Secret Origins #2 – Review

By: Ray Fawkes, Jeff Parker, & Scott Lobdell (writers); Dustin Nguyen, Alvaro Martinez, & Paulo Siqueira (pencilers); Derek Fridolfs, Raul Fernandez, & Paulo Siqueira (inkers); John Kalisz, Rain Beredo, Hi-Fi, & Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: “I watched my parents die in front of me. I’ll never let that happen to anyone again.” – Batman

“Man, I never got to take that fishing trip…” – Aquaman

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear your complaining over my years of slavery and abuse.” – Starfire

The Review: Throughout his seventy-five year history Batman has always been one of DC’s most marketable properties and, especially in recent years, he’s practically demolished his competition. When the New 52 started, the Batman family of titles boasted eleven ongoing books, or over a fifth of the company’s mainline publications, and that number has only just ducked below that with New 52 nine titles announced for August. So yeah, it’s not really a secret that Batman sells comics. Add in two characters who seem to enjoy appearing in various states of shirtlessness and undress and you’ve got a book that looks like gold on paper. So is it?

“We know this story,” a seemingly omniscient narrator tells us on the second page of Ray Fawkes’ Batman story, “Even if we’re new to it, we know it.” It’s a fitting way to start this tale, Batman’s beginning is well known to us, in fact there’s even a movie about it. Perhaps what’s most amazing about Fawkes’ story is that, even knowing that, he doesn’t really try to find a new angle on this classic tale, instead choosing to dive straight in and let the story stand on the strength of his narration. It’s certainly a bold move, and one that bares more fruit than you might expect, but I’m not sure that it’s quite what it takes to sell this comic.

“Man in the Shadow” is a solid retelling of the origin story that largely sticks to the classic framework laid down by “The Legend of the Batman – Who He Is and How He Came To Be” all the way back in 1939. You’ll see Bruce’s parents gunned down, a scene of him mourning them, a scene of him creating the first draft of the mission that will last the rest of his life, a montage of him acquiring the skills he’ll need, and finally the famous night in the study, in that order.

It’s tough to leave your stamp on something that’s been rewritten in that same format so many times, but, to his credit, Fawkes manages to do a decent job of it. The biggest addition is probably the explicit look at how Gotham was changed by the death of the Waynes and the appearance of Batman. The Christopher Nolan films dealt with this theme in their way, as have other stories, but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it so succinctly put. The idea that Gotham, as a community, never fully healed from the loss of its first family is perhaps a bit of a stretch as presented here, but a brief but crucial mention of the unique values and positions that the Waynes held in the city does a bit to back this up. It brings a smile to my face to see Martha’s contribution to Bruce’s character remembered, especially as, going by the descriptions here, she easily could be seen as the greater loss to the city.

Fawkes’ real contribution here is to boil Batman down to what matters most and present it simply and clearly. There will always be arguments about what the true message of Batman is but Fawkes gives as strong an argument as anyone could in the span of a single page when he opts against the classic, but largely dated, concept of a candlelight oath.

Batman and Robin Annual #1 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Ardian Syaf (pencils), Vicente Cifuentes (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: When the old man’s out of town, it’s time to pull on his costume and hit the streets.

The Review: There has been a lot of different characterizations of Bruce Wayne over the years—and I’m not talking about his uber-threatening persona in the Batman, which remains mainly the same no matter who writes him, except maybe in degrees of violence.  I’m talking about the man beneath the cowl, whom some writers see as the real mask and others see as an important but secondary component to the Dark Knight.

In all those years, different writers have had different ideas about Bruce as a person, specifically his range of emotions.  There are a few who think that Bruce and Batman are essentially the same and when he’s not going through the playboy act, he should be just as coldhearted, judgmental, and suspicious.  Nowadays, I think writers are starting to get that at least this younger, post-relaunch Bruce has more room for humanity.  Because we’re still figuring out the ropes of this new continuity, it’s hard to tell where the limits of Bruce’s bright side are.

Batman: The Dark Knight #12 – Review

By: Gregg Hurwitz (story), David Finch (art), Sonia Oback (colors)

The Story: Aw, is lil’ Bruce scared of some movie violence?

The Review: Even if you’re someone with barely a smidge of a background in psychology, you know how intensely complicated and involved any degree of mental illness can be.  You’re dealing with any combination of genetic and environmental factors, some of which you can only guess the impact of.  That’s what makes the mentally ill such good material for fiction, slimy as it is to say so.  For writers, there is no exercise like getting into the head of the disturbed.

Clearly, this is Hurwitz’s kind of thing.  The difference here is that Scarecrow’s hang-ups come from a much more complex, deep place than Penguin, which requires a much higher degree of attention from both you and Hurwitz.  While I still would’ve preferred we avoid yet another Gotham rogue with major childhood trauma, I admit Hurwitz plays it in a compelling way.

Flashpoint: Batman – Knight of Vengeance #3 – Review

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

The Story: I would’ve staged an intervention for you, Martha, but they weren’t invented yet.

The Review: While the bulk of DC’s alter-reality stories come under the Elseworlds imprint, Flashpoint and most of its tie-ins follow more of Marvel’s What If…? tradition, positing new continuities on the face of specific divergent events.  Knight of Vengeance has really risen to the top of the heap, however, because not only does it use a slight change in circumstance to create a whole, new, complete reality, it does so with a wonderful reflection to the one we all know.

The whole premise of the Batman mythos relies on convincing you that a man, in reeling with the pain from a traumatic event, can choose to focus his pain in a way that would otherwise seem insane.  But while Bruce had the adaptability of his youth to keep him in (relative) control, the death of their son drives Thomas and Martha against the wall of life, which adults of course see so much more acutely.  The madness of their current lifestyles is the result of each taking a different path to manage their anguish, but on parallel lines.

Like his son of another lifetime, Thomas’ work as Batman comes less from nobility and more from a desire for revenge, one that in the senior Wayne’s case is much less contained, as his bloody, unarmed assault on Joe Chill shows.  While her husband’s violence targets perpetrators of crime like the one that shattered their lives, Martha’s comes from a more complicated source: the unfairness of losing her own child for no reason while other children get to live.

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.