Batman has been "grim'n'gritty" for a solid 20 years now--ever since Frank Miller presented a darker than dark Caped Crusader in the "Dark Knight Returns" in 1986.
What started as fresh approach to Batman--post-modernly bringing him back to his 1930s roots as a ruthless vigilante--soon became the defacto take on the character. Miller's Batman appeared initially in "mature readers" comics available only in the direct market. But eventually, this darker Dark Knight was present in every comic Batman appeared in, even those originally aimed at the then "mass" market of 10-12 year-old readers.
Every writer who handled the character blindly imitated Miller. And why not? Miller sold lots of comics. He became famous. He wrote and, eventually, even directed movies. He made loads and loads of money. He's still making it in fact, mainly by performing the same simple hat trick over and over again: Making comic books, which are supposed to be for kids after all, ironic and "dark."
Eventually, Batman became even more of a cartoon than he was in the Adam West TV show days. Unsmiling, grimacing, nasty. Maybe this Batman was novel during the four-issue run of Miller's original "Dark Knight" series, but it soon became apparent--to many longtime fans of the character, anyway--that he really wasn't too compelling. He was predictable. Cardboard. And, most significantly, lacking in humanity and heroic qualities.
The original Batman writers--Bill Finger, Gardner Fox and others--realized this 50 years ago. That's why the original Batman didn't remain a sour-pussed, gun-toting vigilante for long. It's hard to like a guy with no sense of humor, with no emotions other than anger. The Batman of the mid to late 1940s was still plenty tough and his villains sinister. But he'd still take time to crack a smile or joke once in a while.
But the dark Batman comics have kept selling, nevertheless, as superhero comics will. Many superhero fans tend to be undescriminating, reflex buyers. So long as it says "Batman" on the cover, they'll keep buying it.
But, finally, DC Comics has decided that, hey, maybe it's time to tone down the darkness in Batman a bit and bring in a little more humanity. He's been the Punisher too long. The reasons for this change aren't clear. Batman, after all, continues to sell plenty of comics in today's small market. But maybe the marketing folks figured a shakeup of some sort might help the books sell even better.
The decision to change the character coincides with DC's big "Infinite Crisis" crossover series of last year. After a universes-altering cataclysm, the universe the DC characters inhabit has changed and we rejoin Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and other key characters after a year of mystery. They've been missing during that time and we don't know what they've been up to. But they're slightly different and obviously entering new chapters of their lives. In short, they've been subtly "rebooted."
"Batman: Face the Face" collects the first story arc featuring this new Batman and he is a bit different. The change isn't terribly dramatic, but this Batman shows a tad more compassion and emotion than we've seen in recent years. He's less of a jerk, but still not a person you'd want to mess with.
The template Robinson and DC's other writers and editors are reportedly using for with this new Batman is the 1970s take on the character by writer Denny O'Neill and writer Neal Adams. Creatively, this makes a lot of sense. O'Neill and Adams gave Batman new life, bringing back his toughness and mystery and doing away with the campy softness of the 1960s. Their Batman was compelling, multi-faceted and, above all, heroic. He's a helluva lot more interesting that Frank Miller's Batman, too. So this is a good move over all.
That's not to say this story, written by James Robinson with art by Leonard Kirk and Don Kramer, is without darkness. A mystery about an unknown vigilante who's killing off some of Batman's lower-tier villains, it's at times gruesomely violent. Gunshot wounds that easily could've been hinted at off-panel are shown in full.
And while Batman's nature has brightened a bit, the colors of the artwork are still ludicrously dark. Sure, Batman comes out at night. But if there are no daylight scenes in the story, there's no contrast to make those nighttime scenes dramatic. There's not a daytime moment in the book. Nearly all the gutters between panels are black, too, instead of white. Most absurd is page 88, where the colors are so dark you can barely make out the images. It's like word balloons on a black page--silly stuff that should've been caught by the book's editor.
Still, the pitting of Batman against a vigilante without mercy is a great way to set up this new paradigm for the character: We see how he differs from just an angry guy with a gun. Batman is about justice, not revenge.
Robinson's script is solid, albeit not offering too many surprises. And it hangs together well in collected form. The art, likewise, is well done, although lacking in originality and character. Superhero comics today may be at their most pedestrian artwise than they have been since the the early Golden Age. The genre could use a visual shakeup and artists who aren't afraid to let their own styles and creativity show through.
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