Batman - Gothic

Grant Morrison is intertwined with the character of Batman in my mind for so many different reasons. His 1989 OGN Arkham Asylum - A Serious House on Serious Earth is not only the first Batman story I ever read, but the first comic I ever read. Not exactly the easiest introduction to the form that you could have. 

Following on from that, I started reading Batman comics seriously around the time of RIP and Final Crisis. Because of the dense nature of these stories, with references to the entire career of Batman (in some ways a fictional version of what I'm trying to do here) I found myself looking into each reference and from that I found new stories to read.

In short, I love Morrison's take on the character - and the idea that EVERYTHING happened. I love how he made Batman into a mythological entity as Bruce Wayne made his way back through time after defeating a god.

Onto 'Gothic' then, which in hindsight shares many elements with the six year run that would come later. Even the title is loaded with reference - to the gothic architecture of the monastery/cathedral, to the gothic literature with its ghosts and ghouls and in the links Morrison makes to the word 'goetia' (the invocation of demons). 

Opening with three men in a darkened room, one of whom is hanging upside down and being tortured by the other two, we immediately get a sense of the twisted nature of this story. A recording begins to play, and one of the mobsters goes to investigate. The recording - Oranges and Lemons - is attributed various meanings such as child sacrifice and public executions. All very loaded with foreshadowing considering what comes later on. Not to mention the references to the bells ringing, bringing about a change from the status quo.

When his partner in crime doesn't return, the second mobster (O'Rourke) goes to investigate, finding a record player with a note attached. The note is a quote from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - again linking to later events where the mobsters who were complicit in the murder of 'Mr Whisper' are punished for their crime. This Mr Whisper emerges from the shadows, murdering O'Rourke and then setting fire to the hanging man.

The colour fades into black and white, and we join a conversation between Bruce Wayne as a child and another child. In the next panel Bruce is a grown man, still in uniform - perhaps suggesting he is still that grieving child on the inside? The dream begins to unfold and collapse from there - having started in an old school it becomes a cathedral, before Bruce discovers his father, whose lips have been sewn up.

One element of 'Gothic' which is similar to Morrison's later run is the exploration of the relationship between Bruce and his father. This story provides some background which we haven't seen before - including Thomas Wayne coming to Bruce's rescue when he thinks his son is in trouble. This is mirrored later on when Thomas visits Bruce in his dreams, offering him hints as to where he can find information about Mr Whisper.

Another element that is similar is the exploration of the devil, of demonic pacts and of past mistakes coming back to haunt you. There is the pact between Mr Whisper and the devil for 300 years of immortality. Then the pact between the mobsters who, in a rare moment of heroism, take action to end the child serial killings of Whisper. We learn that this action by the mobsters saved young Bruce, as he was to be the next victim of Whisper. Finally, in order to try and stop Whisper from thinning their ranks, the mobsters try and forge a pact with their own 'devil' - Batman. 

As is often the case with Morrison, there are motifs which run throughout the story - roses, nursery rhymes and Faustian pacts being just three. The roses link in with the plague, and the somewhat hackneyed supervillain plot to expose Gotham to a lethal virus. Secrets are also associated with roses - sub rosa describes a secret hidden under a rose in Roman times. 

Nursery rhymes are associated with childhood, but often have a darker undertone to them. This echoes the revelations of Bruce's dark childhood at his boarding school - where his friend was murdered and his severed head left in a bin. Also, the dark events that are hinted at when Bruce is taken out of the boarding school by his parents.

As he terrorises the mobsters who tried to kill him 20 years ago, Whisper taunts them with quotes from Faust, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and even kills one of them at a performance of Don Giovani.

This was an interesting story from the early career of Batman. Not my favourite so far, nor my favourite by Morrison, but still an intriguing look at how different Batman is at this early stage. His terror at the 'ghost' he sees in the submerged ruins of the monastery are something that later Batman wouldn't do. Although there are hints of the Batman from later incarnations written by Morrison - when he escapes an elaborate death trap with ease, it foreshadows the Batman of Morrison's run on JLA who is almost too good at what he does.

Next up - Going Sane.

Collected Legends of the Dark Knight

Another anthology of shorter stories, only one of which explores one of Batman's better known villains. All three explore similar themes though, of obsession, love and the effects they have on the mind. 

Blades.

A new vigilante is in town - The Cavalier - and he is picking up the crimes that Batman is neglecting whilst he investigates a string of murders by the mysterious Mr Lime. These murders all have one thing in common - their victims are people over a certain age. In his investigations Batman has to deal with the mourning children of these victims, which obviously brings his own grief over the death of his parents to the forefront.

Meanwhile the Cavalier is fighting crime, his interior monologue suggesting a background in film as he refers to the spotlight of the street lights and the action of his 'fight scenes'. He seems to have a more violent approach, with scarlet gouts of blood spraying as he takes down various criminals. In a montage of crime fighting sequences, we also see him dealing with The Riddler. This in itself betrays how obsessed with Mr Lime Batman has become, that he is leaving his rogues to run riot in Gotham.

Answering the Bat signal, Batman hears from Gordon about a new thief in Gotham, who is targeting the rich. We even see some dark and shadowy scenes with this thief, talking about how Mercury is watching over him.

Batman becomes consumed by the serial killings, with both Gordon and Alfred commenting on how he seems to be letting everything else fall by the wayside. He is injured whilst thwarting an attempt on a senior citizens life, saving him from a bomb planted by Mr Lime.

Shortly after, we discover that The Cavalier is in fact the thief, and that he is stealing in order to protect a woman he saved as she was leaping from a bridge to her death. This revelation seems to shake Batman out of his stupor, his city has been under the protection of a criminal and a fraud, so he rushes into action and joins the chase of The Cavalier. Batman is also reminded of Zorro, who is as much a part of his origins as the gun and the pearl necklace.

After this second meeting ends in Batman lying injured, The Cavalier moves him away from a life threatening fire, showing that he isn't entirely a villain despite his actions. Whilst recovering from these injuries, Batman has various hallucinations, revisiting his origins and eventually giving him the breakthrough he needed in the Mr Lime case. The reveal of who the killer was is a twist I didn't see coming, and I liked the reasoning behind it. All too often the detective side of Batman is left forgotten, so I always welcome a story which shows us this side of him.

After finishing up the Mr Lime case, Batman resolves to solve the other crime spree which has gripped Gotham. This culminates in an epic fight between him and The Cavalier, lasting several pages and showing the fighting prowess of The Cavalier, as well as Bruce's youthful inexperience. At the brink of defeat, The Cavalier realises he can't rob Gotham of both of its protectors, having failed the city himself already. He leaves the warehouse and is gunned down by the police, leaving Batman with the knowledge that every man holds the potential for evil and that obsession can sometimes be the only catalyst a man needs to switch from hero to villain.

Legend of the Bat Mite.

A shorter tale, which focuses on the hallucination/5th dimension imp Bat Mite. We see obsession this time in the form of Bat Mite, who has been watching Batman from the 5th dimension and has decided to copy his clothing and actions. This was a slightly wacky tale, and not one I was really a fan of, despite Bat Mite being a part of a later Grant Morrison story. 

Hothouse.

Poison Ivy makes her return in slightly more spectacular fashion than her debut in Four of a Kind. She is more than just a petty criminal this time. Instead she is a murderess and a manipulator, creating a new drug which instantly becomes a hit amongst the party elite of Gotham City.

Immediately we see the consequences of this drug, as the first few pages introduce us to Ian Spencer, before he falls to his death from a ledge near his office at Gotham University. Failing to save him from his fall, Batman is left hunched over the dead mans body. He looks up and spots a familiar face in the crowd - Ivy - which is all it takes for the fires of obsession to be stoked again.

This obsession continues as Batman visits Ivy and she claims to be reformed, and the victim of Dominique who is the mastermind behind the new drug Edenspring. Batman assists in the arrest of these villains - with a souped up Batmobile - only to find that Ivy is not as innocent as she seems.

During his investigations, we see Batman lose his focus as his mind becomes more clouded with Ivy. As Bruce Wayne he calls a random blonde date 'Pamela' and during a routine patrol he stops a criminal who takes on the appearance of Pamela before his eyes.

Batman confronts Ivy in her greenhouse, and is soon under the influence of her poisoned kiss. Poison. Ivy is just about to remove his mask and reveal who the Batman really is, when his obsessive crusade against crime wins out over his drug-induced obsession with Ivy. He kicks a sprinkler system and we see another obsession in the form of Ivy's love for all plant life. This is all he needs to stop her, and she is soon incarcerated in Arkham Asylum.

Overall this was an enjoyable collection of stories, perhaps with the exception of the middle tale of Bat Mite. This also marks the end of the first page of my Batman notebook (yes, I have a notebook) and also sees us drawing to the close of Year One.

Next up - Batman: Gothic

Batman - Prey

Still in his first year of crime fighting, Batman shows signs of being uncertain, needing time to plan and work out what the proper course of action should be. At one point in the story, he says that he needs to find a way of continuing his crusade without it becoming so draining. Others around him are showing the same uncertainty; the GCPD are unsure if he is helping them or undermining them. The Mayor of Gotham isn't sure that having a vigilante running the city at night is such a good thing.

Opening with a drugs bust organised by the GCPD, narrated somewhat disdainfully by Batman from the shadows as he spots the undercover cops with ease, we see the genesis of the hatred that some members of the GCPD have for the vigilante doing their work for them. Max Cort, who later in this arc takes on a vigilante persona of his own, questions why his men didn't 'nail' The Bat when they had the chance.

Back at the station, Cort questions Gordon about why they let the Batman do what he does without intervention. In one of the panels Cort is seen to cast an imposing shadow against the wall of Gordon's office, an image which is mirrored later on with Batman himself casting a similar shadow. We see that Cort is driven, that he has pride, and that he doesn't like the idea of someone stealing his thunder. This drive is something that runs through the story arc, and we see that in some ways Cort is similar to Batman. Although the methods he will eventually use are much darker and more violent.

Hugo Strange makes his return here, and there is no mention of the 'monster men' from a few months ago. On the GCPD side this could be attributed to the cover up that took place, but it was odd that Batman doesn't even mention that he had encountered Strange before. Perhaps he chose to forget that story had ever happened, which is fine with me as it pales into comparison with this encounter with Strange.

Strange is more of a threat here, showing a mental aptitude similar to that of Batman, his plans are far reaching and he manipulates those around him to bring about the psychological downfall of Batman. He admits himself that he hates and envies the Bat because of his physical prowess, which Strange himself lacks. Instead he is forced to manipulate public opinion in order to force the Mayor into creating a task force to take down the 'dangerous vigilante'. While Batman is being worn down physically by his altercations with the police force, Strange tries to get to the bottom of who exactly is behind the cowl.

Using the media as his outlet, Strange repeatedly refers to 'the traumatic events of a single key night' which is the focus of his investigation. Initially he assumes it is a wife or child that died in a 'crime committed in darkness'. Clearly he underestimates the dedication that Bruce had to become the Batman, and the years he went about training for the role before returning to Gotham. 

Strange hypnotises Cort, employing him as the brawn behind his own brains. At one point he even has Cort impersonate the Bat to continue his media attack against him. Batman has a couple of well scripted fight scenes with Cort, who almost gets the better of The Bat on the second occasion.

When Batman first confronts Strange at his apartment, he is gassed with a drug that Strange had prepared for this very event. This leads him down the usual route of reliving the deaths of his parents. Some people complain about how often this trope is used in Batman stories, but I like that the various writers keep coming back to this one night. It shows the obsession, the driving force behind the Bat. Without it, I think some of the stories would lose their power, as without it we are not constantly reminded of why Batman is doing what he is doing. It puts us in his shoes somewhat, as surely he relives that moment every time he is out on the streets, in the dark, fighting criminals and preventing other people from suffering similar tragedies.

As he falls from Strange's window, Batman cries out for his mother and father - which is the final piece of the puzzle that Strange needs to decipher his secret identity. This all culminates in a terrifying scene where Strange has infiltrated Wayne Manor and used mannequins to break Batman down mentally - presenting him with accusatory copies of his parents who blame him for their deaths. Batman retreats into the Batcave, staying their in order to heal himself ready to confront Strange.

Three days later he emerges with a new focus and a new Batmobile.

A huge part of this story, and the central point which Strange covers in his initial attack on Batman's psyche, is the idea that Batman is obsessed with the dark, a loner who accepts no help from others. The fact is, he relies heavily on the help of Gordon and Catwoman here to defeat Strange and then his protege The Night Scourge. It will be interesting to see how this factors into the next few storylines - will he accept help from others more readily?

Another central idea, one that is often returned to, is the idea of whether Batman should be allowed to carry on 'breaking the law'. Often in his career, he is forced to go it alone as the whole city and the GCPD turns against him. This was the final scene of The Dark Knight, where he sacrifices his freedom to move around the city in order to protect Gotham's 'White Knight' Harvey Dent. Time and time again, we see Batman lay himself on the line despite others questioning the methods he uses. 

There are others, like Gordon, who argue that the Batman is exactly the sort of crime fighter that they need. The mayors daughter holds a similar line of thought, in that a man should be measured by his deeds. 

In the end, as always, it is Batman's methods that save the girl and the city from the grip of the psychotic Night Scourge. Time and time again he will fight to save Gotham even as it fights against him from some corners of the city.

Gordon's final line of the story says it all for me - 'This city, god help it...it needs him.'

Next up - Collected Legends of the Dark Knight

Batman - Tenses

There are a few characters in the Batman stories that seem to act as a question - what would happen if someone else had lost their parents? How would they cope and what effect would it have on their psyche? Sometimes, like Prometheus, they are reversals of the Wayne murders; criminals gunned down by two policemen. Sometimes, like Hush, it is the effect of parents' survival that seems to break down the psyche more.

In Tenses, there are two characters who serve this purpose. William Black is a reporter desperate to uncover the real story behind Bruce Wayne, and having lost both of his parents as well, he tries to offer support for Wayne. Obviously he remains unaware of Bruce's night life, but he seems to realise that Bruce is hiding something.

The second character is more deeply scarred by his parents. Firstly his father left when he was a child, although it is revealed to us in flashbacks that this perhaps wasn't such a bad thing. And when we first meet this awkward young man, Theodore Krosby, he is about to be fired from his job at a store owned by Wayne Enterprises. In this meeting, he explains that his mother passed away recently. There are already hints that this has set him on a dark path, as a red panel flashes up in between the scene showing one of the two men in a horrific car accident. 

Later on, after falling victim to Bruce's 'downsizing' in order to reclaim his company (and set aside funds for his nighttime project?) we join Ted by the grave of his mother. Whilst there he believes that he sees a skeleton propped up against a tree, but when he looks again this skeleton is gone.

As with many of Batman's more famous villains, you could argue that Ted is set on his dark path by Bruce Wayne's return to Gotham City. More directly than others, in some ways, as it is his dismissal from his job that leads to him being dragged into a criminal undertaking along with a thug who had been apprehended at the dockyards by Batman the night before. At the end of the first volume, he is arrested, and we see his mental state breakdown further as he headbutts the wall of his cell to try and stop the images of apocalypse that flash in front of his eyes.

Into the second volume, we see him deteriorate further. He lectures Bruce Wayne - who for some reason thinks it is a good idea to go and visit his disgruntled former employee - about how he sees Wayne as a 'man without vision'. Soon after, whilst being transferred to Arkham Asylum, he is broken out by his accomplice. This doesn't end well for the rest of the gang, or the apartment building they are in, as 348 corpses are found the next morning. Is this worse than the Joker has managed in a single attack?

Things come full circle for Ted Krosby, as he revisits the man who began this cycle of violence. His father. Killing his father seems to be the closure that he wanted, and after a brief fight with Batman, he walks off to die in the blizzard. The last we see of him, he is propped up against a tree trunk in the same position he saw the skeleton right back in the first volume.

Would this have happened regardless of whether his mother had passed away, or whether or not he had lost his job?

This was an odd little story, but enjoyable. It was intriguing to see a smaller scale story of crime in Gotham, and to see first hand the effect that Bruce's return had on the citizens in the city. Many familiar elements were missing: there was no Jim Gordon, no Alfred and no masked criminals.

However it gave us an insight into Bruce's mindset. We see him looking into a mirror, and seeing a scared little boy look back. We see him angered by this weakness. And we see his obsessive excercising as he strives for perfection. There are hints that he is hiding a lot beneath the surface, his doctor expressing surprise that he shows no signs of stress for such a high position in a major company. The same doctor recounts a tale of a man he knew of that had trained his body to fool a lie detector test, which we can assume is something that Bruce has managed to achieve as well - as he said to Black in the opening pages 'They know what I want them to know'. 

Next up - Batman: Prey.

 

Batman - Venom

This is what happens when Batman fails.

Whilst investigating a kidnapping, Batman fails to save Sissy Porter from a watery grave, all because he isn't strong enough. This whole opening sequence is beautifully drawn, with eerie green colouring in the repeated panels showing Sissy trapped underneath the rock giving a nightmarish quality to the scenes. The same panel, of Sissy's glassy eyed stare is repeated a few times in the comic, reminding us of the motivation that pushes Batman to desperation and, eventually, addiction.

Sissy's father, Randolph Porter, seems innocuous enough at first, but over the course of the story shows himself to be twisted and even hooked on his own designer drugs. He offers Batman one of his designer drugs shortly after Batman tells him his daughter hadn't survived - something which should have set alarm bells ringing in the mind of the worlds greatest detective!

Back at the Batcave, Bruce injures himself trying to push the limits of what he can do, trying to lift weights which are equal to the mass of the boulder which had trapped Sissy. With this injury, he confronts the two thugs who kidnapped her, and is defeated when they exploit his torn shoulder muscle.

This is the second failure in as many days, and it pushes Batman to return to Randolph, accepting his offer of the 'venom' which poisons the Batman we know and love. With his newfound strength, Batman hunts down and apprehends the kidnappers, his victory resulting in him laughing maniacally in an expression which had shades of The Joker's manic grin.

This deadly drug takes hold of Batman, making him more violent, and between the first and second chapter of this volume, he has ditched the cape and cowl altogether (albeit briefly). 

When returning to pick up a 'repeat prescription' of the drug, Batman is introduced to the true villain of the story, General Slaycroft. This man, who introduces himself as a respected member of the US army, orders the killing of the kidnappers so that Batman cannot follow the lead back to him and Dr Porter, before murdering the men who committed the assassination as well when Batman hurls a fridge (!) at their car to prevent their escape. Shortly after, with the promise of more of the super drug, Slaycroft and Porter order Batman to kill James Gordon, who has been investigating the murders and kidnapping that these two men have perpetrated.

After leaping out at Gordon from a tree, Batman realises he has been brainwashed, warns Gordon and goes back to confront the two men. They flee, he patches things up with Alfred and asks to be locked in the Batcave so he can recover from his addiction to Venom.

Time speeds up into a montage of sorts, as Slaycroft and Porter take up residence in Santa Prisca with their designer drugs. They begin experimenting on Timmy Slaycroft, followed by other residents of the island, whilst Batman completes his rehab in the Batcave. These sequences on the island made me think of a more sinister version of the Marvel 'super-soldier' program which gave birth to Captain America. Only a twisted version where the men involved blew up their own wives and (I assume) organised the kidnapping of their own daughters. 

When Batman finally arrives on Santa Prisca, parachuting from a plane after nearly being blown out of the sky by Slaycroft, we find out it has been six months since he was in action. This puts a bit of a spanner into the works of the old timeline, but as I have opted to do with the New 52 timeline, I have chosen to ignore these slight inconsistencies. It was enjoyable enough to read about the genesis of the drug which would eventually lead to Bane breaking the Bat.

Denny O'Neill seems to take great joy in writing Batman as a sort of uber-masculine super spy, with all the drug lords and island compounds. Not to mention the moments where Batman fights off 4 sharks! 

What follows is a slightly rushed denouement, where Batman is captured and placed in a trap which mirrors the one which took Sissy's life at the start. He is in a room slowly filling with water, and the only way out is for him to lift an impossible weight. Rather than resort to the bottle of pills he is left with, Batman creates a pulley/weight system using the bricks from the wall and his bed. Fantastic.

Meanwhile, things have escalated quickly and Slaycroft has decided that Randolph is too weak to be his partner, and has him tied up so he can torture him for the details of his super drug. Batman escapes and frees the Dr. But Porter tricks Timmy the mindless thug into killing his own father. 

I enjoyed the idea of seeing what would happen when Batman went to far in order to achieve perfection. And I enjoyed seeing the redemption of him beating the impossible trap at the end without resorting to drugs. For me this is probably one of the best moral messages in a Batman story so far. And it is probably one of the darkest as well, in terms of its exploration into addiction and madness.

Plus I love the knowledge of what this will all lead to - the seemingly loose threads of Santa Prisca and venom will come back to haunt the Bat very soon.

Next up - Batman : Tenses

Batman - Four of a Kind

Gotham continues it's downward spiral into madness with four of Batman's rogues gallery making their first appearances here. Now, I mentioned last time that the greatest villains are a reflection of something in the heroes they face. This is something that three of these four stories touch on, and the reason why I didn't enjoy one of them as much as the others. I also didn't enjoy a couple of references which are out of synch with the 'timeline' - namely a reference and brief appearance by Two Face, who doesn't appear until Harvey Dent is attacked with acid in The Long Hallowe'en. Anyway, I'll split this into four sections to make it easier to give my opinions and thoughts in a more coherent manner.

Poison Ivy

I've never been a big fan of Poison Ivy - perhaps it's Uma Thurman's fault - and this story won't do anything to change my mind. It ignored the more successful interpretation of Ivy as an Eco-warrior, to instead portray her as a petty criminal who uses her expertise in poisons to attack the wealthy elite of Gotham and steal their jewellery. 

My main problem was that, unlike the other three storylines, this didn't really attempt to create any sort of motive for the villain, and it only briefly touched on her origins. She simply appeared on the scene, fully in control of her powers, with her supervillain alter ego fully formed. Perhaps it might have been more interesting to see her getting her powers and learning to control them? 

Another complaint was the fact that Batman only happened upon the cure to her toxin by chance. There was no thought to it, no need for him to use his training or some expertise in chemicals. He just kissed Ivy as Batman, which cancelled out the poison from when Wayne kissed her earlier in the evening. I thought this was quite lazy...

There was nothing here that linked Ivy with Batman, and no aspect of her character made her an interesting villain for him to face.

The Riddler.

This was an odd one, in that it seemed to be telling the origins of The Riddler from later on in his career, but it was interesting to see his rise to infamy. For me, Riddler has always been a great villain who is often misused or seen as a bit of a joke. I'm not entirely sure this storyline did much to change that, as it does always seem a bit odd when he is portrayed as this genius who gives the police really simple clues to find him.

This is flipped on its head when both the police and Batman go to the wrong crime scene at first. Perhaps I'm being too picky, as I'm used to The Riddler in Scott Snyder's current run on Batman, as well as the version from the Arkham games.

We leave Riddler strapped up in Arkham asylum, having screamed and thrown a chair through a two way mirror. It was interesting to see Riddler explain his motives as being a desire for attention - but is this his true motivation, or is it a smokescreen he is adopting to pull the wool over his doctors eyes?

The Riddler is always the villain who can 'outthink' the Batman, and he can be interesting when he is allowed to show off this aspect of his character. I think that all too often though he is shown as a gimmick character.

Scarecrow.

For me, this was the strongest of the four tales. It gave us a full origin for Scarecrow, which were all elements I had read or seen before, but I still enjoyed reading them. I grimaced a little when the intro mentioned Two Face, but this is more my own personal issue as I had been getting into the idea of these stories as a timeline. Everything had seemed to fit so perfectly until this point!

We see that Jonathan Crane had a miserable childhood, bullied and ridiculed by his peers. He resolves to defeat fear and use it for his own purposes. Sound familiar?

Scarecrow is another of those villains that is the perfect counterpoint to Batman, in that his methods are the same but the outcomes he is striving for are what differ. Crane uses fear to seek revenge on those who have ridiculed him, or who strip his livelihood away from him. He even researches his victims in order to discover their fears before he strikes. 

Manbat.

I was pleasantly surprised by this storyline. I can honestly say I don't think I have ever read a Manbat story, and I enjoyed the tragic tale of Kirk Langstrom. 

Not really a true villain, more a victim of his circumstances, Langstrom is trying to discover a way to cure his hearing problem. When he is denied funding by the board of directors, he tests his serum on himself, setting off a transformation into a bat/man hybrid. These boards of directors have a lot to answer for!

My favourite sequence in this storyline, and indeed the whole book, was the narration by Langstrom describing the traits which he felt made bats superior animals to others. These are intertwined with images of Batman going about his patrols, fighting a group of criminals who are stealing from Gotham's wealthy elite (you'd think they would move...) This was an excellent sequence which reinforced the reasons that Batman chose the perfect animal as his 'totem'.

I also enjoyed the fight between Batman and Manbat, which was not really a fight as Batman realised that this creature wasn't malicious. Instead he held back and used a tranquilliser to get Langstrom back to his wife. Manbat breaks free again, but not for long as it is his wife's love that gives him pause for long enough so she can inject him with the cure for his serum.

So all in all, an enjoyable collection, but one which made me feel somewhat disconnected from the ongoing storyline which had begun to build over the last few story arcs. I'm hoping that this will level out over the next few volumes. But this will always be an issue with reading a timeline consisting of storylines written in different times, by different creative teams.

Next up - Batman - Venom

Batman - The Man Who Laughs

No hero is complete without their arch nemesis. And it was only so long that Batman could go on fighting petty crime and the Gotham mob bosses before a villain rose up to the challenge.

We join Captain Gordon at the scene of a grisly crime, where at least 10 bodies have been found hideously disfigured in a disused warehouse. Crime scene technicians and paramedics alike are physically sick at the sight of the horrors within. Batman isn't far behind - having received the call on his police scanner at the end of Batman and the Mad Monk - and gives his theory on what has happened here. Someone has been 'practicing'.

Gordon's inner monologue questions 'What the hell is happening to my city?' - clearly wishing for a return to the days where Carmine Falcone was the worst thing to happen to Gotham City.

Not long after, a broadcast from outside Arkham Asylum is interrupted when the newsreader bursts into hysterical laughter, literally laughing herself to death. A man with a shock of green hair, skin deathly white, steps out from the shadows and greets Gothan and it's Gothamites. He makes the bold claim that one of their top businessmen will die at midnight that night, before executing the cameraman.

Bruce Wayne witnesses this whilst at some sort of function with the man in question - Henry Claridge - and quickly escapes down a ventilation shaft, before heading to Arkham in the Batmobile.

We rejoin Jim Gordon, seeing hints of the corruption that he still has to deal with as the police commissioner and the mayor both throw him to the wolves (Gotham's press) at a press conference regarding the threat against Claridge's life. One of the press even seems to give The Joker his name.

Batman battles this crazed clown at every twist and turn of his plan, finding links between the victims only to be thrown off balance when something doesn't fit. He dons another of his disguises and sees a worker at the old ACE Chemical factory with a strange white discolouration on his face. Despite all his training though, Batman does seem to struggle at times with this new type of criminal.

What I love about the Joker is the way he seems to be acting without a plan on the surface, but his insanity is sometimes a mask for the criminal genius underneath. He strolls around, murdering people without a second thought and cracking jokes, yet he spends at least a month perfecting his Joker toxin. Not to mention there are times when he really does seem to outthink Batman, at least in this early stage of his career. He switches his M.O. from a fast acting toxin, to slow, to an all out assault on someone's home.

The only way Batman is able to beat him is to change the way he thinks. Before the final attack - aimed at both Bruce Wayne and Judge Lake - Wayne even admits that this was not the sort of criminal he had trained for. Eventually it is only when he injects himself with the Joker toxin, twisting his mind so he can think like the Joker, that he is able to decipher his plan and defeat him.

Batman's Rogues Gallery are the best villains in all of comics, in my opinion. When written well, they are the only villains that can truly push their hero to the limit and force him to change the way he fights. Batman's villains make him a better hero. Some may disagree with me, but Superman is never really in danger from the villains he faces. The Flash's villains are more organised, sure, but they never consistently push him to change the way he fights, not always anyway. I can't even name many interesting Green Lantern villains apart from Sinestro.

The Joker also adapts every time he is defeated. His personality shifts, which whilst more a case of changing writers than anything else, is attributed to a new condition by Grant Morrison in Arkham Asylum and then his 6+ year run on Batman.

It is fitting that The Joker is the first 'freak' that Batman faces that really tests him in this timeline. It wouldn't be the same if it was the Penguin or Poison Ivy. When you look at the timeline as a whole, their careers are so intertwined, intersecting at all of the key events. Batman even created The Joker, if you believe that version of his origin story. And as we see here, The Joker helps to recreate the Batman and his way of thinking, of fighting crime.

It'll be interesting to see how Batman is forced to adapt the next time they meet...

Next up - Four of a Kind.

Batman and the Mad Monk

Another foray into the supernatural side of Batman here, after the more 'sci-fi' leanings of Hugo Strange and his genetically modified monster men. Despite being part 2 of 'Dark Moon Rising', following on from Batman and the Monster Men, I enjoyed this volume considerably more.

Events pick up pretty much straight after the previous volume with the events at the Falcone country house being covered up by the mob and seemingly by the GCPD as well. Norman Madison is still deeply traumatised by his encounter with the Batman, and his daughter Julie is still quite annoying. Gordon is creating suspicion as he retires to the rooftop of the GCPD for his meetings with Batman. It seems that Grogan is just as corrupt a commissioner as his predecessor.

Several storylines run alongside each other in this volume - the investigation into the vampiric murders that have been sweeping the city, Madison's struggles to free himself from debt to Sal Maroni and the whereabouts of a Falcone heroin shipment that has gone missing. These disparate elements seem to gel much better than they did in the last volume, and I enjoyed seeing Batman tackle several issues at once.

The Monk himself is quite a cheesy villain, based on an old storyline from the Golden Age of Bat-comics, but I found him more interesting than Hugo Strange if I'm honest. Dala was an odd accomplice, and was a bit of a racial stereotype in line with Sanjay from the previous volume. 

However their interactions with Julie made her a slightly more interesting character this time round, with her desperation to help her father giving her something to do other than complain about Bruce constantly flaking out on their plans. It is her desperation that draws her into the clutches of The Monk, and even though this was something that has been seen in every vampire film going, it was still interesting to see Batman fighting for the safety of someone he loves.

Once his battle is over, Batman realises that to fight crime effectively, he needs to distance himself from others and close his heart off to love. This is a promise he never seems to live up to, and as a result it becomes necessary to save the lives of others who are drawn into his fight against the criminals of Gotham.

As with the last three volumes I've read, Batman shows his detective skills off nicely, and also his ingenuity when it comes to escaping difficult situations. We also see his determination to carry on despite grievous wounds, which is a trait which eventually leads to his defeat at the hands of some of his villains later on. Alfred also shows off his skills as an army medic as he patches up Bruce's wounds following his first visit to The Monk's castle.

Not to mention we get to see Batman beat up some wolves - and I almost thought that he used some 'wolf repellent spray' in a similar vein to the famous 'shark repellent'. Sadly it was only pepper spray.

Even though the final battle with The Monk leaves his fate unclear (in that his body is never seen following his fall from the roof of his castle) we have never seen this villain rear his head again, despite the narration hinting otherwise in the final pages. Perhaps that's because the villains we have seen so far have been a precursor, an indication of how Gotham is becoming darker. Several characters have commented already on how the villains in this city seem to be getting weirder, reacting to the Caped Crusader. The final pages serve us with more hints as to how strange things might eventually become.

At the end of the storyline, Batman overhears something on the police radio about a warehouse filled with corpses that all possess an eerie rictus grin. The Joker is next! 

There is also another reference to the Man of Steel, which left me intrigued about when the two will first meet. I'll have to do someone research to see if that happens somewhere in this timeline. The final page also has a Haly's Circus advertisement - small nods to the future continuity like this make me a happy Batfan! It also makes this feel more like an ongoing storyline or chronicle of the career of the Bat.

Next up - The Man Who Laughs.

Batman and the Monster Men

In this instalment we see Batman's first encounter with Hugo Strange. Strange is an odd villain, that I don't think has really been used all that often in Batman's history. I remember reading Prey - which is upcoming in my timeline - and also the Arkham City tie-in comics. But I don't know of him being used that recently - unless he has been used in the New 52 in some manner... Which is odd because as a villain he precedes Catwoman and even the Joker.

This storyline is also host to several other 'firsts' in this timeline of Batman's career. It shows his first serious relationship, with Julie Madison. It offers another tantalising glimpse at the Joker, with the newspaper front cover which comments on the Red Hood falling into a vat of chemicals. Although this seems at odds with the end of Year One where the Joker is already threatening Gotham. It also shows more of his relationship with Gordon and it shows more of his battle against the Falcone crime family.

As a storyline though, this did feel a bit disjointed at times. A lot of the elements felt at odds with one another - on the one hand we had the serious repercussions of Norman Madison dealing with Sal Maroni, whilst on the other we had the bizarre 'monster men' of the title. 

Hugo Strange for me felt like an underdeveloped character at times, his motivations never seeming all that clear. Is he someone who is angry at the world for the hand he has been dealt? Is he someone on the search for genetic perfection? Or is he a petty criminal who uses his 'monster men' to steal money to fund his strange (no pun intended) experiments? The different facets of his character never really gelled for me. Plus I wasn't a fan of Sanjay, his assistant...or the moment when someone referred to him as 'bum boy'...

When he first met the Batman though, his character took on an interesting motivation - one which I know will follow through into Prey - as he became obsessed with the physical perfection that Batman has achieved. He marvelled as Batman fought off, and escaped from, three of his 'monster men'. This was one of my favourite scenes in the book, as again it showed Batman in his prime; fighting against the odds in order to escape from a dangerous situation.

I did also like the emphasis on Batman's detective skills, although I did feel as though he rushed into Strange's base of operations a bit too quickly without even knowing what he was letting himself in for. This didn't feel like something Batman would do. This was rectified slightly in the aforementioned fight sequence though, as we saw the more calculating side of Batman.

The love interest subplot was fairly generic for my tastes, and I didn't really see anything which was that special about Julie Madison that warranted her being the one who gained Bruce's affections. For me, the love interests who have been most interesting have always had that twist to their character that makes them interesting. Talia, Selena Kyle and even Jezebel Jet will be remembered as the great loves of Bruce Wayne. Unless something exciting happens with her character in the next storyline or so, I doubt I will remember. Julie. Madison at all.

It sounds like I'm being overly negative about this storyline, and I guess I am. I am reading it almost straight after. Year One and Shaman after all. It's not that it was terrible, it just didn't live up to the previous two volumes. 

Next up - Batman and the Mad Monk

Shaman

Denny O'Neill is one of the all time great writers on Batman. That cannot be denied. He created R'As al Ghul, one of the most intriguing and enduring bat-villains in the Rogues Gallery. He has written countless classic storylines, such as the 'Demon' trilogy - which was one of the starting points for one of my favourite runs on Batman by Grant Morrison.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. We're still in Year One territory, and when this opening story arc of Legends of the Dark Knight begins, it is before the Frank Miller classic. Bruce Wayne is training with Doggett, a bounty hunter, in the mountains of Alaska. This is one of the training sequences that we had a glimpse of in The Man Who Falls, and I enjoyed seeing a fleshed out version of the steps that Bruce took to become Batman.

A run in with Thomas Woodley leaves Wayne at the mercy of pneumonia, but he is rescued by a shaman and his granddaughter. What follows is a beautifully drawn tribal story of how the bat gained its wings, then Wayne is miraculously healed and on his way back to Gotham.

Even though the next few pages are a retread of Bruce going on patrol pre-bat suit, only to fail and wind up bleeding to death in his fathers study, I enjoyed seeing the bat crashing through the window panel again, and the added quote about 'criminals being a suspicious and cowardly lot'.

What I loved most about this story arc was how it showed every aspect of Batman that we have come to know. We see his skill at combat as he takes down drug dealers and thugs - from Santa Prisca no less (Bane's country of origin). We also see his detective skills as he figures out the link between these drug dealers, a mysterious entity called Chubala and the Alaskan shaman that he left behind. We see him as a master of disguise when he is on the hunt for information from Gordon and later on in the home of a suspect. And we see him as a master planner, slowly working out how to take down Chubala and his drug smuggling ring.

I enjoyed seeing more of Alfred as well, with his sarcasm coming across well in O'Neill's writing. He does seem like he is merely humouring the wishes of his clearly eccentric employer. But then we see a different side of him when he is determined to stay in the Manor after being held hostage by the crazed Woodley. Good old Alfred.

But most of all, and probably my favourite part of this story, was the fact that it explored the ideas behind Batman and the superstition surrounding him. It considered the idea of a mask being something that heals - which surely the role of Batman does for Bruce Wayne? I love the idea of Batman being something which heals. This was also the focus of a documentary I watched entitled Legends of the Knight - which explored how the story of Batman has inspired people around the world to live better lives, or to be strong in the face of adverse situations.

'Shaman' also made us question whether Bruce or the Bat was the true mask - with the beautifully drawn shaman's mask which had the face of a man beneath the bat-like exterior. Not to mention the eerie images that came before the story began, with the mask revealing the face of Bruce Wayne, before that peeled away to reveal a skull. This skull then cracked one to reveal Batman within.

I also found it interesting how the captions describing Batman's actions whilst on patrol were in third person, almost as if Bruce were narrating them as though they were not his own actions. This idea comes across in some of the fight scenes as well, when his training 'comes back to him' as though it is instinct that drives him when he fights. But he didn't have these instincts when he was fighting without the mask.

Another outstanding outing for Batman in his early years - and it's interesting to watch him develop his skills, which is something I hope to see continue even when I start to hit storylines which were written out of sequence with these...

Next up - Batman and the Monster Men!

Year One

Year One is as much a Jim Gordon 'origin' as it is a Batman origin. Both men arrive in Gotham at the same time - Gordon travelling by train on his transfer from Chicago, Bruce returning to Gotham from his years training to keep his promise he made at his parents graveside. Gordon is amongst 'the people' and Bruce watches from his plane, figuratively watching over Gotham City as he will grow to do over the course of the book.

To cover a year in the space of just four issues, you would expect Year One to feel patchy or disjointed, but it flows from scene to scene, month to month, with a fluidity that is down to the crisp writing of Miller and the artwork of Mazzucchelli. The tension builds as we see the various cogs of Gotham's underworld turning together to try and crush the spirits of Gordon and Batman.

Shortly after arriving in the city, we see Gordon trying to do things his way, before learning very quickly that Gotham is a very different city to Chicago. Even on his first patrol with the corrupt Flass, we see that Gordon is not as different to Batman as you might think. He watches as Flass humiliates a youth, and takes note of Flass' training and his fighting style 'for future reference'. How very Batman...

After an ambush by Flass and his men, Gordon goes and lies in wait for Flass, again showing the sort of planning and patience that we normally expect of Batman. He waits until all of the other men are gone, before running Flass off the road and beating him. As he leaves Flass hogtied and naked at the side of the road, he thanks Flass for teaching him how to be a cop in Gotham City.

Bruce also learns very early on that there needs to be a different approach to the various methods he learnt on his travels. There is something missing. His first night on patrol - including an appearance by the future Catwoman - ends in him wounded and rushing back to Wayne Manor, drifting in and out of consciousness. This leads to the iconic scene in his study, where he realises what is missing. He realises that he 'shall become a bat'.

This is one of my personal favourite scenes in Batman (that I have read so far). It shows a man who has set himself a goal, that has ambition to make a difference to his city, and he is frustrated when this does not work straight away. But rather than give in, he realises he needs to adopt a different approach in order to succeed. Who says comics are just for kids?!

There are so many incredible scenes in this book, that it feels like a much longer series than the four issues it contains. Batman's battle of wits with Branden and his SWAT team is another favourite - this is where we see Batman at his best, outwitting a squad of trained men to escape (mostly) unharmed. He uses everything at his disposal - kicking down a concrete pillar in an echo of a training scene earlier on where he kicked a tree in half (!) and eventually escaping by using a sonar device to summon the bats from his Batcave!

Harvey Dent is present, pre-acid attack, and there are scenes of him working alongside Batman to bring down the powerful Falcone crime family. There are also mentions of an Arkham Asylum and a flying man of steel in Metropolis.

We also see Gordon working against the Bat, trying to uncover his identity, before finally working alongside him in the final panels as we see the first appearance (in this timeline) of the bat signal. We even see Batman saving baby James - something he might regret later on in his career!

Then of course on the final panel, before the whole page image of Batman backlit by the bat signal, we hear mention of a criminal called Joker. 

No matter what Frank Miller might have done since, this is a true masterpiece, and a love letter to the myth of Batman.

Next up: Batman - Shaman...

The Man Who Falls (Secret Origins)

Opening with a shot of Batman perched atop one of Gotham's many gargoyles, The Man Who Falls is an exploration of the pre-Batman years in flashback.

Now, I've read a lot of Batman comics already, so most of these scenes were not entirely new to me - I had obviously seen the shooting in the alley and the scene in the Wayne Manor study - but I was intrigued by the training scenes. I had never seen reference to Bruce training with the FBI for six weeks, which i thought was an interesting idea. I had seen reference to Master Kirigi (in the New52 #0 comics, I think) and had heard of Ducard from the opening arc of Batman and Robin (New52) as well as from another story involving him which escapes my memory at this time.

I would love to see a sort of prequel comic series which explores Bruce's training in more detail, as there is so much scope to tell interesting stories beyond the few snippets which we have seen. 

I'm a huge fan of the Nolan films, so enjoyed reading one of the stories which inspired Batman Begins so much. It was great to see the scene in the well - it's such a fascinating idea that Batman is born from a childhood fear that Bruce had. Taking your fears and twisting them round so they become a positive is such a central concept of the Batman myth - not to mention the manifestations of Bruce's fears which becomes the driving force behind his greatest villains.

As a story in itself though, there wasn't much to this that Year One doesn't do better. It was interesting to see these hints of Bruce's training and his younger years - especially the 'spoilt rich kid' act that has obviously followed him into his role as the socialite Bruce Wayne - but as it was only a single issue in amongst the origins of other members of the JLA there wasn't much room for these ideas to be fleshed out.

More recently, Bruce's origins have been expanded on with Zero Year, which I have thoroughly enjoyed so far - mainly as it offers a take on the Riddler which I haven't seen thus far. A Riddler who is actually a genuine threat to Batman as an intellectual - maybe I'll come across more interesting stories involving Edward Nygma during my journey through the Batman timeline.

Not much more to say on this one really, so I'm going to get right onto reading Year One (I also have several unread graphic novels which I would like to squeeze in at some point...)

Let me know any thoughts or comments you might have if you have read this story before - or general comments or thoughts about Batman!

Beginnings...

It started with a website (see link below). A website that had a timeline of all the major storylines in the history of Batman - in chronological order.

This timeline spoke to the obsessive fan in me, and I soon started to buy he storylines that I was missing in what I thought was quite an extensive collection. I was wrong. At current count (not including my new purchases) I only have about a quarter of the comics on this list.

Now that my obsession has started, it has begun to grow. Not content with owning all of the comics which chronicle the fictional career of Batman, I now plan to read them all in the order in which they appear on the website below. And I plan to blog about my thoughts as I follow Batman from that fateful night in Crime Alley right up to the continuity reboot that came with Flashpoint. Maybe I'll continue and cover the New 52 as well.

Anyway, this is just a quick introduction, as I have to go and read the first comic in my collection - 'The Man who Falls' - which is reportedly the inspiration for Batman Begins.

Ultimate Batman Comics Timeline

Edit - after posting, it has only just occurred to me that this is the perfect year to take in such a project, what with this being the 75th anniversary year of Batman's creation!