July 2005
Bill Baker
gutterslut
Where to Begin with Batman
By now a fair number of you have seen, heard, or read about the recently released
Batman Begins film. I enjoyed it both as a critic and a fanboy and
found it to be a generally solid and entertaining film -- despite a few very
minor missteps that really aren't worth addressing here. Even those trifling
problems are largely negated by some nicely drawn and delivered plot twists
and revelations, the fine cinematography and design work, and a group of performances
which were enjoyable, often delivered with real brio and relish, and which were
at other times marked by a startling, subtle simplicity of being there in the
moment. Pretty damn good for a "comic book movie" when all is said
and done. Better still, this appears to have the makings of a movie that will
reward repeated viewings, a fact that bodes well for the feature's future release
on DVD.
All of which, hopefully, will lead not only to a greater awareness of the essential
nature of this long-lived character among a large portion of the non-comics
reading populace, but also trigger an interest in discovering the rich and varied
source material that this and the other filmmakers tapped into when creating
their own versions of the Batman. And when those hordes hit their local comic
shops and bookstores, or jump online looking for some great material featuring
the exploits of that infamous millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and his notorious
alter ego, DC Comics will be ready and waiting to supply a steady and strong
flow of collections and original graphic novels to satisfy even the most jaded
of readers.
The best place for those interested in discovering the true roots of the Dark
Knight Detective to start would have to be The Batman Chronicles. Released
to coincide with the new flick's debut, this well packaged, low cost softcover
edition boast beautiful reproductions of both story and covers, and provides
the perfect entry point into "The Bat-man" mythos. This is the first
volume in a series, and also marks the beginning of a major pop culture preservation
project -- namely, the reprinting of each and every Batman story in chronological
order in affordable trade editions. All of the earliest tales, from his very
first appearance in Detective #27 [May, 1939] up to and including the contents
of Batman #1 [Spring, 1940], are presented in this volume. The stories themselves
range from the archetypal -- such as "The Joker" in the inaugural
issue of Batman, which introduced that devilishly childish embodiment of an
indifferent, capricious, and often cruel universe -- to some that adventures
that almost verge on the blasphemous for some die-hard fans of "The Bat."
[Insert Batman Chronicles interior pages here]
Consider, for instance, "Professor Hugo Strange and The Monsters,"
another tale from Batman #1, which has a somewhat desperate Batman not only
using a gun to stop criminals, but also knowingly killing individuals who are
essentially innocent of willful wrongdoing. Today, that kind of moment would
become a "Major Publishing Event" and take up an entire summer, all
the while consuming the page count of an entire line of comic books, to unfold.
Here, it takes place over the space of a few pages and, aside from the hero's
brief outburst of regret and an unspoken pledge to never do the like again,
the entire incident is largely forgiven and forgotten. You'll see little or
no modern emphasis on the angst of the hero or other characters here, despite
the later inclusion of his traumatic origins, although there is plenty of meat
and potato characterization and storytelling -- which can be either a blessing
or a curse, depending on how married one is to the modern manner of realistic
characterization and presentation.
Still, The Batman Chronicles is worthy of attention for more reasons
than the historical. Quite simply, each one of these stories -- even with all
of their rough edges, rawboned narrative pacing and sometimes spastic characterizations
-- still have the power to charm, enthrall and entertain readers of all ages.
And at $14.99 for 190 pages of full color comics, you really can't beat it as
a means of meeting the Batman in all his original homespun glory.
Of course, not everyone will want to submerse themselves into the Batman legacy,
or might want a wider sampling of stories from the character's library featuring
six-plus decades of noir-tinged superheroics. And it's precisely those readers,
folks who generally prefer to sample a wide variety of approaches to a theme
or character, who will probably be best served by Batman: The Greatest Stories
Ever Told.
While it's true that each fan would compile their own sort of Reader's Choice,
it's pretty hard to argue with the tales included here. Ranging literally across
the spectrum, from the earliest days of the strip to an issue of the spin-off
title Batman: Gotham Knights published in late 2002, each of these
tales provides a real and telling look into the character and his world, and,
by extension, that particular tale's creators and their worlds. Whether it's
the righteously angry avenging angel of Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff's "Robin
Dies at Dawn," the tormented good man pondering the price others must pay
for his dedication in Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis's "...My Beginning...
And Probably My End" or the tightly wound, nearly manic Batman envisioned
by Mark Millar and Steve Yeowell in "Favorite Thing," driven to do
anything and everything in a last ditch attempt to literally recapture a nearly
lost piece of his lost childhood, the Dark Knight proves to be as much a mirror
of his times as it is reflective of the start of the medium or even his current
creators' sensibilities. And, even if you're not interested in such niceties,
each one of these is a real winner, and entertaining at worst.
And finally, for those who are more taken by the sheer spectacle and symbolism of the character, for those more interested in the design and presentation aspects of the comic book medium, and for those readers who are just looking for a book chock-a-block full of beautiful and evocative and arresting and just plain cool images, DC has just released Batman: Cover to Cover. Subtitled The Greatest Comic Book Covers of the Dark Knight, this is a hefty tome featuring many of the most important covers that have adorned covers of the various Batman family of books over the years. Created more with the casual reader and art book crowd in mind than someone looking for hard and fast illustrated factual information, this slickly designed package can be read straight through, or dipped into randomly and sampled as the mood takes you. Either method will deliver any number of rare and common delights, visual and otherwise.
The covers are displayed thematically rahter than chronologically, which could
well prove a bane to some, and might well drive hard core fans and historians
away. But they'd be cheating themselves of some truly tasty art featuring the
Dark Knight, his friends and foes, as well as incisive and revealing commentary
by a large number of creators directly connected with Batman --artists Jerry
Robinson, Neal Adams and Alex Ross, writers Geoff Johns and Neil Gaiman, and
even folks like Adam West, who played Gotham City's Favorite Son on TV in the
'60s -- on what makes a particular cover or image so important to them. These
anecdotes, combined with the clear and elegant presentation of the sundry excellent
covers, and the occasional caption with nuggets of historical and other information,
make this an irresistible book to both read and look at. I've repeatedly found
myself returning to this book time and again since giving it a thorough reading,
and I have yet to find myself unsurprised by some new aspect of it. I've come
to realize that even some of the more patently ridiculous of these cover image
concoctions often have a real, if rough beauty and rightness to them, while
some others are seem to strike a chord that's so deeply buried in my psyche
as to almost seem monolithic and a natural product. Now that's good, entertaining
design work.
If there's any downside, aside from the lack of an index, to this otherwise
excellent collection, it's that it might have been more fully captioned. I say
this because it's hard not to notice how many of the illustrations are missing
anything beyond artistic attribution and publication date information, as opposed
to some historical or continuity nuggets of interest or note. It would have
been nice to see more of this throughout, and ideally for each piece chosen,
rather than for a select number of images. Still, that's really a niggling point,
and probably not a concern for most readers who will be interested in adding
this fine art book to their collection.
The Batman Chronicles by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and various
DC Comics
ISBN 1401204457
Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and
various
DC Comics
ISBN: 1401204449
Batman: Cover to Cover
DC Comics
ISBN: 140120659X
