"Batman: Earth One" by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank Review

'Batman: Earth One' by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank & Jonathan Sibal(inks) & Brad Anderson(Colours) is good, solid and entertaining alternate account of Batman's origin, his world and its inhabitants. Along the way there are surprises, familiar faces in unique situations, and the inevitable promise of more to come in future installments.
    Almost gone are the billionaire zen jedi type we know as Bruce Wayne, and his very old school English Army trained medic butler, Alfred. In their place we meet an angry young (but still very rich) man and his reluctant, ex-MI6-style spook caretaker, who along with calling himself the butler out of sarcasm, appears to have been the one to train Bruce in the many ways there are to win a fight, and to stop at nothing to do so.

Set in the first few months of the Batman's career as an overdressed vigilante, the story follows but does not pay slavish attention to the known facts of the early life of the Batman. Orphaned outside the cinema in a childhood incident which eventually shapes and foreshadows the rest of the young mans life, he swears to become a symbol which strikes fear into the hearts of the cowardly & superstitious criminals of Gotham City, etc, etc.

Since the events that unfold are set long before any of the Batman's sidekicks( and other co-dependents) in the war on crime who populate the modern comics make their appearance, it is left to the nascent forms of his rogues gallery to provide some familiarity and suspense for us old timey readers. Many of the script cues and plot devices felt cinematic in execution, while Johns appears to have a lot of fun fusing different elements of the world together in order to create some new paths to cross. Intriguingly, where there is usually just  lone, idealistic crusader Harvey Dent in the many previous origin tales, there is now Dent and his twin sister, who appears to have had one or two trysts with the younger Wayne. As a lifelong fan of the Dark Knight I cannot wait to see where that part of the saga goes. Although there are few comics readers who are unaware of the basics of 'The Batman's' world(I heard about one once. Once.)there are many who will notice the big (and full of potential) changes in important aspects like Thomas & Martha Wayne's' family tree, along with the positioning of characters like The Penguin within the story.

Writer Geoff Johns, of course, is no stranger to redefining DC's Pantheon of Superheroes, and seems to do so as much for his own enjoyment as for readers intimately familiar, and otherwise, with the characters. Secret Origins('Green Lantern', 'superman', 'Justice League')and crossover events('Infinite Crisis', 'Blackest Night', 'Flashpoint') have long been Johns' forte', as evidenced by his sales and experience.

  As a comics reader, I find that his long runs on monthly titles 'JSA', 'The Avengers', 'Green Lantern' & 'The Flash' to be some of the best examples of graphic storytelling in the 21st Century so far, which isn't to say he doesn't have his detractors, although I am clearly not among them. A couple of times reading 'Earth One' I did notice straight lifts from other sources such as Chris Nolans' 'Dark Knight' film series, but not enough to get all Alan Moore about. Pretty much all superhero legends have been built over several  decades, so every time a new idea sticks it's usually because it's a good one in the first place. Geoff Johns is a writer who knows how to use other ideas to add to his own perfectly, without spoiling the recipe, which I think is the secret to the telling of a good superhero story. The themes of sacrifice, need for justice and lost innocence are all present and correct in 'Batman: Earth One', alongside a few engaging subplots such as the street rehabilitation of fame seeking Harvey Bullock, who appears here like a reality TV age version of Kevin Spacey's glamorous 'technical consultant' character, Jack Vicennes from 'LA Confidential'.

   

 

Although there is a heck of a lot of violence and death in the story, those who have commented that this is not the Batman as created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane clearly haven't read the early stories of the caped crusader. Along with fellow Batman greats like Jerry Robinson, Finger & Kane created an anti hero who was every bit as dark as the world he sought to protect and was as unafraid to get his hands dirty as those he sought to capture.  It was later on, in the fifties and sixties, with the hysteria caused by Frederic Wertham and the resultant changes enforced by the Comics Code Authority,  that the more cuddly, batshit Batman we think we know and love began to take shape.

Meantime, the knowingly camp Sixties TV show Biffed, Bammed & Kapowed its way off the screen and into the pop culture history books to bolster the willfully wacky and wild image of the Batman in the public's eyes. So, this may not be Batman as you picture him, but the genius of the character and his world are in their capacity for reinvention, which is as evident in 'Batman: Earth One' as it is in much of Frank Miller, Dennis O' Neil or Alan Grant's work, as well as 'The Dark Knight Rises', Tim Burton's duology, or the recently completed 'Batman: The Brave & The Bold' cartoon show. The Batman is nothing if not adaptable.

  The artwork, too, deserves favourable mention, Geoff Johns' frequent collaborator, Gary Frank, is as outstanding as ever. His city street, building and vehicle design work is flawless, while all faces & figures are instantly recognisable from their mainstream counterparts, even while undergoing the necessary changes to suit the storyline. It's testament to Gary Frank's artistic skill that, as soon as I seen Jim Gordon's face, I totally balked at the state of the rest of him. Shabby clothes, dull eyes, defeated posture; if it wasn't so obviously an 'as-close-to-the-real-world-as-possible' take on Batman I'd have thought he was possibly the Bizarro-Commissioner Gordon. Our understanding of Alfred's place in this world, too, owes a lot to Frank's talent for imbuing his character's faces and eyes with heavy emotion, while the crazed need for justice, and the acknowledgement of his one in a million chance of getting it, are apparent in every single drawing of Bruce Wayne as The Batman.

The inks and colours, by Jonathan Sibal and Brad Anderson are just right, and as good as one would expect to see in such a prestigious(and expensive!) hardback comic book. The tones and colours employed are just right to keep the story grounded and in shadow, something  necessary when telling such a street level tale. Sibal has been the inker for many of Franks' other projects for DC & Marvel, while Anderson is a new name to me, and going by this I look forwarfd to seeing his other colour work.

 So, if 'The Dark Knight Rises' has whet your appetite for more tales of the Batman, particularly a modern and unseen take on the character akin to Nolan's films you could really do a lot worse than shell out the required £20 or whatever to buy this book!