Batman: Earth One volume 2

[lordultimus]

 

Brad Meltzer: "For the first time in a long time, you can see Batman's eyes. That may seem like a minor change. It's not. Johns and Frank know that the real appeal of Batman is what hides within him. Now they're letting us take a brand new, breathtaking peek ... inside and out."

20 1/2 out of 160 pages

Comments

[venatosapiens]

This is actually a marked improvement over the first volume, which was pretty awful. Great version of Killer Croc, interesting twist on Two Face. How does Catwoman show up in the story?

[lordultimus]

Similar to the Riddler in the first one, she only shows up on the last page as a teaser for the next volume.

Is anyone else kind of disappointed that the plot of this wasn't the Riddler trying to find out who Batman is?

[draganoche]

Actually I think she was the woman whose apartment batman appeared to have crashed into. When he returned to thank her the apartment was robbed due to the real owner being away during that time.

[lordultimus]

Ah. I didn't read the whole thing.

[katefan]

Agreed. I liked the little joke regarding Batman disappearing, and I loved the new Bat Signal, nice little touches.

[lordultimus]

Well, Earth One Superman stole the classic Bat-Signal...

[katefan]

I didn't know that. Do they exist in the same universe? I wasn't sure.

[lordultimus]

They do, but the continuity is loose at best. As far as I know, the creators of each of the Earth One books don't have much contact with each other. The in-universe explanation is that this universe is still "cooling" and "nothing is certain."

Bottom-line: Don't expect Earth One: Justice League to come out any time soon.

[katefan]

Thanks for the info.

[junipepper]

I'm not sure how I feel about the exposed eyes. Alex Ross has done Batman with visible eyes, but they're much more exposed in this. I'm a little uncomfortable with this look.

[reveen]

Yeah, if it's not done right the exposed eyes can make it look like he's wearing a gimp mask or something.

Besides, Batman having lenses just makes sense. He doesn't want his career to end with a piece of train shrapnel in the eyeball.

[icon_uk]

It worked for Adam West! :)

[zapbiffpow]

With you on this, occasionally. It does makes him a lot more emotive, but it's like he forgot to slather on that eye makeup thing from the Nolan movies.

[lucean]

While I also felt this was a vast improvement from Vol. One, it still feels really off to me. I mean there have a number of variations on the character in the past, but this just, to me personally, doesn't feel like Batman. He feels more like utterly entitled and pretty incompetent vigilante than the obsessive driven individual. I get that this is supposed to be the origin of the character, but it just doesn't feel respectful for the character.

[captainbellman]

Someone ought to school Geoff Johns on his English dialect and defunct anachronisms. You can't just throw "blokes" in there and expect it to come off realistic. It's just not cricket.

[silverhammerman]

I just figured out what the Earth One books remind me of: superhero movies from the 90's and early 2000's.

The winking contempt for the source material, all the weird attempts to make things more grounded and less comic book-y (completely missing what made them fun and compelling in the first place), the small world/everyone knows everyone/lazy writing, the tendency to kill off villains left and right, and the occasional utterly inexplicable changes.

It'd make me nostalgic if it weren't so laughably bad.

[zapbiffpow]

What do you mean by 'winking contempt for the source material'? Legit q, not combative.

[starwolf_oakley]

An example might be the "Yellow Spandex" joke in the first X-Men movie.

[night4345]

There are a lot of those in Superhero shows and I hate it every time it happens.

[silverhammerman]

I guess I'd describe it as an attitude that crops up in certain adaptations; where they sort of acknowledge and adapt elements of the source material while also making fun of and dismissing the original version as unrealistic or silly. It kind of positions the old material as kid stuff that you grew up with, but the new version is for adults and very realistic (in it's presentation of a billionaire ninja vigilante in a fursuit).

So stuff like Killer Croc thinking Batman's costume and name are dumb, Alfred saying it's crazy to fight crime in spandex, Batman saying he's not a detective, and especially the whole Batsignal/phone exchange.

[leoboiko]

I actually like this. I like this Batman. That page where he disappears and Gordon gets stumped and then he says "over here"—that really encapsulates this character.

I could do with a little less lampshading; done too much, it undermines the character a bit.

Bummer that the Riddler wans't really the Riddler but cool twist nonetheless.

[lordultimus]

Part of me feels something like this could be done mainstream, except that it would reveal it's not Ed Nigma, but a copycat killer.

[ekrolo2]

I really like that we've got a Batman who isn't already a master of everything ever before he even puts on the suit. Lets you have some cool character development for him later like Gordon helping him be a real detective.

[lordultimus]

Yeah, I'd balk if I saw it in mainstream, but in an alternate, I can dig it.

[big_daddy_d]

That's one of the major things I enjoy about Batman: Earth One. He's not perfect. He's a rookie. He's still new at this and slowly developing the very skills that establish him as the badass we know and love. Just like Superman: Earth One, it seems like they're doing a trilogy that is one big origin.

[zapbiffpow]

There's something iffy about the execution, but I see what you're getting at. It does have the benefit of Gordon taking a role as one of Batman's 'mentors', at least in the detective field of expertise.

[zapbiffpow]

Damn, Jess. Can't Batman have one unscathed Big Good in a high place?

The real twist would be if Jessica Dent overcomes all this trauma and carries on like before, using her physical deformity as a inspirational reminder/scare tactic. Like, I dunno, Daylight Batwoman.

I remember Joker calling Two-Face out on that during Death of the Family.

[lordultimus]

Does Jim Gordon count?

[zapbiffpow]

A bit. But Gordon's more of a blue collar-aligned character, a man of the streets - consider his roles in Year One and The Black Mirror: he's more interesting when he's half-official, half-field police.

I'm looking for someone higher up, like a governor, a mayor, a senator, someone along those lines. Someone who doesn't get his hands dirty, but still contributes a lot to the fight.

Like a good version of 'The Man' character archetype, I think.

[starwolf_oakley]

A Batman Two-Face graphic novel had that as well. Two-Face to a "captive" crowd that if any of them were scarred by acid, "Well, you'd probably get really depressed for a while, but you wouldn't end up like me!"

Meaning Two-Face thinks the Joker's "One Bad Day" theory is crap. Which is awesome, sort of.

[zapbiffpow]

Ooh, the 'One Bad Day' theorem also came to my mind when Leatherface!Joker was reaming out Harvey! It does paint Joker as kind of a hypocrite.

Huh, now I kinda miss Two-Face. He could've spun his accident into a 'The Hanging Judge'-style PR package.

[starwolf_oakley]

Mr. Haley filed the teeth? Curious. Has there been a lot about Haley in various continuities? Plus, his relationship with the Graysons might be more contentious than we thought in Earth One.

[lordultimus]

Not as far as I know, it was just "Haley's Circus." Sometimes he tells Dick Grayson "Sorry about your parents", and that's about it.

Considering that Croc here isn't even a bad guy in this (one of the first things he corrects Batman on is, "I don't eat people asshole"), it would be interesting to see what happens when Dick enters the mix.

[starwolf_oakley]

I've wondered if Dick ever places some blame on Haley for not paying off Tony Zucco and his goons in the first place, which would have prevented the Flying Graysons from getting killed. Depends on the story, I suppose. LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #100 and DARK VICTORY avoided this, IIRC.

[skjam]

To no one's surprise, I have reviewed this at my blog: http://www.skjam.com/2015/05/30/comic-book-review-batman-earth-one-volume-two/

Added some other new reviews too!

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I get such Ultimate Marvel vibes from this.

Like, I know (think?) All-Star was supposed to be DC's counterpart to that brand, but this feels more in line with what Marvel was trying to do, but with DC characters.