Most of DC's adventurous work -- adventurous meaning boundary-testing, not
"The Adventures of Superman" -- is kept to its Vertigo imprint. The
segregation makes sense, since writers are allowed to get R-rated over there.
DC books tend to get no more risque than a pair of too-tight tights.
However, at DC's Elseworlds imprint, writers are allowed to explore ideas
outside the somewhat restrictive boundaries of the DC Universe. Here, a new
idea can be floated without streams of mail flooding in, arguing that The
Flash never would have said X about Y, because in 1948 he was pro-Dewey.
In other words, fun can be had.
Writer Len Wein has grasped the freedom like none before. With Batman:
Nevermore, he removes Batman from his modern context and sizeable
mythology, and drops him into Edgar Allen Poe's oeuvre. Gone are the Joker's
madhouses and hard-boiled Gotham cops. Instead there is a serial murder in
19th-century Baltimore, trailed by a bumbling young reporter by the name of
Poe.
What hasn't changed are the deep Gotham shadows that serve as Batman's
conduits. Poe's Baltimore has more than its share of dinge for criminals and
caped crime-fighters. Wein easily slides Batman into Poe's milieu, and makes
fast friends of the two larger-than-life figures.
The story runs parallel to the standard Batman tale. There is a series of
murders, and the public misunderstand Batman's role, thinking he may be the
homicidal maniac. Batman entrusts the young reporter Poe, and uses him in an
overtly "Boy Wonder" role.
As Poe and Batman peel away the mysterious layers of the murderer, more and
more characters from Poe's stories emerge, as do Poe's tropes. Lenore is
visible this time as the object of young Poe's desire, and another scene
explicitly plays out the thrust of the Telltale Heart.
Tackling such a project should be daunting. Wein attempts to write a comic
book using Poe's old-fashioned lyricism, throughout, as if the famous poet
lifted his quill from the House of Usher to pursue police beat reporting. The
effect is magical. Wein never slips, maintaining a literary tone rarely seen
in comics.
Guy Davis' work on the series is equally astounding. His pencils darkly
portray the streets of Baltimore, and he tweaks the Batman costume enough to
transform it from the modern-day superhero model and into a 19th century
masquerade get-up. Since this comic is a bit more adult than the standard DC
fare, there is also enough gore here to do justice to Poe's gothic legacy.
Davis does a tremendous job of making the murdered victims appear gruesome,
yet removes the details, creating a strange blurred effect on the disfigured
deceased. As in real life, the worst things that happen to the human body
never seem real.
That's not to say this series is perfect. Nevermore can sacrifice
character exploration, at times, to make sure each plot twist is packed into a
22-page issue. Most of the players are introduced as names with occupations
and temperaments; the rest are ancillary. It's true that most are
recognizable, either pulled from Batman's or Poe's history, but a little more
time spent would have increased the intrigue. If the danger comes from thin
information, there isn't much there to peg a fear. Frights and shocks work
best in mysteries when the character is known. When a character surprises the
reader with a dark side, that's when a mystery takes off.
However, it's heartening to see DC play so freely and so creatively with
what's really become its hallmark character. While Superman always seems too
perfect, too Hollywood, even in his darkest incarnations, Batman gives DC a
chance to play with a flawed hero who likes being flawed.
This series proves that while comic publishers may be getting more "extreme,"
DC is clearly making broad strides to update comics in an intelligent manner.
So many comics are labeled mature nowadays, presumably in the same way End
of Days was "mature." People curse and talk sex, but the question remains:
is it possible for outlandish characterization and endless hyperbole (both in
dialogue and action) to really be the mark of a more mature product? Does
mature mean more sophisticated, or simply more anything?
The majors still have a lot to learn from the fantastic indie comics published
year in and year out. There will always be people who flinch at reading
something with Batman in the title, but Frank Miller knocked down a lot of
those walls years ago. It's time the big guns listened. With its Vertigo line
and this, the latest Elseworlds release, DC is establishing itself as a
mainstream publisher making a case for comics as literature. That's a lot for
a five-issue series to shoulder.
— 15 September 2003
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