By Brian K. Vaughan with Scott McDaniel, Rick Burchett, Scott Kolins, Marcos Martin & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2228-4 (TPB)
Like most “overnight successes†writer Brian K. Vaughan actually plugged away for those requisite few years before hitting it big with series such as Ex Machina and Y: The Last Man and original works such as the magnificent Pride of Baghdad.
This collection – readily available in digital formats and a just a bit trickier to get in paperback form – purports to be a Batman compendium (better sales potential, I’d imagine) but is in fact a general gathering of (much but not all) DC Universe material by Vaughan in his formative days. Following a mendaciously wry – and potentially litigious – Introduction, the first yarn is a 3-part tale from Batman #588-590 (April-June 2001), illustrated by Scott McDaniel & Karl Story.
The star is the Dark Knight’s underworld alter-ego Matches Malone as ‘Close Before Striking’ offers a very readable psycho-drama revealing the true (and updated) origin of the underworld alias whilst taking readers on a traumatic excursion into the dark side of undercover work. It’s followed by the delightfully dark and whimsical ‘Mimsy Were the Borogoves’ from Detective Comics #787, December 2003. With art from Rick Burchett & John Lowe, this stand-alone story features a deeply demented encounter with The Mad Hatter, and is undoubtedly the best thing in the book…
There’s only a tenuous Batman link in the next tale, which originally saw print as Wonder Woman #160-161 (September & October 2000). Drawn by Scott Kolins with inks from Dan Panosian & Drew Geraci, ‘A Piece of You’ finds shape-changing Bat-villain Clayface attacking the Amazing Amazon when he learns of her origin. Since she was formed from Magic Clay, he reasons that he can absorb her – and her magical abilities – into his own mass. And stone me; he’s right! Action-packed and tongue in cheek, this daft but readable thriller also guest stars former Wonder Girl Donna Troy, Nightwing and Robin.
Somewhat messily, the tome ends with a mere snippet from Batman: Gotham City Secret Files #1 (April 2000) which introduced themed villain The Skeleton, before promptly forgetting all about him. ‘Skullduggery’ is limned by Marcos Martin & Mark Pennington, and although competent, rather lets down a very enjoyable trawl through the Fights ‘n’ Tights work of one of the best writers in comics. If you enjoy superhero tales or are a Vaughan aficionado, please don’t let this slight defect deter you from a great slice of comic book fun.
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