Long before Gotham By Gaslight was published, DC had always had a love for imaginary stories. It took the characters we all know and love and placed them into a unique situation or place, one where they wouldn’t naturally fit in or one which irreversibly changes a character. One of the most famous of these imaginary stories is Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow by Alan Moore and Curt Swan, depicting the end of Superman. Of course, this could never happen permanently for obvious reasons, but these ideas had been around since the 1950s. This was especially prominent with Batman, who would feature in numerous fantasy and imaginary stories. One notable example is when Batman is discovered to be an alien from outer space. So, when 1990 came around and Gotham By Gaslight, considered the first Elseworlds story, was published by DC, this was far from their first exploration of this promising and gripping world of “What if”. And when you read it, you learn that pretty quickly.
Gotham By Gaslight was published in 1990 and it was the first Elseworlds story produced by DC Comics. It was written by Brian Augustyn with art by Mike Mignola
and P. Craig Russell. I have read the story in its original prestige format book.
I’m sure everybody is aware of Jack the Ripper. If not, he was a serial killer who roamed the streets of Victorian London in the late 19th Century and killed at least five women. He was never identified and since then, he has become the basis of every clue-leaving murderer in fiction. Therefore, for DC’s “first” Elseworlds story, it almost seemed natural for the world’s most notable historic serial killer to meet The Dark Knight. I like to think that DC had this idea for quite some time but never discovered the best way to write it, especially since there’s quite a time difference between the two characters. But, when the idea of creating Batman in the Victorian Era was thrown into the mix, it felt new and creative. The character of Bruce Wayne remains relatively the same. Years ago (probably around 1870), Bruce Wayne witnesses a mysterious man kill his parents before he flees when the gunshot noise attracts a horde of bats. In 1889, (the present day for this story) Bruce explains that he has been reliving the event as a dream to Doctor Sigmund Freud, who has been educating him about how the human mind works. Freud views Bruce as a mystery as the recurring dreams hold some kind of secret. However, Bruce tells Freud that he is heading back to Gotham City where he once lived. On the boat back, Bruce meets an old family friend named Jacob, who has also travelled across Europe and he too, coincidentally, is travelling home to Gotham. However, Bruce notices that Jacob is rather crude in his approach when speaking about women. In just saying that, I may have given the reveal of the story away. In fact, I just have by saying that, but oh well. Arriving home, Bruce says his farewells to Jacob and heads to Wayne Manor, meeting his butler and friend Alfred. But his attention immediately turns to his next task, that being the beginning of his next journey as Gotham’s Dark Knight. The next day, Bruce meets Inspector James Gordon and the two still get on after years of being apart. As ever, Bruce turns down any detective work as Gordon discusses a new threat in Gotham called the Joker. Well, he isn’t referred to by name, but the illustration of him features that grin and crazy hair. Instead of fighting the Joker, that night Bruce becomes Batman and takes out several evildoers before the Gotham Guardian newspaper begins to speculate whether he is a killer or not. The police Commissioner, Tolliver, states that he has no tolerance for Batman or any other criminals in the city and he pledges that lunatics will not walk the streets. That night, a prostitute is stabbed to death by who the newspapers call Jack the Ripper, seemingly in Gotham after leaving London. The next night, the same thing happens again, but Batman finds the body and a postcard for Gordon from Jack the Ripper. The next morning, Gordon hears the (continued)
news before Tolliver arrives and tells him that he has discovered who the real killer may be. Surprisingly, they head to Wayne Manor and search the mansion. Even more shockingly, Gordon and Tolliver find bloody rags and a knife hidden in the mansion. They arrest Bruce for suspected murder. During the long and laborious court hearing scenes, Jacob acts as Bruce’s defendant while Tolliver makes up evidence and lies about witnesses seeing Bruce with a knife. They also point to Bruce’s recent return from Europe, where Jack the Ripper once was. Typical Americans believing the UK and the whole of Europe to be just one country. Regardless, Bruce is found guilty, and he is unanimously reported to be Jack the Ripper. Therefore, he’s thrown in prison for several days before he is to be hanged. However, Gordon still believes that his friend is innocent, and he secretly gives him his notes and evidence on the case. In the limited time he has, Bruce looks through the papers while the real Jack the Ripper is out on the streets preparing for his next kill. In his rage, Bruce throws the evidence on the ground, believing that he will actually die before solving it. However, on the ground he finds a photograph of his father’s civil war detachment which features a regimental flag. The same symbol on the flag appears on Jack the Ripper’s knife and when Bruce looks at the people in the photograph, he realises that only one of them is alive still. From this, he works out who the real killer is. Alfred stealthily breaks Bruce out of prison, and he becomes Batman. In the dark alleys of Gotham, Batman finds Jack the Ripper about to kill another woman. The ripper flees, but Batman chases him to a graveyard. There, he unmasks Jack the Ripper as none other than Jacob, the only survivor from the civil war photograph. Jacob explains that he killed the women because he is haunted by the laughter of Martha Wayne, who instead of marrying him, married his best friend, Thomas. Due to his anger against them both, he decided to kill both of them. Enraged by this revelation, Batman unmasks himself and Jacob effectively craps his pants. Suddenly, the police arrive, and once Jacob admits to Gordon that he is the real killer, he attacks Batman with his knife before Gordon fires a bullet. Jack the Ripper is no more. Despite his injuries, Batman escapes into the night and continues his long never-ending task of defending Gotham and thus ending Batman’s first Elseworlds adventure. As I said at the beginning, it almost seemed natural, yet seemingly impossible, for the two characters of Batman and Jack the Ripper to meet, but this is the potential of Elseworlds stories. However, it does raise a problem. Through the 1990s and early 2000s, DC seemed to create Elseworlds stories every minute, most of which featured Batman in another time period and a large number of these just didn’t work. That’s partly because there isn’t much of a link between Batman and Houdini or even other fictional characters such as Tarzan or King Arthur. Jack the Ripper works very well because his tactics and character fit excellently into the world of Batman. What works about Jack the Ripper isn’t necessarily about who he murders or why, but about the fact that he is a complete mystery of a person. Even now, thirteen decades on from his last killing, nobody has any real idea who he was. Therefore, that mystery fuels Gotham By Gaslight and as it’s an Elseworlds story, we are naturally unsure of all the characters. This even includes Batman, Gordon and Alfred, all of whom we are more than aware of through the (continued)
mainstream comics, but a fantastic aspect of Elseworlds stories is that they are effectively new people. Therefore, the writers can play with them in any way they see fit and ultimately, there is a potential shock factor that is present from start to finish. The mystery of Jack the Ripper works brilliantly with the new versions of the characters we know and love. Although this may have been risky as it was only the first Elseworlds story, I think it would have been great if somebody like Gordon was the murderer. It really would have proved to us that Elseworlds stories were the place of experimental storytelling and it could easily get away with things that the mainstream titles couldn’t. I say couldn’t because DC no longer publish proper singular Elseworlds stories, which is a shame since there are still some great stories out there waiting to be written. Anyway, Gotham By Gaslight works very effectively because, as a first attempt as this new kind of story, its simple. It’s your run-of-the-mill detective story with twists and turns. In any regular case, you’d look at the plot of this story rather averagely and think that it needed to be more unique. This would have certainly been true if this was published in Detective Comics, but what makes this work is the new setting and new environment that the characters find themselves in. That being said, Gotham By Gaslight takes much away from other famous Batman stories, specifically Year One. There are many comparisons to be made between this and Year One. Whether it be Bruce travelling the world for a few years, or Gordon not yet Commissioner, or the police’s antagonistic relationship with Batman, the stories both have a golden age-like feel to them both in terms of the story and tone. But this works well in the context of the story as it makes Batman and Jack the Ripper into characters of mystery and therefore creates the tensions within the story. Apart from that, there really isn’t much else to say about Gotham By Gaslight, except from the possibility that it could have been awful. Imagine that. This was DC’s first shot at a new series and if it was awful or even average, the chances are that there wouldn’t be any more after it. Gotham By Gaslight set up the formula of a perfect Elseworlds story. It featured the character we are so familiar with, but by placing them in a different environment and a different situation, they become more intense and unclear. This results in a story with more mystery and ultimately, you begin to question whether the good guys really are good. Writers can get away with things they couldn’t in the mainstream comics. Gotham By Gaslight may not be the best example of this unfortunately (as the killer was just an original character), but others such as the Batman Vampire stories are. Gotham By Gaslight proved that Elseworlds stories had so much potential, and it allowed writers to be creatively unlimited and experimental with the characters. If Gotham By Gaslight had been bad, then it would have just been forgotten as a failed experiment. Fortunately, that proved not to be the case.
In part, Gotham By Gaslight is remembered because of the bold and moody artwork, combining the old and the new in more ways than one. Mike Mignola was a relatively new name at the time while the story’s inker, P. Craig Russell, had worked in comics for over a decade. Their style manages to combine a new visual direction in comics, inspired by the likes of Frank Miller, with a classic and retro feel of the golden age. Russell’s inks over the story add a dark and gothic mood to the story, particularly in the dim and dank alleys of Gotham City. Meanwhile, Mignola’s pencils and bold style gives the story an experimental and new appearance. Oddly enough, their two styles work incredibly well together, and they create a visually impressive Victorian Era Gotham. That being said, I’m not too keen on Mignola’s style when it comes to people. Everybody looks either incredibly ill or dog-tired, but the quick storytelling and dramatic scenes are impressive and make Augustyn’s story better. Therefore, the art certainly works in the story’s favour.
VERDICT
Overall, Gotham By Gaslight is a brilliant start to DC’s Elseworlds line. As it was the first, the stakes were high, especially as a purely experimental piece. However, it certainly paid off in being unique and mysterious. It manages successfully to translate all the great Batman characters into a different era, both retaining their key characteristics and introducing new elements to their identities. My only real criticism is that I don’t think the story goes far enough in terms of its villain. Sure, the mystery of Jack the Ripper is what fuels the story, but I think the true identity of the villain should have been somebody from the mainstream comics just to prove how confident and serious DC were with their experimentation in this field. In spite of it, the story works effectively with the art to create an iconic and unforgettable Batman story that ultimately spawned so many more like it in the years that followed.
Story: 9.5/10
Art: 8.5/10
Next Week: Justice Riders. Written by Chuck Dixon with art by J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray. Expected by 25/04/2021.
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