Category: Batman

 

By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-84576-070-0

The middle Act of the 2004 Batman braided crossover, Tides focuses much more heavily on the personal costs that each hero must pay whilst attempting to stem the rivers of blood generated as the dwindling criminal factions consolidate into new power-bases. Gotham City is bathed in blood as a mysterious master-planner has engineered a scheme to tackle the crime situation by having the various factions destroy each other. Obviously the collateral damage is not a consideration for this ruthless mastermind- whoever he or she is. The volume ends with losses to the ranks of heroes – these things always do – in a set-up for the final book which will concentrate on the kicking of butts and taking of names.

I’m wanting desperately to be fair here. Individually many chapters from the forty or so assorted comics professionals working here are very good. It’s just as a product of a flawed and outmoded marketing policy that this story, like so many others that this tactic has spawned, falls down. The niggles that merely jar in the blur of weekly comic delivery stand out tall, proud and glaring when collected together in great big books.

Perhaps the final volume will pull it all together and produce sense out of nonsense…

© 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

 

By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-84576-044-1

One major difficulty with the periodic comic book insanity of multi-part crossovers is the sheer difficulty of repackaging them as graphic novels. DC attempted to defuse this with their 2004 Bat-epic by designing the event as three distinct Acts, each containing one month’s progression of participating titles (Batman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Robin, Gotham Knights, Batgirl, and Catwoman), and each working as a dramatic platform for the succeeding volume.

Thematically, it’s business as usual for poor, beleaguered Gotham City. Death, destruction, lots of explosions, blood in the streets, and another perennial winnowing of extraneous cast members is well underway. Content-wise the catastrophe is human in nature, as the various criminal factions of the city are finagled into an all-out gang war, leading to martial law being declared and at one point Batman’s attempt to take over Gotham.

Just as a self-indulgent aside, could someone please explain to me why the decent, law-abiding folk who so often end up littering those mean streets don’t just get the hell out of Dodge? After two plagues, an earthquake and the total anarchy of No Man’s Land, all in addition to the everyday mass-murdering psychopaths who make the place their home what on Earth could induce anyone to live or work there?

For a fuller experience, non-regulars would be best advised to read War Drums, a prelude to the carnage unleashed in Outbreak. Without divulging too much of the story, Outbreak sets the ball rolling and positions all the major Bat players for damage control as the bloodshed escalates and the various criminals who survive the initial slaughter start picking each other off. As the violence spirals Batman and team must not only save lives but also deduce which mastermind is responsible for the devious plan that threatens to wipe out crime in the city, as well as all the citizens.

© 2004 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

 

By Various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-969-7

2004’s big crossover event throughout the regularly published Batman family of titles was called War Games, which was collected almost before you knew it – as these things usually are. One of the major problems with these publishing events is they don’t start, occur, or finish in a vacuum. Many of the events leading up to War Games were published as disparate shorter stories from the aforementioned family canon of titles. One such bunch of these featuring stories from Robin #126-128 and Detective Comics #790-796 are gathered together in the prequel War Drums.

Anything I tell you about the events of these stories (which, if you’re chronologically asking, begin just after the end of the Hush storyline – Batman: Hush vol 1 ISBN: 1-84023-718-X and vol 2 ISBN: 1-84023-738-4) beyond the fact that Robin’s girlfriend Spoiler is groomed to take his place would in fact constitute a gross spoiler of the other kind. You wouldn’t need to read some rather well-written stories by Bill Willingham and Andersen Gabrych, drawn by the likes of Pete Woods, Damion Scott and Brad Walker with all the usual contributions from a whole lot of other people, which would be a shame.

This is standard Batman fare, which, if you’re a Batman fan, you would like. There are evil pop divas, kidnapped babies, loads of fighting and for a change, teen angst is kept to a minimum. There is however an inescapable feeling of characters treading water while waiting for a hammer to fall.

© 2005 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

 

By Matt Wagner (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-495-1

The concluding volume of Matt Wagner’s reinterpretation of two of Batman’s earliest and most iconic triumphs features a classic duel with the Dark Knight’s most obvious antithesis – a vampire. A flamboyant, magical bat monster to combat the grim, steely rationalism of this hero was an obvious conceit when Gardner Fox wrote it in 1939 (Detective Comics #31 and #32 – most recently reprinted in Batman Chronicles Volume 1 ISBN 1-84576-036-0) and Wagner proves that it still has merit.

Following on from Batman and the Monster Men with the sub-plot of Bruce Wayne’s first girlfriend Julie Madison and her tragically flawed father, this subtle blending of high gothic fantasy and modern Goth sensibility sees a mysterious cult leader moving into the upper and lower echelons of Gotham society, recruiting thugs , seducing the glitterati and killing at a whim.

Still in his first year of his mission, the inexperienced Batman must reassess his role and his beliefs before his city can be saved.

This is great story-telling, beautifully illustrated, paying proper respect to the triumphs of the past whilst reverently refreshing them for the modern reader. This is a classic Batman that everybody can enjoy – and should.

© 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

 

By A. J. Lieberman, Al Barrionuevo & Javier Pina (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-258-4

The worst thing about major events in comics publishing – as elsewhere, sadly – is the blind compulsion to follow up and cash in on them. There were a whole bunch of years between Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and the recent sequel, and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons have thus far resisted all urgings to revisit Watchmen. But it was inevitable that Hush, Batman’s dark opposite, would return sooner rather than later.

Relying on the tired plot premise that ‘everything you know is wrong’, and yet another string of guest-stars to bolster a weak and confusing storyline. Here it involves a battle for crime supremacy among insane super-criminals (Joker, Riddler and even the Penguin) intent on outsmarting each other, but this frankly bewildering mess could have benefited from fewer chapters and stricter editing, although the art is pretty good and Batman fans as much as any follower of long-running characters, have grown used to dry patches and occasional troughs between all those epic high points.

Originally published in Gotham Knights issues #50-55, the volume also contains a nominal epilogue from issue #66 featuring Hush’s hired thug Prometheus and the assorted villains from the criminal Society that plagued DC’s hero community since the onset of Infinite Crisis. This one is so very Not Recommended for anyone trying a graphic novel for the first time.

© 2004, 2005, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

 

Volume 1
By Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee and Scott Williams (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-84023-718-X

 

Volume 2
By Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee and Scott Williams (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-84023-738-4

These are collections of the multi-part, mega-epic that ran in Batman #608-619. The plot is pretty negligible, as a mysterious foe assembles all the Dark Knight’s arch-enemies to have another pop at him, and despite only introducing one new character, dares us all to guess who the mastermind can possibly be.

Overblown, over-hyped and histrionic, it’s the perfect equivalent to the mindless, summer-movie blockbuster, technically and visually attractive but with no real meat on its bones. Such a disappointment considering the quality that all the creators are capable of producing.

Still, this is the shallow stuff that modern dreams seem made of and absolutely reeks of glitter, angst and testosterone in equal measure. Flashy and, I’m sure, a secret, guilty pleasure for many, I can only hope that as often happens, what succeeding creators do with the aftermath will make all the fuss eventual worthwhile and sensible.

™ & © 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

 

By Judd Winick & various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-199-5

This tale (from Batman #635 – 641) introduces a brand new force to the streets of Gotham City. The Red Hood, originally a prototype criminal alias for the man who would become the Joker, is back and making a name for himself among the criminal hierarchies. Is he just another super-thug or does he have a more sinister agenda? How does he know so much about the secrets and methods of the Batman?

I’m not going to tell you. This fast-paced puff piece is fairly predictable if you accept the twin principles of modern comic books that nobody stays dead and that all writers think they can double-bluff their readers. Nonetheless, there’s plenty of action and pathos as the new playing order in Gotham sorts itself out prior to the major events all DC editors would like us to start our anticipatory salivations over. Stay tuned, Bat-Fans!

© 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

 

By Devin Grayson, Paul Gulacy & Jimmy Palmiotti (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-254-1

Produced to cash in on the movie Batman Begins this run of the mill adventure is set after the death of the immortal Eco-warrior and criminal mastermind. Batman is sent on a quest to restore a dubiously ‘New Age-y’ balance to the Earth, which he inadvertently disrupted when he destroyed all of Ras al Ghul’s life-restoring ‘Lazarus Pits’, mystical chemical baths which would now appear to be the planet’s way of voiding detrimental energies.

Galvanised into action by a posthumous letter from al Ghul, and the distressing fact that all over the planet dead things and people are coming back to a ghastly semblance of life, Batman goes on a very pretty, monotonously action-packed but terribly silly rampage of action before he restores the natural order. Why haven’t all the mystical busybodies that guard the planet noticed before now? Where are Superman and the Justice League?

Rushed and ill-considered, and with plot holes you could drive a fleet of hearses through, this disappointing jumble from the usually excellent Devin Grayson will hopefully be soon forgotten. Surely this is one graphic novel that only the most non-discriminating Bat-fan could love.

© 2005, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

 

By Greg Rucka and Klaus Janson (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-951-4

One of the biggest problems with the truly iconic characters is that once their periodical adventures are over there’s the inevitable rush to collect the tale as a book. Sadly, a lot of these tales just aren’t that good.

Death and the Maidens deals with the destruction of possibly the last great Bat villain – Ra’s Al Ghul – due to the machinations of his daughters Nyssa and Talia. The latter has been yet another villainess/love interest for Batman since the 1970’s but Nyssa is new and as the tale progresses through a series of flashbacks the reader discovers the hell that the immortal mastermind has subjected her to over the centuries, and how she has responded.

The conveniently dying villain appears to Batman and offers to put him in touch with his dead parents through an (al)chemical solution in return for a cessation of the hero’s campaign of destruction on the sources of Al Ghul’s immortality. How logical is that?

I don’t care how screwed up he is by their death. No one as calculating as Batman stops a ten year all-out war with a monster who intends to destroy the human race – particularly one with a history of using chemical and bacteriological weapons – on the promise of a pharmaceutical séance, especially when he’s on the verge of winning.

More importantly it serves no purpose in advancing the narrative, but seems there solely as a way injecting some heroic angst into the mix. Long story short, after loads of trauma and action the girls succeed and Nyssa replaces her father as head of his organization, and therefore as Batman’s implacable foe. Any bets on how long he stays dead? Creators Rucka and Janson can do so much better.

© 2003, 2004 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

 

By Grant Morrison and Dave McKean (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84576-022-0

This is, by all accounts, “the best-selling original graphic novel in… comics history”, which, obviously does not mean it is the best written or drawn. It is, however, pretty damned good. A brooding, moody script was treated as a bravura exercise in multimedia experimental illustration, literally changing the way artists and consumers thought about the pictures in comics. The attendant media play also spread throughout society, and as with Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns generated one of those infrequently recurring periods when Comics become Cool. All those big budget super-hero movies you’ve enjoyed or suffered through might not have happened without these media zeitgeist moments.

On the most basic level, however, it’s still a fine tale of the hero having to overcome terrible foes, terrific odds and traumatic trials to vanquish evil as the Caped Crusader fights his way through the freed lunatics that have taken over their asylum to save a hostage from the ravages of the Joker.

This 15th Anniversary edition also includes Morrison’s original script and page breakdowns, offering those of you intrigued by the mechanics of comic creation a hard lesson in production and inspiration.

© 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.