One of my favourite moments in movie history was in Mission:Impossible when the team breaks into the ultra-secure room at CIA headquarters. It was one of the rare times in movie history when you got to see such a detailed plan being set into place. I might point out that breaking into something can be just as hard as breaking out of something. In comics there is a character so skilled at breaking in/breaking out that he even has the title “The God of Escaping.” When it comes to escape based stories though there is almost always something missing for me, and that’s what was so obvious in : Impossible. Comics usually have a great setup for an escape, in fact the traps they are trying to get out of are so ridiculously complex that you can’t imagine how the hero can get out of it, but then they never actually explain what has happened.
Batman claims to be able to break into Fort Knox with a plastic knife, another time when challenged that a prison is on lockdown and that it is sealed up tighter than a drum. He asks the staff if they know how many sealed drums he has escaped from. One thing is certain though, the readers sure don’t - they have never seen Batman escape from a sealed drum or really from much of anything. His ability is referred to and hinted at but we have never actually seen the great Batman escape in action. The same plot device is used with Mister Miracle. In one case he was tied in chains, welded into an iron coffin and then had a train dropped on top of him. He was presumed dead until he walked up from behind everyone a minute later. Cool escape, but for once it would be cool to see how he did it.
Escape artistry also seems to be poorly defined. Most often when they show a skilled escape artist it means they escape from a straight jacket or from being tied up. There is a mental aspect though which is far more engaging than the physical aspect of escaping. POWs escaping from prison camps in WWII did so only with the aid of their wits, and although the team in MI required some athleticism to do what they did, it was still their plan which got them there. I am not saying that every Batman story has to deal with his escape artistry, and for sure it is not really what most fans are after, but a couple of really good escape stories would be nice. I understand that an elaborate escape is also harder to write than just some unarmed combat or chasing the Joker, but if these heroes are really as good as they are made out to be, then the readers should see how.
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