Neil Gaiman's most recognised comicbook
work will always be his original creations, particularly Sandman
(although even this was inspired
by the original 1930s Wesley Dodds character). However, he has
written numerous books featuring existing comic characters, both for
Marvel and DC. As he points out himself in this books afterword, DC
and especially Batman are his first loves, and even the Sandman's
earliest titles featured established DC characters heavily, with the
occasional cameo as the series developed. Gaiman is no stranger to
working in an established universe, but his work is generally of that
most interesting sort, the kind that takes established characters and
settings and twists them into new shapes, or takes the concepts as
far as they can be taken.
This
collection brings together a variety of Gaiman's DC work from 1988
through to 2009, when the classic Whatever Happened to the
Caped Crusader? was first
published. Fully half of the material here was previously included in
the WhttCC paperback,
and this accounts for some of the best material, but since I never
sat down and reviewed that, it seems worthwhile looking back over
these stories. These are all Batman stories, or at least Gotham
stories, that dwell on the fictionality of Batman's world and present
new explorations of established characters. They explore Gaiman's
continuing fascination with the nature of myth, in the same way
Sandman and American
Gods explore mythical and
myth-inspired characters. As the world itself has multiple origin
stories, it hardly seems hard to accept that fictional characters can
as well.
The
volume kicks of with “Pavane,” Gaiman's contribution to DC's
Secret Origins series,
focusing on Poison Ivy. One of the most interesting of the Batman
rogues gallery, certainly one of the most powerful, and nonetheless
one of the most vulnerable. With artwork by Mark Buckingham, it looks
and reads very much like early Sandman,
which makes perfect sense considering when it was written, but
explores Gaiman's obsession with Batman through Ivy's eyes. One
aspect I really like about this story is that, although it turns on
Ivy's irresistible sexual allure, she isn't portrayed as some perfect
comicbook pin-up. She's actually fairly ordinary looking, which
emphasises her abilities even more.
This
leads into Secret Origins Special,
which includes non-Gaiman material for the sake of completeness and
narrative drive. It begins with Gaiman's “Original Sins,” framing
material about a chatshow team looking to get Gotham supervillains in
for interviews, because without his villains, Batman is simply not
interesting. The bizarre and elaborate array of criminals that
continually plague Batman through his career define him. And so Alan
Grant gives us “The Killing Peck,” a clever and entertaining
story about The Penguin, and Mark Verheiden gives us a galling
examination of Two-Face. Gaiman himself provides the middle
instalment, “When is a Door: The Secret Origin of the Riddler,”
which combines witty writing with wonderful artwork from Bernie
Mireault and Matt Wagner plus gorgeous colours from Joe Matt. Any one
of these stories could stand alone and still work, but presenting
them together creates a compelling examination of Batman's world.
This
extends to the big name story itself. Whatever Happened to
the Caped Crusader? Was written
by Gaiman to be the final story – or, at least, a final story –
for Batman, marking the final issues of the initial runs of both
Batman and his
original home of Detective Comics.
(Of course, both of these titles are still going, having kicked off
again immediately with new issues ones.) A companion piece to Alan
Moore's classic Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow,
which had previously served the same purpose for Superman. WhttCC
is a more metatextual affair, however, taking place after Batman's
death, where various characters, both heroic and villainous,
semi-aware of their fictional nature, come together to mark the
occasion. Various characters give their accounts of how the hero
died, all of them completely contradictory and many of them surely
completely impossible. Of them all, “The Gentleman's Gentleman's
Tale,” is the best. Perhaps better titled, “The Butler Did It,”
it reveals Alfred as the eccentric genius behind all of Batman's
adversaries, his entire crime-fighting career a great hoax to keep
Bruce's depressed mind occupied. The entire story is remarkable,
though, and even though Batman will no doubt have more “final”
adventures, it makes for a beautiful coda. Not only can these
characters have multiple origins, they can have multiple endings as
well.
Nonetheless,
my favourite story in the collection is the shorter, simpler “A
Black and White World,” Gaiman's contribution to the Batman
Black and White series. Taking
the metafictional theme further, it sees Batman and the Joker
preparing for one of their epic battles, going through their lines
and waiting to be called onto set. Genuinely funny in a restrained
way (not something you can often say of a Joker story), its success
is ensured by Simon Bisley's unique, disturbing scratchy artwork.
The
remainder of the stories are newly collected in this volume, and take
place beyond the confines of Gotham. The major draw here is Legend
of the Green Flame, a legendary
“lost” Superman/Green Lantern story that was originally written
for Action Comics Weekly in
1988 to wrap up that publication, before editorial changes altered
the fictional landscape of the DC Universe and consigned it to the
never-weres. It finally saw the light in 2000 as a special
publication, and has rarely been reprinted. The simple tagline would
be “Superman and Green Lantern go to Hell.” As Gaiman points out,
this is not the hell of his Sandman series,
owing more to Alan Moore's depiction in The Saga of the
Swamp Thing) but the development
of the mythic universe of Sandman is
clearly there in its early stages. It's an effective story that puts
two of DC's most overly powered heroes through the ringer, consigned
to a reality in which they are weakened and vulnerable. It also
perfectly illustrates Gaiman's love of, and skill for, playing in the
sandbox of the DC Universe, utilising such supernatural characters as
Deadman and the Phantom Stranger to great effect.
Deadman
also appears in “On the Stairs,” the shortest, most standalone
story in the collection. From Solo #8
it gives the sardonic psychopomp a moment to explore his ghostly
existence. It's another fine story that's made even better by being
well-served by its artist, in this case Teddy Christianson. (Rob
Leigh's lettering also works wonders here.) The final superhero that
Gaiman tackles is “Metamorpho, the Element Man,” a C-list
character for whom Gaiman has a not-so-secret fondness. Also
featuring Metamorpho's female equivalent, Element Girl, I had hoped
this would have some of the power and emotion of Gaiman's other usage
of that character, the one-off story “Facade” in the third
Sandman volume, maybe
the most heartbreakingly beautiful thing Gaiman has ever written.
This tale is very different, a deliberately retro-styled story told
in twelve weekly instalments in 2009's Wednesday Comics,
a series which stood to emulate the newspaper strips of old. It's the
simplest, least interesting story in the collection, but it does what
it sets out to do, which tell an entertaining comic adventure. The
double-page periodic table spread is a joy.
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