I tip my hat to you. As so often happens, the student has surpassed the teacher. I had assumed your conscience would prove your downfall. Instead, on the brink of exposure and ruin, you found an elegant, ruthless solution Henri Ducard
Another morally ambiguous mentor of Batmans, Henri Ducard was a sociopathic genius that lived beyond the reach of society or its laws. He was perhaps the greatest detective and manhunter that ever lived, but he used his abilities solely in the interest of personal financial gain. In fact, upon arriving in Gotham City and deducing The Batmans true identity, he was only too happy to sell Bruce Wayne down the river and/or blackmail him. Ducard and a young Bruce Wayne spent some time working as a team in France, tracking down a mass-murdering terrorist named Jeremiah. Over the course of the hunt, Ducard taught Bruce how to become the target, to share his thoughts, motives and intentions. This was a supremely important lesson for the young man who would one day become The Batman. Eventually, their partnership ended after Ducard double-crossed Wayne and gunned Jeremiah down in cold blood. The two parted ways directly afterwards... Like Chu Chin Li, Henri Ducard also first appeared in the 50th anniversary Batman story Blind Justice (March May 1989). Sam Hamm (writer of the 1989 Batman movie) teamed with artist Denys Cowan to deliver a tragic and morally compromising tale, which suited the character of Henri Ducard perfectly. It is perhaps fitting that one of the darkest Batman stories ever written would also give birth to the darkest and most complex of Batmans mentors. As he leaves Gotham, Ducard offers Bruce this prophetic advice, Its easy enough to become your enemy, the trick is to remain yourself
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
