Batman: The Imposter

 Batman: The Imposter

 

What am I Reading?

Batman: The Imposter (#1-3). Written by Mattson Tomlin, illustrated by Andrea Sorrentino.

What’s it about?

The rumoured Batman casts a winged shadow over Gotham. His brutality sends criminals scurrying back into their holes. After two years, his nightly hunt is starting to turn the tide. Not officially however: GCPD ousted Jim Gordon as a fool for working with the vigilante. All the convictions Gordon worked on have been overturned, all thanks to collaborating with the Bat. Has this setback pushed Batman beyond breaking point? It seems so as CCTV shows The Batman executing the newly released scum. 

What’s good about it?

I hope Black Label never ends. DC has found its stride in the Black Label range. You want to tell a story outside of cannon? With no consequences? A one-and-done limited mini or maxi? Go ahead under Black Label. It's a brilliant model! Makes for exciting reads.

The pure conceit of this is basically: What if Red Hood happened without a Robin. What if there were two Batmen in Gotham - One who murders the criminals, and one who doesn’t. It's a great idea. It’s a trope I'm not bored of yet.

This really reminded me of episode five of Batman: Caped Crusader, The Stress of Her Regard. The framing of this narrative is Bruce receiving nightly therapy from Leslie Thompkins (Always a favourite of mine whenever she shows up, basically Bruce Wayne’s social worker who can see straight through the mask to the damaged boy underneath).

I’d never heard of Mattson Tomlin before picking this up… He’s a screen writer, director and producer. He is also a writer on the upcoming The Batman part II, and it totally fits! As I was reading this I was getting massive The Batman (2022) vibes: The rainy city, the tactical suit, the brutal hand to hand, and the less than fantastical Gotham. According to Wikipedia he was uncredited for the first movie for script revisions. As a debut comic, this isn’t half bad. After this he’s worked on a BOOM! Comic A Vicious Circle (Shrug, never heard of it) and BRZRKR. I’ve never fancied BRZRKR, the Keanu Reeves passion project that just looks like John Wick the samurai, but this sparks a little more interest. 

I will be brutally honest, I really didn’t like Giedon Falls… and no small part of that was due to Sorrentino’s art. It was too scratchy, too shadowed, too unclear. For a Batman title though? Spot on! Exactly fitting with the tone of the story. The panelling is crazy in this.

What did I struggle with?

Now, I often bemoan comic readers who don’t fully embrace the Elseworld effect of a story. People who don’t accept that non-canonical characters don’t have to act like the canon. But I don’t see a Batman world where Alfred turns his back on Bruce as a child. That just feels… wrong. It's a very strong choice and I don’t think it’s developed enough. I feel that Bruce being abandoned by Alfred would cause as much damage as the death of Thomas and Martha. It’s dealt with in a page and never touched on again. Feels like a missed opportunity.

Spoiler Alert!

Speaking of missed opportunities, let's talk about the twist: I really liked the new cop introduced in this, Blair Wong. She’s a great character and a strong love interest for Bruce. I found it immensely lazy that the imposter was her detective partner Hatcher. There is little or no set up for it being him despite his presence in the book. It's a blind side that means very little. 

Who it should have been in Jim Gordon. Throughout the book Bruce and Blair speak about Jim being disgracefully discharged from the GCPD for working with the Batman, but he stood by the vigilante because he saw the impact the fear was on the streets. Bruce theorises that the Imposter is ex-military, Jim is traditionally a Green Beret. The imposter also has contacts throughout the criminal underworld but also access to police intelligence, Jim would fit both. Jim is also not present at all in the books. You’ve never seen him on the page. It may feel like it was the obvious choice for the Imposter, but that's a big part of writing a mystery in my view: You want the reader to pick up the pieces with the detective as they go. Having the Imposter be Hatcher, makes Blair pretty stupid, and that doesn’t feel right.

Would I recommend it?

This isn’t the Batman Black Label title I would recommend first. Read Batman: The City of Madness by Christian Ward first. This isn’t the Mystery Black Label title I would recommend first. Read Human Target by Tom King first. I also think The Red Hood is this concept done better because it embraces the more comic-booky history and setting of lore. If you like The Batman (2022), this is a good accompaniment to that.