I was thinking about this the other day, when I got the Batman Calzony from
Little Caesars--which is probably the worst thing to put into your body this side of pet-grade heroin; absolutely recommended--I hadn't really blogged a Batman comic in a while? Like, a while a while: going by the tags, sure, he was central in
Justice League International #13, but before that it was Batman: City of Light #8. I haven't been overly excited about Batman stuff of late: I'm sure I'll see the new movie eventually, but don't know that I'm standing in line opening weekend either.
So, to get a little charge back in the Bat-batteries, as it were, I went out to the garage and dug through my boxes. True to form, I was looking for something in particular and came away with about a dozen other things. Found at least one more
City of Light #8, which I didn't think I had read before when I blogged it! And I grabbed
two issues I had blogged before! I was looking for some of the first Batman books I ever read; this one sort of is but isn't: from 1993,
the Batman Adventures #7, "Raging Lizard!" Written by Kelley Puckett, pencils by Mike Parobeck, inks by Rick Burchett.
This issue was polybagged with a Batman vs. Man-Bat trading card, but tear that sucker open! This was the first issue from the great
Mike Parobeck, who was an absolutely perfect fit for the animated style. As Batman works the streets looking for a visiting Chicago mobster, Killer Croc is enjoying a modicum of success in the underground rasslin' circuit: the two are of course related, as the mobster has brought in his own wrestler, the Masked Marauder. Who, as we see in a flashback, absolutely destroyed Croc in an earlier match. Croc got beat so bad I'm surprised he remembers it, but the newspaper accounts of him getting whupped and crying like a baby probably help him keep the memory fresh. Croc's
Burgess Meredith-style trainer, Mick, chicken in hand, gives him a bit of inspiration: he may be an ugly-ass freak, but in the ring he was a hero, and you don't wanna lose that, do ya?
While the visiting Chicago thugs get introduced to how Batman does things, Croc's training continues, as lesser wrestlers are ground up and spit out. Still, the Marauder seems to tower over even Croc, and opens their match by shoving the referee out. Batman arrives afterwards to fight the mobsters, with the ensuing gunfire distracting Croc at a crucial moment, and he ends up catching the Marauder's "Enola Gay" finisher again! The Marauder then commences giving Batman the business, as Mick gives Croc another pep-talk, since the first didn't seem to take: don't do it for your fans, screw those guys! Do it for revenge! Proclaiming himself to be lacking the brains to give up, Croc rallies for the win. (I feel like the Thing said something similar in the classic
Marvel Two-In-One Annual #7!)
Batman tries to stare Croc down, but not today: still, not having anything on him, he lets Croc go, championship belt in hand.
If we check out the books on the stand at the time, over at
Mike's Amazing World, this came out the same month as
Batman #491, the issue before the long
Knightfall saga. I thought I might've picked this up as an alternative to that; maybe I just wanted the trading card.
Love that story! The one of very rare few times Crocky's portrayed in a sympathetic way at all. One thing I wonder, which I should've asked about before is how was the Masked Marauder able to beat Croc the first time? Croc's supposed to be VERY strong, stronger than most outside of other superhumans, how was a regular, but built, wrestler able to beat up Croc like that? Maybe he got a hold of some watered down, low-grade Venom steroids?
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember Croc being one of the more sympathetic characters on the show (though in a humorous way- he really was as dumb as he said he was most of the time). There have been a few writers in the main comics that portrayed him sympathetically as well- Alan Grant did a nice story with Croc as part of a group of underdwellers.
ReplyDeleteYeah, and Thing absolutely said something like 'I'm too stupid to know when to quit' in MTO Annual 7.
Best guess: the Marauder was just a guy, but a tough one. Croc was not expecting him to give him a fight the first time, and paid for it. The second time, the Marauder was in his head, at least at first.
ReplyDeleteNot unlike Bane, or Ivy, Croc can be an actual character, or a thug; depending on how the writer needs to use 'em. And it's so easy to use him as a thug!
That's a good point about the Marauder - who the heck is he? I thought he'd get revealed as Bane at some point, since they had Croc get beat down by Bane both in the cartoon and early in Knightfall, but it's just a mystery.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Ben saying he's too dumb to quit was originally from Fantastic Four #40, or something like that. The one where he fights Doom on top of the Baxter Building and breaks Doom's hands at the end. Doom's hitting him with every weapon he's got, but Ben got forcibly turned back into the Thing by Reed to save their butts, so he's pretty ticked. He says something about being too dumb to quit, to ugly to die.