What do you do without Joe Chill?

What do you do without Joe Chill?

Anyone who has followed Batman knows his parents were killed when he was only a child. Eventually the writers at DC Comics gave the killer a name... Joe Chill.

Joe Chill is the unseen presence that was the goal for Batman. A name for that haunting desire for revenge that kept the Dark Knight forever vigilant on protecting Gotham City. Yes, there would be far worse villains than the weasel face little man; the Joker has killed hundreds of people, but Chill holds more power over the hero than super villain.

Over the years there have been stories where Batman came close to capturing Joe Chill, and in some Chill has been captured, or killed. But all the same he remains the cancer created the Batman. The death of his parents always there when he's hunting down killers

I bring this up because of a television show I've been enjoying for the last few years called THE MENTALIST.

In the show, a serial killer murdered the wife and daughter of our lead character Patrick Jane years earlier. He has been working with the police (The CBI, California Bureau of Investigation. They didn't want to use the FBI,) helping them solve crimes, but his real desire is to hunt down the killer Red John.

Red John is Joe Chill for The Mentalist.

Last season every episode was building to Patrick confronting or possibly killing Red John. And so that is what happened.

After watching the season ender I certain the next season would take the series in a new direction. Patrick will have finally solved the case that has been his life for so many years. To me the new season would be: What does The Mentalist do now?

If Batman captures or kills Joe Chill the purpose of his very existence comes to an end. Can Bruce Wayne move on with his life? Can he put the cowl away and lock up the batcave? Or does he keep going because he knows that the mission continues... (forget the fact that many of the super villain exist because Batman exists.)

The Mentalist's new season began this past week (I'll try to keep the SPOILERS to a minimum) with him going to jail for the murder at the end of last season. Through out the episode his sanity is questioned, but his team sticks with him to the end.

So once he's released from jail he should be able to move on with his life, which is what I wanted to see. To see how he can continue help the police (CBI) when he no longer has the obsession. It would be interesting to see the change and development of his character.

But (and here's the SPOILER), the episode ends on Patrick telling his partner that the man he killed wasn't his nemesis, and that Red John is still out there.

It was a rather disappointing way to start the new season.

There are two ways that I believe the series will go from here: 1) Red John is alive and manipulated the whole thing, and will show up every so often through the season (usually one of his followers will get involved and not himself.) Been there, done that. 2) The other way is that Patrick Jane’s psychosis won't allow himself to admit the villain is gone; otherwise he has nothing left to live for.

This second direction is the way I am hoping the show goes will. Because I really want to see Patrick get on with his life, find out that there are more important things in his life than an archenemy. Maybe he might discover things already close by.

There is one more direction his character might take, but I’m pretty certain that a light detective show like The Mentalist would never go, and that would be to reveal that Patrick Jane is Red John. That would be a real depressing way to end the series.

What I really want to see is what happens to Batman when Joe Chill is no longer out there.

In THE MENTALIST what I really want to see is what happens to Batman when he’s finally solved his parent’s murder and Joe Chill is no more.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity.

DC Comics - Reboot or not to Reboot.

Reboot or not to Reboot

I have dreamt of working on a comic book for DC Comics since the beginning. I was DC fan my whole youth and really didn’t ‘discover’ Marvel until I was in college. (Collecting back issues of John Byrne’s Fantastic Four got me in the door.) Believing that dream may soon be a reality, I am fearful of expressing my opinion, good or bad, about the upcoming reboot of the DC Universe. It might prevent me from being hired there.

Truthfully, the idea of a company wide reboot is a good idea.

Originally, a similar new start was suppose to happen at the end of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS all those years ago. And I thought that would have been a good idea also, but it didn’t happen. I won’t blame anyone but a lot of miscommunications and editorial issues got in the way and the newly created single universe was more confusing than the multiverse previously (See my review of JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #50 for more on this).

The idea of being able to introduce the DC Universe, its heroes, villains, and supporting starts to a whole new audience, without them feeling like they’re being dropping into an unknown warzone that’s been going on for years, is extremely good. I am looking forward to seeing how they pull it off.

However, (and here comes my fear), I do have some concerns. If this ‘reboot’ does start everything over from scratch, what happens to certain characters? Even though Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the like are all modern characters now, I hope and pray that the ‘golden age’ characters of the Justice Society and their associates still existed during the World War II era. Selfishly this concerns me more than anything else happening in the DC Universe. But I must have faith in the great creators, writers, and artists to take these original characters and treat them right.

My other concern is that the reboot isn’t going to be total. This was one of the problems that came out of the first CRISIS. Even though a whole new world was created, certain events of the old still existed. The worst that comes to mind was that Superman had never been Superboy, and yet the Legion of Super Heroes still have memories of interacting with the Boy of Steel. So John Byrne and other creators had to come up with an explanation for it. I did like some of the writing of that story, but in the end it turned out extremely confusing and even messed up the origin of Supergirl.

To counter that. I think George Perez’s version of Wonder Woman may have been the best post CRISIS book. What do you think?

So my fear is that even though we get a new start, and have a new audience introduced to these great characters, there’s still going to be baggage that will confuse people. Heck there’s a lot that’s happen over the last decade that confuses me.

I am trying not to make judgment calls on any of the books as they’ve been announced. Really. I want to experience them on my own one at a time. Decided to buy this one or that at the comic book shop. (I won’t get into the digital debate here.) Some I will like, others I won’t. Because that is how it is now.

So far, I have only seen two book covers and their descriptions that turn me off, but you know what? Even they deserve the right to be looked at further, read, and given a chance.

To those creators, writers, artists, and editors, I know you will give it your all to turn out absolutely the best work. Thank you in advance for whatever it is you create.

My only wish is that a year from now, we don’t have another Crisis or Flashpoint which puts everything back the way it was.

Just whatever you do, don’t ruin MY Justice Society of America. I still want to write them someday soon. Got this story I want to pitch…

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden

Four Names of Professional Creativity

Another Filler Blog - Go read my serial instead...

Sometimes it’s just hard to come up with ideas to fill this blog. I totally missed one a couple of weeks ago. I really hate when that happens. Feels like I have let my readers down, and maybe even more so I let myself down by not accomplishing what I have set out to do.

Coming up with ideas for non-fiction articles and blogs are much harder than fictional tales of giant worms that live in the sun—

[Hold on a sec, I better write that down before I forget—Darn, lost it.]

That’s exactly what I mean. You can come up with the wildest or most serious or most funny piece of fiction easier than it is to work up a worthwhile article or blog with substance that the audience can enjoy and get something out of and maybe learn from.

This blog is not going to be one of those because I’m already running out of steam.

Here’s what you can do, and what I can do, as a way to start working up better ideas for your blog and not just waiting to the last minute to fill space. (I'm not doing that; really I’m not doing that. Well, maybe, a little.)

Make quick notes to yourself through the day and through the week. They don’t have to of anything important, just a thought you had, a person you met, a funny sign you saw, a stupid commercial, a news article that intrigues you (that’s important, be certain to read and not just blogs like this one). Write down a few words about it. The act of writing, even those few words will begin the creative juices flowing. Maybe those juices will run dry and that idea won’t amount to anything, but that’s okay, keep making note. The more you do it, the more the ideas will grow and develop.

Apparently this one didn’t work out to well for me.

So here’s the deal, I’m going to be making notes of blog ideas through out the following week. Then next week I will show you the seven best of those ideas and actually write a blog about them.

There’s my blog for the week.

The “Space Worms From Hell” wasn’t very good either.