Blind Justice

Written by the man who brought Michael Keaton as Batman to the screen in 1989, Blind Justice explores a much darker side of Batman. Some elements don't hold up so well - mainly the 'Bonecrusher' and the bizarre technology behind his crimes, but the overall story is fascinating and explores many of the themes and ideas which make a truly great Batman story.

First of all there's the exploration of Bruce Wayne's mental state - done expertly with a recurring set of nightmares where he is in fact the one who kills his parents. This seems to be guilt on his part, for being the one who survived. A few times it is implied that this guilt manifests itself as the Batman persona - the mask he wears is his escape from that guilt but also the reason he can never forget that night in his life. This idea that Batman is the only thing keeping him sane comes to a head later on, when faced with the prospect of not being able to walk again Bruce is willing to put another life in danger simply so he can continue on as the Batman.

There is also the idea of Batman taking precedence over Bruce Wayne - it is only because Bruce takes such a hands off approach to the running of his company that a cabal of villains is able to use Wayne Tech for such nefarious means. Although Bruce clearly remembers one of his employees, the missing Roy Kane, showing he is not such a terrible employer after all.

We meet Henri Ducard again (he briefly appeared in The Man Who Falls) and find out more about how he trained Bruce to be a master of tracking and detection. Ducard is brought in to testify against Bruce Wayne, who is charged with terrorism when someone uncovers his training during his years away from Gotham. It is interesting that not many people have questioned what he was doing for all those years, and it was refreshing to see his villains using these facts against him. 

There's the idea of leaving a legacy, or of passing the torch. Batman briefly 'passes the torch' to Roy Kane, albeit only in body. One of the cabal uses their technology to jump into a different body, in order to continue their mad experiments. The legacy of Bruce's parents looms large, their death replayed time and time again to show just how much it has impacted on his life. A brief mention is made of Jason Todd, perhaps placing this a while after he died. Although no replacement has been made yet, and the actions of Batman at times could be interpreted as being driven by grief for the young life he put on the line.

There are hints too of identity - that Gordon in fact knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne. There are several little digs, or knowing comments between the two, that suggest Gordon is well aware of the Batman's identity but choose to appear 'ignorant' for appearances sake.

Excellent artwork here, with the haunting nightmares repeated throughout and some of the interesting ways of framing the different panels. One of my favourites was early on when we see Batman and Comissioner Gordon talking through the door of the morgue. Simple touches, but impressive ones nonetheless.

Next up - Batman Year Three

A Death in the Family

The last time Batman faced The Joker, the clown prince of crime crippled Batgirl. Whilst each of his crimes before had left a lasting impression on Gotham City, this would be the first crime that truly left a lasting scar on Batman and those closest to him. Fresh off his war with Deacon Blackfire, Batman is faced with a Joker who is looking to branch out. When we first see The Joker, we find out that he has a nuclear missile (!) that he wants to smuggle out of the country and sell to international terrorists.

Meanwhile, on a much more personal level Batman has become concerned about the unpredictability of Jason Todd (the second Robin) and benches him so he can deal with his emotions around his parents' deaths. This tactic doesn't exactly work though, leading to Todd finding a new depth to his parental worries, discovering that his real mother is a mysterious woman known only by the initial 'S' on his birth certificate.

Batman and Todd head off into international territory again to solve their respective mysteries. Todd narrows his search down to 3 women in his father's address book - a spy, a mercenary and a doctor. Batman tracks down the Joker to Beirut, discovering in the process that his methods work just as well on criminals outside of Gotham. Unsurprisingly, their paths cross and they have their first confrontation with The Joker when they try to prevent the missile being used to destroy Tel Aviv.

Neither of the first two candidates for Todd's mother pan out. The second brings us a fantastic showdown between Batman and Lady Shiva, who would have made sense as Todd's mother considering her fighting prowess. The third option, a doctor helping children in Ethiopia, is someone who shows the potential for Todd to be someone who is better than his roots. At first. Then we find out she left Gotham in disgrace and that she is willing to go into business with Joker to protect herself. The reveal of Todd's mother as someone willing to break the law to protect herself - a criminal - is quite sad, as it suggests that Todd was never going to rise above his origins in Crime Alley. 

Despite his mother's true nature being revealed, Todd still proves he is the hero by fighting to protect her until the end. The scene where Joker beats him with a crowbar is both brutal and iconic - the image of the crowbar is returned to many times in the same way that the pearl and gun are used to refer to Batman's origin. This fact suggests that this is Todd's true origin as a hero, despite the darker path he takes.

Batman's quest for revenge makes up the remainder of the story, which descends into silliness as The Joker becomes a UN ambassador and gains diplomatic immunity. This ruined the story for me a little - it might have been more interesting to see Batman almost take that final step before realising that would make him as bad as The Joker. The inclusion of Superman seems out of place in such a personal story also.

Starlin proves himself willing to break down Batman. Despite the strange final act, this is still a storyline that sent ripples through the Bat books. The death of Jason Todd would forever influence every encounter with the Joker and every relationship with Robin or member of the Bat family in years to come. Every scene in the batcave since has a display case that immortalises and memorialises Todd, showing that Batman would never forget the (first) Robin that died.

Next up - Blind Justice

The Cult

Deacon Blackfire just returned in the weekly series Batman Eternal. Resurrected by forces hiding beneath Arkham Asylum, he seems to be planning on unleashing hell on Gotham City. But it seems that the Blackfire of the New 52 has lost some of his malevolence - in a flashback sequence we see him easily defeated and his plan seemingly thwarted before it even began. Nothing like the Deacon Blackfire in The Cult, then.

We open on a bizarre dreamlike sequence as Bruce Wayne investigates a strange house that has appeared on his estate. He discovers the Joker at the bottom of a flight of stairs, who then taunts him until Bruce transforms into the Batman. Our hero wakes, and we find him chained up and already in the clutches of madness thanks to Blackfire.

Deacon Blackfire claims to have been around for hundreds of years, recounting a story where he was murdered and locked in a cavern behind a large boulder. This is a man who models himself as a messianic figure, and already we learn that he has several followers willing to do his bidding.

Through flashbacks we discover that Batman was investigating a series of brutal murders. Gotham has also experience the disappearance of it's homeless population, which we are informed of by the excellent news report sequences which are reminiscent of the news report panels in Dark Knight Returns. These homeless citizens are Blackfire's disciples, his followers, and we discover it is they who are brutally murdering the criminals of Gotham.

Batman is well and truly broken by the time this story starts. A gunshot wound suffered when he lost focus, along with starvation break his mind down, making him more susceptible to the Deacon's drugs and sermons. By the end of the first issue, he has succumbed to Blackfire, and we know that Gotham is in dire straits.

The ideas of religious zealotry and the cult of personality are prevalent here. We see Gotham increasingly more confused as to which side they should be on, many of the talking heads in the news reports mentioned before even taking Blackfire's side. He has managed to clean up crime in Gotham after all - so Batman's failures are now twofold: his mind has been broken and somebody else has managed to achieve his goal.

Belief is another strong theme, Batman loses his self belief, eventually being saved by Robin's belief that he is still an effective crime fighter. The climax of the story comes when Blackfire's followers lose their belief in him.

Jim Starlin does excellent work here as the first man to truly break the bat. And with the other storyline coming up which is also penned by Starlin, the worst is yet to come. Excellent, trippy artwork as well by Bernie Wrightson which shows off the effects of Blackfire's manipulation on Batman's mind.

My only gripe is the return to guns, although at least it is made clear that they are tranquilliser darts and not bullets. Some of the explosions from the Batmobile missiles must surely have indirectly killed someone though, right?

Excellent story - worth a read if you're a fan of Dark Knight Rises, as this explores similar ground with Gotham in trouble until Batman returns to save his city. Or if you're a fan of the Batman who refuses to give up, even when he has seemingly been broken.

Next up - Death in the Family

The Killing Joke

Consistently placed in the top 3 Batman comics of all time, The Killing Joke is one of the most iconic Joker stories of all time. It's also the second Batman graphic that I ever read, after Arkham Asylum, so it is part of the foundations of my love for the character.

It is a cyclical story, which starts as it ends (or so it seems) with a confrontation between Batman and The Joker. The Bat strides into Arkham Asylum on a mission of peace, almost begging the Joker to stop this war between them before one ends up killing the other. Bolland's attention to detail in the art is already clear in the sign on the Arkham receptionist's desk (what a strange job that must be) - 'You don't have to be mad to work here, but it helps...' Perhaps this is Harleen Quinzel before the medical degree and the failed career as a therapist? We also see a glance back at Harvey Dent from Gordan - a look of regret perhaps?

It soon transpires that Joker has escaped the revolving door of Arkham once more and is purchasing an old carnival plot from an estate agent. Does he not read the papers? 

We get our first flashback to a black and white pre-Joker - a fantastic transition where the panels are perfectly mirrored to signal that this is The Joker (or one of his multiple choice origins at least). We see a down on his luck comedian, a pregnant wife and a struggle for money - all of which will culminate in Joker's 'one bad day'.

This idea of 'one bad day' being all it takes for someone to go mad runs through this story. The Joker's plot is to make Jim Gordon suffer that 'one bad day' to prove that he (The Joker) is just like everyone else. With this version of his origin, he and Batman are more closely linked than ever before. Each of them has his 'one bad day', that eventually sends them on their individual paths of criminal and crime fighter. It's nice to have a bit of ambiguity though, with The Joker himself stating that he prefers his last to be 'multiple choice'.

Regardless of his origins, The Joker is gleefully vile throughout. He appears at Gordon's house in an iconic scene, Barbara Gordon opening the door to a gun. He taunts the Gordon family, making jokes about torn jackets and holes in spines (displaying an eerie knowledge of Barbara's life) before leaving with Jim and some revealing photographs. All the pieces are in place for him to break Gordon and prove his point.

Bolland and Moore work with a fantastic synergy here that so few creators seem to manage. The writing is excellent - Joker's various quips are clever and snappy, Batman's dialogue shows his desperation to escape from the fate he sees for the pair of them. Bolland's art is full of excellent details, which reveal new intricacies even after several readings. And of course there are the repeated images of the reaction to Joker, the gun, the repetition of actions from the past. 

The Killing Joke, quite aptly, ends with a joke about two insane people. The ending itself is quite ambiguous, with Batman and The Joker sharing a laugh before their laughter is abruptly cut short. Recently Grant Morrison claimed this was because Batman kills Joker - the ultimate punch line to their relationships over the years. I think that they go back to the start of the cycle - Joker in the Asylum and Batman waiting for him to escape.

The impact this story had is long lasting also; Batgirl can no longer fight crime and eventually becomes Oracle. The Joker's terrorising of the Gordon family takes it's first step here - and this is not the first time (not the last) that the clown prince of crime will leave such a lasting impression on the bat family.

Next up - The Cult