The editorship of the Batman titles under Dennis O’Neil is remembered keenly for two aspects. Firstly, writers unleashed long-running ongoing storylines which are well-remembered today. And secondly, the era featured some of the most dramatic and devasting moments in the Dark Knight’s long history. From 1986 through 2000, with ongoing events such as Knightfall and No Man’s Land becoming just as memorable as the shooting of Barbara Gordon and the death of Jason Todd’s Robin, those fifteen years of the Dark Knight arguably contain some of the best comic books ever written. That is something I don’t claim lightly, nor is it something I just claim of these stories now famed for their quality or importance. During O’Neil’s editorship, there were brilliant tales in the main two titles by the likes of Marv Wolfman, Doug Moench, and Chuck Dixon, and later Greg Rucka, while Alan Grant was consistently writing fantastic stories in The Shadow of the Bat, and Legends of the Dark Knight was providing readers with a colourful array of creators. But during that era, there is one writer who does stand out – Peter Milligan. A British writer of 2000AD fame, Milligan began writing a long ongoing series for Shade, the Changing Man, a radical mind-altering revamp of the original Ditko creation. While it’s far from my favourite series (in my view, it’s close to unreadable at times), its uniqueness placed Milligan on the map. With a dark edge and a deep sense of storytelling that experiments with readers, what could an outsider writer like Milligan do with DC’s best-selling character?
For the following two posts, I’ll be reviewing Peter Milligan’s Batman tales, published sporadically in Detective Comics and Batman from 1990 to 1992. Here, I’ll be looking at Dark Knight, Dark City, published in Batman 452-454 fortnightly from August to September 1990. Alongside this classic, I’ll be reviewing Milligan’s stories in Detective Comics 629-632, released from May to July 1991. With an array of artists – including Kieran Dwyer, Jim Aparo, and Tom Mandrake – DC published these stories in a collected edition in 2015.
Dark Knight, Dark City --- Written by Peter Milligan, with art by Kieran Dwyer and Dennis Janke
The tone of Batman stories had been growing darker for some years before Peter Milligan arrived on the scene. In 1986, The Dark Knight Returns launched a grittier Gotham with a more depressive and hardened Batman, not one you’d describe as a caped crusader any longer. Following this, tales like Year One, the Killing Joke, the Cult, and A Death in the Family brought further depression and tragedy to Batman’s world. Dark Knight, Dark City – Milligan’s three-parter which has become something of a classic – is darker than many stories of the time, but it is in-keeping with the growing darkness of the Batman titles.
From the first page, Batman 452 feels different. It starts not with a petty crime in backstreet Gotham, but a demonic ceremony that took place in the city in 1793. The richest men in the land, including Thomas Jefferson, gathered to sacrifice an innocent woman to gain control of a demon. With its classical fonts and language, Milligan paints something very different, but its uniqueness creates a great opener full of mystery for Dark Knight, Dark City. With the sacrifice of the past incomplete, we return to modern day Gotham, with Batman pitted against an old foe turned psycho. Although Jeph Loeb’s Hush is often cited as the definitive story whereby Edward Nygma – as the Riddler – is finally portrayed as a serious and calculating villain with great intelligent and cunning, it really begins here. After making a name for himself as a cop killer, the Riddler has abducted four week-old babies across Gotham; as ever, he has left clues and riddles for the Dark Knight to follow his trail. This reinvention of the Riddler is thankfully not a simple or bland one – he may be an insane killer, but that unpredictability meshes perfectly with his natural compulsive tendency to create absurd plans while leaving complex riddles. Milligan hasn’t transformed the Riddler beyond recognition, but he has made him into a more brutal foe. This is helped enormously by Milligan’s brilliance as a storyteller. Dark Knight, Dark City has its supernatural elements, but it works flawlessly as a gothic horror tale. This bleak version of Gotham City corresponds with a hardened Batman, but it’s also helped by dramatic moments which feel so powerful – such as Batman rescuing one baby only to discover it is a plastic doll, which then explodes and splatters the room and himself in blood. The first part sets a darker and more emotive mood than previous Batman stories, but it also ends with a shocker as the Dark Knight comes face-to-face with a zombie!
Batman 453 once again conveys the transformation in the personality of the Riddler in the darkest examples possible. Batman’s fight with a goon dressed in zombie garb ends when the Riddler activates a bomb from within the dressed-up criminal. Unafraid to kill his own, the Riddler will sacrifice anyone and everything for his plans – such a huge change that it can be equated to the change O’Neil and Adams created for the Joker in 1973. An aspect of the Riddler’s plan is to degrade the Dark Knight – to torture him psychologically. In an attempt to rescue a baby, Batman is forced to kill a dog with a blade, coating himself in blood. And then – and the shock and impact of this moment on the reader is a genuinely heavy one – in order to save the life of a baby who the Riddler has inserted a ping-pong ball into its windpipe, Batman is forced to perform surgery on a human being only seven days old. As cliff-hangers go, this is exceptionally shocking, conveying not just how awful the Riddler has become, but also how much the burden of a dark city leaves on a dark knight…
The traumatic ending to the second parts leads to uncertainty in Batman 454. Batman has done the terrible deed, and the baby is now on life-support in hospital. But as ever, there is no time for the Dark Knight to look back – the trail finally leads him to the room where, 200 years prior, the sacrifice was due to occur. Buried under the high-rise buildings and shops of Gotham, this old basement has been lost to the ages, but here and now, the Riddler reveals all. The sacrifice ceremony in 1793 was the rich’s effort to control Barbathos, a demon who could be enslaved through a blood offering. But upon the appearance of Barbathos, the rich men fled and their sacrificial lamb – a young woman named Dominique – was left to die slowly in the basement. After finding the journal of one of those rich men, the Riddler aimed to recreate events and every moment in the story – from the Dark Knight covered in blood, to a fight with a zombie, to the killing of a dog, and to the severing of a baby’s throat – were all steps that victims had to go through before their sacrifice. So all along, it was the Riddler’s plan to sacrifice Batman so he could gain control of Barbathos. Milligan’s effort to tie all this together works astonishingly well, especially with the intellect of a villain like the Riddler – it may have its pretentiousness, but it’s hard to deny how impressive and satisfying it is to witness the completion of these loose ends.
Suddenly however, the story takes a turn to the fringes of ridiculousness. Barbathos appears and speaks to Batman and the Riddler, spooking the latter and helping the former escape. Then, the original sacrificial victim, Dominique, appears. Despite being dead for nearly two centuries, Dominique reveals she is linked to Barbathos – and so is Batman. But when Batman escapes from the basement to the surface, he finds that Dominique is simply a skeleton, long dead and lifeless. It’s insinuated that Batman and Dominique are the children of Barbathos, a possibility which – to me, at least – detracts slightly from the point that Batman is a normal being without super powers. Sure, Grant Morrison was to do something similar two decades later, but linking Batman to a god feels like a step too far. Plus, Milligan writes very little about Dominique and her story. She isn’t treated like anything more than a sacrificial lamb until the last issue. The better point that Milligan makes here is the link between Gotham and Batman – and that despite all the horror and disgust that the city throws at him, the Dark Knight never fails to be its protector. It’s hardly an original idea, but it works well considering how dark Milligan makes this story.
Dark Knight, Dark City is remembered fondly as a memorable dark age story, but I think it’s reputation should be high not because of Milligan’s perception of Gotham City and Batman. Instead, these three issues of Batman must be considered as a key story for the Riddler. Even though the reasoning behind his goals remains unclear – it appears to be more of a long burst of insanity rather than anything else – he takes readers by surprise with some truly shocking moments. This tale places him highly as a great Batman villain. But what shouldn’t be forgotten also is Peter Milligan’s brilliant storytelling. Right from page one, a mood of uneasiness is created, and it is sustained effectively throughout. It’s great because at its core, Dark Knight, Dark City is a genuine Batman detective tale, but each moment of drama or shock is delivered so perfectly. Only when you read Milligan’s work can you appreciate how each sentence and caption absorbs the reader so deeply. Overall, the ending and details of Barbathos make little sense, and I do feel like an extra issue wouldn’t have been a terrible idea, but Dark Knight, Dark City is a tale of memorable moments and excellent writing.
Kieran Dwyer and Dennis Janke aren’t usually my favourite artists, but their gritty and scratchy style fits perfectly with Peter Milligan’s Gotham. They embellish that bleak mood of the story, while sharpening the moments of shock and drama. It might not be pretty to look at, but that’s because Milligan paints a grim picture, and these two artists effectively convey and dramatize a good story.
The Hungry Grass --- Written by Peter Milligan, with art by Jim Aparo and Steve Leialoha
Detective Comics 629 launches Milligan’s brief run on the title. Compared to runs of writers during this period like Marv Wolfman or Chuck Dixon, Milligan writes a verbose stint, but with some of the most imaginative ideas seen in a Batman comic book. The Hungry Grass is a key example of that. A new villain lands on the scene for the Dark Knight to tussle with. Named Hungry, this lunatic keeps making all kinds of offers and has been driving the whole city mad. Literally - people are turning on one another in the street and police officers are being killed. Batman investigates the origins of Hungry – he’s revealed to be Dean Fahy, a Gothamite hiding out in the ruins of Blackgate prison after years locked inside for murder. It’s revealed that Fahy didn’t commit the murder, but now he blames Gotham and the legal system for his fate. Batman, beginning to sympathise with Hungry, still needs to stop him for the disorder he has created in Gotham. But since Hungry lacks the powers of mind-control, how is he causing all this chaos? Through grass – specifically grass from Ireland which has been cursed by dead locals during the famine of the 1840s. Therefore, any helpless soul who places a foot on the grass finds their world completely whacked. As with the Barbathos storyline, it feels like one step too far, especially for a Batman story. However, it’s uniqueness cannot be doubted and there is a flicker of sadness that Hungry’s life ends just as Batman offers him help to clear his name. Overall, the mood may still be gritty, but the plotting is imaginative and the story flows nicely.
With Jim Aparo at the visual helm, what can go wrong? His legendary storytelling and smooth sense of drama convey Milligan’s plot with action and speed. Steve Leialoha is an unusual inker for Aparo – while lacking the smooth lines of a Mike DeCarlo, its scratchiness does feel at home with this story. Also, Adrienne Roy’s muted colouring works brilliantly to the story’s credit – but I’m sure this visual approach was unintentional as the following Aparo/DeCarlo/Roy issues feature brighter colours.
And the Executioner Wore Stiletto Heels --- Written by Peter Milligan, with art by Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo
Detective Comics 630 – alongside its stunning cover by Michael Golden – features an equally electric opening. The Dark Knight finds Two Tone, Siamese-twins-turned-gangsters, hanging from the celling electrocuted. With this great hook, Milligan takes the story back three months to when Batman was forced to work with an FBI agent to capture Stiletto, a hitman who escaped from death row in Florida. With Stiletto’s finances tucked away in Gotham, mobsters have put a hit out on the hitman – Batman must find Stiletto before hired muscle Two Tone does. It does have its moments of detective storytelling, but from the middle onwards, it becomes a chase through Gotham. Annoyingly, Milligan takes what is a fairly simple but engaging plot and ruins it slightly with too much dialogue or intrusive captions which break up the action. The lack of flow and smoothness leaves the story lacking much drama as it feels too disjointed. In the end, Two Tone fails to kill Stiletto, who is sent to prison but then soon again breaks out only to murder the Siamese twins – tying up the story and looping it back to Batman’s discovery of the twins on the first page. I like how Milligan links the beginning to the ending, and along the way there are some imaginative moments featuring Batman the detective; they are better to read than the overlong and overly wordy chase scenes.
Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo are a classic dynamic duo for Batman comics in the late-1980s and early-1990s. With Aparo’s natural sense of motion and visual drama, DeCarlo provides some incredibly smooth inks, which differs from the inks that usually works for this penciller. However, I think this smooth appearance looks gorgeous and creates a sense of flow. It’s iconic and sums up the best of dark age art for Batman.
The Golem of Gotham --- Written by Peter Milligan, with art by Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo
Detective Comics 631-632 is a two-parter that pits Batman against a very real and thuggish threat. Nazi antisemitic gangs hit the streets of Gotham, trashing Jewish businesses and attacking innocent lives. Placing Batman in a duel against such realistic and grim villains was slowly becoming a natural aspect of the Dark Knight’s world in this new age, but as ever with Peter Milligan, an element of fantasy is thrown into the mix. Saul Zwemer is an old Jewish man whose has witnessed hardship in recent years, but death in the past – during the 1930s, he was hounded by Hitler’s Nazis. Frightened by the rise of antiseministic violence, Zwemer consults the Book of Yetsirah and uses clay to create a Golem, a legend of Jewish folklore. This Golem has been created to protect the Jewish people in times of crisis and violence, but Zwemer’s plan doesn’t go quite as expected. After writing ‘emeth’ – translated from Hebrew as ‘truth’ on its head, the Golem grows a mind of its own and kills the white supremacist gangsters without a second thought. The Golem stops listening to its master and it’s down to Batman to stop it. Morality is a pressing theme throughout The Golem of Gotham, and the debate about whether it’s acceptable to kill someone for their murderous crimes. This theme is a good one to explore, but by the second part, it gets drowned out and the tale becomes a slightly more conventional ‘Batman hunts down a monster tale.
Batman’s duel against the Golem is just one portion of the second part, as Zwemer is kidnapped by gangsters and the Dark Knight must intervene there also. Milligan attempts to explore the inner thinking of the criminals and how some of them only joined their white supremacist gang due to peer pressure, but not much else is made of that point.
In the end, Batman rescues Zwemer, who removes the ‘e’ from the Golem’s head – with that, the Golem is defeated. More is revealed about Zwemer in this second part, such as his guilt in betraying one of his old friends to the Nazis in his youth. Peter Milligan writes a story with heightened emotions on all sides – such as Zwemer’s feeling of hope for a better world, a feeling that quickly becomes hatred and regret once the Golem appears. Even for Batman, whose stoic mask is often tightly held, falls an inch throughout. Although Milligan doesn’t write particularly interesting villains here, his exploration of moral questions makes this a good and deep two-parter.
Aparo and DeCarlo create a terrifying Golem which strikes fear into not just criminals, but Batman himself. They also embellish that gritty mood of Gotham as its most horrific and disturbing elements are brought to life here, with DeCarlo adding his usual smooth finishing to Aparo’s dynamic pencils.
VERDICT
Overall, Peter Milligan’s first few Batman stories from the 1990s stand out, even at a time when the Dark Knight was arguably at his most loved with great new stories from all kinds of writers. Dark Knight, Dark City is a key story that revamps the Riddler, but it’s also a clever detective tale that really hooks the reader, even if it does slide into pretentiousness at times. The Hungry Grass and the Executioner Wore Stiletto Heels are very good one-off stories, while the Golem of Gotham takes a dark concept and experiments with morality. Peter Milligan’s creative and experimental style of writing makes for some unique Batman tales, aided massively by some of the most talented artists of the era.
Next Week: Batman: The Idiot Root (Detective Comics 633, 638-640, 643, Batman 472-473). Written by Peter Milligan, with art by Tom Mandrake, Jim Aparo, Mike DeCarlo, and Norm Breyfogle.
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