Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?

First comic purchase and first review of 202!
Bought at Boocup, Kerry Parkside, Pudong, Shanghai, China.

Title: Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?
Date: October, 2010
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Neil Gaiman
Artist: Andy Kubert, Scott Williams, Simon Bisley, Mark Buckingham, Mike Hoffman, Kevin Nowlan, Bernie Mireault, Matt Wagner, Alex Ross
Colorist: Alex Sinclair, Nansi Hoolahan, Tim McCraw, Joe Matt
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher, John Costanza, Augustin Mas, Todd Klein
Editor: Scott Nybakken, Maggie Howell

The title feature of this trade paperback is the two-part story that spanned Batman #686 and Detective Comics #853, which were the last issues of those series before they were renumbered as part of the New 52. The title is a tribute to the classic Alan Moore two-parter, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, which was published at a similar moment, marking the division between the Pre-Crisis (On Infinite Earths) and Post-Crisis DC Universe.

The story has the Batman attending his own funeral, held in the back room of a Crime Alley bar, where Joe Chill serves as bartender, and all of the Batman's rogues gallery is in attendance as mourners, along with some more respectable members of the supporting cast. All of them are telling stories of the Batman's death while the Batman himself looks on unseen, with a mysterious woman as his guide.

And the stories are all contradictory.

This was an interesting examination of the symbolism of the Batman, and something of a reversal of the typical tale of transition into an afterlife. The fully-realized stories told by Selina Kyle and Alfred Pennyworth read like reasonably decent "What If?" tales, and artist Andy Kubert does a great job of evoking the styles of classic Batman artists. There are also some interesting stories that are just told as fragments from characters like Detective Bullock and Clayface.

The ending is a strange and surreal variant on (of all things), Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon, that should never have worked, but which Gaiman somehow manages to just about pull off.

Backup stories in this volume include a miscellany of Gaiman's Batman writing from Batman: Black and White and Secret Origins. The Black and White piece is an amusing bit of fourth-wall breaking. Of the Secret Origins stories, the Riddler story was the best of the bunch, a loving tribute to the Silver Age, and a lament against the turn toward darker fare that followed.

None of this is anywhere Gaiman's best work in terms of writing, but it's a nice look at his relationship with comics in general and the Batman in particular, and it has a decent number of stand-out moments.

Rating: 7/10

Batman #554

Continuing with the run of Batman that I brought here as part of my random stack of comics to read.

Title: Batman
Issue: 554
Date: May, 1998
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Doug Moench
Penciller: Klaus Janson
Inker: Sal Buscema
Colorist: Gregory Wright
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Jordan B. Gorfinkel, Dennis O'Neil
Cover: Mark Buckingham, Kevin Nowlan, Patrick Martin

This directly follows issue #553, which I reviewed here, but it really doesn't because we are in full-on crossover mode. so this is Part 12 of Catacysm. This is inconvenient because I only have the Batman title to work with here, so I'm missing a lot of plot.

This issue introduces the Quakemaster, a mysterious villain who is claiming responsibility for the massive earthquake that hit Gotham, and threating to unleash more earthquakes if he is not paid one MILLION dollars! (Okay, actually, he asks for 100 million).

The Batman is trying to figure out if the Quakemaster's claim is for real, which seems unlikely until you remember that this IS the DC Comics Universe, and so things like people being able to cause earthquakes have a somewhat higher level of plausibility.

There is also the issue of a missing seismologist. Is she a victim of the Quakemaster or an accomplice?

This was a very detective-work oriented issue, with the action kept to a minimum. Bruce Wayne in detective mode is always fun, and there were some good contributions from Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya as well.

Not a really eventful issue, but effective at moving the story along.

Rating: 6.5/10

Batman #553

Among the stack of random comics I brought from my storage unit in the US was a small set of Batman from the Cataclysm/No Man's Land mega storyline of the 1990s. It's far from a complete set, but here is the earliest issue in storyline order that I have. It's part 3 of Cataclysm.

Title: Batman
Issue: 553
Date: April, 1998
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Doug Moench
Penciller: Klaus Janson
Inker: Sal Buscema
Colorist: Gregory Wright
Letterer: Todd Klein
Editor: Jordan B. Gorfinkel, Dennis O'Neil
Cover: Mark Buckingham, Kevin Nowlan, Patrick Martin

Cataclysm Part 3. Gotham City is hit with a 7.6 earthquake, and this issue begins at the moment the quake strikes.

We see Lucius Fox at the Waynecorp Building (conveniently constructed to withstand an 8.5... unlike pretty much every other building in Gotham), and then a clever bit where Commissioner Gordon is nearly killed by the bat-signal falling through the roof.

The story then shifts focus to two parallel plots: Bruce Wayne and Alfred trying to escape from what's left of the Batcave and (stately) Wayne Manor, and Barbara Gordon taking charge of disaster relieve coordination from GCPD HQ.

Putting aside for a moment the question of where she gets the authority to do that, Barbara is her usual awesome self here, and Sergeant Bullock also gets in some good scenes.

This epic took place at a time when the Batman supporting cast was really top-notch and it was great seeing plots that had huge long-term implications for Gotham and the Batman characters. Too often, editorial direction is timid about such changes. They really went all-out when it came to wrecking Gotham is a plot that went on to span several years.

This was a nice change from the usual Batman plots, and it makes great use of all of the familiar disaster movie tropes.

Rating: 8/10