Tag: archie goodwin

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Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin

This is a review of Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin. Mr. Goodwin was a prolific writer and editor. This volume collects his Batman stories, with a bonus being his entire Manhunter run (reviewed last week, here). What impressed me most about these tales is how Mr. Goodwin had a vision of Batman and stuck to it. Batman’s origins are grounded in the pulp tradition, and these stories reflect that, hearkening back to Batman’s early adventures when he fought crooked politicians, mobsters, and fifth columnists.

None of the members of Batman’s rogue gallery make appearances here. His foes are evil men and women, period. Batman himself doesn’t get tied up and put into a deathtrap once. This reflects the truism that most criminals will go for the tried & true – a bullet to the head, knife to the heart, etc. – when killing an enemy. Paraphilias aside, killing a person by tying them to a conveyer belt is stupid on multiple levels.

All the stories in this volume are great, but the standout is the final tale, which deals with child abuse. There’s a serial killer in Gotham who is killing parents who abuse their kids. The killer dresses up in a mask, just like Batman The difference being that Batman doesn’t kill criminals, he just beats the snot out of them.

Commissioner Gordon almost hits his own son, Jimmy – who grows up to become a serial killer. Batman himself is obviously mentally ill, because that’s what you call people who dress up as enormous bats and send people into intensive care. Mr. Goodwin puts the elements out there, but leaves it to the reader to connect the dots. Or not, as the case may be. This issue takes a fairly blunt look at child abuse and the trauma it causes, without offering any answers, so please be warned.

There’s also a storyline involving the Yakuza, and another that hearkens back to the days of Bruce Wayne’s grandfather. Silver St. Cloud makes an appearance that feels gratuitous and almost gets fridged, which is really the only low point of this volume.

Recommended for Batman fans, only because of the volume’s high price. Bat-fans should know that Comixology’s Batman sale ends today (8/12).

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Manhunter Deluxe Edition

This is a review of Manhunter Deluxe Edition by Archie Goodwin (writer) and Walter Simonson (art). When I read Howard the Duck last month, the person who wrote the introduction made the case that the second half of that volume was the world’s first graphic novel. Since graphic novels are a format and not a genre, I disagree.

I think what he meant is that it’s the world’s first stand-alone story in comics, which I also disagree with. Howard having a nervous breakdown is a storyline contained in a larger storyline, whereas Manhunter is a stand-alone story with a beginning and end told in the course of seven back-up issues, climaxing in a full-sized issue guest-starring Batman. There is also a postscript issue that takes place decades later. The entire story – minus postscript – is less than 100 pages.

Anyhow: Manhunter is Paul Kirk, big-game hunter, who dies and is resurrected by a secret society. The Council wants Paul to be their hitman, but he soon discovers they have less than pure intentions and rebels. Here’s the twist: the Council cloned Paul, so he has multiple copies of himself running around. He’s fighting himself, literally.

Manhunter is short, but insanely influential. Paul has a healing factor that lets him recover from most of his wounds – does that sound familiar? Unlike Batman, he has no problem killing people. The postscript issue has no words at all, because Mr. Goodwin unfortunately passed away, but I was impressed by how I didn’t need words to understand the story perfectly. This is action-espionage comics done right. Recommended!