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A review by jdemster
Batman: No Man's Land, Vol. 1 by Bob Gale
5.0
I'm writing this review having read the entire series, including Cataclysm, so that perspective will be heavy throughout...just FYI.
One of the things I've become increasingly interested in as I have become a more experienced reader (read: gotten older...I just didn't wanna say it) is non-linear storytelling. I'm growing to appreciate when a larger story is told through the amalgamation of smaller stories. A great example of this is World War Z. Another is the complete and uncut edition of The Stand. The nature of allowing a larger narrative to just happen in the place of one you are lead through is really interesting to me, and feels more true to the way we glean stories from life. Essentially, that's what this book is.
No Man's Land is Gotham becoming human to those of us who have only ever known it as the dangerous and shadowy backdrop on which we get to read about Batman. It has always been looming and violent, with it's citizens only ever brought into the light to kill or be killed. In NML we see the citizens struggle for survival in a very real way because Gotham is broken. The city is left wounded, and has lost the grandeur that brought so much of that intimidation. What we get in it's place is a mix of stories where people either fight for their home, or attempt to exploit it's broken nature. Here in Vol 1 we don't see Batman mixed into those stories for reasons that are revealed later, but his presence lurks like a question over everything that happens. It really sets up some fantastic possibilities as those who had grown accustomed to his ability to hold back the wave of potential darkness that's always threatened to wash over Gotham now must fight their own battles on the same morally ambiguous ground that Batman himself has always operated on. And those who have fought against Batman are left a playground to fill in the vacuum, which forces the reader to wonder whether Gotham has swung too far away to save. Vol 1 sets high stakes for the city and everyone involved. I found it created a very strong desire to read on because I was captured by the new faces in Gotham that I met, and I wanted to continue to follow their struggle to get through the NML not only alive, but with their sense of self still intact.
One of the things I've become increasingly interested in as I have become a more experienced reader (read: gotten older...I just didn't wanna say it) is non-linear storytelling. I'm growing to appreciate when a larger story is told through the amalgamation of smaller stories. A great example of this is World War Z. Another is the complete and uncut edition of The Stand. The nature of allowing a larger narrative to just happen in the place of one you are lead through is really interesting to me, and feels more true to the way we glean stories from life. Essentially, that's what this book is.
No Man's Land is Gotham becoming human to those of us who have only ever known it as the dangerous and shadowy backdrop on which we get to read about Batman. It has always been looming and violent, with it's citizens only ever brought into the light to kill or be killed. In NML we see the citizens struggle for survival in a very real way because Gotham is broken. The city is left wounded, and has lost the grandeur that brought so much of that intimidation. What we get in it's place is a mix of stories where people either fight for their home, or attempt to exploit it's broken nature. Here in Vol 1 we don't see Batman mixed into those stories for reasons that are revealed later, but his presence lurks like a question over everything that happens. It really sets up some fantastic possibilities as those who had grown accustomed to his ability to hold back the wave of potential darkness that's always threatened to wash over Gotham now must fight their own battles on the same morally ambiguous ground that Batman himself has always operated on. And those who have fought against Batman are left a playground to fill in the vacuum, which forces the reader to wonder whether Gotham has swung too far away to save. Vol 1 sets high stakes for the city and everyone involved. I found it created a very strong desire to read on because I was captured by the new faces in Gotham that I met, and I wanted to continue to follow their struggle to get through the NML not only alive, but with their sense of self still intact.