| |
 
| |
|
 |
|
I got a fair amount of response to my last article on Carnage, some agreeing with me and others who held a different opinion, but everyone seemed to encourage me to do further articles, as long as I never inducted any of their favorite characters.
I was a little wary of including Carnage because I know that a lot of people never bothered to keep up with him after Maximum Carnage, meaning that they never really saw how awful the character became. Today's character is much like that. Today we are inducting the famed hero who took over the role of Batman, if only for a little while- Azrael.
I doubt many comic fans ever kept up with Azrael after the whole Knightfall storyline, so he doesn't seem like that bad a character, and honestly I don't think he was that bad to start off with. Azrael's downfall came in the form of unimaginative writers, who knew of nothing else to do with the character than to make him go insane time and time again.
He would go on quests and seemingly redeem himself, but then when faced with the prospect of not knowing what to do with the character, the writers would make him go insane yet again. He pretty much became a pointless character, and today we will analyze his fall from fame after Knightfall.
My first experience with Azrael actually wasn't in Knightfall. I wasn't really keeping up with that particular storyline at the time, choosing instead to devote my reading to the Death and Return of Superman story arc (Yes, I liked it. Fuck off).
I decided to attend the Heroes Comic Convention that year since I had nothing better to do. It was there that on one day I saw Dennis O'Neil, who was a current writer on Batman books. For some odd reason I decided that I wanted his signature on something, but I didn't have any Batman comics on me seeing as I wasn't interested at the time.
I noticed a lot of people getting him to sign a particular graphic novel called "The Sword of Azrael," so I figured I just go into one of the convention halls and buy it. I got him to sign it and went on my merry way, but it was only later at home that I got a chance to read the thing. It collected the four-issue Sword of Azrael mini-series that had introduced the character to the world.
I must admit that the guy looked pretty cool, thanks to the art of Joe Quesada. After reading that I got into the Knightfall story arc and followed it all the way to its conclusion. I went away from the arc feeling that Azrael was a pretty cool character, but I honestly never expected him to turn up in the comics again.
Wishful thinking I suppose. For those unfamiliar with Azrael's origins, let us start at the beginning...
The History of Azrael
1. Azrael goes crazy
I'll try to make this a painless as possible, because it is quite convoluted. Basically there's this group known as The Order of Saint Dumas. As you can guess, it's a religious thing. The most notable thing about the order is that they have a knight, an avenging angel if you will, that hunts down and kills sinners and people who would oppose the church.
They train this holy knight from his birth, brainwashing him and training him. They call this "the program." It just so happens that one Jean Paul Valley received this treatment, and his father is the current knight of the order, unbeknownst to him. So imagine his surprise when his father crashes into his place mortally wounded wearing the armor of a knight of St. Dumas.
Soon after his father dies, a weird ass midget looking creature comes to Jean Paul and tells him of his destiny, training him to become the next knight.
"The program" goes pretty deep into Jean Paul's mind, causing him to frequently hallucinate seeing a fiery Saint Dumas who orders him to kill sinners. It just so happens that Batman was investigating the circumstances around the death of Jean Paul's father and meets up with Azrael and his midget buddy in their training center in the mountains.
Azrael battles Batman as instructed to by the hairy midget and of course gets his ass beaten. Finally, Azrael breaks free of "the program" and removes his helmet, renouncing the mantle of Azrael much to the ire of the midget. It wasn't anything too bad, just a standard Batman story arc.
2. Azrael becomes Batman...and then goes crazy
Batman ended up feeling kind of bad for Jean Paul's plight and took him under his wing as another one of his protégées. Jean Paul's training went quite well and he seemed to be recovering nicely, but then Batman was taken out of commission by Bane.
Instead of doing what most fans would probably prefer and asking Dick Grayson to take over the role of Batman, Bruce Wayne surprisingly asked Jean Paul Valley to do it, and so another personality was born. Being a deranged psychotic, Jean Paul developed yet another personality, that of the Batman. His Batman personality had all the skills of Azrael, but was probably even more insane.
He designed a new Batman suit that was much more high-tech that allowed him to dispatch Bane with relative ease. However, he didn't stop modifying his costume, and as he became more deranged the outfit became red and started resembling the outfit of Azrael more and more.
His crime fighting methods also became more insane, doing things like using his blades to carve out a Batman emblem on criminal's chest and ultimately killing a criminal, which as we all know is strictly against the Batman code. Luckily Bruce Wayne had a recovery from his battle with Bane and returned to beat the shit out of Azrael and take back the role of Batman, which Jean Paul was not eager to give up.
As is the case for all Batman/Azrael battles, Bruce beat the crap out of Azrael and managed to get him to stop acting insane, if just for a little bit. After losing the role of Batman, Jean Paul went even crazier and became a vagrant, living in homeless shelters and the like. Shortly after, Bruce had to go on another expedition and left Dick Grayson in charge of being Batman, giving the fans what they actually wanted in the first place.
All in all it was a pretty good plotline- Bruce Wayne can't be Batman anymore and must choose his successor; successor turns out to suck really badly forcing Bruce Wayne to return to the fold. The character of Azrael had served his purpose, and if he had stayed gone after that then all would have been well.
3. Azrael goes sane...for a little while.
Unfortunately, Knightsend wasn't the end of Azrael, in fact, it was just the beginning. Azrael got his own series! Yes, soon after, "Azrael- Agent of the Bat" made its debut.
The series opened with Jean Paul going on a quest to find out the origins of the church of Saint Dumas, which led him to discover that the last church of the order had been burnt to the ground, meaning that he was the last man of the order.
The character basically became a superhero that fought the supernatural, and went through many uneventful issues of his comic. The comic was remarkably ordinary and not worth reading, but of course, anything with a Batman logo on it sells well, so Azrael's comic lasted a very long time. The man's character development was basically three steps:
1. Azrael is tortured inside because of "the program"
2. Azrael goes insane and starts beating up on sinners
3. Azrael gets his ass kicked by Batman and goes back to normal
He was just stuck in this cycle and never seemed to change. He'd show up in a Batman comic crossover all crazy and then get his ass kicked, running back to his own shitty comic where not even the Dark Knight would bother chasing him to.
In fact, I think the only time the guy showed up in Batman's comic and DIDN'T get in a fight with him was during the No Man's Land storyline, where he actually helped out for a bit. Unfortunately, that was just a fluke, as he later showed up during the "Bruce Wayne: Fugitive" story arc, once again going crazy and seeing Saint Dumas.
Bruce Wayne had been charged with murder, which made him a sinner in Azrael's eyes, causing him to fight the dark knight once again, and once again, he got his ass kicked. That didn't stop him from dressing up like Batman again though, and he went on a merry spree being even more insane until Batman showed up in Azrael's comic and surprise surprise, kicked Azrael's ass.
After 100 boring issues, the saga of Azrael came to a close, and his death was just as uneventful as his life, falling out of a window to kill "the demon Biis." Azrael became like Jason Todd to Batman, a sore spot that he felt responsible for.
The only difference is that no one cares that Azrael died and in fact, he's never been mentioned since his death. Azrael was basically a two-dimensional character, and while that was good enough to be decent in Knightfall, once he was given his own series all of his glaring flaws were made clear.
It's almost as bad as it would be to give Cyclops his own series. I'm not sure if the character ever had a chance to be salvaged.
Perhaps the fact that Dennis O'Neil was the only man to ever write for the character of Azrael had a hand in it. Sometimes a comic needs a fresh writer to bring in some new ideas, and if there's one character that needed freshening up, it was Azrael.
Whereas Carnage was inducted for being uninspired and painfully bad, Azrael is being inducted due to his absolute lack of character development, plus the fact that the pussy never managed to beat Batman even once.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
