The 1980's were a defining period for comic books in general. With the works of Alan Moore and Frank Miller being widely recognised by both fans and the general public, the medium’s perception had changed. Stories became more adult and serious, appealing to new older readers while keeping the younger readers interested as well (something the comics of toady can’t understand). Batman was no exception to this. Frank Miller’s stories such as The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One had redefined the character, developing the ‘modern age’ Batman after writer Dennis O’Neil and artist Neal Adams pioneered it in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Because of these changes, 1987 onwards presented a new depiction of the hero, while remaining faithful to the original. By Batman (vol 1) 414, a new team begun working on the main title. Jim Starlin (creator of Thanos) became the writer and Jim Aparo (The Brave and the Bold) became the penciller. These stories dealt with darker topics, such as serial murderers, Russian interference and most famously, the death of Jason Todd, the second Robin (read my review of it long ago here). However, the Ten Nights of the Beast is another classic from Starlin’s run, and it features the debut of an evil physical threat to Batman, named the KGBeast…
Batman (vol 1) 417-420 were published monthly from March to June 1988. It was written by Jim Starlin, with art by Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo, all of whom were the regular team on the title at the time. Also, all four issues have great covers drawn by Mike Zeck. Lastly, I have read this four-part story in the Batman: Ten Nights of the
Beast trade paperback.
THE STORY
On the coast of Gotham, two mysterious agents arrive carrying two containers. Days later, KGB agent Andrei Yevtushenko comes to Gotham and warns the FBI and Commissioner Gordon that a cybernetically enhanced Russian agent is coming. He explains that Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev had abolished the Hammer, a top-secret cell within the KGB. However, the cell sent the KGB agent, known as the Beast, out on one last mission. Yevtushenko then explains that the KGBeast’s goal is to kill ten people involved with the American Strategic Defence Initiative, known also as the Star Wars Program. However, Yevtushenko explains that not only is KGBeast working with an Islamic terrorist, but they have already killed two of the people for their mission. Alarmed, Gordon questions why he wasn’t informed about this earlier and suggests to the agents that they cannot defeat the Beast on their own. FBI Agent Keith Parker orders Gordon not to get Batman involved with the case. However, Batman and Robin can overhear the conversation from the roof. Leaving Robin to hear the rest of the conversation, Batman leaves and heads to Jason Greene’s office, who is next on the KGBeast’s list. But, when Batman arrives, he finds the Beast preparing throw Greene’s body off the building. Quickly, Batman leaps towards the body and after nearing dying, he lands safely. He then discovers that Greene is dead due to a broken neck. Later, Batman and Robin meet with Commissioner Gordon and Agent Bundy, who aims to work with Batman for the greater good. Bundy shows Batman a picture of the terrorist working the Beast, named Nabih Salari. Elsewhere, the terrorist kills their fourth victim. Later, a mysterious agent hands KGBeast a list of targets and Batman comes to the conclusion that they must make the Beast come to them…
While Batman researches the case in the Batcave, the Beast kills a couple, poisoning their orange juice, causing Gordon to inform Batman. Later, although worried about the Beast, Bruce Wayne visits a Republican Party fundraiser as a Presidential Advisor on the Star Wars Program is attending. Although the FBI, CIA and Gordon are present, the advisor is killed after eating poisoned food. Then, everyone else in the room begins to die because of the food, causing Gordon to discover that Nabih Salari himself supervised the preparation of the food. Bruce leaves the building and becomes Batman, before locating Salari escaping. KGBeast then appears and begins firing a machine gun at Batman. The Beast and Salari escape in their van, forcing Batman to jump on top of it. However, the villains escape, and Batman has to steer the van away from a school bus full of children. After hearing that 80 people were poisoned and killed, Batman and Robin work out that the Beast must have a secret agent within their team. Batman and Gordon decide to conceal their plans from Agent Parker, causing him to become even more bitter. Meanwhile, Yevtushenko debates with Bundy about nuclear disarmament. Elsewhere, Batman and Robin interrogate sources on the street in order to discover who the Beast’s next victim will be. After discovering he has been sold a bazooka, the duo then finds the Beast killing a Senator by blowing up his room. Batman and KGBeast fight, but the villain swiftly escapes, making Batman believe the Beast could be stronger than him…
The next day, the KGBeast destroys an aeroplane with Ralph Bundy and General Ridwell (Military Head of The Star Wars Program) on board, killing them. Batman becomes angry that 7 out of the 10 targets have already been killed, causing Batman suspect Agent Parker has been leaking information to the Beast. Then, Batman and Robin discuss their theory about Parker, who protested against the Vietnam War when he was a student. Later, Gordon and an officer escort a Congressman safely to his hotel room. However, he is killed when the door explodes, causing Batman to reveal himself as the officer. Agent Parker then arrives with the Senator. Parker is annoyed with Batman’s presence and ignores his advice. Parker then escorts the
Senator into an elevator, with Gordon and Batman insisting they join him. However, from above, the Beast throws cinder blocks down onto the elevator, killing one of the agents. Batman escapes from the elevator and reaches the Beast, who then shoots the Dark Knight through the shoulder. The Beast then attacks the police officers who arrive at the scene, before escaping from the building. Determined, Batman follows the Beast and avoids his traps. Batman also manages to tie one of KGBeast’s hands tightly with a rope he is holding onto. Shockingly, the Beast escapes by cutting his hand off with an axe, before he escapes, causing Batman to fall. Although Batman escapes, the Beast disappears. Agent Bundy then appears, who somehow escaped from his apparent fate in the plane crash. Although Bundy and the Senator are both still alive, Batman deduces that the Beast will now hunt for his last victim, President Ronald Reagan. Elsewhere, KGBeast and Salari visit an engineer in order to create a new robotic hand…
After Batman follows KGBeast’s trail, he locates the engineer who created his new hand, dead. Later, President Reagan visits Gotham and greets crowds, before he is grabbed by Batman from above, who takes him to a helicopter, causing Parker to fire his gun at Batman, which misses when Gordon ‘accidently’ nudges him. Parker then argues with Gordon about what Batman did, but Gordon ignores him. Later at the Presidential Suite, with everybody present, Batman presents his plan to protect the President from his helicopter. Although he disagrees, Parker leaves to prepare the plan. With him gone, Batman tells the President he knows that somebody within Parker’s team has been leaking information to the Beast. Batman then tells the President his real plan. Later, Bundy tells Batman that if they capture him, the Beast will be released and the Russian’s will wipe his mind, meaning he won’t face a sentence for his crimes. This causes Batman to become angry. Meanwhile, the President is escorted to his helicopter when Salari glides downwards. Luckily, Robin appears and attacks Salari, sending him off course, falling to his death. The President thanks Robin, but then reveals himself to be Gordon, confusing Parker. Elsewhere, Batman safely escorts the President to Gotham’s Convention Centre. Suddenly, the KGBeast appears and Batman is accidently shot in the shoulder by an agent. Then, Bundy appears with his agents and attack the Beast, who escapes into the sewer. Although injured, Batman follows the Beast, finding the bodies of agents on the way. Batman locates the Beast, who begins firing at him with his new robotic hand. After some time, Batman chases the Beast into a room, where the villain orders him to fight. But Batman declines and locks the Beast in the room, boarding it up before leaving. Coming back to Bundy, Batman tells him that the Beast has been dealt with. He then tells Bundy that the real President is safe in a limo outside and that his impersonator has left. Batman leaves and heads into a car, where Alfred sits in his Ronald Reagan mask. They head home.
MY THOUGHTS
Underneath all the politics that this story full of, particularly in the first part, this is the structure of a perfect Batman story. The tale begins perfectly with some background to the villain and his main goal, which is obviously murder. Then, Batman spends time hunting down the villains, while they commit murders, in order to make them come across as a threat. The story then ends with Batman tricking the villain or preventing his grand scheme, before he is dealt with. This is the layout of an interesting Batman story, one which makes the villain feel threatening, as opposed to a pretty basic story where Batman can easily defeat a villain. In terms of this story, the plot is very detailed and dramatic, meaning it is great and interesting to read. It may have a slow start, with the background of KGBeast being explained very quickly, but from the end of part one through to the finale, the pace of the story is excellent. The plot itself is very good and is never formulaic, meaning that the story is full of twists and turns. For instance, the Beast’s attitude is constant determination. He cares more about completing the mission than anything else. This even means that he will go to the extent of cutting off his hand, just to progress. This creates a memorable villain. The same applies to the amount of times when Batman or Gordon pretend to impersonate the President, both to protect Reagan and annoy Parker. Moments like these are enjoyable and they stop everything from becoming stale, since one fight scene after another would just become tedious. This links back to the pacing I mentioned earlier. This story builds up to a fight after Batman does his detective work. This brings Batman back to his grass routes as a detective and although I’ll get to it later, I think Jim Aparo’s artwork really helps with that. Anyway, the method of how the Beast murders his victims can be pretty clever, such as poison. Batman and his team really don’t see that coming and it really adds to KGBeast’s character. You really get the feeling that he is stronger and more intelligent than Batman and so does he. The villain also works incredibly well due to his ignorance of other lives. For instance, he only had to kill the ten people on the list, but by the end, he has killed over 100 people. Like I said, he will do anything to achieve his goals, no matter how risky it is. Here, Starlin really amplifies the working relationship between Batman and Gordon, which is definitely a good thing. Usually, we see how Gordon is so desperate to have Batman on a case and sure, we get that here too, but we also get Batman needing Gordon for all the CIA/FBI help. It adds more depth to these characters and reinforces Batman’s image in the modern world (and by modern, I do mean four decades ago). Robin doesn’t feel like a waste either, as it allows for more interesting dialogue between characters. Plus, he actually does take down Salari in the story, giving Robin more of a purpose than in earlier stories, which meant he was only there for light entertainment. Right from the bat (pun totally intended), the FBI and Agent Parker are against Batman’s involvement in the case. This works well at first, mainly because it adds an element of conflict between the characters, meaning things don’t become bland. But, the more the story evolves, it becomes obvious that Parker and his team are working with the Beast, hence why he placed the Senator in the elevator, which any person with a brain would have recognised that as a bad idea. Now, to probably the most famous aspect of this story: the ending. On all those top 10 lists you see (continued)
scattered across the internet, there are loads which are about the times Batman has killed somebody. There are loads of examples, like when he pushed a poor man in a vat of acid (Detective Comics (vol 1) 27 or even the Joker (suggested in Batman: The Killing Joke). This story often appears on those lists, yet I think this one works much better than any of the others. In most other cases, the death is violent, bloody and quick. But here, it’s slow and torturous. Effectively, Batman locks the Beast in a room and leaves him to die in there. Not only is that great, as earlier in the story Batman was told that the Beast would be free anyway, but you can tell by the ending it is not a decision which Batman has taken lightly. The story ends with a laugh, with Alfred still wearing his Reagan mask, but for Batman, he has just been the cause of somebody’s death. Sure, he may not have been the nicest person. But Batman has killed, and he now has to live with it…
There really isn’t a whole lot to say about what this story does wrong. In fact, there are only really two areas. Firstly, I found the character of Salari to be ultimately pointless. He was just a sideshow and there were never any real moments in the story where he his character stood out and became a subject of interest. Throughout this story, the KGBeast is always shown to be the villain. Salari isn’t really much of anything here and if Starlin wanted to have the character more involved, then I think some detailed background would have been nice. Secondly, although I do really like the Parker and FBI aspects of this story, there was never any suitable conclusion or end to it. I thought it would have ended with Parker being arrested on demand from the President, but it just didn’t happen, making his aspect of the story feel ultimately pointless. He didn’t even die either. If he died, then it would have concluded his character and would have acted as comeuppance for what he did, but that just isn’t the case. Apart from that, I was rather confused at the end of part three when Bundy appeared without any explanation for how he wasn’t killed on the plane or why he didn’t even get on it in the first place. I also thought the beginning could be quite slow, mainly due to the quick release of so much information about the Beast, which could have been kept until later.
Batman: Death in The Family was the first comic I ever read. Even as a kid, I thought the story was good and the death of Robin just stood out to me, but you know what was even better? The art. After years of exploring comic books and looking through the works of most well-known artists, I can safely say that Jim Aparo is my favourite, followed by Brian Bolland and Steve Ditko. His sense of storytelling is impeccable, presenting every single little detail just right. His sense of fluidity and action throughout all of his stories is impressive, making the finished page look excellent.
Lastly, his use of lighting, whether it be realistic or dramatic, is flawless, really adding to the mood of not just Batman, but all the other characters he worked on, such as Deadman and the Spectre. This story is no exception to any of that. Aparo’s art really boosts Starlin’s already-great storytelling, enforcing the drama and making it fantastic to read. The fight scenes here aren’t the usual standard stuff you’d see. Panels are often drawn on an angle, causing a fight between two characters to become unique and full of action. Everything else here is just perfect, but that’s what you expect from Aparo. Sure, his art is at its best when he himself inks it, but if he can’t do, then Mike DeCarlo certainly can. His inks mesh perfectly with Aparo’s pencils, creating the classic Batman image. There aren’t many comics I’d buy just because of the artist, but Jim Aparo is certainly one of them…
VERDICT
Overall, Batman: Ten Nights of the Beast is a very good story with a fantastic plot and memorable character. This story really depicts what Batman does best and what he was born to do: be a detective. This plot facilitates that prime aspect of his character amazingly, while creating a fantastic Batman villain that certainly won’t be forgotten. The story does have its flaws, but the positives certainly outweigh the negatives. I repeat, Aparo and DeCarlo’s art is perfect here, adding so much action and drama to this great story. I think its safe to say that this story is certainly a classic. I know this was a rather shorter review than normal, but next week we are getting into another run. So, I’ll see you all then for I what I think is one of the more harmless, yet weirder comic book runs…
Story: 8.5/10
Art: 10/10
Next Week: Animal Man: The Meaning of Flesh Part One (Animal Man (vol 1) 33-41). Written by Tom Veitch with art by Steve Dillon, Tom Mandrake and Dick Giordano. Expected to be published by 05/04/2020.
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