 Batman and Frank Miller at their finest. |
| Review Date: July 20, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Z. Reuter, Seattle, WA USA |
| This was a great graphic novel all around. It has all the elements of great artwork and great writing that you could hope for. It's still great after all these years. |
Doesn't hold up to an adult reading
|
| Review Date: July 18, 2010 |
| Reviewer: ninjasuperstar, Iowa |
When I was young, I enjoyed Batman: Year One. I thought the story was exciting: Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon's parallel struggles to wrest Gotham City from the criminal and the corrupt was truly engaging. I still appreciate this aspect of Frank Miller's story, that human heroes are not created in isolation.
After a recent re-reading, I'm not so much a fan of Frank Miller's narrative style any more. Miller writes as little as possible to tell the story, and it's this minimalist approach that doesn't appeal to me anymore. I need more substance to digest, not a short romp, clipped of all but the essentials. Because the story moves so quickly, things get thrown to the wayside, like Bruce Wayne's characterization. The reader doesn't come away from Year One with a whole lot more information about Wayne/Batman than he or she doesn't already know. Jim Gordon, however, is well developed: Gordon doesn't have to put on a silly costume to fight crime and corruption; he merely has to be his hard-boiled self. The scenes with Gordon are well written, but Wayne/Batman too often comes off as an afterthought.
I am not a fan of David Mazzucchelli's illustration. In short, I find his drawing and most of his color schemes to be quite ugly. He makes humans look alien and twisted, except if the character in question is a beautiful woman (like Sarah Essen). I can't even understand some of his settings, especially if the panel is small and dark. Just because I don't like the look of it, however, doesn't mean Mazzucchelli's art isn't sometimes powerful. The illustrations are at times more compelling than the story. But Mazzucchelli's worldview prejudges Gotham City for the reader, instead of letter him or her decide. Or maybe Frank Miller wanted it that way.
Other than Jim Gordon's tale, much of this story arc didn't interest me. Bruce Wayne/Batman is underdeveloped: Batman just shows up and does things, and I was left wondering, how did he know to be there and know which toys to bring? The reader actually understands why Gordon is where he is and does what he does. This should have been called James Gordon: Year One, but that would have been too honest. |
Made to be read Over and Over again... and than some!
|
| Review Date: July 7, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Peter Benjamin Parker, |
I've never been a big fan of DC comic books, I've always preferred Marvel Comics to DC. And I'm not even that big of a Marvel fan, I just like Spider-Man, and trust me I've got a helluva lot of Spider-Man so don't worry I'm no newbie to the world of comics. But if there is ONE DC character I really really like it's Batman. The Nolan Batman films have always been better than the Raimi Spider-Man films (well not really better there good in different ways, Nolan's films are really good serious movies and the Raimi are really good fun movies). So I was surfing the web one day and found a top ten list of Batman novels, this was number one. This was three years ago, I may be just a little bit late with this review. Now three years later I have amassed a large collection of Batman backissues (and current issues as I am currently enjoying Tony Daniels, as of this writing, current run on the Batman series) and graphic novels, and I can honestly say that Batman Year One my first Batman comic is still my very favorite.
This story captures the realism and grit of Gordon, and Batman, and Gotham. It's probably one of the most realistic Batman stories and cements Batman's place in the real world. The storytelling is skilled and it is probably Frank Miller's greatest work (it's definetly better than his modern stuff... DEFINETLY) and the narration switching between Gordon and Bruce feels like things these character's would say if they were real, and I just get an immense ammount of joy that Bruce's narration is written in script. But my favorite part of this stor is that it doesn't treat the reader's like there morons it doesn't explain everything becsause it knows that the mature readers reading the book will understand, my favorite example of this is when after being interviewed by Gordon Harvey Dent turns to behind his desk and tells Batman that it's safe to come out. The narration doesn't say "DENT IS WORKING WITH BATMAN, DURPA DURPA!" but you know that they are.
In short all I can say is... buy this book! |
I was hoping for another Watchmen
|
| Review Date: June 5, 2010 |
| Reviewer: T. Weber, Horsham, PA |
| I'm 52 and grew up with the great silver age classics. I used to read Fantastic Four, The Amazing Spider-man and the other outstanding Marvel comics. I loved the stories and the artwork and the way the layout was organized. When Watchmen came out I read a review of the book and figured I'd give it a try. I enjoyed it. Since then I've been looking for something similar but have been disappointed with most of the new stuff. This one was ok but the artwork isn't as good as the classic style and the story wasn't great either. If you want good comics pick up some of the editions of Marvel Masterworks... |
Beautiful Graphic Novel
|
| Review Date: May 29, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Ben L. Schollmeier, Seattle, WA |
| I'm kind of a new comic book reader. But recently I got really into Batman and decided to buy one of Amazon's three book deals. This one is really quite awesome. It's full of action and has absolutely beautiful artwork. They go into detail on how they do it at the end of the book. The story is pretty good, although I would have preferred if they included a super villain or two. All in all, I recommend this book quite a lot. It's an entertaining read regardless, I gave it four stars out of five. Buy it if your a Batman fan. |
|
No details are available for this product
No video reviews found for this product.
