Yeah yeah I know, this little mini that could JUST ended two days ago, but I’ve been working it over in my head a LOT since then and realized that it was definitely worth a recommendation. You see, of the endless supply of Flashpoint tie-in mini-series that surrounded the hulking event, this one stands out in a lot of different ways, foremost of which is the stand-out creative team. Sure, there were some great (and not so great) creators involved in bringing the expanded universe of Flashpoint to life, but none of the combinations could REALLY hold a candle to Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso. On top of that, the story itself is so compact, concise, beautifully structured and implemented that it should rightfully stand amongst the ranks of the best Elseworlds Batman stories (ALA Batman: Vampire and Gotham by Gaslight), despite sort of existing within continuity kinda maybe. Click on down for more ramblings on this topic.
Sure Azzarello did not have anything to do with the conception of the Flashpoint universe, nor did he decide that Batman would be Thomas Wayne or that he would run a chain of successful casinos. I’m willing to bet (although I can’t confirm) that all of those aspects of the story came from Geoff Johns. However, what he DID do is make me actually believe that Thomas Wayne COULD become Batman, made Thomas Wayne MATTER as Batman and weave a legitimately fresh take on the Bat-mythos instead of just throwing a different character under the hood and then having him act pretty damn similar to the character we knew anyway (ALA the way the character has been used by Johns in the main book).
The three-part mini starts out simply enough, with Thomas Wayne slandering his way through a corporate mandated psychiatry session which Azzarello uses as a way to quickly and succinctly define Wayne as a bitter old man, seemingly detached from humanity in a very cold way. Or at least, that is the front he is putting on. Much like his son would hide behind the mask of billionaire playboy a few universes over (or whatever this universe will end up being classified as after the NEXT continuity reboot), the elder Wayne masquerades as a bitter, money grubbing mogul in order to filter all of the crime in Gotham through establishments that HE owns. Simply put, he doesn’t ever need to go on patrol, the villains come to him; ingenious, really, despite being such a simple idea.
With the background established, the story launches into it’s main bit of narrative: the Joker has kidnapped the children of District Attorney Harvey Dent and is holding them captive for unknown reasons. The story is familiar, to say the least, but beyond situational similarities this story really is one that we’ve never seen before and for many of us never expected to see. Mostly since when the origin of Thomas Wayne as Batman was told in Flashpoint, we were lead to believe that Thomas was the only survivor of his family’s encounter with Joe Chill after that movie on that fateful night, swapping Bruce’s survival for his own in this Universe. However, at the end of issue #2 we learn that was NOT the case and indeed that the Flashpoint Joker is none other than Martha Wayne driven to insanity following the death of her son.
I had to let that idea breathe for a bit once I first read it, since it was so delightfully absurd that I kind of forgot how much of a stroke of genius it was. Having Batman and the Joker played by Thomas and Martha Wayne? The inherent commentary on the relationship between Batman and the Joker was just taken to another level entirely, and it worked to create one of the single greatest hero and villain interactions I have ever seen in the climax of issue three. It was only at the very end of this issue that the book try to tie-in to the primary narrative to Flashpoint, and used the crossover situation to perfectly define the motivations of the two characters. In every way, this is how crossovers are SUPPOSED to happen. Using the base series to motivate and expand, rather than simple existing within its framework.
Despite being a tie-in to a larger event narrative, I can very easily admit that this particular mini stands on its own worlds better than any other, and a few years down the road this story and these iterations of the characters will probably stand the test of time a lot better than, say, The Outsider. A lot of that has to do with the monumental strength of the story, but it would be disingenuous if I didn’t admit the role Eduardo Risso plays in this title’s success. Simply put, when a writer and an artist develop a familiarity, a book just looks and feels different from a writer/artist pairing that has not had a lot of combined work time under their belts. However, after their monumental 100 issue run on 100 Bullets together, it’s clear that Risso understands how to adapt Azzarello’s words. The fluidity of motion from panel to panel is indication of that. However, this relationship is two-tiered, as Azzarello clearly knows how to write to Risso’s strengths. As an artist, he has a fairly unique take on body and facial structure that is by no means conventional, but existing in its own bubble ends up being profound (in the kind of way that no one can really call Chris Bachalo’s work conventional but having it transcend the very idea of the word). This, combined with his impeccable use of shadow and perspective make him the perfect artist for a story like this and creates some of the best work I’ve seen from him.
Overall, this story ends up becoming something a lot more than what I’m sure its original reason for being was and proves to be so much more than the sum of his parts. Not simply the story of an alternate reality Batman, but a distinctly original and profoundly sadistic take on the story of the Dark Knight. However, the biggest joy of the whole experience is I never ever expected to find something this good buried in a mountain of sub-par event tie-ins, and that alone makes it more special than ever. Part of me wishes they’d do a reissue in a few years adding a few lines to determine how Thomas knows what Bruce would become if he hadn’t died so that the story could completely stand on its own, but as it is right now it singularly defines the idea of a diamond in the rough.
