Continuing from our comic book reviews, found at
http://www.statueforum.com/showthrea...979#post211979
Classic Trade Reviews
Just to prove we are not Marvel Zombies, we decided to review a couple of recent Batman tpb’s this week. Actually, neither of us are Marvel Zombies, nor do we care if people say we are. Yes, the majority of books we read are Marvel, but we read and have read plenty of DC books as well. It honestly comes down to the story and creative team. In a time where comics average three dollars, blind loyalty to a title can end up being a real waste of money. So yeah, comic fans, at least some of them, are forced to explore titles they normally wouldn’t to get the most for their money. That ain’t the case with Batman. The two of us have been checking him out since our early days of comic reading. What can we say? Everyone identifies with the Dark Knight.
Wktf’s Review
Gotham Central: Half A Life
DC Comics
Written by: Greg Rucka
Drawn by: Michael Lark
DC published this trade paperback just a few weeks ago but I’m of the school that, as they say on classic rock stations, it doesn’t have to be old to be a classic. Truthfully, I can’t remember being this excited about a trade’s release as I was about this one (well, okay, maybe for the recent HC version of Batman: Year One). Especially considering I’d already read this story in its comic book installments so the novelty of the tale was not a draw for me. But this is the story that introduced me to Gotham Central and it hooked me from its beginning. I was genuinely stoked to read these installments as one graphic novel and I absolutely was not disappointed.
Gotham Central is like the
NYPD: Blue of comic books. It’s gritty. It’s realistic. The characters are incredibly human, and you grow both to care about and fear for them in this series. Also, this book makes no apologies that it takes place in Gotham City, home of comic books’ most major league freaks and the legendary Batman. I think that’s part of its value, that it brings these wild characters down to earth, makes them part of our world, and terrifies us even more in doing so.
Our story focuses on Detective Renee Montoya who first became known to me from the
Batman Animated Series long before I discovered her in Batman’s comics. But I got to know her well during
No Man’s Land, the 1999 Batman event-story following the cataclysmic earthquake that separated Gotham from the rest of the world. Renee was one tough cop, a street cop, but one who operated from her heart as well as with her fists and her gun. Well now, as with Matt Murdock in Born Again, forces unknown and beyond Renee’s ability to control are moving against her. She’s been set up and then framed for murder, her greatest secret has been outed, her family has turned against her, and her fellow cops have turned their backs on her. The lone exceptions are her closest friend and lover, and her new partner who is convinced she is innocent and digs hard to prove it. The villain of this story seeks to destroy her life out of a twisted love he has for her, borne out of the kindness she showed him during NML. He seeks to take everything from her so she will have no where to turn but to him. But this villain is Two-Face, whom even the cops profess to fear. The Joker’s got nothing on ‘Face where crazy homicidal violence is concerned. We absolutely fear for Renee’s life as this story winds closer to its conclusion.
With
Half A Life Greg Rucka has produced an incredible story that was four years in the making, since the events in NML. In fact, the bonus stories at the front of this trade are the two (heh, two) prequel tales from 1999 and 2000 (involving Montoya, Batman, and Two-Face) that set the stage for Half A Life. The five-part main story of this trade won the 2004 Eisner Award for Best Story. And with good reason. It’s just that good. Everything about this story is perfect, from the double meaning of the title to the range of feelings that we experience with Montoya throughout this story. We feel her anger and confusion, her rage as she lashes out at The Batman, and the deep pain and loss she feels at the brutal end. But the unsung hero of this story may be Michael Lark. Here’s a great example of where less most definitely is more. Lark’s line work is simple and rough. Yet no one portrays the vast range of human facial expressions like Lark. The man’s uncanny. Also, this book is full of shadows, but expertly rendered shadows (is it an accident that Montoya’s face is exactly ½ hidden by shadows on the trade’s cover? I don’t think so). And our first encounter with The Batman in this story is incredibly eerie. Almost not human. Look, you should buy this book. I’m sure you can still find it on the shelves. It only came out two (heh, two) weeks ago, after all. And let’s hope DC doesn’t wait another full year to release the third trade of the wonderful Gotham Central series.
Sam Wilson’s Review
Batman: Officer Down
DC Comics
Written by: Various
Drawn by: Various
In many ways,
Batman: Officer Down is a precursor to
Gotham Central. Even though various writers were involved in this crossover, Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker’s handprints are all over this one. For the first time we see a story where the GCPD is the star, particularly Jim Gordon’s hand-picked Major Crimes Unit (MCU). Lt. Harvey Bullock is still in charge of it at this point, and we see another familiar face in Renee Montoya. Other Rucka created GCPD cast members are there as well: Detective Crispus Allen (Montoya’s partner), Captain “Hardback” Bock and Chief Akins. Officer Down happens during a fragile time in Gotham’s mythos. No Man’s Land is finally over the city is now rebuilt. Remember No Man’s Land? The crossover in which an earthquake ravaged Gotham and the US Gov’t decided to write it off as a disaster area, and some citizens stayed and tried to rebuild and a bunch of other got the fu$% out of dodge? Batman and crew and a few brave cops like Bullock, Montoya and Jim Gordon all stayed and tried to keep things sane. Then Bruce Wayne and Lex Corp pooled their resources and money together to rebuild Gotham, but the city was still scarred. Ugh. Well, at least we got the new Batgirl out of that. Anyway…
Officer Down opens with the MCU detectives out to celebrate Jim Gordon’s birthday. Of course Jim isn’t a 20 year old right out of the academy, so he bows out a little early. Next thing we know he’s taken three bullets to the back, and he fired one into Catwoman’s thigh as we see her scampering up the side of a building. Then everything in Gotham turns to sh$#. There are two sides to
Officer Down, the police side, which plays out like an episode of Homicide: Life on the Streets (Greg Rucka is admittedly a big fan of that show and you can see influences of it all over this story) and the other which involves Batman and his “crew”. Yes, we get the new Batgirl (Cassandra), Robin, Nightwing, Oracle, and, gasp-puke-choke, Azrael (ohhh I hate that a$# clown). Yes Azrael, the dude named for Gargamel’s cat who was some kind of knight, and then replaced Batman for awhile when Bane broke his back. But he went crazy so Batman had to take him out, but now he’s back. Yup, he’s still a giant douche too. I guess some editor or something demanded that he be used in this crossover, but it’s okay. They cancel his series shortly after this, and he’s pretty much been written out of continuity.
Officer Down creates a giant sh$# storm in the Bat-universe and changes it forever. The cops are on a mad scramble to find out who shot Gordon, and their initial suspect, Catwoman, is two sheets in the wind. Batman is so overcome with grief he refuses to leave Gordon’s side and lets his “posse” carry out his investigation. All this, and we also learn how close Gordon and Bats really were. I for one am with the camp who believes Gordon knows, or has deduced, Batman is Bruce Wayne, he just chooses not to say anything, and Batman knows he knows and doesn’t say anything about this either. A couple of hints are dropped in this story, and have been dropped in other Batman stories as well (Miller’s Dark Knight and Year One being a couple of them). Anyway, check out this book. It’s still in print and will set you back $12.95, a bargain considering what you get. This book is definitive of the modern Batman, and is a predecessor to many of the aspects we see in the character’s universe today.
