Customer Reviews

Batman: Child of Dreams

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first saw this at a Barnes and Noble here in town, and like a previous reviewer, got hooked by the story while perusing the pages. I enjoy manga and anime in general, but it was still a bit of a shock seeing the Dark Knight's world drawn like this. But once the story gets going, I didn't even notice the different style and readily accepted the presentation. Some have complained about the story, but I found it interesting enough to plow through the book in one night. Considering the length of the graphic novel, it was a bit of a feat. It is a fascinating international take on Bats, and if given a chance, could turn into a favorite for many fans.

While I don't think this is the best Batman storyline out there, let me explain the five rating. I like manga. The art is so fantastic, the characters so detailed. Asamiya is a fantastic artist. He draws the Joker so well. By giving the Joker a wild smile, yet with grimacing eyebrows, Asamiya portrays the character as a homocidal lunatic masquerading as some harmless clown. That is exactly what the Joker is. When Manga doesn't always connect with dialogue, the amazing thing is that the art itself is a form of characterization.

The eyes, the lines, the perspective, are all elements of drawing that can add an effective element to creating a character. In a comic book, you have visual aids to help you picture the character. In America, I think the dialogue and writing are superior; however in Japan there is little question that the art is superior. The characters, by their mere appearance on the page, lend some insight into what lies beneath the character in a metaphysical sense. That is how good the best manga art is.

However, the story itself is a very interesting, and creative one. Someone has the ability to recreate Batman villains at the genetic level. Due to the havoc it wreaks on the body, however, the "villain" mummifies within two or three days. Who is behind this strange development?

Someone who is utterly obsessed with Batman! Someone who takes the saying "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" to the next level: He wants to become Batman!

The art is just so well done, and the story is pretty darn good, too. If you want to experience Batman in a new, and interesting way, and you are a manga fan, I recommend this book.

Kia Asamiya is perhaps one of the best Japanese illustrators out there. His legend is revered in his home country. With the great interest of manga in the American culture, it was only a matter of time before hot shot name would undertake the works of a classic character. Taking up Batman, however, was going to be a challenge.

The Bat is an extremely dark character that revels in the night. Though the Japanese don't have a problem with dark themes in the likes of Vampire Hunter D or even Akira, seeing crisp, clear art depict that darkness was going to be a challenge. Asamiya, howver, succeeds in creating and weaving an intricate, though maybe superficial at times, story that pits the Bat with a crazed fan(atic). The story moves from Gotham all the way to Japan and showcases most of Batman's rogue gallery. Though, unlike the great detaila nd plot of the Long Holloween, the characters are not really into the plot of the story and don't play a major role to advance the story. The most lost potential happens when the Joker meets up Batman to help him find the major villain of the story. That scene just fizzles and does not peak much interest.

Like most manga, the story is very laid down with no major surprises. Unlike Ameican written or themed comic concepts, manga does not challenge the reader. A great read and a nice story, though not a major contributor to the great Bat mythos.

When I first picked this graphic novel up in the bookstore to look it over, I had no intention of buying it - the manga-style of drawing seemed too neat and clean, and the images are in black-and-white - but then I sat down and started reading the story. I was hooked.

Asamiya has great skills in plotting a story so that it captures and reader and moves you along. Asamiya also makes skilled use of dialogue - he relies very little on the narrator's voice because he is able to convey a remarkable amount of background information and character-development through his use of dialogue and a novelist's sense of timing when he switches viewpoint characters.

The story revolves around a number of disturbing themes that should have the intended unsettling effect on the reader: things and people are not what they seem; the most obvious, apparent enemy is not the source of the problem; and identities are always contested and sometimes compromised.

Asamiya introduces other themes as well, such as blurring the lines between "news" and entertainment, blurring the lines between television and reality, the dangerous extremes to which a fan (or fans) can take their identification with a celebrity and fantasy role-playing, and it touches on Commissioner Gordon's inability to control the crime in his own city - his, perhaps, over-reliance on one vigilante.

Oh, and did I mention the consuming public's perhaps over-reliance on pharmaceuticals to make us feel good, "get back in the game" and to imagine that we are that which we wish to be?

And then there are the very central themes of the relationship between dreams and reality, and the question of whether or not it is merely genetics (biology) that makes the man, or if something more is required?

This brings us back to the artwork. It didn't take long before I realized that Asamiya's art actually added to his ability to tell the story, rather than detracting from it. Most images are minimal and simplistic, but there is also a significant amount of detail in many of the frames; and the details Asamiya selected are just the right details to enable the reader to experience the story.

Night frames with aerial views of Gotham have all the feel of New York City. Frames inside the hotel lobby, the hospital, gritty back alleys, Wayne Manor and the Batcave are highly effective. And I could actually feel the hot shower as Yukio tried to relieve her stress back at the hotel after making a shocking discovery in the Gotham Cemetery. Tokyo is equally well-captured.

In other words, this story works. It works because the plotting pulls you in and holds your interest; it works because the dialogue tells the story and makes the characters real; it works because the themes the writer selected are not far removed from the reader's day-to-day reality - and that has a rather chilling psychological effect; and it works because the art sets the right mood and calls your attention to details that will stimulate the intended sensory and emotional reaction in the reader.

While the climax of story seems to drag on a bit, Asamiya is making an important point about what it is that really makes Batman who he is. As Frank Miller humanized Batman in his revolutionary treatment of the character, Asamiya also provides a revolutionary and humanizing treatment, but without resorting to an anti-heroic image.

There is also something Mooresque (as in Alan Moore) about Asamiya's ability to weave themes through his story, creating an integrated whole. Asamiya's themes, as mentioned above, center on dreams, fans, role-playing, identity and what it is that makes a person who he or she really is.

Asamiya weaves a good story and illustrates it well. I highly recommend it.

Imposters posing as Batman's major villains attack without warning and die mysteriously, as a Japanese TV crew tries to do a story on the Dark Knight. A dangerous new drug on the street is involved, and Batman ends up travelling to Tokyo to get to the bottom of the mystery.

This was a fairly average Batman story, with numerous plot elements that have already been developed by other authors. There are fights with multiple villains (Jeph Loeb has done this twice), a warning on the danger of drugs (Alan Grant and others have done this), and an arch villain who wants to be Batman (a running theme with Azrael). The genetics angle was somewhat interesting, but not enough to create an original story.

I thought that the painted cover was very good and reminiscent of the early Batman movies. However, the interior art was a bit mixed in quality. Asamiya draws noses too big, and the frames were coarse and grainy at times. I couldn't tell whether this was a style choice, or a production problem. On the other hand, the shadowy atmosphere of Batman was well done, and the Joker was nicely drawn too.

For some reason, characters were often drawn with only one eye visible. Is this a manga convention of some type? It had to have been intentional. The manga style was apparent at times, but the book reads like an American comic. Occasionally the translation seemed awkward.

I would recommend this book for manga fans, and fans of Kia Asamiya, but anyone who has read a lot of Batman will find this work derivative and only mildly interesting. Still, it was not a terrible effort, and I'm now interested in looking at some of the author's other work.

When a Japanese news crew arrives in Gotham City, hoping to catch an interview with Batman, the whole world begins to change. Batman's old nemeses - Two-Face, Penguin and the Riddler - start a campaign of terror, acting unusual, even for them. When Batman catches each in turn, they burn up and turn into mummies; a new drug has hit the street, one that can turn people into the super-villain of their choice. The Japanese news crew seems to be at the center of it all, but when a pseudo-Joker grabs Yuko Yagi, the team's anchor, they seem to be in as much danger as Batman himself. Someone is out to get Batman, someone with a great deal of knowledge about pharmaceuticals, and the trail leads straight to Tokyo.

This great graphic novel is the brainchild of Kia Asamiya, one of Japan's foremost manga illustrators. Combining traditional manga artwork with the Batman world produces a fantastic fusion that is true to the earlier Batman works, and yet is new and exciting! I loved the story and the artwork in this book; I was worried that I wouldn't like either, but boy was I wrong! The whole book is in black-and-white, but the lack of color goes along great with the story, keeping that Gothic feeling that one expects. I highly recommend this book to any, and every, fan of Batman.

Finally, a decent and entertianing Batman graphic novel, which has been sorely lacking in the last couple of years. Kia Asamiya with Max Collins treat the reader to an entertianing read with outstanding artwork. The black and white, magna styled pitchures add to the dark mysterous Batman mythos.

The plot, though a little predictable, is written well enough to string the reader along. The strength is in the characters Batman and Yuko, a Japanese reporter out to try and do a story on the Batman. But someone, on the heals of Yuko's arrival, is duplicating Batman's villians and even Batman himself. Batman must battle these strange duplicates. Of course, the world's greatest dective knows that this is no coincidence and heads back to Japan when Yuko does.

This journey leads Batman to his ultimate crazed fan. Th story is enjoyable. I highly recommend it for the artwork and storytelling. Much better than the recently released "Batman: Absolution."

Kia Asamiya is most known in the States with his manga creations of Silent Mobius and Steam Detectives. He's also worked on several American comic titles, like X-Men, Titans, Fantastic Four, and Thor. Aside from the manga adaptation of Star Wars, he's also done an official Batman manga that ran in Japan from 2000-2001. His was the the second official manga based on Batman. The original was popularized in Batman: Brave And The Bold in the theme of a 60s anime series. But, Child Of Dreams took alot of influence from the first few Tim Burton movies with a darker Caped Crusader.

Yuko Yagi is a female reporter from Japan who comes to Gotham with her crew to see about getting an interview with the Dark Knight. They're not in town for one night without getting captured by Two-Face. Batman shows up and stops him, although its later revealed that its not the real Two-Face, but someone who used a special drug to turn him into Two-Face and has a terrible side-effect of draining the life out of them. Batman then has to contend with dopplegangers of Penguin and Riddler, but its a Joker wannabe that causes some serious problems. During this, Bruce Wayne starts dating Yuko who he believes has some connection to the mysterious drug. An assailant dressed as Batman shows up, who is really Yuko's producer, Nagai. This makes the trail of the drugs leading to a Japanese pharmaceutical company which is run by Yuko's uncle, Kenji Tomoko. He suffers from a strange ailment which rapidly ages him physically. Batman suspects he is the one behind the whole thing, and uses some of Batman's DNA to give himself a newer stonger body. Kenji's plan is to get rid of the old Batman, and become the new one making everyone think he was the original all along. The real Bats manages to "boff" him out though, and returns to Gotham.

This was a very impressive manga take on an American superhero. Unlike the Spider-Man manga, Child Of Dreams could very easily fit into the normal continuity of the DC Universe, and not some Elseworlds story. Asamiya's art style is awesome, and really gives the characters more of a profile than you usually see in traditional manga with huge eyes or non-existent noses. The manga takes on Batman rogue gallery is a serious bonus, although you only see pictures of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy in an interview at the end of the book. One of the few downsides to this though it was printed in American in left-to-right as opposed to the regular Japanese format, so Two-Face's scarred half is on his right side. The English adaptation was handled by comics regular Max Allan Collins, who is best known for writing The Road To Perdition. This is currently available in paperback and hardcover format through DC Comics. Totally makes for a great goddamn-Batman adventure!

If you love anime and Batman then this is the perfect fusion. The art and story are amazing. This is east meets west and total bat-action. The clever story and superb art will keep the nest of the Bat-fans and anime fans glued. The only thing better would be to make this into a Anime movie. Batman has quite a following in Japan and America.

Yes, it is a very interesting story and it flows well as Batman pieces the puzzle together in his usual methodic manner. What was striking to me was that it seems the artist used Keaton's Batman for his model, something I have not seen used since the first movies comic. The action is a bit hard to follow and I never was much for magna adaptations of American comics, however it is a story worthy of any fans attention and a very enjoyable read.