Before I go into each story, special mention has to go to Tim Sale's incredible art. His Joker is demonic and threatening, his Scarecrow is gaunt and spindly with hauntingly dead eyes and his Penguin and Mad Hatter are both malformed and creepy. His Batman too is impressive, his cape billowing around him like the night he inhabits.
Fears.
This first story concentrates on a tensely fought battle between Batman and Scarecrow during Halloween weekend. It opens with an inner monologue recounting various dangerous Halloween traditions, which is a nice detail that serves to show how intelligent and learned Batman is.
Their first encounter is resolved fairly easily - Batman threatens a low level lackey to find out where Crane is, before confronting him in his abandoned warehouse. He takes him down easily, before handing him over to Gordon, who confides in Batman that he has 'learned to appreciate his talents with the weird ones'.
Once again this explores the dangers of Batman becoming so involved in a case that he starts to make mistakes. In an encounter with some thugs robbing a gas station he is cut deeply on the chest, then in the second issue he is attacked by a flock of crows who have been affected by Crane's fear toxin. During this issue the different internal monologues begin to repeat and intertwine, showing the strain on Bruce as he tries to track down Scarecrow.
But it is the mistakes he makes in his personal life that have much more serious consequences. It was nice to see Alfred flex his investigative muscles for a change, proving he is so much more than just a sarcastic quip and a tray of sandwiches for Master Bruce.
Scarecrow is written perfectly here, as the twisted villain who is psychologically damaged by his childhood. His reciting of nursery rhymes as he taunts Batman shows just how his mind works, that he views everything he does as a way of gaining revenge on the bullies who have trapped him in his childhood psyche.
Eventually Batman pulls it together, realises that the city of Gotham chose him to pursue this path. He swoops in, saves Gordon and takes Scarecrow down swiftly and effectively. In this sense this story works as an early years tale, showing the doubts that sometimes plagued Batman before he became confident in his skills.
Madness.
First appearances by Mad Hatter and Barbara Gordon here, in a tale inspired by the stories of Lewis Carroll.
Early on, Hatter gets the best of Batman when he produces a gun from his insanely large hat, shooting Batman in the head. In this fight sequence, Hatter is shown as a genuine threat, both as someone who is deeply unstable and also a more fierce and formidable fighter than he first appears to be.
Batman himself acknowledges that Hatter is a villain who he hates to face, as he perverts a childhood memory he has of his mother reading him the stories of Lewis Carroll. We see these scenes in flashback black and white, and they come just before the fatal trip to see 'Mark of Zorro'. So this is one of his last happy memories of his mother, and Jervis Tetch has unknowingly corrupted that.
As Batman recovers from his gunshot wound, helped out by Leslie Thompkins (in her first timeline appearance?) Barbara Gordon finds herself playing the part of Hatter's 'Alice'. We see more flashbacks to post-Crime Alley, where we discover Leslie was involved in helping Alfred with looking after Bruce as he grieves his parents death.
All in all this is an interesting story, which introduces several major characters to the 'timeline' continuity and explores the past of Bruce Wayne and the psyche of one of his often underused villains. And of course it all ends when Batman storms Hatter's house, recuperated and refreshed, ending it by slamming Hatter into a mirror head first. Then, back in his study, Bruce picks out Alice's Adventures in Wonderland out from the shelf, ready to remember his mother again.
Ghosts.
The weakest of the three stories for me, based on A Christmas Carol and it's three visiting ghosts. A similar idea was explored in the recent Batman - Noël, to much greater success.
We see Batman encounter (in dream form or otherwise) Penguin, Joker and Poison Ivy. The first encounter with Penguin leaves Batman exhausted, and he collapses into a dream state where he is visited by ghosts who help to explore what Gotham would be without the Bat.
Thomas Wayne takes the role of the 'Marley' character - wrapped in chains and giving ominous warnings about the three ghosts to follow. The most interesting aspect of the visits of these three ghosts is that they explore the relationship between Wayne and Lucius Fox. We see that they met years earlier in Paris, when Bruce saved Fox from French muggers.
All of these visits make Bruce realise he must make a change in his life, similar to the change Scrooge realises he must make. He opens up to Lucius Fox, and even opens up the manor to trick or treaters.
Overall an interesting collection, and a great precursor to the other stories by this excellent creative team. It explores the relationships of Bruce Wayne as well as the motivations behind the Batman.
Next up - The Long Halloween.
No comments:
Post a Comment