November 25, 2009

Whatever Happened

by Greg

Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, Deluxe Edition, by Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert, in bullet points:

  • Comparisons to Alan Moore are pointless, because Alan Moore is incomparable.
  • There are no !@#$ page numbers.
  • The Catwoman on approximately page 3-6 is probably different from the Catwoman of "The Cat-Woman's Tale" -- different bangs, and grey streaks -- but I can't tell for sure, and I'm not even sure if it's important or relevant.
  • Because the whole !@#$ thing is a farrago of metaphor and surrealism, with nothing concrete.
  • Narrative is for suckers.
  • So skip absolutely everything up and including to the Superman appearance, about page 7 of the second part. It's meaningless noise.
  • The last eighteen or twenty pages, however, is pretty good and the ending is effective. It's not original or anything, it's the familiar epiphany with the dead merged with a rip-off of a classic children's story, but it works.
  • There should have been a callout to Alan Brennert's classic "To Kill a Legend", because it provides a counter-example to the Waynes' always dying.
  • I don't know if David Mazzucchelli originated the pose of young Bruce kneeling at the center of the triangle formed by his dead parents' bodies, or if he was imitating someone before him. But that shot -- and the broken pearl string from Frank Miller -- are so identified with the origin now that artists everywhere should be paying them a design fee.
  • Andy Kubert, I have little to say about. He did his job. He doesn't stand out for good or bad. He alludes to other artists' styles without copying them, mostly, which is pretty nice.
  • Story. Sto-oory. Say it with me. Gaiman, you made your bones writing stories about a guy whose entire thing was stories. You should know from stories. I would have liked to have read a story here.

Posted by Greg at November 25, 2009 10:05 PM

Comments
#1 ::: Kevin J. Maroney ::: November 26, 2009 9:22 PM ::: link

In many ways, of course, this *is* a story about story--it's many little vignettes about lives of Batman, some of them tiny homages to well-known stories. (E.g., David Reed's "Where Were You on the Night Batman Was Killed?" four-parter, Batman 291-294 , which I think was the first "miniseries within a series".) Kubert's allusive art ties in to this brickolage reasonably well. I agree with your implicit criticism that, unfortunately, most of the homages and invocations aren't particularly memorable--as demonstrated by the fact that I can't remember a one of them, six months after having read it.

But the pieces do add to a coherent story--of the Bat-man as a character who attracts stories to himself. And it builds to a strong finish, one that rationalizes both the content and the approach of the preceding pages.

Also, as a sop to us continuity fiends, it ties in brilliantly to a tossed-off comment by a major character in Sandman. So that's nice.

So: Not one of Gaiman's Great Works, but in the range of as good a Last Batman Story as I can picture being written.

#2 ::: dhole ::: November 29, 2009 2:09 PM ::: link

I enjoyed the first part, then was very disappointed by the second part, mainly 'cause, as mentioned, I wasn't really satisfied that I had read a story.

And the homage to Good Night Moon fell very flat because I just happened to see the exact same thing in a scene from The Wire about a week earlier. That's just bad luck, I guess.

Also wish we'd had some closure with the guy watching Joker's car, although it's a safe bet it wasn't going to end well for him.

#3 ::: Jeff R. ::: December 2, 2009 4:55 PM ::: link

So, if you were sitting in the towers of DC editorial and received the mandate from further up that there must be a third Whatever Happened, telling the last Wonder Woman story, (1) how would you finish the title question? and (2) Who would be your first choice for the creative team, given that it must not involve anyone on the first two books?

#4 ::: Greg Morrow ::: December 2, 2009 5:19 PM ::: link

"Whatever Happened to the Amazing Amazon", probably. I wouldn't mind seeing Art Adams or Amanda Conner or Brian Bolland on art. I think Paul Levitz would be a good choice for writer. (Or maybe Len Wein.) All this is assuming it's not a George Perez project all the way across.

#5 ::: Dave Snyder ::: December 4, 2009 10:30 AM ::: link

Can we do other titles, because I'd want Whatever Happenned to the Scarlet Speedster, by William Messner-Loebs and Greg LaRocque. Buit it would be Wally because Barry would still be dead.

#6 ::: Jeff R. ::: December 4, 2009 2:24 PM ::: link

I'd go with Whatever Happened to the Fastest Man Alive? for the Flash, myself. And I think that the parallel should be "extremely talented writer who's only written a few (but a few excellent) stories with this character" rather than bringing in someone who wrote a multi-year run. (So Morrison would be a fair choice for Flash.)

(Whatever happened to the Big Red Cheese? vs Whatever happened to the World's Mightiest Mortal??)

(And Wonder Woman will never be able to support a second monthly title unless she can pick up a second catchy epithet...)

#7 ::: Dan Coyle ::: December 9, 2009 4:05 PM ::: link

Whatever happened to the Fastest Man Alive? Geoff Johns, that's what happened.

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