BATMAN: NO MAN'S LAND VOL. 1

BATMAN: NO MAN'S LAND VOL. 1

by Gabrielle Mineo

Written by:Devin Grayson and Michael Robert Gale

Created by: Bob Kane

After suffering a disastrous earthquake, the U.S. government has termed Gotham City a “No Man’s Land” and ordered all citizens to leave. Those who have refused to evacuate live amongst a city of war and despair experiencing major structural damage severely limiting resources such as food, water and electricity. Criminals have begun to take advantage of the random anarchy of the city and have created trade like organizations that feed into the supply and demand of the land. Normal citizens have become so desperate that they begin to steal just to make ends meet thus making it increasingly difficult to institute law and order in the city.The police department is led by Commissioner James Gordon, his girlfriend/Lieutenant Sarah Essen, along with Detectives Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya attempting to take control of the city to restore order but faced with the task of a city separated into various territories controlled by criminals.

Spray paint is used to mark symbols throughout the city to represent the organization that has control of each section. Villains Two Face, Scar Face, Penguin and Poison Ivy have distinguished themselves and have had great success in controlling their territories. Batman’s entourage of heroes Night wing, Robin and Oracle, Butler Alfred and non-Batman affiliated but sometimes associate vigilante Huntress have assisted in efforts to stop crime. However, they are still adjusting to a city that is so familiar yet incredibly different from how they have known it to be. The graffiti symbols also take on a greater meeting in this work. One of the most primal displays of marking territory as your own is an extremely common theme in this story. It displays that sometimes going back to basics when things are difficult is the best way to attract attention from people and call them into action.

The central theme of the novel is survival. Do the people of Gotham fight for what they believe in and maintain hope in the direst of circumstances or do they give in to the situation and do anything to survive? The novel puts the reader into the perspective of living in the city and enduring the trials and tribulations amongst the characters. The artists also appears to draw more lines on the faces of the characters and five o’clock shadows to show the stress that they have endured. Also, Batman and his allies’ costumes have tears on them to show resources are not as readily available as in the past. The illustrations have dark blends to show a city at war and yet very bright symbols when spray painted to help identify who has control during each respective battle.

The Original creator of the superhero DC comics Batman is credited to Bob Kane. He was a young American comic artist from the Bronx, New York. He studied art at Cooper Union College before joining Max Fleischer Studio as a trainee animator in the year of 1934. Two years later, in 1936, he started freelancing material for Wow, What A Magazine!, including his first work on the serial Hiram Hick. The next year, Kane began to work at Iger's subsequent studio,Eisner & Iger, the first comic book that produced comics upon request for publisher’s entering this new medium during the Golden Age of comics. Kane also produced many works through Eisner & Iger for two of the companies that would later merge into DC Comics, including "Ginger Snap" in More Fun Comics, "Oscar the Gumshoe" for Detective Comics, and "Professor Doolittle" for Adventure Comics. Kane’s last title he went on to do was his first adventure strip, "Rusty and his Pals". In 1939, DC asked Kane to create the next hit superhero; his response was the creation of BATMAN!, which was a huge success for DC comics. Later, as comic books died down in popularity during the 1960’s Kane went on to a career in TV animation. He created the characters Courageous Cat and Cool McCool. In his later years, he dabbled in paintings that made its way into many art galleries. They were so successful that even a ghost painter was used with his name to sell many of the paintings. Kane was also successful in writing novels and published a book titled Batman and Me. Kane Died in 1998 from natural causes but his legacy continues to inspire future generations especially through his greatest creation, The Batman.

Through reading Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics the invisible art”, the blend of the images and the story telling is synonymously effective and critical. Through various point of the novel, dark and gritty images are used to consistently display the state of emergency the city is in without words to accompany the images. These images are extremely powerful and convey the level of decimation Gotham has endure other times, the writing takes us inside the mind of the characters, which is really transporting us to a journey of our self-doubts and finding out if we have the courage to battle our own fears and to prosper as individuals. Overall, the images and words blended nicely as they allowed certain times for the images to speak for themselves and at other times for the characters to show their true motivations and emotions through words which allows for the reader to have several moments of self-reflection and wonder if this so called hero is having difficulty with these circumstances, how would I be able to cope? Can I find the inner strength to not make the easy choice but the right one? The novel was extremely creative and realistic. It stays away from fanatical concepts with the basis of the cities devastation a truly possible occurrence. The heroes and heroines of this tale are not superhuman and do not possess any other special abilities other than talent which has been cultivated and grown through hard work and perseverance. Their villains are very realistic as well and can represent any of the number of common criminals and terrorists in the world today. These concepts are exactly what make this series work as they place us in the position of the cruelty yet great human spirit of the world we live in.

     

              

The realism of the characters is what sells this novel, as Batman can no longer swoop in and save the day. The efforts of every person is needed to restore the city to balance. This is parallel to our modern society where there is no one person to save the day, to save our lives. Several characters that would have never worked with each other are forced to come to together for the greater goal of saving a city, more to the point, their home. Just as in life sometimes your enemy must become your friend to achieve the greater good for everyone. This point really is what helps this piece stand out as no matter what people’s differences or ideals maybe, having faith and fighting for what you believe in is the only way to survive.

The only thing that can be deemed, as a negative in this graphic novel is that there are so many characters to keep track of that while there is never a dull moment, having to learn about all these people and their roles within this No Man’s land can be overwhelming. This would be especially true if readers have no prior knowledge of the characters and are using this text as their basis. The authors made an admirable attempt to have all of the characters streamlined into the stories events but it nevertheless can still be a difficult task to know who affects who in which way and how. The story is filled with many grey areas, which is great for 

the theme of the series but can be difficult to maintain.This novel is not amongst the top 100 comics listed in the comics journal of the best comics of all time all be it is possible since the novel came out during the same year, that fact maybe a bit askew. The novel is an influential piece that has been used as a backbone for movies such as the Dark Knight Rises were the parallels of watching Gotham city abandoned by the government and placing more of an emphasis on supporting characters to help restore order to the city.

“I could stop their screaming with one bolt. Wouldn't stop a ... thing. Seven days since Gotham has been left to rot like Gomorrah. We're better than that. I'm sure of it. Unfortunately, I've seen nothing to so far to support that faith."

This was said by Huntress in the beginning stages of the novel. I can honestly say that through this piece, I was able to see the better part of Gotham despite all of the crime and tragedy there was also great heroism. This has inspired me to believe that if a world so corrupt can show great improvement and humanity maybe there is hope for our world in these uncertain times. If a world so corrupt can recover, then the reality is our world is far from a No Man’s land, it is worth fighting for and worth living for. We may not have a Batman but we have the support of an entire nation, if a writer can create these concepts of hope and peace amongst pain and suffering, then humanity can inspire these hopes in real life which in essence has influenced me to believe in something greater then myself and the novel, which is the central message of the novel, that despite whatever turbulent times we may face we can endure, we can become greater then ourselves, we can hope. 

It is definitely a MUST HAVE for any comic book fan.