Customer Reviews

Batman: Evolution (No Man's Land)

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

 

 

Reprints Detective Comics #s 743-750, minus, apparantly, the 8-page backups that began appearing in # 746. The exclusion of said material, excellent though it is, is not enough to justify bumping this down from five stars to four; besides, all DC has to do is start issuing Trade Paperbacks reprinting the Detective backups like they've done for the Black-&-White backups from Gotham Knights (another outstanding title) and problem solved, you don't have to worry about missing any material when you purchase Trades like this or "Officer Down" or "Fugitive". What really mystifies me though, is if this is billed as 'New Gotham 1', why they didn't start the volume off by reprinting Detective # 742, THE perfect post-No Man's Land starting point, an issue largely focusing on Jim Gordon and the reprecussions of the final issues of NML. I definately recommend that issue in addition to this volume, as it sets the stage well for the whole post-NML Batman material in many of the titles, not just Detective.

Onto the material that is reprinted itself - issues 743-746 bring the detective skills of the Bat into center stage as he investigates the prescence and intentions of Whisper A'Daire and Kyle Abbot in Gotham, two new (to the reader) agents of the Demon's Head, Ra's Al Ghul. 743-746 also give considerable play to many of Gotham's 'non-costumed' organized crime elements, and does so with great characterization and realism. # 747 is a stand-alone issue in which Batman is pretty much a cameo player, in an issue starring GCPD officer Reneé Montoya and Two-Face; possibly one of the 5 best single-issue Batman stories ever published; actually I'd go even further and say it's possibly one of the 5 best self-contained comics, period. Detective Nos. 748 & 749, 'Urban Renewal' Parts 1 & 2, see the tense friction between the Dee-Zees (residents who left Gotham after the No Man's Land declaration and returned after it was lifted) and OGs (Original Gothamites, who stayed in the city during the whole crisis) escalating into violence; also brings in details on how the actual rebuilding of the city is proceeding. And Detective Comics # 750 is a follow-up to the arc in 743-746, brilliant but containing one small implausibility, the only one in the collection. To focus too much on that would be nitpicking on the molecular level given the overall awesomeness of the issue and the collection.

The artwork is tremendous, one of the few examples of veering into the highly stylized realm of art (rather than going for a fully photorealistic style) that I find totally rewarding and expressive on every level. And it's not that it's blatantly UN-photorealistic, it's just that this is a really unique, really innovative pencil style. If the drawing style is innovative, the coloring style is downright revolutionary, casting each individual issue in pre-dominantly in a single primary color and its multitude of shades, plus black, white and grey. A bold move that succeeded magnificently and worked with the pencils and inks for one of the most original looks on any comic title in years and years.

Tremendous, riveting, outstanding, and unpredictable, I'll stop now before I use too much bandwidth with thousands of praiseful adjectives.

Novelist Greg Rucka came aboard the Batman books during the groundbreaking "No Man's Land" epic. I loved that story arc, but since then, I've found Rucka's work, both on Batman and other comics (Whiteout, Batman/Huntress, etc.) to be either hit or miss. He is capable of great work, as the Two-Face story in this book shows, but when he's off his game.....oh boy.

The biggest problem here is Editorial; When DC rebooted Detective Comics, post NML, they made a few awful decisions- Artist Shawn Martinbrough's work is boring and nondescript, and it's made even worse by the "Limited" Colors used. The book looks like someone spilled a mug of Hot Chocolate on it. Just awful. Why bother to color it at all? It would be much more palatable in black and white.

An Editor should also have stepped in to stop Rucka from using a ridiculous designer drug as his plot device; The drug doesn't just addict, it turns it's users into animals. Literally. Snakes, Wolves, etc. After years spent trying to keep The Batman books (Semi)believable, the sight of addicts turning into snakes had me howling with laughter. Is this the best the great Ra's Al Ghul could do? Pathetic! Ra's Al Ghul is not my favorite Batman villain, but I think that's why he never used to turn up much: It took a really talented writer to do something with him. Rucka was not that writer. After all of that buildup, the story doesn't end, so much as stop. It's almost like Rucka ran out of writing paper....

With the great array of Batman books out there, you can't really be in bad enough shape that you'll want to waste your cash on this....

Batman: Evolution picks up where the No Man's Land storyline ends. With that said, the story is individual enough that one would not have to have read No Man's Land to be able to jump right in. Evolution chronicles another attempt by Ra's Al Ghul (pronounced 'raish') to take over the world with a far-fetched scheme that causes general chaos. To be honest, Ra's Al Ghul is probably my least favorite recurring villain in Gotham. To me, nothing seems very memorable about his character. So, it's probably a good thing that Ra's appears on only a few pages of the book. Instead, his genetically altered henchmen make up the main antagonists of the story. With the exception of the now strangely recurring "officer Renee Montoya chapter", the story stays focused and moves along quickly. While the characters are less colorful than a Joker or Scarecrow, they are developed well and in most cases seem believable. Batman/Bruce himself is done very well, with a good balance of dialogue and action that keeps the character intriguing. The only obvious flaw in the story comes in the ending. Without spoiling anything, I'll say that the conclusion felt very hurried and not very well developed. It's what keeps this story from receiving 5 stars.

As for the art, it's the kind I appreciate: clean, clear, to the point, and effective. The pencilling has a sophisticated flair while keeping its utilitarian purposes in check. The muted coloring style is truly inspired, and strives to create a dark yet beautiful setting for Batman to work in. After the conclusion of the story, a few pages are added to show off some beautiful art based upon the story that keeps with the general artistic tone of the book.

Overall, Evolution is a worthy Batman novel that covers most of its bases very well.

I agree with some of the reviewers that say the artwork is not great. I think the team of artists were going for a simple/classic Tim Sale kind of feel, but don't quite pull it off. The limited color palette is unusual (entire chapters use only a few colors), but this doesn't bother me. It creates an unreal feeling, so you can accept people transforming into animals... well, almost.

What saves the book is the writing of Greg Rucka. After his HUGE hit with the recent Batman comic, "The OMAC Project," I wanted to check out his earlier stuff. So I ordered this and I wasn't disappointed. Rucka understands that Batman books work well when Bruce Wayne is allowed to be a detective, not just a grunting badass. Even though Ra's al Ghul is probably my least favorite Batman villain, I enjoyed his part of the story. The Two-Face chapter is solid too. I like how Rucka includes characters from "Gotham Central," like Detective Montoya (the Two-Face chapter revolves around her).

Check out Rucka's work on the "Batman & Huntress" trade paperback (an excellent read) and the acclaimed "Queen and Country" series.

Happy reading!

Great read. Not so great art work but you can't blame that on rucka can you. Rucka did a great job with the villans i think. i purchased this along with batman broken bat. Broken Bat was a little better cause of the art work. BUY THIS BOOK!

This book is a continuation of the excellent "Batman: No Man's Land" sequence, unfortunately it is a step down. While the artwork of the NML series was excellent, in this book the coloration is minimal and the lines are drawn much more harshly.
Gotham City is being rebuilt at a frenetic pace, yet it is split into two groups. The people that stayed in the city are called "OGs" and those that left and have returned are called "Deezees." There is a great deal of tension between the two groups with people in each group agitating against the other. Criminal gangs based largely on nationality have carved out their respective niches and they often engage in violent actions against each other.
There is also the presence of a gang that is providing an alchemical elixir that will give a human for eternal life. However, it is extremely addictive, must be taken to maintain the longevity and alters your body structure so that you become part animal. For example, one of the gang members is part king cobra. The leader of the elixir gang and his lieutenants use the hostility of the criminal gangs to incite additional violence so that they can take over the underworld of Gotham City and stopping them is the primary task that Batman is working on.
While the story has some good qualities, I simply could not overcome the visual theme of the story. It may be that I was spoiled by the previous NML books, but what I saw here left me lacking.

This book reprints several stories from the relaunch of the Batman line in 2000. In the first, as Gotham rebuilds from a devastating earthquake gangs go to war and Ra's Al Ghul's agents are on the prowl. In the second violence between the people who stayed for No Mans Land and those who fled erupts. Finally Batman tracks down Ra's Al Ghul. There's also a one issue story about detective Montoya's birthday.

The art and design of these issue deserves special mention, the buildings and cars seem to have come right from Batman the Animated Series or a 30s film. The art by Shawn Martinbrough is moody and atmospheric similar to Tim Sale's work.

The plotting is tight, the characters and stories interesting and the book is just plain good.

A lot of books from this time got lost in the shuffle of high-profile events that followed. Batman Evolution does not change the character forever, there's no long-dead sidekicks, no world-threatening menaces and no Joker. It's a real shame because this book has some real high-quality work.

The number of Batman titles out there is phenomenal. I can never get thru the idea that practically, almost every issue must feature or mention either the Joker or Two-Face.

This comic features Two-Face in an interim-like story who sends officer Montoya flowers on her Birthday via Bruce Wayne. I wan's quite sure how Harvey would have known Montoya (given the Batman chronology), let alone remember her B'Day unless he had had a crush on her as DA or later as Two-Face. What has Bruce Wayne got to do with sending the flowers? Won't he be exposing his Batman identity to Montoya by doing Two-face a favour? Not only that, Batman then sends Montoya a note thanking Montoya for visitng Two-face in prison. Any self-respecting detective (that's Montoya) would be able to figure this out.

The main story features Batman vs Ras Al Ghul and his nominee Whisper in a deadly plan to get Gotham city inhabitants hooked onto a powerful new drug which slows down the ageing process but turns them now and then into transient were-animals. It starts off well enough but the story then hits a roadblock, with an insertion of the above Two-Face B'day interlude story, and then resumes to a very abrupt ending.

The drawings are really basic b/w stuff with spot colouring. Not quite Sin City nor funnies stuff.

Frank Miller, Jeph Loeb, Ed Brubaker & Greg Rucka. What do all of these guys have in common? Apart from being absolute masters of the comic book medium, and also being able to tell cracking good mystery tales, they have the distinction of being able to give us the BEST Batman tales. Greg Rucka's take on Batman/Bruce Wayne is at once both believable and fantastic! Do yourself a favour and check this book out. The story flows along at a brisk pace and the art is done in a psuedo film nior style. Very groovy.

This is like a Batman:The Animated Series cartoon on paper. The art and storytelling are both right out of the show. I enjoy when Batman acts like a detective instead of just a ninja. Good stuff.