Batman The Dark Knight Detective 1, review: shifting gears
Batman The Dark Knight Detective 1, review
Panini DC Italia begins with Batman The Dark Knight Detective 1 the revival of the stories that appeared on the historic Batmanian series Detective Comics in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths. At the helm of the series we find Mike W. Barr on the texts and above all the much appreciated Alan Davis on the drawings. The volume contains, specifically, Detective Comics 568-574 and 579-582. These are stories all already published in our country, but scattered among different publishers and heterogeneous publications, which are collected for the first time in a single volume and chronologically continue the series DC Classic: Batman launched by the previous DC publisher in Italy. br>Batman The Dark Knight Detective 1
Batman The Dark Knight Detective 1: between the 70s and Silver Age
Batman The Dark Knight Detective 1 part with a tie- episode in, with decidedly barren tones, linked to the Legends event and closes with one, more robust and decidedly more in line with the detective cut of the volume, dedicated to the Millennium event. In between, some stories involving Catwoman, Two-Face, the Scarecrow and… Sherlock Holmes!| ); }Batman The Dark Knight Detective 1 Detective Comics 571 sees Robin, who we remember in these stories is Jason Todd, in danger of succumbing to the blows of a particularly fierce Scarecrow in a story that somehow anticipates, albeit only in the form of the effects of the gas of fear, the very fate of the second Wonder Boy. Detective Comics 572 is one of the most peculiar tribute stories to appear in Batmanian publications. For the 50th anniversary of the magazine, in fact, an album with extra foliation is created that brings together three of the main detectives of the DC Universe that appeared on the historic magazine or Slam Bradley, Batman and Elongated Man for an adventure that starting from the classic case of a missing person evolves into an international conspiracy that leads the three not only to cross their own path but that of their more illustrious predecessor, Sherlock Holmes. As absurd as the premises sound, the story is built in a very solid way and involves as well as convincing is the final resolution for what is in effect the volume highlight.
Batman The Dark Knight Detective 1 On Detective Comics 573-574 instead the Mad Hatter is back in action. His criminal plan, obviously hat-themed, is particularly bold enough to almost succeed. In an attempt to escape, however, the criminal injures Robin. Batman crazed with pain takes his shoulder to Leslie Thompkins' clinic where he relives the stages in his life that led to his becoming Batman. A sort of very fast preparatory retelling to those that are the episodes not present in the volume or Detective Comics 575-578 that make up the famous narrative arc Batman: Year Two.
Batman The Dark Knight Detective 1: shifting gears
Batman The Dark Knight Detective 1 is a volume that somehow photographs the beginning of that change of pace in the Batmanian production resulting from the enormous success of two works, both signed by Frank Miller, released shortly before and / or simultaneously with the collected episodes or The Return of the Dark Knight and Batman: Year One (on Batman 404-407, definitive retelling of the origins of the Dark Knight) that would have purged the stories, for over two decades , of the influences of the legendary TV series of the 60s, of the production of Dick Sprang and, graphically, of the lesson of designers who had redefined in the 70s and in the early 80s the character as Neal Adams, Don N ewton and Jim Aparo.Narratively, therefore, the volume presents itself as a kaleidoscope of needs and ideas. The Millerian influence is in fact only formal because on the contrary in practice the stories presented tend more to what had been the taste of the second half of the 70s and early 80s with Silver Age episodes toned down only by the more realistic pencils of Alan Davis (to report here paired with Paul Neary) or the more synthetic ones by Klaus Janson or Jim Baikie up to the more plastic ones by Norm Breyfogle.
The heavy urban atmospheres proposed by Miller appear only on a couple of occasions, showing however all their potential, especially in Detective Comics 579 and in a characterization of Batman more nervous and less adventurous than the one seen up to that moment. In this sense, the relationship with Robin, a less close-knit and more “scholastic” relationship between mentor and pupil, is the point of balance. Jason Todd is not Dick Grayson and his inexperience often leads to dramatic situations that reflect more than ever before on the mood of the Dark Knight.
A narrative scheme that sees Batman opposing head-on is also predominant. to the villain on duty, often inactive for a long time and who tries a return in style, in not too articulate and very direct plots. The thrust between tradition and innovation finds opposite poles in the graphic approach of Alan Davis and Norm Breyfogle. The first is a refined interpreter of that voluptuous, tapered and dynamic style which until then had represented the standard for Batman's production, albeit here less acrobatic than in other circumstances. The British draftsman is precise and clean while conceding something in terms of detail especially for a use of blacks that is not always calibrated on his anatomy as much as on the chiaroscuro effects.
It is no coincidence that the other draftsman examined is “The guest” Norm Breyfogle. It will be he who will take the reins of Detective Comics, together with the legendary Alan Grant to the texts, perfectly summarizing the aesthetic change of the Batman of the 80s in a research that will tend to balance the chiaroscuro with a less sculptural and more dynamic plasticity by opening a season of great graphic experiments on the character. Although still uncertain here, Breyfogle will ripen quickly and the fruit of this ripening will already be evident from the next volume of the series that we hope Panini DC Italia will bring to the shelves as soon as possible.
Batman Il Cavaliere Oscuro Detective 1
