THE BATMAN'S GRAVE No. 1 (OF 12)
DC COMICS – @DCComics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
WRITER: Warren Ellis
PENCILS: Bryan Hitch
INKS: Kevin Nowlan
COLORS: Alex Sinclair
LETTERS: Richard Starkings
EDITOR: Marie Javins
COVER: Bryan Hitch with Alex Sinclair
VARIANT COVER ARTIST: Jeehyung Lee
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (December 2019)
Rated “T+” for “Teen Plus”
Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger
The Batman's Grave is a new twelve-issue, comic book maxi-series. It is written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Bryan Hitch (pencils) and Kevin Nowlan (inks). Ellis and Hitch worked together on the comic book, StormWatch (1997), and are best known as a team for their run on the hit comic book, The Authority (1999), which the two created. Colorist Alex Sinclair and letterer Richard Starkings complete the creative team. The Batman's Grave finds Batman a.k.a. “The World's Great Detective” forced to inhabit the mind of a murder victim with a half-eaten face in order to solve the crime.
The Batman's Grave #1 opens at Wayne Manor, the stately home of Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman. We find Bruce's butler and Batman's brother-in-arms, Alfred Pennyworth, tending to the graves of Bruce's parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne. There is a third grave. It is empty, and Bruce will one day fill it.
In Gotham City, Batman saves a young couple and their child the way no one saved young Bruce and his slain parents. Alerted to an unanswered 911 call, Batman finds himself at a rundown apartment building. There, he finds the corpse of Vincent William Stannik. By his own admission to Alfred, Batman can only think like a victim. And this almost psychotic identification with murder victims causes him to immerse himself in the lives the victims and to obsess over every detail of their deaths. But will this focus on the victim as he approached death lead Batman to his own grave?
I often lament that comic books featuring the world's greatest (comic book) detective are more often than not more superhero-action comics than they are mystery comics. After reading this first issue's 24 (not 20) pages, I think that The Batman's Grave will be a mystery comic book that will have Batman play detective to solve murder cases. At the same time, The Batman's Grave's creative team will investigate the minds of both Batman/Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth.
In fact, I love (and yes that is the word I want to use) Warren Ellis' depiction of Alfred Pennyworth as a tired, old friend, exhausted by a war on crime of which he wishes Batman was also exhausted. Ellis presents Bruce Wayne and Batman as one in the same – psychotic. I am especially curious to see where Ellis takes this series.
The artists of The Batman's Grave, Bryan Hitch on pencils and Kevin Nowlan on inks, are a dream team. Hitch's eccentric, stylish pencils can only be inked by a veteran and/or supremely talented inker, and of course, that is Nowlan. The resulting art is beautiful, mysterious, and haunting – the perfect graphical storytelling for a tale of murder, obsession, and graves. Alex Sinclair, as usual, colors the crap out of the art and embellishes this story with a perfect mood that recalls Edgar Allen Poe. Letterer Richard Starkings, as usual, does standout work; I guess if you have Ellis, Hitch, Nowlan, and Sinclair, you have to have Starkings on the team, also.
So I am ready for more, and truthfully, this is the only Batman comic book I feel like I have to read right now. I recommend that you try at least The Batman's Grave #1.
8 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
----------------
Amazon wants me to inform you that the link below is a PAID AD, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on the ad below AND buy something(s).
No comments:
Post a Comment