mbjones

I’ve had numerous people over the past year or so tell me how much they thought I’d enjoy the Batman graphic novels. I thought about trying to read some last summer but didn’t know where to start. This past spring, though, I figured that out: Batman: Year One, Batman: A Long Halloween and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Yesterday I went to Borders to pick them up as plane reading material (just the first two). Curious, I started Year One last night and ended up finishing it as well.

Not really surprising due to the comic layout, it was quite an easy and quick read. By Frank Miller (the man behind 300), it details in Batman canon Bruce Wayne’s first year as Batman. Basically it describes the long absence of Wayne from Gotham City (to travel and learn all sorts of things, like martial arts) and his return to clean the city of evil. Exploring the seedy underbelly first, he finally realizes that he needs to be able to strike fear into the hearts of evildoers and takes on the person of a bat, fully becoming Batman. From there, his first year is spent catching criminals, bringing down corrupt officials and dodging the cops out to destroy the new vigilante. One piece of the story that I didn’t expect was the focus on Lt. Gordon. As most people know from the movies that have been made, Gordon is seemingly the sole decent cop in the city and Batman’s one guaranteed ally. Not so in Year One. He’s still the sole good cop in Gotham City but as a newcomer to the city and struggling with his own sins, sees it as his task to bring down this vigilante exercising outside the boundaries of Law. The novel ends with Gordon contemplating what needs to be done: he’s trying to seek justice and Batman is the only other one around him doing this as well.

As far as graphic novels go, this certainly kept my attention. I wanted to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. It seemed well drawn (although I’m not an expert on such matters). And Frank Miller is a good storyteller. All in all — I found it to be an enjoyable read. As far as criticism goes, my first complaint would be that it felt too short to be considered a novel. My second would be that I didn’t feel that it fully developed the character of Bruce Wayne. Gordon, definitely, but I’m still left wondering and questioning the persona of Batman. And so, because of this, I’d give it 3.5 stars out of 5. Definitely better than average but by no means the best that I’ve read.