My attitude toward Jean-Paul Valley is much the same as Dave Barry's attitude toward Dwight Eisenhower. There's one of his books in which Barry rates Great Men in History, and "General Eisenhower" gets a much higher rating than "President Eisenhower" even though they were the same person.

In that vein, Jean-Paul as Azrael scores a lot higher in my personal estimation than Jean-Paul as Batman. The former is an interesting, occasionally even compelling character in the "tortured antihero whose fault it isn't, really" mold; the latter was a huge plotting mistake made in the middle of a series of huge plotting mistakes masquerading (successfully! that's the part that really frosts me) as an Event for marketing purposes.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.