If you’ve made the mistake of assuming comic books are only for children, our recommendations this week will change your mind. As Batman fever peaks, these are portrayals that forever transformed the way we would see the Caped Crusader and are likely to have fuelled Nolan’s dark vision of Gotham’s hero. From the comic book [...]

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The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

A different take on the Dark Knight

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If you’ve made the mistake of assuming comic books are only for children, our recommendations this week will change your mind. As Batman fever peaks, these are portrayals that forever transformed the way we would see the Caped Crusader and are likely to have fuelled Nolan’s dark vision of Gotham’s hero. From the comic book that defined his origin story to the one that dragged him out of retirement, here are some of our all-time favourites.

Batman: Year One
Written by Frank Miller, Art by David Mazzucchelli

Originally released in 1988 in four parts, Year One was subsequently published as a single volume. It’s the story of how Bruce Wayne became Batman and he and Gordon formed an uneasy alliance that would hold through all the long years that followed. It’s also where Batman meets a prostitute named Selina Kyle – the future Catwoman. But villains are scarce in this comic, a surprise when you consider how Batman is elsewhere often at risk of being overshadowed by the criminals he hunts. Here it’s all about corruption, street crime and two good men fighting a battle in two very different ways – a battle neither can decisively win.

First lines: “Gotham City. Maybe it’s all I deserve now. Maybe it’s just my time in hell.”
Batman: The Long Halloween
Written by Jeph Loeb, Art by Tim Sale

Every holiday is an occasion for murder in The Long Halloween. The new ‘holiday killer’ has everyone – the mob, the cops, the criminally insane and even Batman himself – on edge. On Batman’s side are District Attorney Harvey Dent and Lieutenant Gordon. While the killer is hard to pin down, fans will remember the story for how it ties into the transformation of Harvey Dent into Batman’s deadly foe, Two-Face.

First Lines: “I believe in Gotham City.”
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Written by Grant Morrison, Art by Dave McKean

Batman walks the edge of madness in this comic. The inmates overrun the asylum and he must enter – and risk becoming one of them. Dave McKean’s terrifyingly good artwork makes this a disconcerting, disturbing masterpiece – not for the fainthearted.
First Lines: ‘From the journals of Amadeus Arkham: In the years following my father’s death, I think it’s true to say that the house became my whole world.’

Batman: The Killing Joke
Written by Alan Moore, Art by Brian Bolland

Batman faces off against his greatest foe, The Joker. Legendary graphic novelist, Alan Moore has his Clown Prince of Crime set out to prove that anyone could be driven mad. We are treated to glimpses of Joker’s origin story even as he sets out to break Jim Gordon. Will Joker succeed?

First Lines: “Hello. I came to talk.”
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Written and Drawn by Frank Miller

It’s one of the greatest face offs in comic-book-dom. Batman lumbers out of retirement to fight Superman. We see the future of Gotham and it is grimy and miserable one, but in this city, you’re always rooting for Batman, even if he isn’t quite as perfect as you remembered. A masterpiece of the genre, The Dark Knight Returns is one of Frank Miller’s best.
First Lines: “I’ve got the home stretch all to myself when the readings stop making sense…but the computer crosses its own circuits and refuses to let go. I coax it.”




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