BurtonReviews Batman I am Gotham (Batman Rebirth Issues 1-5): Sowing Seeds
(Image sourced from http://411mania.com/movies/411s-comic-reviews-batman-rebirth-1-nighthawk-1-more/)
After a legendary run through the New 52 by Scott Snyder on
the main Batman title, anyone following it up has some mighty big shoes to
fill. Que the newest rising star in the comic book writer community, Tom King
(known for his work on Greyson and the Omega men). A ex CIA agent, his real
world experience were sure to bring an interesting new take on the dark
crusader, but were DC right to trust their flagship title to him. In short hell
yes. In long here’s the rest of my review.
The first storyline of the Rebirth Batman’s tale sees Batman
encounter two new and extremely powerful superheroes that want to save Gotham. They
are called Gotham and Gotham Girl and they give Batman a hope for the future of
Gotham for when the Bat just isn’t enough to save his beloved city; that is if
they can live up to his very lofty standards of crime fighting and all around
badassery.
King’s first tale in what is sure to be a long and impactful run
on one of the most popular characters of all time is a very interesting and
surprisingly personal tale. Starting with a bang, the storyline had me hooked
from the very beginning and gave, not only a fresh look into how Batman thinks
and operates, but fresh and exciting scenarios for him to work his way through.
Sure we’ve seen old Bats think on his legacy before, but never like this, where
he sees a bright beam of hope for Gotham’s future instead of a tormented
landscape of continuous crime and torture and seeing Batman with this glimmer
of hope glisten in his eye for the first time in a while not only gave the
character new dimension, but also made the story a lot more personal than you
would think just reading the synopsis of the story.
But in this industry a great story can only take you so far,
if the visuals aren’t just right, you could be taken out of the experience completely.
Thankfully that is certainly not the case for this title so far. As Snyder left
huge boots to fill, so did his main accompanying artist on Batman’s New 52
adventures, Greg Capullo. But Batman Rebirths artists, Matt Banning and David
Finch, do an amazing job at giving the story not only a consistent and grounded
style, but they also make the book look and feel very real and believable. While
other DC books at the moment have Doomsday bashing through buildings at a time,
this books more grounded scenarios allows the art to feel more sombre, making
the heroic acts feel even more spectacular and the villainous plots even more heinous.
The city of Gotham, which is really another character at this point felt lived
in and breathing and having the same artists stay on for the whole storyline
gave the plot a consistency and overarching plot that really helped plunge you
back into the plot every two weeks the moment you opened the next issue.
Another factor that helped me dive straight back into the
story and emotions of the plot fortnight to fortnight was the pace and well-structured
points of the story. Almost every issue felt not only well thought out but
added greatly to the plot, making almost no issue feel insignificant or filler,
and giving each issue its own individual and unique wow moment that kept you
hooked to see what was going on and surprised at the direction the story was
taken.
While not an action packed first 5 issues, when things do go
down it is in a truly epic fashion. With the addition of these new super
powered characters, the action can be taken to new heights than done most times
in a Batman book, and how it is depicted by the art is not only clear to follow
but incredible to see happen, making the few action set pieces not only feel
special but also impactful.
But to be honest the character work and unravelling plot were
the most exciting part of this arch. Getting a new insight into how Batman
thinks about his city and his future was fascinating and the new characters are
great additions to the mythos, who I can see having a great future in this
series. Not only did they add a new dimension to the city and characters, but
their origin strengthens the history of Batman and gives them a great foundation
for their characters to expand and grow from and I can’t wait to spend more
time with them.
(Image sourced from http://www.dccomics.com/comics/batman-2016/batman-3)
But not only is Tom King’s writing intriguing and exciting,
but he adds a flavour of humour to the book that can be really refreshing in
amongst all the heartbreak and epic showdowns. And this humour comes in the
form of Alfred, his witty remarks while still being the most loyal butler and
close friend of “Master Bruce”, is not only laugh out loud good but always
makes me want to see more of their interaction, whether it be humorous or
dramatic.
Because this story had some emotion, at many points in the
ach I had to stop and just take in how heart-breaking some beats of this story
really are, and I applaud Tom King for getting so much emotion out of me in 35
pages or less.
On the subject of characters, each one was depicted amazingly
in this comic. From Batman’s slight change in costume to the new Hero’s
uniforms which grew in me quite a bit as the story went on, the clean and clear
but still grounded and believable tone of the book carried into the character
designs and made for some striking images as the plot thickened.
(Image sourced from http://screenrant.com/batman-rebirth-easter-eggs-gotham-girl/)
Now with a huge shared universe like DC, it can be abit
frustrating for comic book readers when both a character feels too separate
from the ongoing and evolving life of the outer universe, or when that outer
universe interferes with the story so much you can barely tell it’s a characters
book anymore. Thankfully Tom King integrates elements from the rest of the DC
universe not only gracefully but in ways that made my little nerdy heart jump
in excitement as the pieces of the DC puzzle fell perfectly in place and heightened
the events of the story, instead of making them awkwardly shoe horned in or
completely ruin the flow of the plot
Not only was this a great starting story for Batman’s Rebirth
Adventures but it also added to Batman’s mythos, adding characters that gave
his character new dimensions and giving the stories new places and exciting
places to with such a rise in power level; but it also laid intriguing and exciting
seeds that we are sure to get the payback from in stories to come. So overall,
Tom King is a great choice to helm the newest in the line of amazing Batman
stories, his writing is fun, dramatic and engrossing and the clues and teases
he’s left us for the future have me hungry for more and highly anticipating
each and every issue to come.
Batman I am Gotham: 9/10
Why not check out my YouTube channel, BurtonReviews, where I upload awesome gaming montages put to badass songs or scores every Sunday. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbUfnyezvQsVsDgN3TGRh1Q
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.
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