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!
No comments:
Post a Comment