Batman Earth One Volume 2 Graphic Novel Review

The second volume of Batman Earth One returns to the grounded and more realistic world for a Batman story. It isn’t the Dark Knight we know…. and it’s all the better for it. The Earth One graphic novels takes familiar elements of the characters and makes a story feel fresh and exciting by putting a clever twist to familiar elements. The long-awaited follow up of Batman: Earth One by Writer Geoff Johns and Artist Gary Frank follows Bruce Wayne as he slowly becomes the intelligent, fearsome Dark Knight we all know and love, now tasked with bringing down the remaining players of the corrupt Mayor’s criminal organisation as well as a new enemy with a secret agenda behind his seemingly random attacks.

Earth One is a series of graphic novels that re-imagine the origins of various DC characters. The stories take place in a new continuity allowing writers and artists to build brand new beginnings for DC’s most beloved heroes. Since the launch in 2010 we’ve seen three parts of Superman’s story, the first volume of Teen Titans and Batman Earth One Vol. 1 in 2012. Batman’s new origin featured a rough around the edges Bruce Wayne, Oswald Cobblepot as the corrupt the Mayor of Gotham City, Alfred as former head of security at Wayne Manor and a fresh faced plucky Harvey Bullock. Everything that transpired in the first story has lead Gotham to become increasingly dangerous,, at the end of the first volume all Bruce wanted to do was to catch his parents killer and now realizes he has to go beyond that and his mission can not just be about him. Batman Earth One preserves many aspects of the mythology, Batman is still billionaire Bruce Wayne and he’s still assisted by Alfred Pennyworth and Jim Gordon against familiar villains, the changes that Johns and Frank bring the stories are subtle but still manage to be profound and innovative. 

The second volume picks up six months later with Gotham still coming to terms with the events and revelations of the corrupt Mayor and the emergence of the Batman. This sequel is very closely linked to the events of Volume 1, twins Jessica and Harvey Dent that were introduced in the last story are now main characters in this sequel, Mayor Dent and her D.A. brother Harvey are clearing out corruption and as the city grows with a new found feeling of optimism, but reports of a half-man, half-crocodile killer in the sewers and a new criminal responsible for attacking the city, killing Gotham’s citizen’s threaten to disrupt the city's progress from darker times. Batman has been operating in Gotham for past six months and improving at being a vigilante as he chases down petty thugs and criminals. When we first see Batman it’s in a scene that echoes of the opening of the first book, instead of failing to catch his suspect this time he is more successful but still needs some fine tuning, he’s not yet the Dark Knight legend, he makes mistakes, loses fights and loses control. Bruce hasn’t spent years travelling the world learning martial arts and other disciplines, he has only been the Batman for less than a year and only became a costumed vigilante to chase down a lead on the murder of his parents. Batman is on his way to becoming a legend, forging his partnership with Gordon whilst still remaining an urban legend to the public and media.

The original established the tone of these books and this follow up shows the role of Batman expanding, putting him through his paces with Bruce becoming a detective rather than just a vigilante. The arrival of the Riddler challenges Batman in a way he hasn’t been before, he is more of a modern day terrorist than a brilliant and obsessed criminal that isn’t playing any games, he’s serious with no gimmicks. It motivates Batman to become a hero not just to serve justice but to stop him from killing people. It’s a more threatening and dangerous interpretation of the character without the sense of honour we’ve seen in the classic Riddler, that’s suited to the grounded and more realistic world of Earth One.

One thing that stands out in these books are the clever twists of what we expect certain characters to be, the standout in the first book was Alfred, no longer the English butler but a hard edged former solider who’s a lot tougher on Bruce. The stand out this time is Killer Croc, the interpretation is a new twist on the character that’s fresh while still retaining some of his own traits. Former T.V. Detective Harvey Bullock is continuing his descent due to the horrors he witnessed in the last story and Jim Gordon is now on a better path and continues his partnership with a rookie Batman, it subverts the usual Gordon/Batman tropes that builds an unlikely bond between the two.There is more of a human element to these stories, Bruce Wayne is more central, there is more about the man than his vigilante persona. His humanity is more on display than before, the design of Batman’s cowl allows you to see his eyes, it’s a window to his emotions that can add new weight to moments in the story. It’s more of a character driven story, Batman has more humanity than we’re used to and new motivation to stop the terrorist acts of The Riddler, you can really see how it affects him.

The theme of the story is identity; Who is Batman? That question that means different things to different characters, for Bruce it’s a matter of deciding what he wants to accomplish and what he wants Batman to symbolize. He's still new to being a vigilante and inexperienced, it makes the action scenes a lot more suspenseful and gripping due to the lack of confidence that he’ll succeed, but when he does its thrilling. The story is exciting and suspenseful as we don't know what to expect from this new Batman and his villains. It's one of those books you wanna tell your friends about and its a great series for the more casual readers to get into that still has plenty of excitement and ideas to keep long time fans intrigued. It's plot and events make it another massive hit for its creators, Batman and the Earth One series. 

This new book continues all the things that made the first one so great. It’s a completely fresh start and continuity for Batman stories. If you enjoyed the first one as much as I did you won’t be disappointed to the return of Batman Earth One. Johns and Frank continue to make a brilliant story, it has a large cinematic feel to it with great action spreads and thrilling and exciting scenes. The book and this new universe is great, for long-time fans it takes the expected usual tropes and put its own clever twists on it, with a turn of a page readers are introduced to some new and inventive twists. Of the three series to debut in DC's slowly growing Earth One line so far, Batman: Earth One is easily the most successful. It presented a more grounded take on the Caped Crusader and Gotham City, as well as one with a number of clever twists to the usual formula. Volume 1 set up the tone and world in this new re-imaging of Batman, Volume 2 allows both writer and hero to explore inventive and creative adventures for the new Batman. Geoff Johns has always been one of the best writers and his Batman Earth One series are truly something special. 

The second chapter of his and Frank's alternate take on Batman revisits their more grounded realistic take on Batman, able to explore and create a different path for the Dark Knight free from a predetermined continuity making a solid and exciting Batman story full of surprises for one of comics most enduring characters. Volume 2 sets up some enticing plot threads that will get develop into future adventures that Johns has confirmed that Volume 3 will be available as soon as next year.