Beware the Batman versus the comics: Anarky, Pyg and Katana

The only case in this corpus where a production knowingly chooses what no one knows. Decryption source by source, without disclosing the outcomes.

As in each article in this series, only verified information (creators, distribution, dates, publishers) is stated; the comparative analysis is ours, without reproducing dialogue or protected images.

The bet: no one knows these people

All Batman adaptations are similar on one point: they seek out the Joker. He is the most profitable character in the gallery, and his absence is seen as a lack.

The 2013 series deprives itself of it from the start, and not only of it. The Penguin, the Riddler, Two-Face, Robin: none of that. Instead, a back catalog that even some regular readers wouldn't recognize.

Professor Pyg comes from Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's 2009 revival of Batman — a recent, grotesque and disturbing character.Anarky appears in Detective Comics #608(1989), created by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle: a teenager who opposes Batman with a political argument, which no other opponent does.Magpie sort of The Man of Steel #3(1986), by John Byrne, where she appears in the first meeting between Superman and Batman.Humpty Dumpty is even more obscure.

The bet is clear: treat Batman like a detective dealing with unknown criminals, rather than as one half of a famous duo.

The exact opposite of New Heroes

This corpus examined, aboutBig Hero 6, which happens when you adapt a source that no one has read: no one blames the infidelity, for lack of readers to notice it. Freedom is total there, precisely because darkness protects.

The 2013 series is the opposite case, and the opposition is instructive. THE main character is one of the best known in the world; these are the opponents which are obscure. The result is not total freedom but an unusual asymmetry: the viewer arrives with very specific expectations about Batman and absolutely none about what he will face.

This asymmetry produces an effect that few adaptations achieve: a real unpredictability. In front of the Joker, everyone knows more or less what is going to happen; in front of Professor Pyg, no one knows. The series thus recovers a tension that the celebrity of the gallery had worn out.

Katana instead of Robin

Replacing the partner is the second radical choice. Katana appears in The Brave and the Bold #200(1983), at the time when the Outsiders team is being established - a group that Batman founded after leaving the Justice League.

Substituting Katana for Robin changes the nature of the relationship, and that's the whole point of the choice. Robin is a pupil: the dynamic is educational, and it mechanically infantilizes the story. Katana is a partner already trained, with its own skills and its own reasons. The relationship becomes professional, between adults.

This corpus observed, aboutWolverine and the X-Men, that we refresh a character by moving him into a role for which he is not made. Here the process is different and complementary: we do not move Batman, we changes what surrounds him. By replacing the student with an equal, the series modifies the character without touching it.

The characters, from paper to screen

• Batman— The detective, confronted with criminals he doesn't know.
• Katana— Trained partner, from 1983's Outsiders.
• Alfred— With a field background, addition to the series.
• Professor Pyg— The grotesque theatricality of the 2009 revival.
• Anarky— The adversary who makes an argument, not a threat.

What cost the series

The series was taken off the schedule before airing all of its episodes, and then aired irregularly. This corpus now maintains a list of interruption reasons, and this case adds a new one.

The previous ones were all external to the work: rights forThe Spectacular Spider-Man, toy sales forGreen Lantern, a regulation forSpider-Man 1994, a brand strategy forAvengers: EMH, programming forYoung Justice, the publisher's financial situation for Wolverine and the X-Men.

Here, the motive is due to editorial choice of the series itself: a Saturday morning box lives on immediate recognition, and a series which refuses recognizable characters deprives itself of the only argument that counts in this box. It's still not a narrative reason — the show wasn't shut down because it was bad storytelling — but it's the first time the cause isn't entirely external.

The lesson goes beyond the case. The darkness protects the adapter from the accusation of infidelity, as Big Hero 6 showed; it does not protect him from indifference. These are two separate risks, and a production cannot avoid them both at the same time.

Synthetic images, and why they mattered

A word on technique, because it counted in the reception.

The series is in computer graphics, at a time when American superhero animation remained overwhelmingly drawn. For an audience accustomed toDCAU productions, the transition to a volumetric rendering added to the change of scenery of the characters.

This body of work has placed great emphasis on what the screen loses from drawing — ink, material, grid, composition. This case adds a nuance: the question is not only whether a graphic language is good, but whether it is expected. There is nothing dishonorable about the 2013 rendering; it simply arrived where the audience was hoping for something else. And when everything else — partner, opponents, tone — has already been moved, technique becomes the gap too many.

Collection side: which numbers to aim for after the series

This is the most atypical profile of this entire corpus, and the most favorable to small budgets.

The Brave and the Bold #200(1983) contains the first appearance of Katana. It is a late Bronze Age key, long ignored, whose value has changed according to the exposure of the character on screen. It remains accessible.

Detective Comics #608(1989), Anarky's first appearance, falls into the same segment: a late Bronze Age issue, with a still high circulation, whose interest lies in the character rather than in rarity.

The Man of Steel #3(1986) is an amusing case: this issue is very common - John Byrne's mini-series was widely printed - and yet contains the first appearance of Magpie as well as the first Superman-Batman meeting in post-1986 continuity. You can find it for a few euros.

Finally, the first issue of the 2009 revival by Morrison and Quitely, which features Professor Pyg, is a current modern comic.

The conclusion is clear and worth remembering: a series which draws from the back of the catalog designates numbers which no one speculates. This is exactly the opposite situation to that of blockbuster adaptations, which this body of work has shown cause ratings to soar and then fall again. As always, condition and gradation determine value; relying on real recent sales is strongly recommended.

Anarky, or the opponent who has an argument

A final word on which of the four most deserves the reader's attention.

Batman's gallery is populated by criminals whose motive is internal: madness, obsession, revenge. None seriously disputes the legitimacy from Batman; they oppose it, which is not the same thing.

Anarky, created in 1989 by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle, is the exception. He is a teenager who criticizes Batman for treating the symptoms of an unjust society without ever touching on the causes — and for protecting, as a billionaire, the order that produces them. The argument is admissible, and the story does not attempt to demolish it.

This makes Anarky a rare case: an opponent who puts the hero in difficulty on the field of reasoning rather than that of force. The series was right to seek him out — he's exactly the kind of character that a famous gallery never lets rise to the surface, due to lack of space.

For the reader, this draws a useful criterion for digging into any catalog: the most interesting characters to rediscover are not the most powerful, they are those who ask the hero a question that he cannot resolve by winning.

Where to start reading

Detective Comics #608(1989) is the most interesting reading of the lot: Anarky opposes Batman with a constructed political argument, which is rare in this gallery. For Katana,The Brave and the Bold #200(1983) marks the starting point, at the entrance to The Outsiders.

Timeline to know

• 1983— The Brave and the Bold #200: First appearance of Katana.
• 1986— The Man of Steel #3: Magpie, and the Superman-Batman encounter.
• 1989— Detective Comics #608: Anarky, by Grant and Breyfogle.
• 2009— Morrison and Quitely create Professor Pyg.
• 2013— The series chooses these four rather than the Joker.

Its place in the saga and for the collector

This series will remain as the only case in this corpus where a production knowingly chooses darkness for its adversaries while keeping a world-famous hero. The asymmetry gives him an unpredictability that the gallery's celebrity had worn out - and it costs him his place on the air, adding a new motif to the list of interruptions: the first which is not entirely external to the work. For the collector, it is the best interest-price ratio of the corpus: four keys that no one speculates on.

The verdict: the detective kept, the gallery replaced

• Loyalty: the detective before the vigilante, villains taken from the real catalog, Katana as introduced in 1983, Anarky's speech from 1989 and the theatricality of Pyg at Morrison.
• Freedoms: Katana in place of Robin, an Alfred with a field past, the stars of the gallery removed, a computer-generated image rendering and rewritten origins.
• Collectible numbers: The Brave and the Bold #200 (1983), Detective Comics #608 (1989), The Man of Steel #3 (1986).

Obscurity protects against the reproach of infidelity; it does not protect against indifference. This series paid off the second risk by avoiding the first — and left the collector with a handful of issues that no one is monitoring.

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