Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #178351 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-01
• Released on: 2002-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 264 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781563899133
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Good Read
Includes Batman 599,600 - Robin 98,99 - Birds of Prey 39,40 - Batman GK's 25,26 - Batgirl 24 - Batman 10 cent adv - Detective 766,767 & nightwing 65,66.

Just Read It, Cover to Cover ...
... and I can't tell you how thrilling it is, for a change, to deal with a story that is primarily about what the Batman does best: detection.

BRUCE WAYNE: MURDERER is about many things, but on the surface it only poses one question: how far is faith worth following?

After a long night of chucking bad guys, Batman and Sasha Bourdeaux (his latest in a growing list of sidekicks) return home ... Sasha a few moments later than her mentor. However, in one of the upstairs rooms, Vesper Fairchild -- one of Wayne's many conquests -- is found shot to death. A 911 call circumstantially points all fingers to the billionaire-playboy, and, thus, Batman is thrust behind Blackgate Prison's slim bars ... a place where he's housed so many of the city's treacherous underworld.

In the interim, all of the principles in the Batman universe -- Robin, Oracle, Batgirl, and Nightwing, primarily -- are left to explore the possibility of whether or not the man who has meant so much to them in their lifetimes COULD have committed the deed. Bruce Wayne's not speaking. He's not declaring his innocence, leaving second-guessing to overcome second nature, and the merry band of Batfamily members will be forever challenged and possibly changed by the graphic novel's climax.

Once again, DC Comics has produced evidence that graphic storytelling can be so far advanced than what it has long been considered: folly best left to juveniles. This book explores adult themes in an entirely adult reality, and the consequences of a single act may irrevocably change the world of Gotham, for better or for worse. Smartly, the storytellers let the reader decide, and they don't force feed morality down the throat.

While BRUCE WAYNE: MURDERER isn't a complete tale (it's only a set-up for a series of events to follow), it could be read as a stand alone tale ... the paradigm has shifted in the Batman universe, and Bruce Wayne -- long considered the true 'mask' character in the playboy/crimefighter duality -- is gone, leaving our hero to face the grim reality of his never-ending battle to free Gotham from the clutches of pure evil.

Still engaging
At 264 pages, you can settle down to a nice read. The timeline is post-No Man's Land, and you get to revisit the Batman rebuffing everyone's help even when he is thrown into Blackgate Prison. A coupe of new costumes are thrown at us, including a new side-kick, and that is surprising.

Bruce Wayne/Batman is the conflcited Dark Knight again, more believable than if he were a cheerful happy trooper. But he's misbehaving even more than even in No Man's Land, sharing little and leaving his colleagues little to go on in his defense.

The media clamours about his overwhleming guilt, although I didn't feel it was conclusive enough. Apparently Bruce Wayne is fair game in this town, so his alter-ego has been well camouflaged. As the fathful crew gathers, you gather that Batman has been acting a little odd recently and they are left to grapple with their doubts.

This volume (August 2002) is followed by a much thinner Bruce Wayne: Fugitive Vol 1 (Dec 2002) and Vol 2 (out in March 2003).

The drawings and impact of the storyline do nont rakn amongst the Batman classics but I enjoyed the book and how can you miss this!