Is it weird to dress up like Batman in a world where he’s probably friends with your dad?
October 24, 2016
2:51 am
This one is dedicated to my like, dozen friends who just had kids this year. There’s still a week left if you wanna get on this, you’ve still got time, only a couple years until they’re too big to carry on your back all night.
Props to by buddy Leigh Anna, who came up with this joke by suggesting this exact costume to a dad with his little Batman son at FanExpo one year. He was really excited at the prospect of putting it together for the next year, as most dads I know would be.
The horns will make for good handlebars XD
Hah, I thought the same thing. :)
What enormous size commander expects his kids to grow if even he wouldn’t be able to carry them?
I mean, if they get to be the size he is it probably won’t be a cakewalk to carry them around town for like four hours.
consider there mom too, she isn’t short and she had MUSCLE under those curves considering that she does MMA or Wrestling or whatever that match we saw a bit ago
half a year late but I gotta remind you that that was probably a pillow fight league.
i think it would be even more odd to dress like bane, the guy who broke the back of your dad’s friend.
To be fair there’s probably a good chance their whole family would be on friendlier terms with Bane than Bruce.
There’s a certain irony to the guy known for using rage chemicals for a boost in a fight being one of the chiller DC villains. At the very least, Bane’s got standards.
Commander is clearly sympathetic to the plight of giant dudes trying to deal with the after effects of the government putting tubes in their brains to pump them full of rage juice, at least.
Great, now I wanna see Bane and Tank in aggro-juice support group. Bonus points: The Commander is Tank’s sponsor.
Wait, isn’t Bane a druglord in most of his incarnations?
Yes, and he probably made someone in the gov’t let them get shoved in his brain.
His comic book origin was that he was born and raised in a prison in Not!Cuba as government retribution for his criminal father escaping. As a very young child he was almost killed by an adult inmate, so upon recovering he killed that man and was thrown in solitary confinement for like 18 years, where he spent all his time meditating and doing pushups and catching fish with his teeth when the room flooded. When they let him out, he tried to make up for as much lost time as possible by reading every book in the prison library and learning hand-to-hand combat.
Meanwhile, the Not!Cuba government was testing out some new Captain America-type super soldier rage juice that was killing everyone they tried it on. They figured “Hey, Bane’s a resilient Motherfucker” and got him in on the trial. He survived, but willed his heart to stop long enough they’d mistake him for dead and dump his body. Then he punched some sharks and snuck back in to take out the prison staff who antagonized him while he was growing up and spring a bunch of his friends.
Bane’s whole thing is he’s basically as smart and tenacious as Bruce, but where Bruce had the most privileged upbringing possible, Bane was punished and tortured from the moment he was born for circumstances he had nothing to do with, devoting his life to becoming the most mentally and physically honed person he could despite it.
Kinda wish the Dark Knight series hinted at that a little more. As a TV non-comic kid, I missed a lot. Worse yet, my first exposure to Bane had him romping with Poison Ivy… I dare not name that film :p
That was a fever dream, it didn’t happen.
Batnippleeeeeeeeeeees.
Everyone gets on about the batnipples. No one ever talks about the abject terror of the batcodpiece.
Or the Bat credit card.
…Never leave the Batcave without it…
Those were the best Batman films.
I love that movie, it’s fun. XD
That makes one hell of a “There but for the grace of God” comparison.
There was some storyline I’m pretty sure got retconned later or was an AU or something where Bane was suspected to be Thomas Wayne’s illegitimate son ie Bruce’s half-brother to further drive home the “I’m you but without money and privilege” point.
That’s some Naruto level parallels right there.
I remember them teasing that for a while, but they ultimately revealed they weren’t brothers. I think some b-rate villain that fought Robin was named as his father.
Good lord, I wish there was a way for Coelasquid to do make an official Bane comic/miniseries/ongoing.
Yeah that’s part of the Hush storyline and carried over into the New 52 for several Court of Owls storylines too.
Yeah, Bane was one of the best background storied villains. I wish he got better treatment in other media – he’s just as clever as Bruce and that gets left out a lot.
Mostly because, outside the small number of comic readers who read those stories, nobody cares about Bane. He has the duel problems of 1) sitting in the middle of a group of better known eccentric villains with interesting themes, which causes the fans that aren’t familiar with him to just assume he’s just anouther villain like them but with a weird steroid Mexican wrestler gimmick and 2) he’s never received a decent story which used him properly outside the comics so the idea that he’s supposed to be a big deal has never made it into public knowledge. Without his background and proper use Bane ends up a ‘meh’ villain that people get bored of quickly. What would do him a world of good is getting to be aseason long Big bad in one of Batman’s cartoons.
1) is a huge problem and one that even affects the gimmick villains themselves. Every time they are adapted, including into a new comic series, there’s a huge pressure to turn them into just the gimmick. Like, the Joker used to be a guy who was scary because he was unpredictable. Now, he’s just a serial mass murderer that no prison can hold.
But as for 2), well, that’s why you give him a good story. So he has one.
There is a book about Bane that truly does him justice. Not a comic, it’s a novel. And for the life of me, I can’t remember the title.
OMG I had nooooooo idea. Well I recently suspected there was probably more to Bane when I stumbled on a comic book page were he’s basically going through a fair with a woman at his side and he’s super articulate but I never would have guessed that he had that huge backstory. Damn.
I should try to read comics but there are just so many…
That was Secret Six as done by Gail Simone if you were curious.
I really liked the storyline, during the period that Batman is dead, where Bane and Catman (and Ragdoll, although Ragdoll isn’t written as an antihero in the same way) decide to try to stop some of the craziness that has occurred out of respect for their fallen former foe.
um, maybe I’m mistaken, but isn’t his daughter dressed as Bane? like right there in panel 3
Yep, certainly looks that way. She IS the Big Sibling, so there might be the occasional Batman/Bane style battle between them…
On a side note, WOOT another webcomic I can comment on!
To be fair, Batgirl’s (Barbra Gordon that is) first costume was a female Batman costume she made for a Masquerade party to spite her father, not an actual super hero costume. Her first act of heroism was at said party where she took down Killer Moth long to save Bruce Wayne (He had to bail her out by the time he snuck away and changed into the Batsuit though)
As the kid gets older he can dress as Spider Man and just walk by and talk to Gargoyle commander, I always loved those conversations back in Spiderman the animated series. Also Jonesy “headshot” Jones, nice
Batkid, Coldstone, and Bane team up with Indiana Jonsey to save Goliath and Elizabeth from pulling a Pat Benatar from the local Kalima sect IN Manly Guy’s Doing Manly Things: The Movie. In theaters Summer 2017. Be there or be Mr. Fish food.
Quite a few nice turns-of-phrasing you have there. I wish there was a way to vote on comments here
;)
I try ;). ty for the compliment
Please ignore the high pitched squeeing. This page made my night because 1) Gargoyles and 2) adorable children in awesome Halloween costumes.
Aww… Indiana Jonesy…
The only logical follow up is to have both Batman and Bane agree that the kids are adorable.
And possibly have New Kratos dressed up as the Joker somewhere. Kratos should always be involved.
wow.. that took me waaaay to long to get the costume pairing.. that is actually super cute and smart.. ha
Hint if you don’t get.. what does Batman tend to perch on when he is looking over the city at night.
I didn’t get it at first. My brain was too stuck on Gargoyles to compute that Batman was perching on a gargoyle. You know. Like he does. XD
I have fainted seeing Commander Gargoyle andnJonesy Maza, yes , I know , thats Indie, it’s my chaildhood, drok it! Coela, you have made a grown person squee and giggles like an right year old.
I sqeed seeing commander Goliath. I squeeed even more seeing batman goliath.
Well, as long as The Commander (yes, I believe he does earn the capital ‘T’ there) finishes up with the trick-or-treating & gets that costume off by sun-up. He might get stuck if he’s not done in time…
;)
Oh wow! My first child was born on the 20th o’ last month, so I gotta’ say had you posted this any earlier than that I would’ve been viewing it from “the other side”
Not that it woulda’ lessened any o’ the cuteness factor.
See? I’m not so sleep deprived and crazy I can’t perceive my own parental perception alterations. Halloween tykes FTW!
I hope that the Batman who is friends with Rock Lobster is the Adam West version. He’s is the most manly of them, a true man’s man in fact. He’s also the one that is probably most trustworthy around kids too.
And nothing beats the Bat-usi dance :D
No, no. Batman is supposed to BROOD over a gargoyle. She’s wayyy too happy XD
Nah, that’s Sam as Batman. You can tell by the shark plushie. June is Bane.
Now that i’ve seen it, is there a villiain rehab meeting at Commander’s center, si that Bane andnitsbiterations can go, like a NA? And can we gently suggest you do a full versión of the Commandergoyle costumed?
I went as Indiana Jones one year. Everyone whose door I knocked on asked me if I was a cowboy, despite the very obvious bullwhip and fedora. It was not a good Halloween.
I went as an Andalite one year, nobody got it and I got rained on.
That is so effin precious.
I’m so pleased about Indiana Jonesey.
So I’m guessing that the Justice League likes to swap costumes for Halloween just to screw with people. I mean, Superman and Batman have impersonated each other in the comics before.
Goliath! That’s a nice costume for Commander.
And Jonesy is Indiana Jonesy, of course. :D
awesome, now i want to pull that off when i have children, probably with spiderman too
First, that is a flawless costume Rock’s got going. Second, the whole concept is adorable and wonderful and a great dad thing to do.
But when your child says they want to be Batman….should you be concerned for your own safety?
Only if your child’s name isn’t Terry McGunnis.
That is totally adorable!
This is a brilliant parent costume, and I’m so upset we didn’t think of it back in the day. There’s no way the 15 year old is getting up on either of our shoulders at this point.
To be honest, I first thought he was Goliath from Disney’s Gargoyles which would have made it perfect to me
I love that Commander puts so much effort into his costumes. Maybe back at the office, all the guys trade tips on costume construction? (With the exception of Kratos, who always shows up in the best one, of course.)
Indiana Jonesy is such a cute visual pun.
I feel like I know so many a)Bodybuilders and b)Dads who put their all into making ridiculous Halloween/convention costumes and where the two intersect, magic happens.
I just really appreciate how “Indiana Jonesy” flies in under the radar here.
Least brooding Batman ever.
That is AMAZING! He may not fully appreciate it now, but if they take a picture and he looks back on it years later, he’d be all like “THAT WAS AWESOME!!!”
While that gargoyle costume suites rock so well, cudos have to be given to the Indiana Jones’s. Inspired and suits her as well.
I’m so glad to see so many other people whose first thought at Panel 1 was Disney’s Gargoyles. :D
That is simultaneously brilliant and incredibly adorable.
Oh my, a DC/Marvel/Disney obscure almost to the point of Otaku ref. You sir or madam, is know a Jedi. We are not worthy. (A Gargoyles by Disney-Batman-Marvel comic trifecta)
While it’s good, this comic seems a bit pixelated. Is this pixel art?
Same resolution as always.
Strange. To me it looks like there’s anti-aliashing lacking. Like it was made with the pencil tool. I guess my computer is just being weird since I seem to be the only one seeing it.
Hmm, yeah it seems my computer is trying to scale down a large image and it’s not doing so prettily.
It’s 2600×2744 and the comics normally seem to be around 650×670. Looks fine scaled done on Pale Moon, but some browsers are really bad at scaling, though.
My friend’s son just turned two. Next year? THIS WILL HAPPEN.
Best costume idea ever.
Could someone please do this with a Gurren Lagann costume? I’ve been sitting on the idea with no clue how to make it happen.
So is the Commander NOT a Disney Gargoyle? I’m more excited by that than by Batman and Bane.
It took me way too long to get the joke, but that’s AWEsome, props to the suggester and everybody who takes advantage of it!
Thank you so much for the Gargoyles reference, I loved that show growing up.
Oh my God, I love you. Gargoyles was a very bright spot of my youth.
Father of the year just doesn’t convey the mastery of fatherhood the Commander has. As a time traveling warrior and healer of the broken, he still manages to be the best example to his kids, spoiling them, yet instilling values that will shape his children to hopefully become examples to everyone they meet. Father Supreme, Father of All Time, ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you, the only true candidate, for Best Dad Ever.
Best… Halloween… costumes… ever! May not celebrate it myself, but dang!
I love this. It’s so cute.
The best part is that June didn’t go for any female villains but the manliest batman villain ever. Obviously June is influenced by her dad a lot.
Rock Lobster is a time traveler. Am I to assume he’s already met his kids when they are adults? Or is he such a softy he wouldn’t want to be spoiled on how they turn out?
Damn, he went all out with that gray. He looks amazing. And I love the pun with Jonesy. And the kids look cute as buttons. I wonder if they gave the son a little can of ‘shark repellent’ to go with his costume and toy shark.
…..Oh man when Commander first googled how to get full body gray makeup his first results were probably homestuck cosplay tutorials.
I’d guess that he went with a gray bodystocking; I notice that he doesn’t have the usual amount of bodyhair showing…
I figure he’s got body paint caked on pretty thick.
Well, I didn’t figure that he’d shave it off just for the sake of the costume…He could drive a plumber insane with clogged drains.
;)
I know what you mean: Did a Project Delta costume one year just so my then seven year old daughter could ride on my back. Best Halloween ever
As lazy as Jones is shown to be, I’m surprised she didn’t go as Maza again, or are they not at the Couples Costume stage?
Previously, on Manly Guys…
I find the last panel to be fitting: If there’s one scene commonly depicted in the comics, cartoons & movies about Batman, is a panel (or camera shot) where he’s patrolling the rooftops of Gotham & pauses on a gargoyle statue.
as soon as i saw this i sent it to my sister as a future cosplay/halloween combo for her partner and son :D
So I noticed a day or two ago that when I tried loading up the comic I got redirected by google saying “This page may be hacked.” Googling thepunchlineismachismo yields the same little message printed under your site. I’m not sure if you’re already aware of this issue or if this even matters, but it definitely made it annoying to get back to the webcomic for a bit as anything attached to the main site would redirect me away with that message.
I just read your whole site over the past few days. Back in 2010 I started following this and eventually forgot about it for a few years. It’s great to see that you’re still publishing, and the comics still have the same unique charm. Love your work, thanks for making the internet a more interesting place!
FYI I get “site is hacked” and random malicious redirects as Blake mentioned above, someone had better investigate that.
was already taken care of
Aww… No more Overwatch?
Oh my god, Gargoyle Commander is triggering another one of my long-forgotten fetishes.
I think its safe to say that Commander hasn’t met Batman, as Bruce Wayne has never been between jobs.
It’s an adorable comic and I’m horrible… but does this mean while swinging around town, Batman could sat on Goliath’s face?
Why I find the Commander more attractive dressed as a gargoyle is beyond me.