Read our review of The Bat-Man: First Knight #1 from DC Comics, written by Dan Jurgens with art by Mike Perkins.
We reviewed the book on the Stack podcast. But in the interest of highlighting more about the title, here’s a summary of the conversation with our thoughts. And if you prefer the longer audio version, that’s below as well!
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The Bat-Man: First Knight #1 Review:
In the first issue of this new Black Label series, we’re both getting a grounded take on Batman set right around the time of his origins, and the story of some lumpy zombies taking over Gotham City. Why not both?
“This is not what I expected from this book, and I loved it,” said host Alex Zalben. “I was really blown away… by the alternate history take that’s going on here. The very grounded take on Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon’s relationship. Whatever’s going on with the lumpy zombies who are chasing after everybody, that’s like a wild swing that maybe doesn’t match everything else that’s going on with the idea of setting Batman, where he was canonically around the rise of Nazism and treating that in a more realistic capacity. I thought that was interesting. I was fascinated reading this book.”
In particular, Zalben was intrigued by the idea of Batman consulting with a Rabbi, which “felt first of all very Daredevil to me.” But more than having Bruce Wayne challenged religiously, seeing the character deal with a Jewish leader in a time when Nazism is rising not just abroad but domestically, “that’s an interesting idea to explore.”
Justin Tyler wasn’t as enamored of the comic book, saying “the narrative felt a little clunky… I like the idea of, Batman’s a character that never encounters religion… But this feels very different for him… It just felt a little stilted in the way it was put together and in the end, the dialogue and the discussion, I wish there was more space to expand that conversation and have that be the issue. I think that would be very cool.”
Pete LePage enjoyed Perkins art, and thought it “did a great job of pulling us back in time and setting the mood.”
Wrapping up, Zalben added that, “I appreciate the fact that Black Label is a place where creators can really experiment and try things whether they work or not.”
The Bat-Man: First Knight #1 Official Synopsis:
WITNESS THE EARLIEST DAYS OF THE DARK KNIGHT! LEGENDARY WRITER DAN JURGENS AND SUPERSTAR ARTIST MIKE PERKINS TEAM TO RETELL ONE OF BATMAN’S MOST INFAMOUS CASES THROUGH AN ACUTELY MODERN LENS! The year is 1939. The world, still reeling from the horrors of the First World War, is on the brink of tipping into an even more gruesome conflict, as fascism is on the march—and gathering strength in America’s darkest corners.
Against this backdrop, a series of violent murders has begun in Gotham, and the recent emergence of the mysterious vigilante known as The Bat-Man has the power brokers of the city living in fear of institutional collapse. All of the evidence in the murder investigation defies logic: the perpetrators are all men who died in the electric chair. But when the Bat- Man comes face to face with one of these sickening anomalies, he barely escapes with his life—throwing into question his ability to survive in a world that is brutally evolving around him!
Legendary writer Dan Jurgens and superstar artist Mike Perkins return to the earliest days of the Dark Knight, retelling one of his most infamous cases through an acutely modern lens, depicting a world paralyzed by anxiety and a desperate populace crying out for release!
