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A review by oddmara
Batman: Cataclysm by Eduardo Barreto, Klaus Janson, Jim Balent, Chuck Dixon, Doug Moench, Mark Buckingham, Devin Grayson, Alan Grant, Scott McDaniel, Graham Nolan, Rick Burchett, Alex Maleev, Jim Aparo, Kelley Puckett
5.0
HOLY SHIT IT WAS VENTRILOQUIST ALL ALONG. Sorry I need to start with this because he's my little guy. My little dude! It's not him, it's Scarface that's making him do crimes!! It's Quakemaster!!! Thank god. I am so happy. I was so upset that they've added some other random villain to add to the basket, and I've never been happier to be wrong. The grin on my face at the reveal was the widest it's been in months. Best little dude. Scarface needs a hospital :(
How do I describe this comic besides perfect. I don't think I can. They took everyone's stories and intermingled them and wrote all the connecting tissue in a way that feels so perfect and personal. Every single story manages to touch a chord, none of them feel repetitive or redundant. They took all of our favourite characters and showed me how they fare in front of disaster.
Honestly, the Batfamily was actually of less interest to me in this one. And I think the writers felt the same way. They pretty much abandoned Bruce after allowing him to escape the cave, let him be the silent saviour of the city, which in itself is amazing characterisation. We didn't need to see Batman more than we did in this story. Small glimpses of him saving people, small glimpses of him talking to Dick and Tim, and that's about it. This wasn't Batman's story, it was Gotham's and once again we see how synchronous these two are, since through them showing less Batman we actually get to see Batman's Gotham. The myth. The small sparkle of hope.
Tim and Dick weren't that interesting to me either, besides that one scene where Tim gets to meet Oracle and it's the most adorable thing. Sure, they are the ones pushing forward the actual plot, but I cared so much more about the other stories.
Catwoman's little arc at the beginning was probably the moment I realised that this might become amazing. Selina is such an amazing anti-hero, she has a short temper and tries to only care about herself, and it never works out in her advantage. Her talking to the little girl about her cats absolutely wreked me. The way she's so in love with Gotham, more than any of the other characters, something that she's so bittersweet about but that also forces her to stay behind and help people encompasses her character so much. The Poison Ivy arc didn't feel like it really fit but it was still nice.
The Huntress and Spoiler duo was so interesting. We have two characters that get chaperoned by Batman and Robin put together in a dire situation, and we see how despite the fact that the first redundantly accepted these rules while the other vehemently tried to reject them, this situation makes their roles switch. Huntress becomes violent and murderous, her faith in Batman's morals never existant but her reluctance to accept them in order to gain his respect is completely gone. She only sees the bad in people in this situation, the looters and the escapees, and decides that she wants to purge the city of these people. Or as I would call it, the Jean-Paul syndrome. Spoiler on the other hand immediately falls in line with the Batman code. She wants to help the people rather than try and fight the villains. She also does not want to murder her dad, as most people do.
Ra's and Bane are also here. And even if I cannot stand their characters at all, I see the use of having them here. Ra's especially was very well placed because once again we get Batman's POV without actually following Batman. Ra's believes that this is what will push Batman to give up, but for once we can see him keep persevering more than he ever has. No heir for Ra's just yet. When it comes to Bane, he was only there to highlight Jean-Paul's character which is average at best, but this confrontation was needed and it might as well have happened here. As Batman, Jean-Paul would have agreed that him and Bane were the same person. However as Azrael, we see this lost person, that once thought he was on par with this man, and now, looking at him, nothing is clear in his life besides the fact that he is not. And honestly? I appreciate that.
But the stories that in my opinion are the best in this collection, are the ones that aren't based on any of the heroes or villains that we know. They're the filler stories of random people. The story of the guy convicted to death, a story about miracles and determinism. It was so amazingly built. We don't know what's real and what isn't, and we don't know what we want to believe. The story of the guns for hire hired by Bruce to help people escape, the entire fight over the contract? I honestly think that might be one of the best stories out there. Bad guys put together, bad guys that don't know how to be good, bad guys that have already been paid for the job so they could just run away but they don't, bad guys that have never actually seen a dead body, bad guys that are afraid, bad guys that have never had anyone believe in them, bad guys that keep hope alive. I don't think I'll ever get over this one.
How do I describe this comic besides perfect. I don't think I can. They took everyone's stories and intermingled them and wrote all the connecting tissue in a way that feels so perfect and personal. Every single story manages to touch a chord, none of them feel repetitive or redundant. They took all of our favourite characters and showed me how they fare in front of disaster.
Honestly, the Batfamily was actually of less interest to me in this one. And I think the writers felt the same way. They pretty much abandoned Bruce after allowing him to escape the cave, let him be the silent saviour of the city, which in itself is amazing characterisation. We didn't need to see Batman more than we did in this story. Small glimpses of him saving people, small glimpses of him talking to Dick and Tim, and that's about it. This wasn't Batman's story, it was Gotham's and once again we see how synchronous these two are, since through them showing less Batman we actually get to see Batman's Gotham. The myth. The small sparkle of hope.
Tim and Dick weren't that interesting to me either, besides that one scene where Tim gets to meet Oracle and it's the most adorable thing. Sure, they are the ones pushing forward the actual plot, but I cared so much more about the other stories.
Catwoman's little arc at the beginning was probably the moment I realised that this might become amazing. Selina is such an amazing anti-hero, she has a short temper and tries to only care about herself, and it never works out in her advantage. Her talking to the little girl about her cats absolutely wreked me. The way she's so in love with Gotham, more than any of the other characters, something that she's so bittersweet about but that also forces her to stay behind and help people encompasses her character so much. The Poison Ivy arc didn't feel like it really fit but it was still nice.
The Huntress and Spoiler duo was so interesting. We have two characters that get chaperoned by Batman and Robin put together in a dire situation, and we see how despite the fact that the first redundantly accepted these rules while the other vehemently tried to reject them, this situation makes their roles switch. Huntress becomes violent and murderous, her faith in Batman's morals never existant but her reluctance to accept them in order to gain his respect is completely gone. She only sees the bad in people in this situation, the looters and the escapees, and decides that she wants to purge the city of these people. Or as I would call it, the Jean-Paul syndrome. Spoiler on the other hand immediately falls in line with the Batman code. She wants to help the people rather than try and fight the villains. She also does not want to murder her dad, as most people do.
Ra's and Bane are also here. And even if I cannot stand their characters at all, I see the use of having them here. Ra's especially was very well placed because once again we get Batman's POV without actually following Batman. Ra's believes that this is what will push Batman to give up, but for once we can see him keep persevering more than he ever has. No heir for Ra's just yet. When it comes to Bane, he was only there to highlight Jean-Paul's character which is average at best, but this confrontation was needed and it might as well have happened here. As Batman, Jean-Paul would have agreed that him and Bane were the same person. However as Azrael, we see this lost person, that once thought he was on par with this man, and now, looking at him, nothing is clear in his life besides the fact that he is not. And honestly? I appreciate that.
But the stories that in my opinion are the best in this collection, are the ones that aren't based on any of the heroes or villains that we know. They're the filler stories of random people. The story of the guy convicted to death, a story about miracles and determinism. It was so amazingly built. We don't know what's real and what isn't, and we don't know what we want to believe. The story of the guns for hire hired by Bruce to help people escape, the entire fight over the contract? I honestly think that might be one of the best stories out there. Bad guys put together, bad guys that don't know how to be good, bad guys that have already been paid for the job so they could just run away but they don't, bad guys that have never actually seen a dead body, bad guys that are afraid, bad guys that have never had anyone believe in them, bad guys that keep hope alive. I don't think I'll ever get over this one.