(Image from Batman and the Monster Men)The Caped Crusader’s been a big part of my life ever since I was a kid. At five years old, I caught reruns of Adam West’s Batman on TV, and I used to race home after school to catch the latest episode of Batman: The Animated Series. I don’t think I’d actually ever READ a Batman comic at that time (comic books aren’t really something I picked up until… actually, a few years ago), but I always loved the mystery, action, and colorful characters of a Batman adventure. To this day, when I read Batman comics, the Dark Knight himself speaks with the voice of Kevin Conroy, and Mark Hamill speaks for the Joker.
Rather than list the reasons I like Batman (that post would go on for pages, and I’d prefer to hand write that one, so I could doodle little hearts and arrows in the margins as I wrote), I’ve decided to make a brief list of my favorite Batman collections – the ones that stand as exemplary comic narratives as well as simple, kick-@## Batman stories.
5 – In the late 1980s, two “graphic novels” hit the stands that changed the tone of the comics medium much darker and more “adult”. The first was Alan Moore’s Watchmen, which hit movie theaters last year and featured casual rape and giant naked God-men. The other was Frank Miller’s THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, which imagines a future where the government has turned against super heroes, violent crime is on the rise, and a retired Bruce Wayne dons the cape and cowl against the wishes of… pretty much everyone.
Highlights: The community reacts to Batman’s return in panels shaped like television screens, Batman has a final, fatal showdown with a crazed, obsessed (and enamored Joker), and Superman gets his red briefs handed to him by a sixty-year-old Bruce Wayne in a robot suit.
4 – An alternative take on the “Batman of the Future” story – although, in my mind, a bit superior – BATMAN: YEAR 100 shows how a super-authoritarian Gotham City tries to maintain control, and how the mythical maniac Batman teams up with Commissioner Gordon’s grandson to take them down.
Highlights: Batman’s suit – normally some strange Kevlar/spandex hybrid typical among superhero types – consists of a warm thermal sweater, army boots, gloves (that occasionally show his wrists), and ceramic teeth to really give him the monster look when he needs it. It’s a small thing, but by far the most memorable aspect of the comic.
3 – Frank Miller’s second take on the Batman mythos resulted in Batman: Year One, the definitive Batman origin story. This comic weaves together the story of Batman’s first year in Gotham City and a young Jim Gordon’s first year on the Gotham police force. This story focuses as much on Commissioner Gordon as it does on Batman. Sometimes, I think Gordon’s actually the stronger character – so the story draws a lot of strength from his presence.
Highlights: Gordon puts the beat down on a corrupt cop, Bruce Wayne dives off a bridge to save Gordon’s son, and Batman summons a swarm of bats to escape pursuing police officers (a scene that was lifted from Year One and placed directly into Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins).
2 – Grant Morrison is one of the best comics writers in the industry. Normally, I don’t really care for his work on Batman, but Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth is easily one of the best comic books ever written, ever. I mean, ever. A rebellion of the Arkham Asylum inmates draws Batman into a trap, where he faces all of his inner demons personified in his colorful and deadly rogues’ gallery.
Highlights: Morrison turns the scary up on the Mad Hatter, the history of Arkham Asylum is revealed (and is every bit as frightening as a Halloween night in a torch-lit cemetery), and the artwork… is DANG good.
1 – In my mind, Batman and the Monster Men is, bar none, the best Batman comic extant. To most people, it’s nothing special – a run-of-the-mill murder mystery. A B-list Bat-villain, Hugo Strange, genetically engineers a small army of monsters in his quest for genetic perfection. Batman interferes as only Batman knows how. For an ordinary story, though, Batman and the Monster Men hits all the right notes – we see Batman as detective, as martial-artist, and… as romancer. Which I don’t care so much about. But, seriously, Batman rocks in this story.
Highlights: Batman defeats the Monster Men armed only with a pair of handcuffs, the artwork is a near spot-on adaptation of that in Batman: Year One (to which this book might be considered a sequel) that takes the source material and improves on it, and… Actually, the scene with the handcuffs is enough for me to consider this one the best Batman story ever. To recap: Batman takes on a trio of savage, seven-foot ogres with a pair of handcuffs, and wins.
Batman is a burly burrito wrapped around a bit of Holmes and MacGyver, with a spicy evil-clown salsa, and a cop-drama tres leche dessert. Belabored Mexican food metaphor aside, Batman is the bomb, and I’ll love him forever.
In a manly, heterosexual way, of course.
1 comment:
Not only am I surprised that you didn't start with batman, but more importantly that I am yet to be added to this list...
Post a Comment