place?
John Amor: he’s not a hotham “architect”
John Amor: *gotham
Miguel Santos: what if the court uses jarvis to kidnap bruce’s kuya
Miguel Santos: ?
Miguel Santos: dun dun duuuuunnnn
Miguel Santos: and all this time bruce’s kuya has been part of the court…
Miguel Santos: DUN DUN DUUUUUUNNNNNNN
John Amor: kuya
John Amor: lol
John Amor: it wouldnt make sense that bruce doesnt know about an older brother though. his parents die when he’s 10. they would have told him.
Miguel Santos: unless they kept it secret
Miguel Santos: my mom never told me that i was supposed to have an older brother until i was in high school
John Amor: how come?
Miguel Santos: my parents like to keep secrets
John Amor: well
John Amor: i guess we’ll see
John Amor: it’s a little far fetched for me right now
Miguel Santos: KUYA BRUCE
And then came…
BATMAN #10
It turns out that we were really onto something there. Now that Batman #10 is out, I have a few answers:
1.) That my first theory about the Court of Owls having something to do with the death of Bruce’s parents (the more likely one) was confirmed wrong according to one of the characters from Batman #10.
2.) I wasn’t too far off with my second theory. I was wrong about the little boy in the Batman #9 second feature not being Bruce and my deduction about Jarvis Pennyworth’s age went nowhere, but still, my wildest theory turned out to be ridiculously spot on. Even John’s playful shot at a guess of who it was turned out to be right on the money.
Reading Batman #10, I had almost forgotten about the conversation above, but it slowly came creeping back as the story went along. It was still surprising when the big reveal came, and I have to say how masterfully it was executed.
What Scott Snyder is doing with Batman now is nothing short of mind-blowing.
Schism is an X-men storyline by Jason Aaron just kicking off this month. In it, the conflict between Wolverine and Cyclops comes to a head and we finally see Slim and the furball go at it. It’s being described as Civil War for the X-books. My prediction? Cyclops, my favorite X-man, bites it at the end of X-men Schism.
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