In response to one of the issues raised in my post about Battle Royale, bloggers Shawn Fumo and Bill Sherman both wrote in to tell me that the mysterious, camera-less, plot-hole-gouging “reality TV show” angle was not present in the original Japanese comic, and was invented wholesale by English-language adapter Keith Giffen. Which makes the question “why the fuck would you do that?” even more pressing–I mean, half the story revolves around kids secretly trying to overthrow the Program’s authorities and escape. Didn’t Giffen think the readers might wonder how the kids hoped this would happen if it was all being filmed? And didn’t he think we also might wonder where the bloody cameras are? Oh well: Just like Magneto’s resurrection in Uncanny X-Men, the mentioning of a television show is something you can pretend never happened.
PS: Volume Seven is the best one so far. Comics can play games with the passage of time that are exhilarating to behold.