Neil Gaiman and Batman

I've been waiting for this comic since news of it was released months back - Gaiman writing a two parter Batman story. My favourite comic book writer on my favourite character (Yes, I'm an unabashed Batfan), it was a match made in fanboy heaven. The details of the story were kept under wraps and I'm not in the habit of reading previews, so when the first part of 'Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?' released a couple of days back, I was more or less going into it with a blank mind. All I knew was that it would somehow tie-in with the current situation of Batman in DC Comics, which is that Bruce Wayne has, let's say, vanished (this is a huge oversimplification), and everyone else thinks he's dead.

It's every bit as good as I hoped for. Though it not clear whether the story is in continuity, it really doesn't matter, the focus is clearly on paying a tribute to the character and all the creators across decades who have made the Bat universe memorable.

*SPOILERS*
The setting is the wake of Batman. His body is lying peacefully in an open caskets and all his villains and friends are attending it. It's the kind of surreal premise which only Gaiman can pull off without confusing the hell out of the reader (well, Morrison too, when he feels like it). There's a couple of conflicting stories which come up regarding how Batman died and in these stories we see Gaiman's brilliance.

There are constant homages in the issue to the art and writing styles of the different eras of Batman (this issue focuses mostly till the 60s so I guess the rest will be seen in the second issue), even a little nod to the Adam West Batman and we see highly creative alternate realities which could have been. Like Alfred's story in which he says that all the colourful, memorable Batman villains were in reality Alfred and his stage friends (with Alfred as the Joker) who purposefully used outlandish gimmicks, an idea Alfred came up with to keep Bruce happy and not get too tied down by the depressing reality of ordinary crime.

In the background (within captions), is Bruce Wayne observing all this with a mysterious woman who may or may not be Death, and Bruce has no idea what the hell is happening here. The woman does and challenges Bruce to figure out what's going on in the cliff hanger.

The issue is a brilliant tribute to the icon of Batman. Gaiman has successfully extracted the most basic elements from the mythos and weaved it in a highly surrealist manner. Andy Kubert's art is superb, some of the best I've seen from him. Once can see here why the Kubert school and family is so highly rated. Their art may not be the most beautiful, but it is the most crisp and their sense of storytelling is second to none, specially in superhero stuff.

Can't wait for the second issue.

Oh, Robert Miles' 'Dream' started playing on shuffle while I was typing this post. Morpheus approves