You know what's funny? There was a time when Batman was almost unique in never getting any "proper" origin stories. Even when he was introduced his origin wasn't told until a few issues later and even then it was only briefly.
Now it seems you can't take two steps without someone taking a shot at it, however indirectly and though once upon a time it was that Bruce had moved on from that tragic event and kept leaping off rooftops for the betterment of Gotham City, all original stories will reference the origin at least once.
I guess it makes sense in the case of this book, though. The
"Earth One" graphic novels are DC's effort to appeal to a more mainstream audience, with a more dramatic and humanistic approach to the iconic characters.
"Batman: Earth One" is penned by
Geoff Jones, one of DC's top dogs and a talented writer, whose work though I was never a big fan of. Plus I still blame him for ruining Superman after
Infinite Crisis, pushing the character back to the same
Donnerverse and
Silver Age aesthetic and universe he'd grown out of decades ago.
It's also drawn by
Gary Frank, Johns' collaborator at the time and genuinely talented artist, whose illustrations I grew less fond of as he drew Superman in the likeness of the late
Christopher Reeve; something that (surprisingly) became exceedingly creepy over time.
Johns takes a few liberties in this re-telling, but for the most part he draws from past Batman history and the pacing is roughly the same as all early Batman stories.
Dr.
Thomas Wayne is running for mayor of Gotham City (with the monicker "Gotham's Knight"; cute). His wife
Martha, also a prominent figure as someone who has dedicated a lot of time on the criminally insane, is running his campaign. Everything shows he's going to win.
They're having an early, unofficial party about the upcoming election's expected result, when they're visited by one of Thomas' old friends:
Alfred Pennyworth, former British Special Service, who has seen tons of action alongside Thomas. Dr Wayne calls him on because he needs security with the death threats increasing at a rate diversely proportional to the days left until the election.
Despite Alfred's protests, the couple take their son,
Bruce, to see a movie. When the lights at the movie theater suspiciously go out, Bruce throws a hissy-fit for not being able to see the film. Then the little shit runs out the back-alley, bumps on
Joe Chill, eagerly tells him to fuck off as he's the richest kid in Gotham and promptly gets his parents killed.
Whoops.
Fast-forward years later, Alfred has trained Bruce to be able to defend himself, as Bruce is on the hunt to find his parent's killers, who he believes are tied to then-running-opponent of his dad's, Mayor
Oswald Cobblepot. Yes,
that Cobblepot.
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| Who dares (be a butler) wins. |
In the meantime,
Detective James Gordon, broken by the spirit of the city, is paired with newcomer
Detective Harvey Bullock and together they end up hunting a little girls' serial killer (and rapist?) in the employee of the mayor.
There's a lot of good in the book, as well as a few things that make the read unexpectedly underwhelming. Alfred is probably the most noticeable departure from his classic depiction. Alfred's past as an agent/war veteran isn't new and it's been written into the character for a very long time, but it's the first time (in my recollection, at least) he's in full "mentor" mode, instead of overly English mild-mannered butler.
He's not really even the Waynes' butler and only poses as one after Thomas and Martha have been murdered and he becomes the child's legal guardian. He walks with a cane and he has a prosthetic leg. He's rough, has no sense of humour and prepares Bruce for a war.
It comes as a shocking, though not entirely-unexpected, twist at the end that he is the one that deals with Cobblepot: swiftly, brutally, with no remorse, he deals justice entirely antithetical to that of Batman's.
The other major character in the book outside of Batman is none other than James Gordon, still a detective. Gordon for most of this book is broken. His heart is in the right place, but he is terrified. After his wife's supposed accident, he tries to back away from enforcing the law. In fear of consequences that will harm his daughter,
Barbara, he leaves criminals be and let's them rampage through the streets.
Likely the most interesting and well-rounded character in this first book is Harvey Bullock. Harvey is the well-meaning, but ultimate ill-mannered fat asshole of the GCPD; it's how we've known him for years. In "Batman: Earth One", he's a former celebrity, a TV cop running a reality cop show. After the show's cancelled, he's looking for his way back into fame by purposefully transferring to Gotham and tasking himself with solving the murders of the Waynes, believing it to be just the high-profile case he needs.
Even though his goals are less than noble, Harvey is never unlikable in the book. He cares about the Law and the people. He wants to do his job, prevent crime and help citizens. He's the driving force behind getting Gordon back on his feet as a cop. His portrayal makes his fall at the end all the more tragic, as he witnesses the true horror that lies in Gotham's underbelly, which ultimately breaks him as well.
Villains are very underplayed, including Cobblepot, who only gets vague references to his better-known Penguin persona and they all seem to exist purely to service the development of all the good guys.
The other character that feels somewhat underplayed is none other than the supposed protagonist, Batman. As this is practically his first adventure, Batman kinda sucks at being Batman still. So he is not stealthy, his gadgets originally don't work (not until he gets
Lucius Fox to fix them for him), he has no Batmobile (he drives around in his personal car) and he gets his ass kicked. A lot.
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| DC's greatest thinker at work. |
This is to be expected, but there are two things that don't work about this portrayal. A rookie Batman wouldn't be the Batgod his insufferable fanboys think he's ought to be all the time, but there are no cool moments for him in the entire book. His first public reveal, his appearance that makes Gotham aware of his existence, is an abject failure. Dude corners a guy that may be connected to his parents murder, then gets jumped by another guy. Then, he gets shot at repeatedly and rescued by Alfred.
As the story progresses, he gets his shit together, but he shares the panels with Gordon and Bullock and honestly, their arc in this story is just a hell of a lot more interesting. By that point, the stakes are high for Gordon (Barbara has been kidnapped) and it's a turning point for Bullock, but Batman's just there to stop the serial killer.
Afterwards he goes after Cobblepot, but he gets his ass kicked again. With an umbrella. It's Alfred that ultimately wins that battle and he does it contrary to everything Bruce has been crusading for.
It's not bad by any stretch of the imagination, it's just perplexing. It's not just the lack of the "Batman coolness factor", it's also the absence of what could have made that lack work: character development and exploration.
I can only imagine Johns purposefully left a lot of ends open to explore in later books, because there is far too much set up here, sometimes to a ridiculous degree. Young Bruce's spoiled-brat attitude got his parents killed. In all Batman origin stories, Bruce wonders at some point if it was all his fault, but in almost all of them none of Bruce's actions have any direct correlation to the outcome of that tragic night.
In
Batman Begins he can only be blamed for dragging them out early, because the opera scared him and usually it's Thomas that insists cutting through that alley. They're just ambushed there.
Considering Johns purposefully dropped at least a fraction of responsibility onto Bruce in this story, there is a surprisingly little amount of Batman blaming himself or at least questioning his actions that night. Batman is on a journey of vengeance; nothing less nothing more. He elevates himself to more than that by the end of the book, but it feels like he does so because that's what's expected of the story.
I just can't get a handle on him in this story. The Waynes are written to be Gotham's most prolific family (something I really dislike and it's far too common in Batman stories these days). Martha, his mom, is now Martha Arkham-Wayne. Yes, Bruce is the descendant of
Amadeus Arkham, the founder of the Asylum and he has mental health issues in his family medical history.
I'm also pretty sure that the manor where Martha grew up is supposed to become Arkham Asylum (which seems to not exist yet in this version).
When I saw that, I was intrigued. Perhaps we'll tap into Bruce's psyche, perhaps we'll debate how sane and well-adjusted he truly is considering both the trauma he has suffered and his family's history with insanity. After all, using all your money to make toys and running around in a bat costume is not exactly a healthy way to deal with loss.
But no, in the few moments Bruce actually is in the story, he's a kid; a spoiled kid, with far too much money that sets out to do what the cops can't for entirely selfish reasons. Again, this changes at the end, Batman is starting to become a legend and we see change sweeping across Gotham as well, which is always nice to see.
But it's a light-switch change. We guess it's because he learns the not-so-shocking truth behind the events that made him an orphan, but it's only there for seconds.
Put this next to "Batman Begins" that follows a similar path and Bruce has got over that "dead parents" thing earlier into the story. By the time he finishes his training and he returns to Gotham, he already seeks to help the helpless and clean up the city. He sets out to be a legend, to be a symbol and while he's also work-in-progress (ski-masks, being easily beaten by the Scarecrow in their first encounter), his presence leaves an impression.
In "Earth One", you can cut Batman out of this story entirely and you'll have lost very little. His supporting cast just leave a bigger impression and especially in Gordon's case, it seems like it's his story, his city, his pathos. In the end, he's the one who changes, the one truly redeemed. Bruce is just going through the motions.
I'll stop being critical at this point though, because I don't want to give off the wrong impression. "Batman: Earth One" is a very good read. It has good pacing, it has interesting characters, it has solid dialogue and the art is fantastic.
I can appreciate Frank's illustrations now that I don't need to look at a dead actor for the whole book and there are two things that make his work here great to look at: the first is the Batman costume, which is likely my favorite design of the Dark Knight's gear ever. It's simple, it keeps its colors muted by dropping the gold/yellow almost entirely, it drops the briefs and there are no excesses in terms of putting armor on him, or ridiculously large bat-ears or -god forbid- bat-nipples.
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| Undoubtedly my favorite Batman design, semi-plausible without sacrificing sleekness. |
The other thing I always liked about Frank's art is that it doesn't look as ridiculously polished as a lot of the post '90s comic book artwork. There is a attention to detail, but nothing overdone and his illustrations carry a realistic depiction of people and places, without resorting to the photo-realistic art style of
Alex Ross. His use of shading is masterful, his facial expressions carry the scene's emotional weight beautifully and whenever his characters move, you actually get the feeling of animation instead of the glorified posing that many other artists do.
For all my complaints, I really did enjoy reading through "Batman: Earth One". In the end, even those complaints aren't so much faults as they are decisions that merely baffle me. As this is meant to be a series, it's off to a pretty solid start in general and while far from the defining Batman story (origin or otherwise), I recommend the book in itself.
"Batman: Earth One" was published by DC Comics. Batman and all related names, logos etc. are property of Warner Bros/DC Comics.
Batman was created by BILL FINGER & Bob Kane.
