Reviews

Batman's Dark Secret by Jon J. Muth, Kelley Puckett

kitsuneheart's review

3.0

This book walks a very fine line, and thus it wobbles sometimes. On one hand, you want to be true to the Batman origin story. Kids know it. They're going to point it out when something is wrong. On the other, you can't show someone's parents being killed in cold blood in a picture book. Which leads to the weird moment where the book says that Bruce's parents are gone, and it looks like they were just abducted by aliens, rather than murdered.

Similarly, there's this odd moment for me when Bruce is facing down the bats, and he has this rather unsettling face. It looks far more angry than brave, and the following page has Bruce giving this look to the reader that says "future serial killer" far more than "future hero."

I think this is really the best that could be done for telling this story. The artwork is very good, but the subject is just a very poor choice for a picture book. It would have been better to just leave this particular tale to the comics.

nikki_lit's review

medium-paced

3.0

jedi_indyjones's review

5.0

Honestly for a straight shot on Bruce Wayne's most life changing moment, this was pretty brilliantly done though a simplistic approach and amazing artwork. This was a pleasure to read to my kids, even with the dark subject matter. This is great for any Batman fanatic.

valgus's review

1.0

I can see how this would be much loved by Batman fans (who cannot perhaps read the full graphic novels yet), but personally as not a Batman fan, this didn't do it for me.

floodfish's review

2.0

I think Muth was kind of phoning it in on this one, frankly.

thetomeraider's review

4.0

Batman's origin super simplified in little-kid speak. Great illustrations.

rgag86's review

4.0

A very simple story of a young Bruce Wayne losing his parents and facing his fear of the dark. I thought the best part was Muth's beautiful water color illustrations.