Batman: The 10-Cent Adventure
Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Rick Burchett and Klaus Janson
Published by DC Comics
The genuine irony of this lost opportunity is staggering.
You've got a comic book about one of the most enduring fictional characters in history. You plan to give it away practically for free. You get one of the best and brightest (in every sense of the word) writers in comics to script the issue, then have two immensely qualified artists illustrate his script.
Ah, this could have been a great moment for comics.
Could have been.
Don't get me wrong, I am sure this 10-cent gimmick is creating some buzz, somewhere. I'm sure someone who wouldn't have read about Batman this month will read this story. That's a given.
But DC blew this opportunity, mostly by being greedy. By deluding itself into thinking the cliffhanger ending would hook thousands of new readers. Let me go way out on a limb and tell you that that isn't going to happen. The timing alone doomed it to fail, with world events ensuring no one was going to highlight this event at the end of the 6 o'clock news. But DC went one further, ensuring even people who like comics will be insulted and offended by this unfortunate release.
Greg Rucka turns in a tight, compelling and entertaining script that is soiled, maimed and rendered utterly irrelevant to the purpose at hand by the unfortunate events of the final two pages. Some have complained that by focusing on such characters as Batman's bodyguard, Rucka's script delves too deeply into current continuity and loses the iconic appeal of the Batman mythos. I don't agree with that. If the purpose of this issue was to garner new readers for the Bat-titles, it would have been deceptive to deliver some sort of Gotham Adventures-type tale that highlights only the most well-known articles of the Batman mythos. Unless you're trying to find new readers for Gotham Adventures, of course -- but they're not smart enough to launch a campaign like that.
No, I think Rucka was right to highlight a day (well, night...or Knight, to be way too cute) in the life of Batman as he currently is. DC was right to give us an art style that is not at all in conflict with what one is likely to find in the main titles. Burchett and Janson, in fact, work wonderfully together. The story, up until the final two pages, is a terrific summation of where Batman and some of his supporting cast are at now. And then those two pages hit, like a slap in the face. The first of the new year from DC, but you can be sure there will be more.
Hard to know who's to blame for tying this great idea into another stupid multi-title, wallet-busting, interest-killing crossover. I mean, ultimately DC as a company has to be held accountable for its own foolishness. Hopefully no one will blame Rucka for this. The highlight of his story is the narration by Sasha Bordeaux. As always, Rucka gives us a strong and motivated female protagonist, much like in the excellent, not to say vastly superior (but damn, I said it, didn't I?) Whiteout and Queen and Country Rucka writes for Oni.
Rucka excels at character the way Brian Michael Bendis does at dialogue, and this is mostly a small vignette about character. We learn about Batman through his bodyguard's narration, and we learn about her, by the things she says, and by the things she holds back.
Bruchett and Janson work well together to create a style that hints of both a more realistic approach and the simplified elegance of the animated version of this world, best exemplified by the work of Bruce Timm and the late Mike Parobeck. Lee Loughridge turns in his usual subtle, effective colouring, and Dave Johnson turns in a top-notch, iconic cover that is a work of art unto itself. It's quite safe to say that everyone involved in the creative end of this project absolutely put in their best effort.
Except of course the editors and whoever else made the stupid, arrogant and ultimately pointless decision to turn a nice little opportunity to create buzz and goodwill into a cynical, wrongheaded marketing ploy that is doomed to fail. Because those last two pages just make this all a big waste of time and effort for all involved, right down to the reader.
What happens is, Bruce Wayne is implicated in the murder of his ex-girlfriend. To Be Continued, for months. Yes, this 10-cent issue's story is continued, and continued, and continued, as the BIG GIANT MEGA-CROSSOVER EXTRAGAVANZA BRUCE WAYNE: MURDERER?. DC loses the chance to get parents to give this book to their kids by dint of the violence at the end, while adults will most certainly run from the "opportunity" to spend $10.00, $15.00, $20.00 or more finding out the answer to the big, boring mystery. One is forced to contemplate when such a nice, decent idea as a 10-cent comic book got corrupted by corporate greed and stupidity. There was real potential here to actually draw in new readers. It genuinely pains me to say this about a book that the writer and artists obviously put so much good work into, but here is a good lesson in why "servicing corporate trademarks," as Warren Ellis calls it, so often leads to disenchantment and contempt on the part of any reader with half a brain cell and a sense of history. All I can say about this book in the end is this: Greg Rucka is a damned good writer, Burchett and Rucka and Loughridge are all damned good artists. Batman is damned good character. This was a damned good idea. And DC once again proves it is just damned. Or should be.