Ok, I just finished reading BATMAN NOEL and wanted to share with you my first impressions on the book. I’ll try to be impartial (hard when I love Mr. Bermejo’s art), and will try to illustrate some of my points. Lee Bermejo’s BATMAN: NOEL as you well know went on sale this week in your local comic book shop.
First a quick summary:
- Bob becomes live bait for the Joker
Bob’s a man living it hard due to circumstances beyond his control, and he is willing to try to change his luck even if it means to work for the Joker, who has ordered him to deliver a mysterious package for him. The Batman arrives, scaring Bob to half to death and making him lose the Joker’s money. After putting a ‘tag’ on him Batman lets him go (counting on the Joker coming back later to get his money back).
During his wait, Batman is plagued by strange visions. First he sees Robin’s costume on the Batcave ‘come to life’. Then, following Gordon’s lead he faces Selina who forces him to see life as it has been in the past. Finally he faces an old ally, Superman, who offers him a view of the present Gotham and a hand back to his batmobile. With Superman gone, Batman tries to start the car, but it explodes leaving him unconscious on the ally. Joker, who had set the whole thing and was waiting in the shadows, drags the unconscious Batman to a nearby cemetery and buries him alive while he pays a visit to Bob and his son to get his money back.
In the grave, Batman is plagued by more visions of what the world will be like when he’s not there, and that gives him enough force to wake up and escape the ‘forced burial’. Tracking the Joker down to Bob’s apartment, Batman tries to stop him, but it is Bob who has the last card when he gets a hold of the Joker’s gun and threatens to kill the Jester. It’s now up to Batman to convince Bob, that there is another way of facing evil…one that is not as hard and black and white as he used to be.
My opinion on the book are somewhat divided. Though I have to admit that Bermejo does not disappoint me with his strong artistic almost gothic style (which I love) and a strong visual narrative, when he wants to tie elements of the story to Charles Dickens A CHRISTMAS CAROL, I think he’s not that successful on making the connection most of the time.
- Selina is the Spirit of Christmas Past
For instance,the only way Mr. Bermejo could tie Batman with the character of Ebenezer Scrooge, is to prune the mythos of the DCU Batman, taking away most of Bruce’s humanity and compassion to substitute them with a sometimes unfocused inner rage that seems to drive his every action. Revenge is the focus of Batman’s battle against evil.
In my opinion, this weakens the character that we have learned to love and care, making this Batman interpretation flat and one-dimensional. I know that Bermejo’s style is unique as is the universe he creates, taking him outside of the known DCU. We saw this in his previous work like JOKER or LEX LUTHOR that don’t seem to fit regular continuity in any way. It is safe to say his Batman here is unique and different, living in a darker corner of the DC UNIVERSE than we are use to see and definitely out of continuity, so when you read, forget all you know about Batman. Only when you do, you can reconcile the connection Lee tries to make with Dickens’ Scrooge.
Making more parallelisms with A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Bermejo makes his first introduction of the supernatural aspect of his story with the Robin hallucination Bruce has in the Batcave. Robin is Scrooge’s Jacob Marley, warning him of the impending need to change his ways or be visited by three spirits to show him the way. In the original story there is a nice exchange between Marley and Scrooge, but in the Batcave the vision is fleeting and mute, looking more like a plea of help than that a request to change. It is the background narrator of the story who needs to make the connection evident to us. I think the magic is lost there.
Still, forgetting the references to Charles Dickens classic story, this is a very nice well conceived BATMAN-JOKER story overall. I think the Joker here is quite in character, as crazy as ever.
- Watch Bermejo’s creative process
There is no doubt that the plot has its merit, but the strongest point of BATMAN: NOËL of this story is in the art. Like always, Lee Bermejo draws a very realistic world using very detailed painted style that is reminiscent of Dickens Victorian England (and I;m personally appreciative of the fact that he keeps the same style throughout the whole storyand not mixes it like in JOKER GN). The colors are muted, the perspectives are extreme and the composition is impeccable. And the character’s themselves are painted with outstanding realism as well. Bermejo’s design of the pages delivers strong emotional messages throughout the story, anger, anguish, hope, fear all reads from the color palette and the panel design.
The world Bermejo paints is real, its gritty, is dark and his master of the sequential art makes the story easy to follow. It is a work of art and though to some this might just be another Joker-Batman face off…it is one beautifully illustrated and one definitely to be read and enjoyed.
And to add more goodies to the book, Mr. Bermejo was kind enough to add a commentary section at the end of the book where he discusses some aspects of his creative processs during the production of the graphic novel. Interesting to see an artist go through the whole process from layouts to final work.
Here are some nice Joker moments from BATMAN: NOËL:
