Ironic Comic Book Panel

Of the original series comics, I've only got one issue (#17), but it does contain this..



Whatever you say, Barnabas.. 

What a hoot!

The hysterical thing is ... I can imagine our very own Barnabas saying that line--with a completely straight face!

Hopefully Julia would then chime in with one of her icicle-dripping comments:  "REALLY, Barnabas."

G.

The hysterical thing is ... I can imagine our very own Barnabas saying that line--with a completely straight face!

"Who would want to hurt Maggie?"  

The hysterical thing is ... I can imagine our very own Barnabas saying that line--with a completely straight face!

True. All too often he's completely clueless about his own misdeeds - and he thinks nothing of criticizing others for many of the very things that he's guilty of doing himself.  

Is there such a thing as a reformed character who is still in denial over what he did in the past?  Barnabas is at least partly reformed, then has his relapses such as when he [spoiler]killed Carl,[/spoiler] at which point he just presses on with his wonderful plans to "save" his family.   Maybe when he became human again, he was able to perceive how far he'd gone before, couldn't take it, and went on to go to greater and greater lengths to "save" everyone, to blot out of his mind the shame of the blood-sucking, murdering lunatic who thought he had to stalk, kidnap and brainwash a young woman to be his "wife".

I can imagine that when it sank in what he had done, it was profoundly embarrassing for a "gentleman", and rather than do more ordinary sorts of good deeds to atone, contritely, he might instead try to act as everyone's "savior", concocting extreme, elaborate master plans to become the family hero of all time.  He wouldn't be able to tell the family much, so no credit, but he'd be redefining himself as someone SO heroic that he never could have done those horrible things in the past, not someone as heroic as Barnabas Collins.

Emotionally I mean.   Unconsciously he's out to deny his past, not atone.   Of course this is a negatively-biased scenario I'm spinning here, but it's possible.   A contrite person who's received the memo that he's capable of horrible acts does not ignore all advice and press on with his master plan despite great risks to others.   He probably doesn't concoct "master plans" at all, but asks for input from others.

It's interesting to think about Barnabas suddenly finding he's a vampire again, looked at this way.   His denial would have to go into overdrive.   The triumphant gentleman who'd put that unfortunate abberation into the past is suddenly the monster again.   So his new self-image goes into overdrive too, and he throws himself into his spy/puppet-master role to save everybody everywhere, nobly.   and then how much of an egoboost it must have been, when he found he wasn't totally controlled by vampirism, that now his pure noble heroic self was still functioning.   He could plan to help others, not just attack people.  That would only have intensified the egotistic master-plan-forming, string-pulling, etc..   He would assume he was in total control, and stop second-guessing himself, leading to incidents such as [spoiler]killing Carl,[/spoiler] which he rationalizes, and he just moves on.

Of course a certain amount of well-meaning empathy is part of this too, making it all frustratingly complicated, as human beings always are.

I am irretrievably distracted by the fact that the character in that picture who is apparently supposed to be Barnabas actually looks more like Mitch Ryan's Burke Devlin to me.

All too often he's completely clueless about his own misdeeds - and he thinks nothing of criticizing others for many of the very things that he's guilty of doing himself.  

Maybe they should've done a comic book story in which he gets elected to Congress.

Gerard

Yes! Barn would have fit in perfectly with some of the elected officials there. 

Magnus, that was a marvelous post about why Barnabas went into saviour of all and sundry!!!

Jeannie

Thanks... I've had family experience with people who "help" for reasons having more to do with self-image than concern, and this kind of "help" can be harmful.

The old Gold Key Comic Books of DS. I own some of the books myself. I remember around 10 years ago, there was a baseball card and comic book show at the mall and one vendor had the very first issue of the Dark Shadows Gold Key comic book and it looked to be in very great shape. But he wanted too much for it.

Back in the 90's, I used to know a comic book dealer and I told him if he ever came across any of the old DS comic books to let me know.