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30-something
Black, andLikes Comics and junk.


Every once in a while, I think about Batman Secret Files: Miracle Molly, and also just the titular character in general.

It was nice to see a character who said "we should improve society somewhat" and not immediately start kicking puppies. As well as having an origin story about willingly wanting to change your life and being anxious about it, rather being entirely forced to.

miracle Molly speaks with Poison Ivy

It's a fairly straightforward origin story, but I'll drop a brief summary and context below.


The short of is: A lady isn't happy with her life, trying to fix it doesn't work, so she agrees to use a sci-fi mind wiping machine that erases the traumas holding you back. Yeah, it wipes your memories, but you have to willingly agree to it, you have to believe that this is how you become your best and purest self. And so she joins the group that made it, the Unsanity Collective. Named such because they reject the socially enforced complacency that upholds the decaying status quo.

It's neat! It's cool to see a bunch of transhumanist cyberpunk folks written in a fairly sympathetic way, especially in Batman of all things. Rather than have the guy bust the door down on them, he approaches them cautiously, and circumstances lead to him working with the group to tackle bigger problems. Problems like the big "Fear State" plans that Scarecrow has for the city.

James Tynion's mainline Batman books are really great, and full of complex, interesting characters. But also the cool and ridiculous things that make comics fun distractions. Even when he treads familiar ground, it often feels solid and fresh.

We could've easily gotten a story about Harley Quinn, Joker, or any other established villain's old life, especially given how close this one is to a lot of established stories. But thankfully we got a new character and a new group, who are treated pretty sympathetically. One that's not explicitly evil for once.

Miracle Molly talks to Batman


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