Obscurities: In the Shadow of the Bat Part 2
Obscurities: In the Shadow of the Bat Part 2
In anticipation for the Dark Knight I immersed myself in the Batman. Last time I talked about the movies I watched, this time the graphic novels I read. I won’t review them, because to be frank all of them were good in different ways, something like the Killing Joke is better written than the Man Who Laughs, but both are good in different ways. I’d recommend a read of any of the 7 I read: Batman Year One, The Man who Laughs, The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, The Long Halloween, the Dark Knight Returns, and the Dark Knight Strikes Again. Minor Spoilers ahead!
-Batman Year One- The Batman origin story, told primarily from the dual-perspectives of Bruce Wayan and Jim Gordon as they both arrive in Gotham and begin to clean away the corruption imposed by the mob. You don’t really get any of the Rogue’s Gallery outside of Selena Kyle as the budding Catwoman and a mention at the end toward the Joker. An overall excellent look at how Batman established himself as a hero and won over Jim Gordon to his side, this book probably served as inspiration for Batman begins.
-The Man who Laughs- Picking up where year one left off, this is a retelling of Batman’s first encounter with the Joker. Batman finds the Joker to far succeed any mob adversary he’s ever faced, laying the groundwork for the anarchist clown to become his number one arch nemesis. This book shares quite a bit in common with The Dark Knight in that the theme of Batman being the inspiration for these madmen to arrive in Gotham to rise up and meet up is a central plot point.
-The Killing Joke- Alan Moore’s tale of the Joker’s origin story. This according to Nolan was a big inspiration in how he based the Joker in The Dark Knight. It also shares some common themes in that the Joker consistently retells his origin story in a different way, preferring his past to be multiple choice. It really captures the Joker’s anarchist and indiscriminately murderous psyche in a way only Alan Moore could.
-Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth- Breathtaking artwork coinciding with the origin story of Arkham Asylum and its once crazed owner. Batman has to go to Arkham to deal with the inmates who have taken control of the Asylum on April Fool’s Day. Featuring many cameos from the Rogue’s Gallery as Batman makes his way through the Asylum to uncover it’s dark past.
-The Long Halloween- The origin of Two-Face and an awesome detective story to boot. I found myself half-right in my guessing of the story but the twist truly through me off. Batman must discover the identity and foil the killer known as Holiday, who murders mob members during holidays, leaving behind the murder weapon (a light-weight pistol with a baby-bottle nipple for a silencer) and a trinket associated with the holiday. Featuring numerous cameos from the Rogue’s Gallery and even Calendar Man like some sort of Hannibal Lector figure, the Long Halloween was one of the most enjoyable of all the graphic novels I read.
-The Dark Knight Returns- Set in an alternate future, Frank Miller gives Batman his balls back in an extremely twisted book featuring an angry out of retirement Batman, the Joker and even the Man of Steel in one of the best endings to a Batman story I’ve ever seen. This book is a must read and you truly have to read it to appreciate it.
-The Dark Knight Strikes Again- I read this shortly after seeing the Dark Knight and to be honest it doesn’t live up to The Dark Knight Returns at all. Frank Miller wrote the sequel, but even the zany pop-art style visuals don’t match up to Miller’s gritty drawings. Read it, if you want to know what happens after DKR, but the book features less Batman than it should, Superman I think is in this book more. After reading it, it just made me want to read Kingdom Come again which is better by far, in both visuals and in story.
There you have it, I recommend 7 graphic novels, well 6 technically. Though I’ll through in a recommendation of Kingdom Come as well, an alternate DC universe future where the outburst of new heroes leads to a Book of Revelations style impending apocalypse.
