The 1990s were a decade where crossovers and inter-connecting events were constantly present within DC Comics. While Zero Hour: A Crisis in Time was the most important in terms of the history of DC’s Multiverse, yearly events were published in which nearly every title was involved in. Not only did you have the likes of Armageddon 2001 and Bloodlines in the annuals, but you also had Underworld Unleashed, Day of Judgement, and Final Night. It’s this latter event which – surprisingly – the Doug Moench/Kelley Jones Batman title crossovers with. Thankfully, unlike many other titles during this era, stories here are not victims to such titanic tales. If anything, the likes of Underworld Unleashed, Final Night, and Genesis, are a backdrop, or a part of the scenery for an individual issue. Moench adapts to this change, but the gothic writing and desired plotting is still present. With that in mind, the further into the Moench/Jones run readers find themselves, the more confident the creative team grows in using darker and more unusual characters. Not only do we have Man-Bat and two oddly unique serial killers, but we also get the Wrath of God…
Batman 536-543 was published from November 1996 to June 1997. Written by Doug Moench, pencilled by Kelley Jones, and inked by John Beatty, these stories commence the second collected edition volume of the run.
Batman 536-538 --- Darkest Night of the Man-Bat
Batman 536, the first part of Man-Bat’s three-issue return after some time of absence away from the mainstream titles, is the tie-in to Final Night. In that story, the Sun-Eater devours the sun, and it is eternal night on Earth. Thankfully, that is all you need to know on that front. Let the Justice League and the Legion of Super-Heroes deal with that. As for Batman, such prolonged darkness leads not just to more crime, but also to the return of Man-Bat. Such long exposure to the night has led Professor Kirk Langstrom to take his old serum again and transform into Man-Bat. What makes this story interesting is that – throughout – Batman has the antidote to cure Man-Bat. But the challenge for the Dark Knight is actually finding and then using the serum on Man-Bat. Batman 536 is a hunt around Gotham, and usually such a chase would be a standard read. But thanks to the eternal darkness and Kelley Jones’s wonderfully dim and gothic appearance of Gotham City, that sense of horror and eeriness makes Batman 536 a flawless introduction.
The meat of the story starts with Batman 537. With the world in complete darkness, Man-Bat no longer finds himself restricted to Gotham City. He flies sharply to the North Pole. Parts two and three are not part of the Final Night storyline, mainly because the crisis has been averted by this point. However, Batman heads up to the North Pole when a group of scientists locate Man-Bat frozen in a block of ice and the news is brought to Gotham. Taking Batman out of his natural environment is something which I’m not usually too fond of, but as with The Deadman Connection, it works because of an interesting villain Man-Bat. As with Two-Face, Batman doesn’t treat Man-Bat like the other villains. There’s a sense of sympathy present in Batman, and he has respect for Langstrom and his work, aiming not to put him behind bars, but to cure him. Sadly, much of this characterisation is buried under a scientific plot which – although I suppose intriguing – doesn’t go anywhere. These scientists in the North Pole are tapping into the atmosphere by experimenting with energy harmonics – used commonly by bats as they are unable to see. Man-Bat – through his powerful sense of hearing – heard these harmonics and it caused him to travel to the North Pole. However, these scientists are experimenting with energy harmonics for the creation of weapons. Moench explores a cast of characters – scientists with varying levels of morals. Some of the crueller ones get their comeuppance, but none of them are really memorable.
Batman 538 moves us away slightly from the scientific side of the story. With Man-Bat electrocuted during a weapons test, he has become irate, and Batman must stop him before he eats anyone. The Dark Knight is back on a simple and chilling (literally) quest for Man-Bat, while secret soldiers looking to protect the research at the North Pole are out to kill Man-Bat. Batman gets the upper-hand over them, and in the end, the Dark Knight gets close enough to inject the antidote into Man-Bat’s body. With that, he transforms back into Kirk Langstrom and Batman takes him back to Gotham City. Like many other stories from the run, The Darkest Night of the Man-Bat enjoys a basic but highly enjoyable storyline. It’s aided hugely by a villain who Batman has an interesting relationship with, and a mixture of gothic storytelling and fast-paced action makes this three-parter fly by. The science does bog down the story somewhat, especially since Moench goes pretty deep into it and by the time you reach the last page, you begin to question just what the point of most of it was. Regardless, Batman 536-538 is great, and the first part is just flawless.
Batman 539 --- Boneyard Blues
It’s strange to encounter a one-off story, especially one surrounded by two-parters and then three-parters. But Batman 539 is a story which I could imagine Kelley Jones simply loved pencilling. It begins in a graveyard with an apparent grave-robbery. Singing manically to himself, this gravedigger finds a skeletal body inside a coffin. Instead of stealing any goods or left-over valuables, the gravediggers steal the skull and the bones. Moench focuses on an undertaker, a man who was forced into the family business and taken away from his joys by his father. The Undertaker is written to be totally insane and unhinged, similar to the Joker in a few ways. Over the previous years, the Undertaker has stolen bones and skulls from the dead slyly, but now with Batman on the case, he locates the Undertaker in his home full to the brim with the dead and their bones. The Dark Knight defeats this villain easily enough, but I love how Moench concludes this tale. With the Undertake unconscious, Batman apologies to hundreds of bones and the people they once were a part of. He hopes he has done them justice now. This is a genuine Batman horror story, with an obsessive and insane killer, and the mood that Kelley Jones brings to it through his art is stunning. You could make an argument and say this story could have been more powerful if Bruce Wayne’s parents were so-to-be victims of the Undertaker, something which I thought Moench was going to explore towards the end of the issue. This was never the case, but perhaps that would have added a stronger emotional weight to what is already a grim and gruesome story.
Batman 540-541 --- The Spectre of Vengeance
The Spectre must easily be one of my favourite characters in the entire DC Universe. Think of the Old Testament God, pale skin, and a green cloak, and you have the Spectre. Fuelled by vengeance and never one to shy away from torture, the Spectre is an obvious choice to star in this run. Batman 540 returns to the False Face Society, that gang who were led by Black Mask in a previous two-parter earlier in the run. A gangster named Tony Sparks set fire to an apartment building in New York City. Detective Jim Corrigan, investigating the case, discovers that Sparks has gone to Gotham to join the False Face Society. With this introduction and plotting, it feels very similar to a story from John Ostrander’s legendary run on the Spectre (vol 2) during this decade. However, on the orders of Damon Shugrue, the False Face Society kill Sparks and frame it on the Dark Knight. This idea of framing Batman surely would have little or no chance of success – especially since Batman is no longer a rogue vigilante but a hardened hero known to all in Gotham. It does make me question the logic of the False Face Society, as whatever the case, they didn’t see the Spectre coming. Investigating the death of Tony Sparks, Corrigan becomes the Spectre and enters Hell. Finding Sparks and condemning him to his fiery fate, the Spectre learns from the villain’s mouth that his killer was the Batman...
You’d think that the Spectre – after working closely with Batman over the past few decades and several times within The Brave and the Bold title – would not believe Sparks’s assertion that Batman is the killer. But with Batman 541, Moench writes a confrontation between the Angel of Vengeance and the Dark Knight. Thankfully, it doesn’t focus wholly on ‘is Batman really a killer’ as it shifts to the differing attitudes between the two characters. In the end, the Spectre kills the False Face Society members without thinking twice, and he and Batman enter a moral argument. If you know both characters well, then these moments are weighty and powerful, and you notice the similarities between the two heroes and their sense of loss. Sadly, there is no fight between the two heroes, something which the two covers seemed to promise. While the Spectre would easily win in a fight against Batman – after all, it would be a god against a man – it would have been great to see the Spectre toy with Batman and perhaps play tricks on him in his own hellish realm, similar to how the Scarecrow toyed with the Dark Knight in the 2009 Arkham Asylum video game. Also, Batman 540-541 introduces Vesper Fairchild, a radio presenter who Bruce Wayne openly flirts with in an interview. This is yet another love interest for Bruce Wayne, but what I like about this run is how Moench manages to develop Batman’s character and personality. When Moench started writing his second run on Batman (vol 1), it was before Knightfall and Batman was working 24/7 and exhausting himself. Now, we are seeing Batman build himself up again and a part of that requires a regularly present Bruce Wayne. It adds another dimension to the title. Like other stories from the run, it has a simple enough plot, but Moench tells it with interest and suspense. It just feels like something is missing, perhaps a true fight or confrontation. Overall, it features two great characters and is a darkly fun read, but perhaps more could have been done.
Batman 542-543 --- Faceless
Doug Moench shone brilliantly writing Batman 539 – such a gritty idea with a dark serial killer was astonishingly successful. Moench tries something very similar with Faceless. Batman 542 begins with the Dark Knight on a normal night out – defeating criminals and doing his heroic job. But the next morning, someone is told they will be losing their job. Joseph Zedno is a postman and due to cuts, he is out the door in two weeks. After years of pent-up anger caused by people ignoring him, being rude to him, or not considering his existence at all, Zedno decides it is time to leave a deeper mark on Gotham City. At night, Zedno disguises as people on his posting route before entering their homes, killing them, and taking their faces. There are many similarities between Faceless and the Undertaker. Both are obsessives and angry at circumstance and the world. Both also live in houses filled to the brim with what has become their worlds – with the Undertaker’s home filled with bones, and Zedno’s filled with post and packages. As concepts, both are wonderful. Who else – aside from the emergency services – will know the names of everyone in a street? It’s through this prism that Batman is unable to find the killer in the first part…
Batman 543 begins with a character who really hasn’t appeared much in this run. Ever since Knightfall, Robin has been absent from the main title due to his own miniseries and ongoing series. Here, Batman discusses the recent killings and de-facings around Gotham. As in The Deadman Connection and The Darkest Night of the Man-Bat, we’re treated to a wall-of-text, a conversation between master and ward attempting to deduce the truth. This is great because we’re seeing Batman actually act as a detective, which is what he was created to be. That said, it does feel like the Dark Knight takes too long to work out who the real killer might be. All the deaths occur very recently and within the same streets, but Batman takes a while to notice that. In the end, Batman and Robin work together in a rare scene to take down Zedno. It makes me wish for more stories where Tim Drake’s Robin works with Batman.
Zedno is a good villain for a two-parter, but nothing more really. I’m not quite sure why he has to replicate the face of a victim before then stealing their real face. I like the idea of how he is trying to claim an identity, something he felt was taken from him when being a postman. Of course, I doubt many postal workers would go as far as Zedno, but Moench writes yet another interesting and unique concept here.
While Kelley Jones’s gothic and unique style remains consistent in its success impressing readers, what some of these issues also show is how brilliantly suited Jones would have been writing more stories for some of the characters here. When I think of Man-Bat, Jones’s version of the creature of the night comes into my mind, alongside the work of Neal Adams and Bruce Timm. Alongside the savage beast, Kelley Jones reveals his huge strengths when pencilling the Spectre. Like Deadman, the Spectre is a supernatural being right up Jones’s street. He conveys the Spectre with not just creepiness, but fear and strength, very similar to how the character was drawn by Tom Mandrake. Alongside Batman, the best characters who Jones has drawn thus far has to be the Spectre, Deadman, and Swamp Thing – it’s no surprise that many of these characters appear in the 2016 Swamp Thing miniseries. Aside from the characters, John Beatty deserves much credit here for a weighty inking style, present heavily in Batman 536-538. In keeping with Final Night, that solid sense of darkness is conveyed flawlessly by Jones and Beatty,
VERDICT
Overall, this penultimate set of stories from the Doug Moench/Kelley Jones run of Batman (vol 1) are as good as ever. Man-Bat’s three parter may get lost from time to time in the sands of pseudo-science, but a great atmosphere and villain more than makes up for it. The Undertaker’s tale is a fantastic classic. The Spectre story, while good, could have been grander, while the Faceless tale is another highlight of the run. With less than a dozen issues to go, surely it is soon time for the Clown Prince of Crime to emerge…
Next Week: Batman: Major Ancana (Batman 544-552). Written by Doug Moench with art by Kelley Jones, John Beatty, J.H. Williams III, and Mick Gray.
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