me, im leaning towards terrible. how many chances is batman gonna give this guy? how whiny can dr. tompkins get? since when does she have a brother? and how coincidental is it that her newly found brother, who lives a secluded life in the desert, is now the controller of the new azrael? why destroy the order of st. dumas, only to realize how crappy that makes the book, then decide to bring it back, 40 issues later?
azrael, the book, has just really sucked. including "the bat" in the title might garner a few extra sales, and, save it from cancelation, but, it doesnt make it any better.
the book, and the character, lack an increidble amount of storyline, angles, direction, etc.
lemme say this. i like azrael. i think he' s a great character, just not the way he's portrayed. i think he has incredible, untapped potential. specifically, as a bad guy. he's immensely powerful (with the aid of the brainwashed-state), and has that cool instant-background-history bit, with the legacy of st. dumas. but, make no mistake about it, he's a murderer. and, that, in my mind (and, SOMEtimes in batman's) makes him a bad guy. and, that is where he should be.
make jean-paul a good guy, for all i care. that'll create some cool, two-face like stories. but, azrael, the guy with the swords that light on fire so that he can slice off people's heads... he's evil. gotta be seen that way.
my idea is to just have the order, the power within jean paul, to take over. like, an automated safety mechanism, that kicks in when azrael has been without the order for sometime. have azrael, unbeknownst to jean paul, recreate the order of st dumas (as he does, internally, contain the power and knowledge of centuries!). this will make azrael a formidible opponent, in terms of power and a following. he's already powerful, in terms of fighting skill, just elaborate that the internal workings of the system also heighten his intelligence (not in terms of luthor or wayne's smarts... in terms of a crocidile's... know every aspect of what you need to know to survive, conquer, and rule).
great stories would come from this. incredible confrontations between batman and his falled ally, azrael (even occasionally donning the azbat suit).
worse case scenario... it'd make the character, and the book, interesting again.
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i have spoken
