OK, review first, quickly, then to the argument. As has been noted elsewhere, this was a beautifully drawn and semi-competently written comic depicting a low level Gotham thug who gets powers for the day (from a stolen Dial H for Hero dial) and then sacrifices himself saving people. The issue is worth it for the Saiz’s art alone, especially his portrayal of a very human looking Joker. JMS’s plot is less successful: there’s just too much telling when showing is required, too many speeches when descriptive moments would’ve served the reader and the story better. Overall an average comic with nice art, like a dozen other average comics with nice art that come out week after week. OK, now that’s that out of the way let’s get to the fighting, for at the center of this comic lies a true philosophical and moral dilemma that is all but dismissed by the writer but is certainly worthy of a full airing. In the issue, Robbie, our hero, sees a future where someone using his dial dies. In response our hero sets up his dial to be stolen and lets some other poor schmuck take the fall. At first this causes Robbie to think of himself as a coward, but Batman points out that he’s researched this poor schmuck’s life and the lowly guy was going to die a lowly death in the streets anyway, at least this way he got a good, heroic death, so all is good, right? Right? Jeez, I’m not so sure. Does this mean that if Batman was about to jump in front of a bullet and the guy next to him’s file said he was living a bad life, Batman would ask the guy to dive instead, or maybe just push him? Robbie knew the dial would make the next user die; would it’ve been OK for him to leave a bomb that was going to go off for a robber to find? Robbie’s decision seems to be one of the least heroic heroic decisions in recent mainstream comic memory; I don’t want to die, I’ll let that guy die instead. And Batman’s reaction seems to be one of them most fascist heroic explanations in recent memories; I got the guy’s police blotter, this’d’ve made him happy, so it’s fine you let him die. In some sense this comic reverses the power/responsibility dilemma at the origin of Spider-Man. I can just see Batman bent over poor Mr. Parker: “good that you didn’t try to stop that mugger Peter, you’re young and heroic and your uncle Ben would’ve wanted to die that way anyway”. So I guess the question I’d ask the ifanboy readership is this: what would you do? Do you let the dial get stolen or do you take the hit? Personally, I’m going with Robbie and letting it get stolen, mostly because of love for my kids and family and all that crap. How about you?