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A review by captwinghead
Batman: No Man's Land, Vol. 1 by Greg Rucka
2.0
Okay, this was depressing and quite heartless. The only heroes in this book are the civilians and they somehow manage to be kind and generous in the face of unbelievable cruelty - at the hands of the villains and the so-called heroes.
It's a funny thing when you consider Jason Todd. I feel like there was a huge shift in the writing for Batman comics when readers voted in to kill Jason Todd. Here was a character that grew up in poverty. Father was a criminal, murdered by Two-Face. Adoptive mother was a drug addict, OD'ed and left him homeless and destitute. Readers vote in to kill this kid and he's replaced by his absolute antithesis: Tim Drake, rich kid and a self insert if I ever saw one.
Tim Drake grew up with enough money that his family lived next door to the Waynes. His entire backstory and the way his father talks screams privileged, classist and often racist. Written by renowned asshole Chuck Dixon and hater of the poor, Alan Grant, several of Tim Drake's stories revolve around demonizing the poor - who are often depicted as people of color. I preface this review with this information because it was the perfect shitstorm for No Man's Land being filled with a barely disguised, patronizing, ignorant, despicable hatred for the poor.
Bob Gale's stories are horrid. He literally has Batman refer to the poor that have been victimized as the "intellectually challenged". He says that all the people with common sense had already left Gotham. Which is especially ignorant considering in previous issues, Barbara Gordon says that the people that stayed in Gotham after everything went to shit stayed because "some had no choice. The poor, the destitute, illegal immigrants." Huntress later says the people that stayed were "Too sick, too confused, too poor." These people couldn't leave. This story ends with the conclusion that the poor couldn't be trusted to guide themselves without being in servitude to the gang members, so Batman allows the gangs to keep victimizing them. He later writes a story where 2 women literally live out the Story of Solomon and it's a hack job if I ever read one. So, in conclusion: fuck Bob Gale.
There's a story by Devin Grayson, who's writing I try to hard to avoid. Unfortunately, she wrote the first story where a hero was present. Father Chris is running a refugee type camp with people from all faiths. They're living in harmony and helping everyone, regardless of where they came from or if they turned away from a life of crime. There's a woman that's even helping sex workers and addicts - the kinds of people the cops, Batman, and Huntress have turned their backs on. There's a reformed gang banger who tries to help in any way that he can. Father Chris is "tested" the same way everyone else is and manages to sort of overcome that without succumbing to the "devil". Of course, Huntress just makes this worse and is the worst in this story - I hate the way Grayson writes her. Anyway, it's a basic story I think I forgive because there are several worse stories here. Seriously, this was almost the only story where people of color weren't criminals here to be murdered.
The story with the GCPD is painful to read. Not just because of current events but because it's horrible in general. The police are not heroes here. It perfectly exemplifies the Blue Line and the issues with police just protecting their own. They instigate a gang war which could (and most likely did) harm innocent bystanders in the process. One police officer is just executing people who haven't even tried to harm him and Gordon just tolerates it. He's even thankful to the executioner later. Who the fuck am I meant to root for here? They're referring to these people as "animals", "mongrels", and "vermin". It just feels like I'm reading a racist, Blue Lives Matter supporter's power fantasy. They're not serving or protecting anyone but themselves.
Anyway, the art varies a lot. Some of it is absolutely haunting. There's one story, by Gale I think, where I swear I saw the outline of Batgirl's labia. Not necessary.
Rucka's stories are okay. The first is just Marriage Story. I'm watching Gordon and his wife yell at each other and then Babs yell at Bruce. I really don't care. The second it pretty good. It's a story about Renee Montoya trying to protect her parents where she runs into the moral dilemma of whether or not to trust Two Face, who appears to be helping the neighborhood. I've read it in Gotham Central before, I believe, but I enjoyed reading it again. It covers moral dilemmas about trusting villains in tough times a hell of a lot better than Grayson's. The Squire story from Alfred's POV is very good! Always love stories from Alfred's POV and it leads to my last comments about this collection/story arc.
Scott Beatty's story was almost my favorite, were it not for Montoya's. It's a quick short story about a couple trying to find shelter in the Joker's house. He's got his own little collection of trophies and death traps. Short, but very creepy and interesting.
Puckett's Superman story was the one bright spot in this book - at first. He eventually comes to Batman's same conclusion which is "these people can't be helped". We can't swoop in and fix some of the issues here because they don't understand how not to work within these "feudal" systems now. It sounds less patronizing coming from Superman, but it's still rather annoying. I think the point was supposed to be that Superman can't just sweep in with a big show and fix everything, because the issues are much more complicated in Gotham. However, I would've understood Bruce's point and him telling Superman to go home if I felt like Batman helped anyone in this book. Anyone at all.
The Azrael stories added nothing to the rest of this for me, unfortunately. I like this character in Rebirth Detective Comics, but I didn't care about him here.
The stories that worked the best were the community coming together to save each other. None of the supposed heroes did heroic things in this book. Whether that's because this arc was meant to show the heroes being "tested" (as though they haven't been since their creations) or whether the writers believed showing privileged heroes beating up on and shitting on the poor was heroic, I'm not sure.
This book is heartless. This book is dark, both morally and literally. I only wish Batman, Commissioner Gordon, Batgirl and Huntress did nearly as many things to actually help Gotham's citizens, as a priest, Two Face, a former gang member and a little old lady did during this turmoil.
It's a funny thing when you consider Jason Todd. I feel like there was a huge shift in the writing for Batman comics when readers voted in to kill Jason Todd. Here was a character that grew up in poverty. Father was a criminal, murdered by Two-Face. Adoptive mother was a drug addict, OD'ed and left him homeless and destitute. Readers vote in to kill this kid and he's replaced by his absolute antithesis: Tim Drake, rich kid and a self insert if I ever saw one.
Tim Drake grew up with enough money that his family lived next door to the Waynes. His entire backstory and the way his father talks screams privileged, classist and often racist. Written by renowned asshole Chuck Dixon and hater of the poor, Alan Grant, several of Tim Drake's stories revolve around demonizing the poor - who are often depicted as people of color. I preface this review with this information because it was the perfect shitstorm for No Man's Land being filled with a barely disguised, patronizing, ignorant, despicable hatred for the poor.
Bob Gale's stories are horrid. He literally has Batman refer to the poor that have been victimized as the "intellectually challenged". He says that all the people with common sense had already left Gotham. Which is especially ignorant considering in previous issues, Barbara Gordon says that the people that stayed in Gotham after everything went to shit stayed because "some had no choice. The poor, the destitute, illegal immigrants." Huntress later says the people that stayed were "Too sick, too confused, too poor." These people couldn't leave. This story ends with the conclusion that the poor couldn't be trusted to guide themselves without being in servitude to the gang members, so Batman allows the gangs to keep victimizing them. He later writes a story where 2 women literally live out the Story of Solomon and it's a hack job if I ever read one. So, in conclusion: fuck Bob Gale.
There's a story by Devin Grayson, who's writing I try to hard to avoid. Unfortunately, she wrote the first story where a hero was present. Father Chris is running a refugee type camp with people from all faiths. They're living in harmony and helping everyone, regardless of where they came from or if they turned away from a life of crime. There's a woman that's even helping sex workers and addicts - the kinds of people the cops, Batman, and Huntress have turned their backs on. There's a reformed gang banger who tries to help in any way that he can. Father Chris is "tested" the same way everyone else is and manages to sort of overcome that without succumbing to the "devil". Of course, Huntress just makes this worse and is the worst in this story - I hate the way Grayson writes her. Anyway, it's a basic story I think I forgive because there are several worse stories here. Seriously, this was almost the only story where people of color weren't criminals here to be murdered.
The story with the GCPD is painful to read. Not just because of current events but because it's horrible in general. The police are not heroes here. It perfectly exemplifies the Blue Line and the issues with police just protecting their own. They instigate a gang war which could (and most likely did) harm innocent bystanders in the process. One police officer is just executing people who haven't even tried to harm him and Gordon just tolerates it. He's even thankful to the executioner later. Who the fuck am I meant to root for here? They're referring to these people as "animals", "mongrels", and "vermin". It just feels like I'm reading a racist, Blue Lives Matter supporter's power fantasy. They're not serving or protecting anyone but themselves.
Anyway, the art varies a lot. Some of it is absolutely haunting. There's one story, by Gale I think, where I swear I saw the outline of Batgirl's labia. Not necessary.
Rucka's stories are okay. The first is just Marriage Story. I'm watching Gordon and his wife yell at each other and then Babs yell at Bruce. I really don't care. The second it pretty good. It's a story about Renee Montoya trying to protect her parents where she runs into the moral dilemma of whether or not to trust Two Face, who appears to be helping the neighborhood. I've read it in Gotham Central before, I believe, but I enjoyed reading it again. It covers moral dilemmas about trusting villains in tough times a hell of a lot better than Grayson's. The Squire story from Alfred's POV is very good! Always love stories from Alfred's POV and it leads to my last comments about this collection/story arc.
Scott Beatty's story was almost my favorite, were it not for Montoya's. It's a quick short story about a couple trying to find shelter in the Joker's house. He's got his own little collection of trophies and death traps. Short, but very creepy and interesting.
Puckett's Superman story was the one bright spot in this book - at first. He eventually comes to Batman's same conclusion which is "these people can't be helped". We can't swoop in and fix some of the issues here because they don't understand how not to work within these "feudal" systems now. It sounds less patronizing coming from Superman, but it's still rather annoying. I think the point was supposed to be that Superman can't just sweep in with a big show and fix everything, because the issues are much more complicated in Gotham. However, I would've understood Bruce's point and him telling Superman to go home if I felt like Batman helped anyone in this book. Anyone at all.
The Azrael stories added nothing to the rest of this for me, unfortunately. I like this character in Rebirth Detective Comics, but I didn't care about him here.
The stories that worked the best were the community coming together to save each other. None of the supposed heroes did heroic things in this book. Whether that's because this arc was meant to show the heroes being "tested" (as though they haven't been since their creations) or whether the writers believed showing privileged heroes beating up on and shitting on the poor was heroic, I'm not sure.
This book is heartless. This book is dark, both morally and literally. I only wish Batman, Commissioner Gordon, Batgirl and Huntress did nearly as many things to actually help Gotham's citizens, as a priest, Two Face, a former gang member and a little old lady did during this turmoil.