Line #10 ComicBook/BatmanOdyssey


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/batman_odyssey_8279.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: This is as sane an image as you're gonna get in this story.]]
3
4	->'''Interviewer:''' Can you give us an overview of the plot?\
5	'''Neal Adams:''' I cannot give you an overview of the plot.
6	-->-- From an [[https://www.digitalspy.com/comics/a213299/neal-adams-batman-odyssey/ interview with DigitalSpy]]
7
8	[[JustForFun/DescribeTopicHere Describe Batman Odyssey here.]]
9
10	[[QuirkyWork Well, we can certainly]] ''[[QuirkyWork try]]''.
11
12	''Batman: Odyssey'' is a ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' miniseries drawn by legendary illustrator Neal Adams, one of the defining artists of ''Batman'', and published in six issues from September 2010 to February 2011. On the downside, it is also ''written'' by Neal Adams, which leads to some... issues. It is very, very strange.
13
14	Over drinks, [[WalkingShirtlessScene Naked Bruce Wayne]] tells a story to a friend sitting BehindTheBlack. The story he tells is meandering and bizarre even by comic-book standards, but eventually coalesces into the tale of Batman traveling BeneathTheEarth to battle a deadly enemy, rescue ComicBook/TaliaAlGhul, and solve an ancient mystery.
15
16	Followed by a quasi-sequel, ''Batman vs. Ra's Al Ghul'', in 2021.
17
18	----
19	!!Tropes:
20	* AllMythsAreTrue: Trolls, gnomes, aliens, wizards, Egyptian gods, cyclopes and the Roc, are all denizens of the Underworld.
21	* AllTrollsAreDifferent: The trolls encountered in the Underworld are scrawny, cowering humanoids with grey-skin, blue-hair, and green-eyes who "thrive on abuse and small rewards." They also happen to be the oldest upright creatures on the planet, and a product of "separate evolution". Their general appearance combined with all of the exposition about "why" they are like this, rather makes them seem reminiscent of racial caricatures, modeled on certain strains of racist pseudoscience. Given the author's conspiracy theorist proclivities, it's possible this is (unfortunately) deliberate.
22	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Primus and his people: They are a race of "evolved dinosaurs" descended from the raptor line with five fingers, ear flaps, hair, and [[NonMammalMammaries mammary glands]]. Oh, and Neal Adams has no idea how bat anatomy works.
23	* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: Adams seems to have a passing knowledge of paleontology, and gets a few things right, including the correct spelling of ''T. rex'', and the portrayal of neanderthals as intelligent and human, but still manages to make some common anatomical errors in the illustrations.
24	* AuthorAppeal: Neal Adams believes the world is hollow, and thus Batman fights foes in a LostWorld BeneathTheEarth. Most of the characters which appear are also his co-creations.
25	* BadBoss: Sensei casually kills his own underlings, and even forces them to fight to death for little apparent reason. Batman is a pretty bad boss too, the way he talks to Robin and Alfred. Or the way he '''[[spoiler: blows up]]''' Robin.
26	* BaldOfEvil: Sensei.
27	* BatDeduction: Batman deduces the name of an old lady on a train, Sylvester the wizard's musical instrument of choice, and ''the existence of the Egyptian gods!'' How? He's a detective.
28	* BatmanGrabsAGun: Batman is shown packing heat when climbing on the train, due to the story taking place early on in his career as a crimefighter, although he never does shoot to kill. Interestingly, this actually ''is'' consistent with his portrayal in the first 2-3 comics, where he did carry a gun, although given that said period is considered EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, it's not surprising for modern readers to find this bit out of character for Batman, even in a story published after the TropeNamer ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis''.
29	* BeastMan: Some of the Underworld's residents.
30	* BeneathTheEarth: Featuring trolls, giant bats, dinosaurs, wizards, and all-around weirdness.
31	* BilingualBonus: Neal Adams likes playing around with foreign language translations of "Batman" such as "Senor Murciélago" and "Fledermaus Mann".
32	* BrickJoke: Alfred's "Tiniest violin in the world" joke, and the ice axe Batman threatens the reader with, are both alluded to again near the end.
33	* CallingTheOldManOut: Talia verbally, ''and physically'' beats up Ra's al Ghul after she learns about how he used her.
34	* CaptainObvious: Characters frequently point out things that the reader, and other characters can clearly see.
35	* CarpetOfVirility: Naked Bruce Wayne.
36	* CoversAlwaysLie: The cover (see page image) shows Batman riding what appears to be a pterosaur. This never happens anywhere in the comic. There are pterosaur-like creatures in the underworld, but they look nothing like this.
37	* CrazyPrepared: Batman. Specialized weaponry? Check. FauxDeath tricks? Check. [[ActionBomb Rigging Robin to explode?]] ... Check.
38	* DeadpanSnarker: Alfred. Even more so than usual.
39	* DenserAndWackier: By massive degrees. We can only hope that Neal Adams ''intended'' the dialogue to sound like it was penned by Lewis Carroll. Seriously, much of what happens in this story ''does not make sense.''
40	-->'''Bruce:''' [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Ha, ha, ha! Sworn to secrecy. Ha, ha! Such a thing... Such an octopus of a thing. And I have only an inkling!]]
41	* DeusExMachina: Aquaman shows up at the perfect moment to defeat Ubu, and is never seen or heard from again for the rest of the story.
42	* DodgeTheBullet: [[ExaggeratedTrope Taken to eleven]]. Batman is able to grab a gun out of an aggressor's hand so fast that the [[EveryBulletIsATracer tracer]] originates from a location the gun isn't even in anymore.
43	* DoingInTheWizard: Impressively, Neal Adams manages to come up with an explanation for the Egyptian mythological pantheon that somehow manages to seem ''[[VoodooShark less]]'' plausible than them actually just being regular {{Physical God}}s.
44	* DramaticEllipsis: Sometimes more than a dozen on a single page.
45	* EroticEating: [[http://i2.wp.com/batman-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Banana-Batman-520x820.jpg?resize=520%2C820 Nude Bruce eating a bananna]].
46	* {{Fanservice}}: Bruce Wayne narrates the vast majority of this story while [[WalkingShirtlessScene shirtless.]] Falls into FanDisservice if you're not into how [[CarpetOfVirility ridiculously hairy]] he is.
47	* FelonyMisdemeanor: Batman chews out some scientists he meets in the underworld for making their kids live in there with them, thus "denying them the surface world". To clarify: the underworld has wizards, living dinosaurs, mythical creatures, cool technology, and ''the freaking Library of Alexandria!'' Contrast this with the CrapsackWorld of Gotham.
48	* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: Naked Bruce Wayne narrates the whole story directly at the reader. Although the ending reveals he's actually talking to [[spoiler:Superman.]]
49	* GiantFlyer: The giant bats used as mounts by the people of the underworld.
50	* GodGuise: The Egyptian Gods are actually ancient genetic experiments.
51	* {{Gorn}}: Batman getting shot, El Maniaco getting shot, Batman getting shot, ComicBook/TheJoker slicing a guys face open, [[RunningGag Batman getting shot]]...
52	* HeroicWillpower: Sensei is so incredibly badass that he can stem blood loss through sheer force of will. Even Batman is awed by his "discipline."
53	* HollowWorld: Neal Adams does not believe in plate tectonics.
54	* IHaveYourWife: Or rather, "I have your sidekick", when the bad guys capture Robin to threaten Batman. Batman responds by ''[[spoiler: [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext detonating Robin]].]]''
55	* InspirationNod: In ComicBook/TheJoker's introductory scene: at one point he stands in front of a poster for ''Film/TheManWhoLaughs'', the original inspiration for the character.
56	* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: This exchange between Talia and Ra's al Ghul:
57	-->'''Talia:''' I'm safe because my beloved crushed my kidnappers. Kidnappers my father paid. THAT MY FATHER PAID!\
58	'''Ra's:''' Daughter, control. What poison has this witless idiot been filling you with?\
59	'''Talia:''' PAID... so that I can be used for bait... to draw my aged brother... the Sensei, out. Why? Why? why? So he can humiliate you by killing me... [[CallingTheOldManOut YOU SCUM!]]\
60	'''Ra's:''' But... you escaped... I sent Batman.\
61	'''Talia:''' Batman? So he would kill my deadly brother... while you sipped ouzo and watched sports.\
62	'''Ra's:''' Sports? What? I don't...
63	* LatexPerfection: [[spoiler: Ruben Blades ([[{{Retcon}} later Irons]])]] has this for impersonating [[spoiler: the Riddler]]. Not that they needed it, because when the mask gets taken off, [[{{Offmodel}} they looked identical anyway]].
64	* MachoCamp: Bruce's hirsute forearms take up 90% of his introductory splash pages. He's about as sharp as a Calvin Klein model (deploying the DreamworksFace on numerous occasions), pitches fits and takes naps like an overgrown child, and arguably is a bigger threat to public safety than his rogues gallery.
65	* MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext: The whole thing. Let's just say the author [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer actually believes]] that the [[HollowWorld Earth is hollow and filled with dinosaurs]] and it spirals off from there.
66	* MindScrew: A meandering plot that wanders from flashback to flashback, fights coming out of nowhere, Batman verbally assaulting Alfred, all narrated by a [[CarpetOfVirility shirtless Bruce Wayne.]]
67	* MrFanservice: Bruce Wayne.
68	* MultipleGunshotDeath: Batman's takes multiple pages and winds up looking like a very bloody dance number. [[spoiler: Needless to say, [[FakingTheDead it doesn't stick]]]].
69	* MundaneMadeAwesome: At one point, Sensei gives us a [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything disturbingly erotic-sounding]] play-by-play of him...[[spoiler: [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext unlocking a door.]]]]
70	* MythologyGag: Batman at one point actually says the line "Same bat-time, same bat-channel" from the 1960s TV series.
71	* NestedStory: Naked Bruce's recollection is not the only flashback going on, which makes things rather confusing in the early issues.
72	* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Included among Batman's allies in the underworld are wizards, aliens, "evolved dinosaurs", neanderthals, "animen", and ''Egyptian gods.''
73	* NonSequitur: So many. Arguably, the whole ''book'' is just one long uninterrupted example.
74	-->'''Jamroth Bok:''' ''([[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext After watching a giant stingray fly out of the ocean and shoot a stinger out of its anus at Ubu]])'' AHHK... From below... [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext it's like a magnet.]]
75	* OffhandBackhand: Batman does this at one point with his '''[[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext shoulderblades.]]'''
76	* OffingTheOffspring: King Epochh kills his own son out of some vague sense of honour. Ra's al Ghul plan is to manipulate Batman into killing his son Sensei.
77	* OnlySaneMan: Deadman's role seems to be to comment on the ridiculousness of the situations in the comic, and the Batman franchise in general.
78	** Said OnlySaneMan eventually winds up fighting gnomes with a FryingPanOfDoom he pulls out of HammerSpace.
79	* OohMeAccentsSlipping: The thugs hired by Sensei can not decide what accent they speak with.
80	* OurGnomesAreWeirder: They're wiry, pointy-eared humanoids with bulbous noses.
81	* OurHeroIsDead: Batman is killed by his one weakness. [[Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja Bullets. From a gun.]] [[spoiler:He's faking it]].
82	* OutOfCharacterMoment: The whole comic is an extended one for Batman and pretty much everyone else.
83	* PintsizedPowerhouse: Sensei.
84	* RandomEventsPlot: Oh boy. Trying to figure out a coherent narrative with this comic is like trying to figure out quantum physics. First, it's a naked Bruce Wayne recounting an adventure to [[spoiler: [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Clark Kent]]]] about recounting an adventure to Robin about a robbery on a train. Which soon becomes a story about him trying to stop the Riddler. Except it wasn't actually the Riddler, it was some guy never even brought up before. Then a Man Bat shows up. Then Aquaman shows up. ''Then'' some guy in ''another'' bat costume shows up. All while there's FlashbackWithinAFlashback stacked ontop of one another. ''Then'' they go to a hidden underground world underneath the Earth. ''Then'' Batman [[spoiler:''blows up Robin when he's captured'' but Robin is inexplicably unharmed.]] Also Egyptian Gods. It's almost like a [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks silver aged]] comic. On copious amounts of acid.
85	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Though the Joker is depicted as a genuine threat, he accuses Batman of wasting his entire life chasing and arresting circus clowns. Bruce searches his mind for a rejoinder and can't come up with one.
86	* RecklessPacifist: A big theme of the story is that, no matter what, Batman [[ThouShaltNotKill will not]] kill. Doesn't stop him from unloading multiple clips into a crowd of civilians on a train (that's about to blow up) to incentivize them to get off it, though.
87	* RememberTheNewGuy: Throughout the story, new characters show up with no introduction, and everybody just acts like they've always been there. The most blatant examples have to be Sylvester the jive-talking beatnik wizard, and the Roc, which had apparently been terrorizing Jamroth Bok's people for years before Batman blew it up.
88	* ReptilianConspiracy: dinosaur-men from the HollowEarth walk among us! And Batman's sidekick Primus turn out to be secretly one of them!
89	* {{Retcon}}: "El Maniaco" goes from being the [[CowboyCop person helping Batman to stop the train from blowing up]] to [[BombThrowingAnarchist being the one blowing up the train]] between issues. Practically [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]], as when the thugs jump off the train, he notes "it's as if they were never here", which from a plot perspective is pretty much true.
90	* TheReveal: The person who Naked Bruce is telling his story to? It's [[spoiler:Franchise/{{Superman}}.]]
91	--> '''[[spoiler:Superman]]''': '''''WHHHOOOSSSSHHHH.'''''
92	* SadlyMythtaken: One of the Egyptian gods is an anthropomorphic hippo who does not resemble anyone in particular from Egyptian mythology. To make matters more confusing, he is addressed as "Wepwawet". Wepwawet was a wolf, not a hippo.
93	* SeinfeldianConversation: Not exactly on an "irrelevant" topic, but one issue has most of a page devoted to various characters', in various time periods and layers of the narrative, discussion about [[InsistentTerminology "shooting [Batman] in the face"]].
94	* ShootTheHostage: Or rather, '''blow up''' the hostage. And the hostage is [[spoiler: ''Robin''.]]
95	* SlasherSmile: ''[[TheStoic BATMAN]]'', of all people, gets one, right before he [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext blows up Robin.]]
96	* SmolderingShoes: A variant. In the infamous scene where [[spoiler: Robin]] is blown up, the victim's still-intact boots and mask are seen being flung from the blast. [[spoiler: Subverted though, as the Robin comes back in the next issue, with the explanation that he was wearing "directional explosives" and [[ArtisticLicensePhysics so was safe from the blast]]. Where he got the spare pair of clothes from is never explained.]]
97	* SnakeTalk: A very sssstrange example from Batman of all people.
98	--->'''Batman:''' Sssssscum! Stay with me.
99	* SociopathicHero: Batman, and - to a lesser extent - Robin both come across like this. Even Alfred has his moments, where he offhandedly states that he'd willingly kill Ra's al-Ghul.
100	* TheStarscream: Sensei wants to take over Ra's Al-Ghul's underworld empire. It turns out "underworld" is literal. Amusingly, Batman's response when he's told this amounts to, "Well, ''duh.'' You ''trained'' him for this!"
101	* {{Stripperiffic}}: Talia's dress. It even [[OffModel changes shape between panels]], to better accommodate the MaleGaze.
102	* StuffBlowingUp: A train blows up in the first issue, and the explosion lasts several pages! A much [[{{Gorn}} gorier]] example happens later when Batman blows up the Roc. Between the two, Robin.
103	* SuperDickery: Several examples, but the one where Batman [[http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/3554261.html detonates Robin]] after Robin [[RecklessSidekick gets himself captured]] takes the cake. [[spoiler:Naked Bruce explains in the next issue how he designed Robin's armor to self-destruct without harming him... [[AssPull somehow]]]].
104	* SuperheroPackingHeat: The younger Batman in [[NestedStory one of the flashback sequences]] carries guns. [[RecklessPacifist And uses them]]. Outside(?) of the flashbacks, he decides [[InsaneTrollLogic the best way to teach Robin not to use guns is to give him one]].
105	* ThouShaltNotKill: Seems to be the driving theme of the story (as much as it has one). No matter how murderous everyone else in the story is, or how many people around him are trying to convince him to kill, or how many [[RecklessPacifist absurdly dangerous situations]] he gets himself into, Batman refuses to kill anyone. [[spoiler: Even Sensei in the end is merely [[FountainOfYouth turned back into a baby]]]]. Of course, [[spoiler: he ''pretends'' to kill Sensei to put [[GoodIsNotNice the fear of Bats]] into the [[RoguesGallery Arkham crowd]],]] which makes it a BrokenAesop, but...
106	* UnstoppableRage: Batman nearly beats a fake Riddler to death after he believes that he shot a little girl.
107	* VerbalTic: This is really the only trope which this can go under, but ''everybody'' has absolutely bizarre speech patterns, being generally grammatical but just ''utterly weird''.
108	* VomitIndiscretionShot: Batman gut-punches a thug, causing him to throw up.
109	%%* WalkingShirtlessScene: Narrator!Bruce for the first few issues.
110	* WhatsAHenway: A good way to beat a [[MakesSenseInContext "civilized psychic psyclops"]] apparently.
111	%%* WizardClassic: Sylvestor, and his fellow wizards.
112	%%* WouldntHurtAChild: The real Riddler.
113	* WriterOnBoard: Neal Adams is an advocate of "Expanding Earth Theory".

Context ComicBook / BatmanOdyssey