That Time That the Homeless Beat Up Superman: Part 2 The Homeless Massacre Gotham
(Please note: these pieces are not a review of the overall narrative of the stories they look at. They are a commentary on one aspect of the story.)
It’s 1988, and Batman lies on the ground, shot and bleeding out. The man who shot him stands over him, ready to finish the job. It’s curtains for our hero, and then out of nowhere, a man rushes in with a knife to save the Dark Knight. He stabs the shooter, and right before Batman can thank him, Batman passes out from blood loss and shock.
He wakes up chained in a sewer, surrounded by the homeless. Today, we look at the curious case of That Time That The Homeless Massacre Gotham.
Most people look at Batman: the Cult as a story about Batman being broken and coming back to face the man who broke him. I look at it as a story about the homeless and their perfidy.
Batman investigates multiple murders of criminals, but he doesn’t realize that a group of homeless people led by Deacon Blackfire are committing them. One of the criminals runs numbers because his dad died, so he has to help his mother make ends meet. He wants to be a comic book artist. When he dies, he leaves behind his drawings of a comic book character that he was working on. The homeless are killing people, real people, who have life stories and names. The kid’s name is Don Perry.
Batman makes a mistake while trying to protect a street vendor from some teens and gets shot. One of Blackfire’s homeless stabs the man who shoots Batman, and he drags Batman off into the sewers where the homeless live. Batman is chained in the middle of the homeless. Ratface, the only homeless person with anything resembling a name in the story beats and burns Batman for not receiving the word of The Deacon.
Blackfire runs a shelter for the homeless, but this is merely a front to get converts. All we ever see of it is the window that says “Blackfire Shelter for the Homeless”. We don’t need to see the inside because they don’t really live in the shelter. They live in the sewers, continuing the theme of the homeless living in waste.
Batman goes on a mission with Ratface, and Ratface kills a man who isn't doing anything wrong. Batman watches it, but he does nothing because he is still broken. Ratface tries to kill a police officer, which finally makes Batman move.
Batman knocks out both Ratface and the cop who tries to help him before running off. Ratface, now in police custody, starts spilling Blackfire’s plans. It turns out that Ratface wasn’t given any drugs whatsoever, and he's so loyal that he spills Blackfire's entire plan to take over the city.
Because Ratface has gone snitch, Blackfire steps up his plans. The Homeless assassinate the Mayor of Gotham by rigging his limousine with explosives. Then, they kill every member of the City Council. They run over the Councilman who wants the Mayorship with a garbage truck. Waste again! While Batman is down, the Reign of the Homeless begins.
TV reports show how the homeless overrun Gotham. They come from around the country because Blackfire has given homeless people another chance. We never see the shelter do any good, and we have no evidence that anyone else has either. Still, the homeless come, and they move into Gotham’s sewers, creating an army of well trained and apparently drugged homeless people.
One of the homeless snipers, hiding in a sewer grate, shoots Gordon, sending him to the hospital, and that’s the end. Civilization in Gotham falls, and the homeless take over. They run out law enforcement and the national guard with superior urban warfare tactics.
They take over with spectacular brutality. They kill a reporter doing a live broadcast before giving control of TV broadcasting to Blackfire. They capture, kill, and hang cops. They hang reporters, too, putting on their corpses placards with the crimes they commit (just their jobs). Eventually, the homeless go from killing people in the media and in positions of power to killing pretty much anyone in the city.
Batman recovers enough to fight, and, because he’s facing an army of homeless, he returns to Gotham in a souped up Batmobile He watches the homeless kill a woman who runs to him for help, but he can do nothing. Later, he can't stop them from literally tearing a man to pieces. In fact, he can't help a single soul overrun by the horde. Nobody can. The homeless are too dangerous.
Finally, in a scene clearly inspired by the fight between Batman and the Leader of the Mutants in The Dark Knight Triumphant, Batman fights Blackfire in front of his followers. He beats Blackfire until he breaks. Blackfire calls for help, but the homeless, seeing him show fear kill him. Then they just go home (or homeless) without a thought.
During the battle, Batman thinks “I’m convinced most underworlders are innocent victims of the Deacon’s charismatic powers.” That’s a hard case to make considering the awful things they do, and the fact that the only homeless person with a name murders and tortures without the same programming that Batman and many of the others went through.
The treatment of the homeless is straight out of the “Night of the Living Homeless” episode of South Park The homeless are nothing but a horde. They come to Gotham because Gotham is now nice to the homeless. Bill Wray colors the whole book like a horror story, but the homeless especially have no color. They’re painted like a faceless horde, which is what they are.
Yes, they are whipped up by religious fervor, but they behead people, kill publicly, and commit random acts of violence that can’t be explained by ideology. ISIL members get portrayed more sympathetically in the news. ISIL members are still people. The homeless aren't.
Blackfire’s lieutenants are colored to look like people, but the homeless are colored in gray or in some other monotone color to look like monsters, which is what they are. This is a horror story, and we need to fear the homeless. Not only do they hide in our cities waiting to hurt us; they will come from other cities to do so. Beware the homeless!
Next Week: Batman and Spawn team up to fight the Robot Homeless.