We’re taking a detour from Manga reviews for a step back into the realm of Superheroes and Pulp Noir. It is the first DC review I have written in a couple of years, but we’re jumping back in with a fairly new Bat-related title from DC’s Black Label line titled The Bat-Man: First Knight. As always, if you’re interested in reading my previous reviews, click here to head over to the Reviews Category.
From Legendary Comic Book Creator Dan Jurgens (The Death of Superman, Batman Beyond, Booster Gold) and the artistic team of Mike Perkins (The Stand, Lois Lane, The Swamp-Thing), and Colorist Mike Spicer (Wonder Woman: Dead Earth, Super Dinosaur, Transformers) teamed up for a new tale in the Batman Mythos, one that steps back into an era of Pulp Noir and into the early days of the Dark Knight. This review will cover the Hardcover Collected Edition, which collects Issues One through Three.
Set in 1939, fascism was on the rise and rumors of a Vigilante dressed as a Bat filled the streets of Gotham, little did they know that the rumors were true! At the center of a series of crimes, Batman comes to the conclusion that their prime suspect in each case were deceased. With the Caped Crusader’s only ally being Detective James Gordon of the Gotham City Police Department, both detectives must uncover who these “reanimated criminals” are and how to stop them.
As a fan of Golden Age Comics, I enjoyed Dan Jurgens’ approach for this early story for Batman. It felt like a call back to the earlier stories from Bill Finger and Bob Kane. It gave him a more grounded feel to the hero and a call back to pulp magazine heroes. What I enjoyed the most of this story was how it felt like a nod to the Batman #1 (Spring 1940) story of The Giants of Doctor Hugo Strange, while not recreating the tale but puts it in a new context, instead of Hugo Strange being the villain, but a villain known as ‘The Voice‘ in an alternate continuity. Speaking of Hugo’s Monster Men, the Beastsmen were vastly different from these creatures, while both are equal in strength and height, the beastsmen’s intelligence did not diminish but were supernatural, monstrous anomalies that resemble executed criminals returning to life. Another thing this series does well is capturing the mood of the late 30s, a time before the United States entered World War II, Hitler’s War on Europe, and a city caught up in the middle of the Great Depression.
More on the subject of themes, this book does contain certain elements of history in its pages, especially in its newspaper clippings from the Gotham City Gazette. The world is still reeling from the first World War, the dark shadow of facism looming over Europe and its threat on a Global scale. Not to mention its unintentional parallels between that era and the modern day era, for example, the rise of authoritarianism, antisemitism, income inequality, communist witch hunts, and workers’ rights.
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The artwork in this miniseries is outstanding, I wasn’t familiar with Perkins’s work but after reading this short series, it makes me want to look into more of what books he is involved in. He has a keen eye in capturing the tone of the era the story takes part of, accompanied by Spicer’s color work elevates Perkins line work. I loved his approach to Batman’s first costume, it strikes fear in the hearts of crooks but offers some humor into it (due to the fact of a rich man dressing like a Bat.) The Beastmen have a great, horrific designs but simplistic (now, don’t take that in a negative way, it is nice to have creatures without exaggerated bulky figures, or low-brow type of villain physiques.) Finally, when exploring Gotham during the Great Depression, the city had an element of mystery, and the feel of the darkness of urban decay which was illustrated and colored perfectly, given those who are familiar with history and the era.
The Bat-Man: First Knight (Collected Edition) Is Available Now at your Local Comic Book Shop, and e-retailer. It is available to read now on the DC Universe Infinite App. Also, be sure to check out the follow up series, The Bat-Man: Second Knight is currently ongoing, and available now.
Final Grade:
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