undeadcleo 's review for:

Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? by Neil Gaiman

5.0

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With the discovery of Sandman comes the discovery of the rest of the graphic novel section in the library – what a ridiculous wealth of fascinating stories and fantastic artwork that I used to walk straight by. Having started Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series somewhere in the middle, I had to go one better with Batman and skip to the end. This is billed as the ‘final’ Batman story – and Neil Gaiman states in the introduction that he wanted to write something which would still work as a ‘final’ issue for any reboots of the Batman universe. As such, it’s more a tribute to the various villains and good guys, the various artists who worked on them, and of-course the Caped Crusader himself, than it is a conventional story. So somewhat counterintuitively, but with this idea of tribute in mind, I actually found Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader a highly accesible entry point to the Batman universe. With my affection for The Dark Knight – and he is my favourite superhero – coming purely from TV and Film, this was a wonderful way in to the Gotham of the comics.

I was talking with a friend last night about comics in general, and for many of the comic book series he has loved he’s collected each issue, week by week. As a latecomer to the game, my option is to pick up collected editions. There are virtues to both methods of collecting comics – whilst I’m somewhat jealous of the eager anticipation which would have come with waiting for each instalment, it’s certainly simpler and quicker to just grab collections. Making the deal even sweeter, this is the deluxe edition of Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, featuring an introduction, two short extra stories, and some draft artwork (pictured below.)

This graphic novel malarky I’ve just discovered is great! They’re perfect, quick reads for summer afternoons in the sun. I have a feeling there’ll be more to come…

http://literary-lethargy.com/