Comics Fondle

Doug Moench has a good handle on Batman, but his story, Prey, is more competent than anything else. It’s a mediocre Batman comic book, from the period before Batman comics got real bad. Legends of the Dark Knight started following the 1989 Batman and there’s a lot in the comic (again, just like in the previous story-arc) straight from the movies, whether it’s the Batmobile or the way Batman stands around in costume publicity shots from time to time. Paul Gulacy’s art–and I need to complain about one thing, I’m always saying Gulacy got bad after this point or that point, but then I’m always having to push the date forward in time–is competent too. It’s not exciting art and there’s a certain lifelessness to his fight scenes. Especially since there’s an emphasis on showing Batman’s fighting style. Gulacy used to be a “wow” of an artist, but Prey is simply okay.

In Prey, Moench updates one of Batman’s oldest villains, Dr. Hugo Strange (as one could tell from the name), as well as doing a sequel to Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One. Adding the visual cues to the movie into the mix, Prey is an amalgam of contrary ingredients. Moench writes a relatively small story–Batman vs. Strange and his partner–but there’s still the journal exposition from Miller’s Year One, which isn’t bad, but it’s forced at times, especially when Commissioner Gordon (I love how, with Batman, I can just refer to a character without having to explain it, thank goodness for Adam West and reruns) rambles on about the city. Miller liked to ramble on about the city, Moench likes to just write a story. It’s not even a mystery, it’s just a story about a bunch of stuff happening in a timeline, which works for it. Prey doesn’t feel everyday, but when it’s closer to that approach, it works. It’s almost fun. (If Gulacy’s fight scenes were better, it’d be fun for sure).

Another recurrent element of these early Legends of the Dark Knight stories is the emphasis on Batman’s origin. I’ve only read the two, but both feature full flashbacks–particularly silly in Prey, a story-packed comic book–and Moench’s take on Batman is a traditional one, another incompatibility with the Year One-style storytelling devices. Prey has some problems standing on its own–removing the movie influences and the Year One influences–and taking it as a revamp of Hugo Strange, it’s a little light. The story’s eventual oomph is all those elements and it’d be better if it wasn’t, but the story’s still decent. It certainly maintained my interest for an hour.

C+

Technorati Tags: Batman, Doug Moench, Paul Gulacy, DC Comics, Comic Book, Review

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