Flashpoint: Batman – Knight of Vengeance #2 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (writer), Eduardo Risso (artist), Patricia Mulvihill (colorist)

The Story: There’s only one way to hurt Batman’s feelings: keep him out of the loop.

The Review: When DC announced plans to relaunch their entire line in September, I wrote that it didn’t really matter how much continuity they keep or discard, so long as they simply produce good stories.  Batman – Knight of Vengeance is a perfect example.  Even though it turns the entire Batman universe upside-down, leaving virtually no character or element unchanged, the story still works—in many ways even better than some of the Batman titles we have now.

Part of this series’ success has been Azzarello’s ability to create a completely realized world and draw you deep into it without reservations.  He doesn’t waste time explaining who’s who and why some things are the way they are.  He just lets the characters interact with each other and their environment as naturally as possible, trusting you to deduce some of the continuity details for yourself.  In other words, he assumes you’re smart enough to catch on without explicit help.

This may explain the brevity he applies to his script, which features no narration to speak of and very sparing dialogue.  As in life, a lot of the most significant information you get out of the issue comes from what’s left unsaid than anything in particular the characters say.  Oracle doesn’t have to explain why she reacts, “…No.  Jim, no,” upon the discovery Commissioner Gordon didn’t deliver her intel to Batman; she and you both know what he plans to do with it.

Flashpoint: Batman – Knight of Vengeance #1 – Review

By: Brian Azzarello (writer), Eduardo Risso (artist), Patricia Mulvihill (colorist)

The Story: And you said those mutants in the sewers were just an urban legend.

The Review: These Flashpoint tie-ins serve two purposes: one, they fill in some of the expository blanks that the central storyline neglects or hasn’t the opportunity to cover; and two, they offer us a tantalizing glimpse into a world whose existence will be all too brief and yet within its own continuity has a rich history all its own.

For that reason, you have to appreciate how Azzarello doesn’t play cute with this strange yet vaguely recognizable world he gets to work with.  There are no moments where he directly points out familiar characters and explains their changes with a wink and a nudge, as many writers would.  He simply incorporates them naturally into the story, as if Barbara Gordon has always been Thomas Wayne’s psychiatrist and the Penguin his casino crony.

Even if he wanted to, Azzarello couldn’t give these minor characters such treatment anyway without detracting from the really strong characterization he gives to our favorite anti-hero.  Clearly Thomas is less refined and sophisticated a vigilante than Bruce: he tolerates, even invites criminals to patronize his businesses; he allows Gordon to know his secret identity; he privatizes Gotham’s security; he makes little attempts to soften his public image.

Even in his crime-fighting, he doesn’t come across as superhumanly competent; instead it seems like he grits his way through challenges by drawing on an inhuman tolerance for pain.  We see the source of that tolerance when Azzarello reveals the details of his origins.  By now you know Bruce, not Thomas, died that night; this issue shows that fateful change came not from an alteration in circumstances, but one in Thomas’ character, a subtle one that nevertheless makes him react quite differently to the hold-up, and which leads inadvertently to his own tragedy.

Subtle describes most of the script, as it seems as disinclined to chatter as Thomas.  Only the most minimal, necessary sounds and words make themselves heard in this story, becoming even more chilling when they finally break the largely barren silence of the issue.  The whispered mantra of “Hell…” Batman hears during his sojourn in the sewers creeps into the corners of entirely wordless panels, only to complete itself when he finds their speakers: “Hellp uss…”