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I’m here today to talk to you about one of Batman’s most heinous villains ever. Despite the fact that he’s not been a “recurring” Batman villain, in the long line of freaks and weirdos that makes up Batman’s rogues gallery, this character is perhaps the most evil, maniacal, and successful villain apart from the Joker. His status as a one-off villain actually gives his character more power, as the method of his madness hasn’t had time to become familiar or played out. In fact, it’s downright amazing that he hasn’t been brought back and utilized more, in a time where “Gotham City” has about a dozen or more ongoing comic book series at any given moment. I’m talking about Deacon Joseph Blackfire – one of the only guys not named Bane to successfully “break” the Bat. The only villain to get close enough to Batman to give him a tender kiss.
If the solicitations hold true, it looks like the Gotham underground supernatural activity storyline that was teased in the opening issues of “Batman Eternal” is about to ramp up in a big way. You might remember that the iconic name “Blackfire” was thrown around a time or two in the first few issues, as members of Arkham make their way toward some weird cultish gathering. It looks like they’re quite literally conjuring up a way to bring Blackfire back. But why? I’ll try to answer that by weaving it in to a discussion of his character.
As I always try to, I’m going to explain to you why this story is so very good without spoiling the whole thing for you or giving you a detailed plot rundown. You’ll probably get a sense of what broadly happens over the course of its four oversized issues, and that’s only because Blackfire’s current “circumstance” in “Batman Eternal.” With that in mind, I suppose I’ll mark this article as having light spoilers for the events of “The Cult” and recommend that everybody read this tremendous Batman tale either way.
“Batman: The Cult”, written by Jim Starlin, beautifully drawn by Bernie Wrightson, and colored by Bill Wray, tells the story of Deacon Blackfire’s subjugation of Gotham City’s homeless and poor, his rise to power over the entire helpless city, and his eventual (obvious) downfall. The key to Blackfire’s character is that he gives Gotham’s hopeless something to believe in that isn’t immediately villainous or terrifying. It’s the classic tale of a snake oil salesman. He’s like a overtly religious Lyle Lanley trying to sell Gotham City a monorail to heaven. Blackfire promised (and delivered) things that they never had before, all under the guise of something good and righteous. That’s power that someone like the Falcone gang needs money and muscle to buy. Blackfire only needs believers and goodwill.
Now look at “Batman Eternal”, where we’ve had the GCPD and the Falcone family kinda teamed up against the Penguin and his more outlandish gang of goons for control of the city. In both stories, total control of Gotham City were the stakes, and lawlessness ultimately reigns for a good long while. But the homeless, poor, crazed, and directionless folk of Gotham have been kind of left out, for the time being. Do they turn to Deacon Blackfire once again?
As Blackfire begins to accumulate followers, Batman takes notice and gets lured into his snare. What occurs from there is one of the greatest twists in Batman’s history: he succumbs to Blackfire and becomes a “believer” of sorts. Yes, he’s drugged and manipulated along the way, but for a decent chunk of the story, Batman is under Blackfire’s thumb. We watch as Batman tries to reason his way out of Blackfire’s holy vision for the world. At each turn, he finds evidence that Blackfire is right and he himself is wrong. Aside from having a broken back, this is as lost and helpless as we’ve seen the Dark Knight. Grant Morrison killed Bruce Wayne and he didn’t even seem this hopeless.
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Will Blackfire be able to break Bruce Wayne down in the same way in “Batman Eternal”? I doubt it, as I think the writers are smarter than to tread that same ground. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a featured player or bat family character lured in somehow, though. But perhaps his legion of new followers and supernatural abilities will be formidable enough, without gaining the same kind of control over our hero.
As an aside, Starlin and Wrightson’s storytelling power really shines in these moments especially. “The Cult” is as a gritty as Batman stories get, and the lengths that the creative team goes through to show Batman’s spirit being beaten are quite impressive. There are a number of times where Batman looks really bad – downright pathetic. Certainly not the stoic and invincible Batgod that we’ve come to know. It becomes shocking, how tattered and lost Batman is. In a short span of time, you really get a sense of how chaotic Blackfire’s reign over Gotham becomes and as a result I’m not sure Gotham City has ever looked more grim and gruesome. “The Cult” is definitely possible because of the effect that “The Dark Knight Returns” had on the landscape of Batman comics, but it subverts some of those truths about Batman and about the world of Gotham. I mean, this is a Gotham City where street gangs have the audacity to highjack VCRs and sell them on the street. That’s thousand dollar electronic equipment, folks.
Aside from a keen psychological game, Deacon Blackfire was also very much invested in the supernatural. The promise of his crusade, his holy power, and his idealism may have been false idols, but there was very much some sort of supernatural belief on the part of Blackfire. Watch, as he bathes in the blood of his victims in an effort to gain eternal life (it’s canon that Blackfire is impossibly old):
This fact will certainly play a role in “Batman Eternal”, as it’s going to take supernatural dealings to bring him back. Not only that, but we’ve seen a spirit roaming the Gotham underground. At one point, Batman was made to see false visions to strengthen the power of suggestion of Blackfire’s words. Could Deacon Blackfire or his power have played a part in Jim Gordon’s false vision of the man with a gun in his hand that set off all of the events of “Batman Eternal” to begin with?
Ultimately, it took Batman and Robin to their extremes (and even dangerously close to breaking some of their rules) to take Deacon Blackfire down. Without spoiling the ending, it’s incredibly satisfying, and one of the few times that modern writers have been able to have their cake and eat it too in depicting the defeat of truly one of Gotham City’s most vile and wretched villains. Whatever the writers of “Batman Eternal” end up doing with Blackfire, it will be a shame if they don’t try to make his re-appearance live up to how devastating and powerful his short time in Gotham was the first time around. Perhaps playing off of the fact that, the first time around, he was envisioning his death as playing out as the ultimate symbol of martyrdom. In his mind, his legacy was supposed to live on in death, looming larger in Gotham City than even Batman could.
Recommended Reading:
“Batman: The Cult” #1-4 by Starlin, Wrightson, and Wray (1988) – the only essential reading to appreciate the character.
“Blackest Night: Batman” #1-3 (2009) – I liked “Blackest Night” as it was happening and still have positive feelings about it today. For anyone who remembers the event, the “Batman” tie-in was pretty good. Good enough to check out, if you want to read just a little more Deacon Blackfire, only this time in the form of a Black Lantern.
