While the prose in this little moment hews a bit too much to the melodramatic, I think it’s still pretty powerful stuff. I know that as a kid I was stunned to get to this moment — through a series of entirely human foibles and mis-steps, Batman has allowed things to get so out-of-control that Catwoman is electrocuted. (It appeared fatal to Young Barry, and I believe that was intentional on writer Doug Moench’s part — we don’t learn until the next issue that she’ll live.) Batman has a horrifying moment of self-realization here…
That notion — that he’d forsaken Catwoman because she had reformed, that he could only love a woman who was dangerous — was a shocker to Young Barry, a bit of adult psychology and epiphany that completely blind-sided me. Even as an adult, I think it’s a fascinating and very humanizing look into a fictional character’s soul. Batman’s realization, his own shock… Really interesting stuff and a side of the character we rarely see any more: The self-doubt, the endless questioning of his own motives and means.
(From Batman #390, December 1985. Written by Doug Moench. Art by Tom Mandrake.)
Beautiful