Batman: The Monster Men #1 (of 6)

Story & Art: Matt Wagner
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Rob Leigh

It’s very early in Batman’s career, before the Joker, before any of his fearsome rogues gallery broke upon the scene. Organized crime is on the run thanks to the Batman’s constant interference in their plans. Now the Batman is poised to permanently break the back of crime in Gotham forever and believes that his promise to his parents, to rid their beloved city of evil, is almost fulfilled. Little does he realize a new threat looms on the horizon, orchestrated by the mad geneticist, Dr. Hugo Strange.

Matt Wagner is one of the few creators who can get me excited about reading a Batman comic. Next to Frank Miller’s original Batman Year One and The Dark Knight Returns, Wagner has done some of my favorite Batman stories of all time, Batman: Faces, Batman/Grendel I and Batman/Grendel II. In this new story, under the banner of Dark Moon Rising, a story split into two mini-series starting with The Monster Men and continuing into The Mad Monk, Wagner is attempting to tell the tale of how Batman went from fighting mobsters in Year One to taking on costumed loonies like the Joker.

It’s interesting to see a young Bruce Wayne, still innocent enough, still sane enough, to believe that his war on crime may soon come to an end. He’s even dating someone rather seriously, rather than surrounding himself with beautiful women he has no interest in just to keep up the playboy millionaire faÁade. We all know that things are going to end tragically, that Bruce Wayne will find out that he can never stop his war on crime, that he can never rest or be happy, but here Wagner is crafting an interesting story that shows exactly what led Bruce to this realization. It should be an entertaining, yet darkly tragic, story, something that Wagner excels at. As always, Wagner’s art is beautiful, stylish and perfect for the world of Batman.

Special thanks go out to Jeremy Shorr, owner of Titan Comics for allowing us to use his advance preview books for review purposes.
 

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