By [ad_1]
The Justice League Dark back-up story in Justice League #66 features the debut of a new status quo for one of DC’s oldest mystical heroes.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers from “Drowned Secrets” in Justice League #66, available now from DC.
The reimagined Randhir Singh has finally returned to the waking world in the Justice League Dark story “Drowned Secrets from Justice League #66, by Ram V, Sumit Kumar, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Rob Leigh. However, his mind has changed drastically after being trapped in a fragmented dream world. To save himself and have a chance at waking up again, Randhir isolated the root of himself, a child version of his mind that was the basis for all he grew up to be. However, to escape the dream world his child self would need to become the dominant aspect, and he couldn’t do that without destroying several older aspects of his mind. This essentially turned Randhir into a child in an old man’s body and altered his status quo for the foreseeable future.
The idea behind keeping his child aspect safe was that this was the Randhir from which all other versions of himself came to be. Since this was essentially his starting point, the safest way to get back out into the world was to protect that aspect and give it a chance to grow again into the man he once was. But this came at the cost of all the experience and wisdom that came from his time as an adult.
Still, Randhir deemed it worth the sacrifice. He explained that this version of himself was innocent, but also curious. It allowed for Randhir to explore the world around him and expand his knowledge. As he put it, when one remained within the confines of their own knowledge, this leads to stagnation instead of growth. Randhir would much rather have sacrificed all of that knowledge if there was a chance he could regain and still keep the spark of curiosity that pushed him to seek it all out in the first place.
He and Elnara Roshtu fought their way through the various dream versions of Randhir that were different aspects who had become warriors from across Earth’s history. Images of all that happened before fell before the two of them as they returned to consciousness. But while Randhir was excited to be free, he was dismayed by the pain his frail body felt.
Batman explained that he hadn’t moved for a long time and was suffering from muscular atrophy, but that wasn’t the only problem. As Elnara informed him, Randhir was now a child in an old man’s body. He had gone from the mental perspective of having a body full of vitality to one that was much more frail and had suffered recent physical trauma.
While Randhir still possesses the knowledge the Justice League Dark needs to stop Merlin, he is now in a life-altering position. He now has the mind of a child, and whatever kind of man he might have been before contacting Elnara is gone. In a sense, the child is the basis for everything Randhir was, but now he’s at a point where he will have to adjust to a much more frail body. And this isn’t even considering the personality changes that might come with this new state of mind.
Randhir might possess great knowledge, but now he also possesses the disposition of child. He is certain to not be as wise as he once was as a consequence of destroying parts of his mind. But this proves that, even if his personality has become more innocent, the core goodness that he possessed still remains intact, as evidence by his willingness to sacrifice so much of himself. Although parts of him may be gone forever, the most important elements of Randhir are still with him.
About The Author
[ad_2]
