Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.43 AVERAGE
3.43 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great take on Batman but the plot is far fetched, theatrical and spins so faster that you can't possibly catch up.
Alfred and Wayne chemistry is peak, humour is perfectly used.
Alfred and Wayne chemistry is peak, humour is perfectly used.
+9 Taking place around Batman: Year One, Shaman mostly stays away from it aside from expanding upon some scenes in issue one and references in others. This was appreciated, as it allowed me to follow the story and the character development somewhat separately. Absolutely loved that Bruce learned about fear and superstition through native Alaskan tribes and their culture, with their representative mask also being a bat to make it poignantly clear. Reading Batman do detective work on the coincidental mythologically similar but not connected mysteries and cracking the cases was incredibly satisfying too.
[Read and reviewed in June 2022]
[Read and reviewed in June 2022]
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This gets 4 purely because it's 'Year One 2.0' and has some nice references to Catwoman #1.
In Batman: Shaman, which collects the first five issues of the well-received series Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Batman learns the value of the cowl as a mask and must face a shaman who has been murdering a number of citizens over the course of a few years in Batman's early career.
Here, the story borrows from Native American legend and supplants Batman's old line about criminals being a superstitious and cowardly lot with a dash of domestic mysticism, such that the story is really about the power of metaphor in the creation of Bruce's Batman persona--which, the book suggests, must become Bruce's true face. The message is all a bit heavy-handed, steeped in borrowed culture that somehow tries to tie Batman to native American land.
It's the politics of the Native American legend here employed that sits rather poorly with me. Bruce wants to cast himself as a white savior, and although the Native American woman he inexplicably has romantic feelings about (which makes absolutely no fucking sense, almost as if the writers just wanted to add a love interest just because) refutes his advances, it seems like a weird bit of posturing about Native American lives. It doesn't feel very genuine, and the borrowed mythology feels suspicious to me.
That said, this scaled-back version of Batman, clearly intended to tie in closely with the events of Batman: Year One and matching in tone, works really well for the Caped Crusader. While I do not think it nearly as strong as the story it aims to emulate, it gets a passing grade for embracing some gothic weirdness and for presenting Batman as a complex character both unsure of himself but secure in his mission as a vigilante. It's never going to top any lists, but it's not the dredge of so much of Post-Crisis Batman, either.
Here, the story borrows from Native American legend and supplants Batman's old line about criminals being a superstitious and cowardly lot with a dash of domestic mysticism, such that the story is really about the power of metaphor in the creation of Bruce's Batman persona--which, the book suggests, must become Bruce's true face. The message is all a bit heavy-handed, steeped in borrowed culture that somehow tries to tie Batman to native American land.
It's the politics of the Native American legend here employed that sits rather poorly with me. Bruce wants to cast himself as a white savior, and although the Native American woman he inexplicably has romantic feelings about (which makes absolutely no fucking sense, almost as if the writers just wanted to add a love interest just because) refutes his advances, it seems like a weird bit of posturing about Native American lives. It doesn't feel very genuine, and the borrowed mythology feels suspicious to me.
That said, this scaled-back version of Batman, clearly intended to tie in closely with the events of Batman: Year One and matching in tone, works really well for the Caped Crusader. While I do not think it nearly as strong as the story it aims to emulate, it gets a passing grade for embracing some gothic weirdness and for presenting Batman as a complex character both unsure of himself but secure in his mission as a vigilante. It's never going to top any lists, but it's not the dredge of so much of Post-Crisis Batman, either.
I like Batman Shaman. It’s not great but it was definitely not bad. The art by Edward Hannigan was probably my favorite part.
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I feel like people don't really talk about this Batman story, and after reading it- I can see why haha. It's not bad or anything; Denny O'Neil's writing is good and writes a nicely paced story, but some of the plot points weren't all that to me. It was also kinda hard to enjoy Edward Hannigan's pencils because I really disliked Richmond Lewis's colors. Which is crazy cause she did a phenomenal job on 'Year One', but in this story it was terrible in my opinion. It's not something I would say you have to read but it's also not the worst Batman story. If anything it's Denny O'Neil writing, and that's always a good enough reason to check something out.
So I actually read the single issues of this (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #1–5) because they never printed enough of the trade paperback, ergo it's hard to find and expensive. But I think this was a good thing because I found mint issues with amazing white pages, and man did that art pop! The story here was pretty okay, mostly a mystery with Batman playing detective, a little slower paced. Still, he did get to crack the skulls of a few punks and gangsters, but really no meaty action or bad guys. The events take place right before, slightly during, and immediately following Year One, with actually a few panels from Year One redrawn, I guess so you can understand exactly where you are in the timeline, which I thought was kind of cool. Outside of those elements though, it wasn't really an amazing Batman story (and I haven't even read that many), it tries to give a little more background or reason as to why Batman chose to emulate a bat, but I thought it was a little flimsy and not super necessary to the "Bat-lore." What WAS amazing though, was the colors. Oh my goodness, the colors! They were the craziest, most psychedelic colors I've seen in a comic yet (the palpability of which was greatly increased by the unread mint condition thankfully), but they worked so well. I even read the letters to the editor section and people were gushing about the colors there also. You wanna know why? It's because Richmond Lewis did them. And if you don't know who that is, you don't know your "Bat-history" very well (or else you don't care, which is fine, but being an artist myself, I really care). Richmond Lewis colored Year One, and just so happens to not only be technically a painter, but also David Mazzucchelli's wife. And not only did she color Year One in it's initial single issue run, but also hand painted new colors for every single panel when it was collected in trade form, which is the only version I have, and man is it beautiful. So I was super enamored with the coloring style the whole time I was reading Shaman, and when I found out who it was, it all made sense, how funky, yet perfect they are. There aren't many Richmond Lewis colored books out there, and so for that reason alone I say Shaman is worth checking out (but like I said, I didn't get the trade, so I'm not sure if it will be as vibrant, or even what kind of paper it's printed on, single issues may be the way to go).