Batman Over Christmas

I’ve just realised this week that I’m buying more Batman related titles than I thought I did. It started off with Batman, then I added Catwoman, The Dark Knight and Detective Comics and to top it off I’m still playing Arkham City. But the big release in comics land yesterday was, Batman Noel, a graphic novel by artist Lee Bermejo.

In an ideal world, Bermejo would be able to do a monthly comic and sales levels would go through the roof. He’s in the same league of Adi Granov, Gabriele Dell'Otto and Alex Ross, these lot take their time putting their work on the page and all the better for it and it’s what makes them comic book super stars.

The artist often get’s mistaken for coming up with the look of the late Heath Ledger’s Joker in the Dark Knight after drawing the Clown Prince of Crime for a site. He once commented his Joker was like a “drugged up Christopher Walken” as opposed to Ledger and during the same year that TDK was released writer Brian Azzarello and Bermejo did Joker which like their previous Luthor storyline is seen through the main antagonist’s perspective and features a lap dancing Harley Quinn for a few panels.

With Batman Noel, Bermejo’s gone solo and turned to Charles Dickens for inspiration and using Batman as Scrooge, Gotham City almost looks like the Gotham from Batman Returns. Using Christmas as a backdrop, hard-up wannabe criminal Bob Cratchit whilst trying to support his disabled son Tim, ends up working for the Joker where for his troubles, he’s pursed by a relentless Batman whose starting to come down with flu, which leads to Alfred sarcastically commenting “impossible for the Dark Knight to get sniffles.”His ruthless attitude leads him to confront his rogue’s gallery of foes as well as the Man of Steel, each of them echoing the ghosts of Dickens’s famous novel.

( You really need to get to get this book and no, I'm not talking to comic book geeks.)

Bermejo’s gorgeous pencils and inks has the likes of current Bat artists Greg Capullo and Dave Finch standing in the dust. He’s equally complimented by colourist Barbara Ciardo which truly shines out when an ethereal looking Superman enters the scene and in a flashback which shows the younger days of the dynamic duo.

For a fledging writer he’s not done a bad job. It’s quite inspiring to see a creator of his calibre transfer a plot which is from the Victorian era and apply it into a illustrated setting, even Dr Who did this last Christmas. Whilst reading the graphic novel, I found myself getting a little choked up when Tim makes a small Christmas tree using a potted plant and a broken Budweiser bottle.

It’s a bit off seeing a Xmas book come out in November but then again decorations are already coming up in the High Street, but this is going to make an ideal stocking filler for not only Bat fans out there but to anyone who is interested in picking up a Batman book.

Posted: 3/11/2011
Categories: Comics / Reviews

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