DC COMICS/DC Black Label – @DCComics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
STORY: Scott Snyder
PENCILS: Greg Capullo
INKS: Jonathan Glapion
COLORS: FCO Plascencia
LETTERS: Tom Napolitano
EDITOR: Mark Doyle
COVER: Greg Capullo with FCO Plascencia
VARIANT COVER: Jock
56pp, Color, $5.99 U.S. (July 2019)
Mature Readers
Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger
Parts (One) “The Cave,” (Two) “The Right Hand,” (Three) “The Asylum,” (Four) “Echolocation”
Batman: Last Knight on Earth is a new three-issue comic book miniseries written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Greg Capullo (pencils) and Jonathan Glapion (inks). Colorist FCO Plascencia and letterer Tom Napolitano complete the creative team.
Batman: Last Knight on Earth is the second release in DC Comics' new prestige and event publication imprint, “DC Black Label.” The series follows Batman as he travels a ruined Earth, trying to find the mysterious power that devastated the world.
Batman: Last Knight on Earth #1 opens with Batman facing a strange crime wave in Gotham City. There are no victims. For the past 363 days, someone has drawn a chalk line across a different, random five-foot stretch of Gotham – every morning. The next day, it is gone and replaced by a new chalk line somewhere else. Batman has discovered the chalk lines have something to do with him, and the answer to this mystery seems surprisingly to be at “Crime Alley,” the place where Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered.
After he wakes up in Arkham Asylum, however, as a young man, a sane young man, Bruce Wayne realizes that he has never been Batman. And the world, destroyed by an unspeakable force, really needs Batman.
Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are not only the most popular Batman writer-artist pairing of this still young twenty-first century; they are also among the most prolific of the last 50 years. Snyder has portrayed Bruce Wayne as young and sleek with a humanitarian bent and Batman as being closer to Iron Man than to Frank Miller's Batman the Dark Knight. In fact, I would say that Snyder's Batman/Bruce Wayne is really a continuation of the superhero/alter-ego pair Miller and artist David Mazzuchelli introduced to readers in the Batman: Year One story arc (originally published in the comic book, Batman, issues #404-407).
Greg Capullo's illustrations during his run with Batman presents a Gotham City where the Justice League fit as well as the Joker does. Science fiction and technology sit side by side with dark conspiracy and horror. Even Capullo's clean-line style makes Batman and his world seem fresh, thanks to the contributions of inker Jonathan Glapion.
FCO Plascencia colors this book as if he were coloring Moebius' art, with colors that shimmer, shine, and glow. Tom Napolitano, who apparently does not contribute enough to have his name on the cover of this comic book, is one of the most distinctive and talented letters in comic books. Neapolitan makes the shifting settings and surreal-like turns in plot coalesce into a single narrative.
That is the championship creative team that Batman: Last Knight on Earth #1 has. I am reluctant to spoil anything in this first issue. The sudden changes in plot and setting are bracing and promise a Batman story that may indeed by memorable... and worthy of the ambitions of DC Comics' “DC Black Label” imprint.
If Batman: Last Knight on Earth is going to be a “last Batman story” it should be better than most “last particular superhero” stories. Batman: Last Knight on Earth #1 alone is quite a humdinger.
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.
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