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| Cover retrived from Goodreads page. |
My Goodreads review (along with content/trigger warnings) here.
My Amazon review here.
As per usual, anything that is a side note or not directly on topic will be written in this blue.
Batman is my favorite DC superhero, hands down. I don't read the comics very often, due to the sheer magnitude of them. However, I keep up with the wikipedia/wikias so that I know what is going on.
I was first introduced to Batman through the TV show starring Adam West back when it would air on Saturday mornings on TV Land (Yes, I'm that old.). About seven to eight years later, I started watching Batman: the Animated Series; just as many people have a Doctor (Doctor Who for you old people), I now consider Kevin Conroy to be my Batman.
Later, when Christopher Nolan's Batman debuted, I found it to be very enjoyable and pretty accurate, but still loved BtAS more.
Confession: when the clip of Rob Paulson (Gordon of BtAS) and Kevin Conroy doing the last scene from The Dark Knight released, I may or may not have watched it upwards of fifteen times...
Fast forward four years, and we get Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice...
...Yeah. I'm not going to go into the BvS argument because this intro is already way too long, but suffice it to say that I found Affleck to be an ok, though slightly older, Bruce/Batman.
So when I saw that there was going to be a YA novel based in the DCEU, I was intrigued. When I saw that it was going to be written by Marie Lu, I was so excited that I pre-ordered it from Amazon (which I N E V E R do).
This book was amazing, guys.
One of the first things that I noticed was that Lu's Bruce was versatile in the fact that I could believe this was part of the origin story for Nolan's Bruce, Bruce from BtAS, or Bruce from BvS. Since the Batman lore is so wide, it's pretty much always a good thing when you can weave multiple universes into one. Early in the book, Bruce makes a choice that reminds me a lot of Bruce from The Dark Knight. The way that Bruce interacts with his friends (My poor bby Harvey *sad face*) reflects Bruce from BtAS. Bruce's impulsiveness to try to help others in many of the situations that he finds himself in is constant over many different variations in the Batman universe.
Second, I appreciated the deeper worldbuilding in regards to Arkham Asylum, so that it is not just some looming place that you dump your supervillians in, but why so many people of Gotham are not only scared of the place, but actively try to avoid it so much.
The characters, both old and new, are great and feel real.Bruce is young, but has the fire and drive that reflect his desire to help both the city and the people of Gotham. He knows that the city and people can do better, and wants to help them but as of right now, isn’t sure about the best way to do so because throwing money at something can only make so much progress.
In fact, one of the first scenes with Bruce reflects a side of
Bruce that you very rarely see (as the comics/adaptions tend to only show him as a broody man with unresolved parental issues). This side is one of compassion.
As Batman, Bruce does tend to punch a lot, but he also uses his power for good.
In one of the old running comics of Gotham (Issue 26, I believe. Don’t quote
me.), Batman rescues a baby and takes care of it for a couple of hours until he
can take the child to an orphanage/safe drop off. When doing so, he does a
few things wrong and the people Batman is fighting correct him and actually
give him tips. He then follows those tips before taking the child somewhere
safe.
Another time, Batman is trying to interview a young girl who has
been attacked. When he first gets there, the girl is frightened of him. Instead
of using his usual “tact,” he adapts to what she needs and lets her set the
timeline of the interview.
The BtAS has a lot of episodes dealing with the villains/antiheros
of Gotham. In one episode, Catwoman has been put on probation, but starts to
lose it when her cat Isis goes missing. Instead of waiting for her to mess up
and take her to prison, Batman rescues and returns Isis.
In the episode “Baby-Doll,” Batman faces off with Baby-Doll/Mary
Louise Dahl (Yeah, I know. DC is not one for originality), who has severe systemic hypoplasia and looks like a
5 year old, even though she’s 30. It’s a typical Batman solves the case BtAS
episode, but the interesting thing happens at the end. When the two are done
fighting and Batman has won, he does it somewhat differently than usual – he
shows her what she has done wrong. Then, because she simply wants to be treated
as an adult and not a freak child, she backs down. Batman then gives her time
before taking her to the authorities.
What’s
my point with all of this (besides the fact that I really love Batman/Bruce Wayne)?
The point is that Bruce’s compassion and humanity are forgotten in a lot of his
adaptions and this book brings it back. This book happens before he starts his
Batman journey; Bruce has a lot of compassion and a desire to help, he just
doesn’t know where to start.
Bruce
is also a really good friend to those he knows well, and this book is good at
showing that.
We
have Harvey Dent, later to become the Gotham villain Two-Face. Bruce tries to
protect Harvey as much as possible, but can only do so much.
Bruce’s
other close friend is Dianne Garcia, who is a new character. I was hesitantly
optimistic about her, but she was interesting. Even though she was more in the
background than Harvey, you could clearly see the friendship between the two of
them (or three, depending on if Harvey was there) and they spoke their minds to
one another so that they helped each other.
There
is Madeleine Wallace, the antagonist who gains Bruce’s attention. She’s mysterious,
but as time goes on, she develops a realness to her and exposes a sadness that
all Gotham villains seem to have.
Finally,
we have Alfred Pennyworth (awesome as always) and Detective Draccon. They are
the adult figures/figures of sanity in this novel; they also are the people
that Bruce unfortunately ends up rebelling against the most. (#ObeyAlfredPennyworth2k18)
There
are other characters that we know and love, but for the sake of this story,
they play lesser roles and I’m going to leave it alone so that you have
something to look forward to while reading.
However,
even though I loved this book, it did have problems.
For
one, Bruce is put into situations at Arkham that would realistically N E V E R happen. Not only is Bruce
technically a minor (at 17) during this time, but he’s also Gotham’s Prince. If
anything were to happen to him…it wouldn’t be pretty. Draccon puts Bruce into
many situations that are really far out there and would never happen to someone
of his age, experience, and rules of the situation.
It’s
an average-length story, but it did feel on the shorter side. I do believe that
would have been better served if there was another chapter or two, especially
at the end.
Finally,
there is one of my all-time hated trope: insta-love. While the argument could
be made that it’s more of an insta-attraction moment, I still say this falls
underneath that category. It is called out about halfway, but it is somewhat prominent
and annoying.
Even
with these problems, I highly recommend this book
***
Next
time on the blog, I’m going to be doing something a little different for the
book Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay
Cummings. This book has a lot of thoughts surrounding its publishing and I want
to address a few of them.
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