A Journey into Graphic Novels: Batman
I love superhero movies, and a while ago, I got very into Batman, especially the Arkham verse games and the tv shows that DC has been putting out. The Batman fandom (more the batfamily fandom) puts out so much content and is quite a welcoming place to find yourself. However, I haven’t really read many comics and knowing where to start when everyone has a different opinion on what to read and what to avoid is a bit of a challenge. Taking tips from ThePandaRedd on Tiktok, I had a look in the graphic novel section of my local library. I took out two different books, Batman: Dark Knight, Dark City and Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn.
It was really interesting to see the differences between comics from ten years ago and comics from twenty-plus years ago. Even the paper the comics were printed on was different with glossy paper for the modern one and matte paper for Dark Knight, Dark City. Even the person behind the cowl was different. In Dark Knight, Dark City, the Batman is still Bruce Wayne and RObin (although he barely appears) is Tim Drake. Batman Reborn has Dick Grayson behind the cowl and Damian Wayne as his Robin. Jason Todd also makes an appearance as Red Hood (but in the worst way as it’s the pill-headed costume). The only consistency between the comics was Alfred who is the same no matter when or by who he was written.
Having two different characters behind the cowl was great. I will honestly say that the reason I like Batman so much is because of the family he has built around him and that’s what I wanted to explore in comics. I think the biggest difference was that Dick Grayson’s Batman was still feared but ultimately he believes in people a lot more. Dark Knight, Dark City was dark. There was talk of human sacrifice and other horrific things that I very much didn’t expect from comics that a lot of children read.
It’s a little hard to review two different Batman comics when they are so very different, but I don’t feel like I could’ve said a huge amount about either of them on their own. I enjoyed them both. I wanted to enjoy Batman Reborn more because it had the family in it, but I found that each storyline in that felt very shallow. SO much more could’ve been done to flesh out the relationships, especially the troubles Dick Grayson had with Damian Wayne being a bit of a brat. Dark City, Dark Knight gave us a bit of history about Gotham and how the darkness that infected the city in the past continues to affect the city and I really enjoyed that.
Comics are not my favourite medium for a story but I still want to read more, so, if anyone has any suggestions on what comics I should read please let me know.
C🌙
