Batman by Doug Moench and Kelley Jones Volume 1

The title as I read it is just Batman. But this book is usually said to be Batman by Doug Moench and Kelley Jones Volume 1 because how many thousands of Batman books are there now?

The extended title does signal the importance of the writer (Moench) and artist (Jones) for this particular run of Batman. These are two big names who were at this time (1995-96) at the top of their game. Of the two though I would rate Jones as the more important. He has a remarkable ability to indulge cartoonish caricature and wildly exaggerated forms (Batman’s cape here is a giant life form all its own, while the “ears” on his hood must jut out a couple of feet over his head) without being ridiculous. Some of the faces of secondary characters look like they belong in MAD Magazine, and the Batmobile is sometimes a silly bubble car that I couldn’t even imagine Batman getting into, but none of this is laughable. It’s all part of an insane, dark, and grotesque world.

Collected here are Batman issues #515-535 (excepting #520, 526, and 533-34). Coming right after the epic Knightfall story arc there was a switch to what are mainly double-issue stories, and I think this probably struck most readers as a bit of a relief. The central stories deal with Batman facing off against the usual suspects. Killer Croc escapes from New Arkham so he can retire to the bayou with Swamp Thing. Scarecrow escapes from New Arkham and goes after the jocks who tormented him in highschool. Mr. Freeze is actually released from New Arkham following a “positive psychological review” (ha-ha!). Two-Face escapes from New Arkham and goes on a justice tour. Batman springs Poison Ivy from New Arkham so she can help fight a killer plague.

Don’t know about you, but I’m starting to think New Arkham isn’t any more secure a facility than Old Arkham.

None of these stories struck me as all that impressive. Instead, the two I liked the best were an early one featuring a new villainess named the Sleeper who was the subject of a military intelligence sleep-deprivation experiment and the final story which introduces us to the Ogre and his brother Ape, subjects of a military intelligence bioengineering experiment. Both the Sleeper and the Ogre are on missions of revenge, killing the doctors who tormented them. That these stories stood out as the best may say something about how played-out the veteran supervillains are, or just be an example of Moench enjoying a free hand. But then the long story involving Batman and Deadman heading off to Peru to fight a gang of neo-Conquistadores alongside a mummy cult didn’t work for me at all. Oh well, You have to expect a lot of ups and downs in a series like this.

As a footnote, there’s a reference in the Ogre issue to Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” which is said to be “the story of a man who increased the intelligence of an ape . . . and who used that ape to commit murder.” Maybe this is how Moench remembers it, or maybe he’d only heard of the story, but this is so far from what happens in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” that it took me by surprise. There are editors too who proofread comics and it’s hard to believe nobody caught such a mistake. Or is it that so few people still know these things?

Graphicalex