Batman: Thrillkiller Chapter 1

[informationgeek]

Writer: Howard Chaykin
Artist: Dan Brereton
Letterer: Bill Dakley

8 1/3 pages out of 25

Warning for some slight homophobia (comes with the time period).



So, here's something I'm honestly surprised no one covered yet. There are a ton of Batman Elseworlds comics out there and this one in particular is something I see pop up on the best of lists (same for best Batman comics as well). As such, let's take a look at it. This will be a collection of various scenes from the first chapter...

It's 1961 and times are changing for Gotham...

Comments

[lucean]

Thrillkiller was such a weird story, I still don't know if I kind of liked or just hated it, but then again I often felt like that baout most Chaykin stories.

For me the biggest thing it missed was to examine what it meant that Babs being the primary Bat and what that required. It essentially tried to tell a story with Batgirl and Dick being pretty much what they were in main universe with their approach, yet ignored the fact that they could be the light characters in the main universe because Batman carried the darker load.

[reveen]

Batgirl played by Brigitte Nielsen!

Which would be awesome, by the way.

[shadur]

I'd pay to watch that.

[randyripoff]

Hmm. Was the term "gay" being used heavily back in the 1960's? It seemed a little out of place for the time.

[bradygirl_12]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure 'homosexual' was the term of the era for the general public, though within the gay community, they'd been using the term for quite some time.

[randyripoff]

Yeah, I was thinking either "homosexual" or "queer".

[bradygirl_12]

Bruce's parents' murders? The butler did it! :)

I've seen bits and pieces of this. The New Frontier era is a favorite of mine, and I'm liking the art here. Bruce and Dick are yummy, and Barbara is gorgeous. I like that they kept Babs older than Dick as was for years before they retconned it, I think. She's either younger of the same age as Dick now.

Poor Jim! He's always got a lousy job no matter what Elseworld. :)