Batman: Year One
January 23rd 2008 00:33
Category: Graphic Novels/Comics
Batman created by: Bob Kane.
Adapted from the works of: Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson.
Publisher: DC Comics.
Production team: Frank Miller – writer, David Mazzucchelli – illustrator, Richmond Lewis – colourist and Todd Klein – lettering.
Cost: $US 14.99/$AU 19.95.
The first time I caught a glimpse of this particular graphic novel was about three years ago around at friends place attending either a party or gaming session (yep I play RPGs – tabletop and computer), he was (and still is) something of a comic nut like myself and as he was on the phone to his girlfriend at the time, most of the other participants hadn’t arrived and I had nothing to do so I picked it up and gave it a bit of a read. A mere glimpse was all I got at that point in time as my friend finished his call, other people started arriving and things proceeded on from there. Fast forward to the current year and I was browsing around in my local library, as is my wont, and what did I spot on the shelves but this graphic novel which I borrowed along with Fear Agent and a few other similar works. This time I could sit down and enjoy this story in its fullest without being rude.
Origin stories are often very interesting in the whole super hero genre as we get to learn precisely how the character involved suddenly became the hero, what their motivations were and their first gripping confrontation against some evil villain destined to become their lifelong nemesis. Strangely Batman: Year One isn’t precisely that kind of story, it is not so much a story about what prompted Batman to become the Dark Knight of Gotham’s mean streets but rather how he established himself as a force for justice in a bleak and corrupt city, how he crafted his mystique and his methodology. In this general theme there is some similarity between this graphic novel and the movie Batman Begins, where on the silver screen we see Bruce Wayne forging the means, methodology and mystique that will become the Dark Knight.
The interesting thing about Batman: Year One is that it is not solely about the Dark Knight himself, it as much a story about Lt. James Gordon who long before he became the man in charge of the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) was a serving detective on the force, having transferred to Gotham from some other city. Both Gordon and Wayne are two men who are at a pivotal point in their lives and careers. Gordon who is an individual who is about to become a father and feels that his coming to Gotham is a step down in life, that this is a city which is dirty not only in trash on the streets but riddled with vice and corruption, its not a place to raise a family but it seems as if he doesn’t have much choice. Bruce Wayne on the other hand has plenty of choice in regards to the fact that he is wealthy, one of society’s elite, a noted figure from one of Gotham’s oldest families unfortunately he sees the same things as Gordon, the corruption and vileness but he intends to do something about them. He feels empowered whereas Gordon feels helpless and caught in a morass from which there is little chance of rising above.
Unlike previous Batman stories the main antagonists within this tale are not costumed super villains but rather very ordinary mundane individuals, admittedly powerful and influential individuals but nothing along the lines of characters such as Ras al’Ghul or even the Penguin. Instead it is crooked cops, corrupt officials and businessmen, drug traffickers, crime bosses as well as pimps and thieves who make up the cast of villains in Year One. As he begins his crusade against the corruption rotting Gotham City from within these are the targets that the Dark Knight sets his sights on. But rather than starting at the top Batman starts off small, first he seeks out intelligence on his enemy, on the territory inhabited by the foe. This mission almost proves fatal and ends up with two police officers being seriously injured.
As Batman girds himself for his conflict with the underworld and its allies Gordon is making his own statements amongst the boys in blue. He has become unpopular with the influential and crooked cops and they arrange for him to have a lesson, unfortunately for the ring leader; Detective Flass, James Gordon is made of a lot tougher stuff than his subordinates. He beats enough out of the bent detective to teach him a lesson he won’t soon forget but not put him in the intensive care ward of the hospital. It seems that from this point on Gordon begins to make some headway on the force and after a dramatic hostage situation earns the approval of the local press. He starts to gain some influence within the GCPD amongst those who seek to be police officers and not just hired goons to the corrupt and wealthy of the city.
Gordon is trying to clean up Gotham as a duly appointed officer of the law whilst Batman is using his own methods to achieve the same ends, eventually the two paths cross when Batman brings on the ire of the current time serving and crooked Commissioner Loeb. A task force is assembled to try and bring Batman to justice, the irony being that the people who have prompted this are the very villains that Batman himself is seeking to bring to justice. By now Wayne has established the mystique and methodology by which the Dark Knight will engage in his crusade against the underworld what is lacking is some kind of official connections, allies within the circles of the law enforcement community. In the eyes of the GCPD he is something of a rouge vigilante, he is a criminal acting without any kind of official sanction though there are those who doubt the official line regarding Batman and in time Gordon the chief of the task force seeking to arrest them comes to doubt the reason behind his job. How can he not have doubts when he knows all to well that some of the people he works with are hand in glove with the very criminals he seeks to put behind bars?
Batman: Year One is truly superlative storytelling combined with fantastic art work, it reads like it was something written by great detective authors Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. The internal monologues of both Gordon and Batman give the tale that distinct hard boiled detective vibe and also illustrate that even though they are coming at the same problem from different angles there are distinct similarities between the two, they both have a deep seated sense of right and wrong as well as a desire to see Justice done, not mindless retribution. Eventually it is only natural that the two become allies in the war against the underworld forces at work within the city in which they both live. At the end of the novel there is comic strip afterword by artist David Mazzucchelli, various samples of his work, story layouts that were used to produce Batman: Year One as well an afterword by Frank Miller. For any discerning fan of comics and graphic novels this is a masterwork.
Adapted from the works of: Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson.
Publisher: DC Comics.
Production team: Frank Miller – writer, David Mazzucchelli – illustrator, Richmond Lewis – colourist and Todd Klein – lettering.
Cost: $US 14.99/$AU 19.95.
The first time I caught a glimpse of this particular graphic novel was about three years ago around at friends place attending either a party or gaming session (yep I play RPGs – tabletop and computer), he was (and still is) something of a comic nut like myself and as he was on the phone to his girlfriend at the time, most of the other participants hadn’t arrived and I had nothing to do so I picked it up and gave it a bit of a read. A mere glimpse was all I got at that point in time as my friend finished his call, other people started arriving and things proceeded on from there. Fast forward to the current year and I was browsing around in my local library, as is my wont, and what did I spot on the shelves but this graphic novel which I borrowed along with Fear Agent and a few other similar works. This time I could sit down and enjoy this story in its fullest without being rude.
Unlike previous Batman stories the main antagonists within this tale are not costumed super villains but rather very ordinary mundane individuals, admittedly powerful and influential individuals but nothing along the lines of characters such as Ras al’Ghul or even the Penguin. Instead it is crooked cops, corrupt officials and businessmen, drug traffickers, crime bosses as well as pimps and thieves who make up the cast of villains in Year One. As he begins his crusade against the corruption rotting Gotham City from within these are the targets that the Dark Knight sets his sights on. But rather than starting at the top Batman starts off small, first he seeks out intelligence on his enemy, on the territory inhabited by the foe. This mission almost proves fatal and ends up with two police officers being seriously injured.
As Batman girds himself for his conflict with the underworld and its allies Gordon is making his own statements amongst the boys in blue. He has become unpopular with the influential and crooked cops and they arrange for him to have a lesson, unfortunately for the ring leader; Detective Flass, James Gordon is made of a lot tougher stuff than his subordinates. He beats enough out of the bent detective to teach him a lesson he won’t soon forget but not put him in the intensive care ward of the hospital. It seems that from this point on Gordon begins to make some headway on the force and after a dramatic hostage situation earns the approval of the local press. He starts to gain some influence within the GCPD amongst those who seek to be police officers and not just hired goons to the corrupt and wealthy of the city.
Gordon is trying to clean up Gotham as a duly appointed officer of the law whilst Batman is using his own methods to achieve the same ends, eventually the two paths cross when Batman brings on the ire of the current time serving and crooked Commissioner Loeb. A task force is assembled to try and bring Batman to justice, the irony being that the people who have prompted this are the very villains that Batman himself is seeking to bring to justice. By now Wayne has established the mystique and methodology by which the Dark Knight will engage in his crusade against the underworld what is lacking is some kind of official connections, allies within the circles of the law enforcement community. In the eyes of the GCPD he is something of a rouge vigilante, he is a criminal acting without any kind of official sanction though there are those who doubt the official line regarding Batman and in time Gordon the chief of the task force seeking to arrest them comes to doubt the reason behind his job. How can he not have doubts when he knows all to well that some of the people he works with are hand in glove with the very criminals he seeks to put behind bars?
Batman: Year One is truly superlative storytelling combined with fantastic art work, it reads like it was something written by great detective authors Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. The internal monologues of both Gordon and Batman give the tale that distinct hard boiled detective vibe and also illustrate that even though they are coming at the same problem from different angles there are distinct similarities between the two, they both have a deep seated sense of right and wrong as well as a desire to see Justice done, not mindless retribution. Eventually it is only natural that the two become allies in the war against the underworld forces at work within the city in which they both live. At the end of the novel there is comic strip afterword by artist David Mazzucchelli, various samples of his work, story layouts that were used to produce Batman: Year One as well an afterword by Frank Miller. For any discerning fan of comics and graphic novels this is a masterwork.
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