More Batman Stuff, This Time, NO MAN'S LAND (SPOILERS OK)

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So I picked up NML Vol's 1, 2 & 3 earlier this week and finished reading them last night. Hopefully, there's a Vol. 4.
Anyway, I really liked the first 2 books and then book 3 seemed to be more, "Oh yeah, this is a typical superhero comic."

The Batgirl thing, who else could it have been?

― Huck, Friday, 6 August 2004 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Vol. ONe is mostly Maleev!

― Huck, Friday, 6 August 2004 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

The hell you say?!??

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 6 August 2004 16:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Huh?

― Huck, Friday, 6 August 2004 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Vol. ONe is mostly Maleev! ?!??

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 6 August 2004 16:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, the first three or four stories in it are drawn by the always impressive Daredevil penciller. So it's got that going for it right there, also Vol. One deals mainly with the GCPD, so that's wicked.

― Huck, Friday, 6 August 2004 16:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Holy fuck! There are FIVE Volumes to the No Man's Land story, not including Cataclysm!

― Huck, Friday, 6 August 2004 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

That's why I never took the plunge, as cool as the first volume sounds. That's a LOT of Batman.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 6 August 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I've read Cataclysm, and the first three, all from the library. I wonder, I think the library has its catalogue online. I wonder if they just suckered me in to BUYING the (probably inferior) final two chapters of this?

― Huck, Friday, 6 August 2004 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Vols 1 & 2 do pretty much stand on their own though.

― Huck, Friday, 6 August 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

ARGGGGGG!!!
Vols. 4 and 5 are at two different, far-flung branches!
WHY, WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

― Huck, Friday, 6 August 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

O.M.G. The library sort of close to my work has 341 "graphic novels" for me to plunder!
It's in a bad neighbourhood though.

― Huck, Friday, 6 August 2004 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

There were some atrociously written issues in the early volumes, namely an unironized and one-dimensional binary between the gung-ho militant wingnut/patriot and a nuanced/hesitant Gordon. Whoever the hack was, he clearly sided with the wingnut and painting Gordon into a wussy corner.

BUT! Once Rucka comes aboard, it's more credulously characterized. I don't remember which vol. it's in so: ***SPOILER STARTS HERE COS WE DON'T HAVE A BETTER WAY OF DOING THIS*** There's an awesome high-concept part where Two Face puts Montoya and/or Gordon in a (mock) trial where TF is the prosecutor, and then Gordon demands that Harvey Dent (!) serves as Montoya's attorney and HD, get this, cross-examines Two Face!! ***SPOILER DONE***

― Jimmy Carter, History's Greatest Monster (Leee), Friday, 6 August 2004 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Was this the arc/event/thing that started Rucka's involvement with Batman? I might pick a volume or two up or see if my library has them. Other than reading a couple issues here and there, I had pretty much written the whole thing off as a bloated gimmick, but y'all are making it sound pretty decent. (Why is it that, of all the damn things, Batman multi-title events have been DC's version of Marvel's mutant crossovers?)

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 6 August 2004 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

is this the one all about how the US Government has pulled out of Gotham, and Batman is the only person providing Law and Order to a city that has turned into something out of a Judge Dredd comic?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Sunday, 8 August 2004 11:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Leee's crazy, the Gordon stuff is the best part. I love how he's all bitter and shit about being the laughingstock of other PD's and how he's trying to maintain some sort of civility in what really should be a police state. It's the essential contradiction of his character. No honest cop could get along with someone like the Batman, because, and I think Gordon even says something like this, Batman only exists because he's too egotistical to be a real cop. His very being is an insult to real police.
(ps I heart Jim Gordon, "Roomful of Strangers" is awesome!)
By Volume Three, it becomes pretty typical Batman punches guys and is gruff with his legion of helpers. Though I'm sure 4 and 5 come back to the problems between Gordon, his dissidents, and his wife, who, I believe SPOILERSPOILERSPOILER gets offed during this ordeal.
Vol. 2 is far and away my favourite...I'll check the credits later, but I don't think Rucka came in until Vol. 3, or at least the second half of Vol. 2.

― Huck, Monday, 9 August 2004 04:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Leee's crazy, the Gordon stuff is the best part. I love how he's all bitter

He didn't see the early Gordon bits as bitter, but emasculated. One specific writer wrote Gordon as a pussy compared to the he-man John Wayne cop -- Gordon backs down, doesn't take initiative, thinks too much, etc.

(ps I heart Scott Morse, "Roomful of Strangers" is awesome!)

― Mr. Tony Plow (Leee), Monday, 9 August 2004 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

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