Batman Fluxx and the Ghost of Todd McFarlane

Should I get excited about Batman Fluxx?

Because Batman Fluxx is what Looney Labs is doing. Making new versions of Fluxx, while not exactly a full time job at Looney Labs, is at least a really hardcore flex-hours position that somehow avoids health benefits.

Per the press release:

We're very excited to announce that Batman™ Fluxx will be in stores August 7! With art and the style of The New Batman Adventures, Batman™ Fluxx introduces the Caped Crusader (and his Rogue's Gallery of villains) to the ever-changing card game of Fluxx.

It’s not like Batman is hurting for new pieces of merch to slap his gloomy face over. Even in the board and card game industry, The Bat is basically all over the place. He’s Here. He’s There. Plenty of Batman to go around.

What made me excited enough to set my tips to tapping on the keyboard was this line: With the art and the style of The New Batman Adventures.

The bone I’ve got to pick with Batman,  at least the current board game implementations of Batman is this foundation assumption Batman needs to be a gritty, demented roller coaster ride into madness. Batman is a detective, and sometimes you could call his environment “noir” in that Gotham City if full of corruption, forcing this man to solve crimes and met out justice from the vigilante position. But it's not Halloweentown, people.

But all I see from the Batman stable is artwork and theme that looks like American McGee killed Todd McFarlane and resurrected his ghost using ancient Korean black magic.

While I don’t read any of the current Batman comics books, I discovered while trying to catch up on Suicide Squad that the current version of the Joker decided to cut his own face off and sew it back on for some reason. This would have been super cool back in the 90’s when Spawn was stabbing pervert ice cream vendors to death with pudding pops but the scary clown well has seriously run dry. Instead of the clown prince of crime, The Joker is now basically a retread of Hannibal Lector.

I know, everyone wants something different and certainly there must be a huge market for scary clown Batman comics. But I’m saying there is at least a tiny market for cartoony fun Batman comics, and investing in a game of Fluxx might be the only current way to support such a position.