Batman Begins: The Movie and Other Tales of the Dark Knight (Batman)
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Book Summary Information
Editor: Scott BeattyEditor: Bob Kane
Illustrator: Kilian Plunkett
Edition: Library Binding
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-18
ISBN: 1435243439
Number of pages: 160
Reading Level: Young Adult
Book Reviews of Batman Begins: The Movie and Other Tales of the Dark Knight (Batman)
Book Review: Trying to use "Batman Begins" to get more readers interested in the Dark Knight
Summary: 4 Stars
I think it is clear that the idea here is to get people who liked the movie "Batman Begins," which I have no problem seeing as being the best Batman movie to date, to read some of the Batman comic book titles put out by DC. The hook here is the official comic book adaptation of "Batman Begins," by writer Scott Beatty, penciller Kilian Plunkett, and inker Serge LaPointe," but the stories included in "Batman Begins: The Movie and Other Tales of the Dark Knight" are taken from those sundry titles and are intended to get young to pick up current issues to see what Gotham's caped crusader is up to (although DC really prefers that you check out some of the collections advertised on the last pages of this trade paperback). The movie adaptation is fairly faithful to the movie, but you will probably notice a couple of missing scenes, so that even at 60-plus-pages it could have been longer. One of the strengths of the movie was the depth it displayed, and that is sacrificed in this retelling. The artwork is certainly functional, although the brown and gray color schemes get to be a bit much at times. But it is a decent enough adaptation (4 stars), which will tide you over in terms of remembering what happened in the film before the DVD comes out.
After the adaptation of "Batman Begins" we get to read the origin of Batman from the comics, specifically "The Man Who Falls," from the "Secret Origins" trade paperback. Written by Denny O'Neil and drawn by Dick Giordano, you have the same basic structure with young Bruce Wayne falling into the bat cave, the murder of his parents, and then traveling to the Orient to be taught by a wise master on top of a snowy mountaintop. The story, which ends with Batman donning his costume for the first time and heading off into the night, is told entirely in captions (no word balloons). It would be interesting to have a collection of Batman origins (you probably cannot fit all of them into a trade paperback this thin), going all the way back to Bob Kane's original one and tossing in the relevant pages of Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight" returns just to see how the story has evolved and elements have been added over the past half-century plus.
The other tales of the Dark Knight are relatively ordinary Batman adventures. "Air Time" from "Detective Comics" is by writer Greg Rucka, penciller Rick Burchett and inker Rodney Ramos, takes place one night when the Lucky Hand Triad kills some cops making a grab for some drugs. In trying to get away the gang drives a SUV with a father, mother and son off a bridge and into the bottom of the lake. The question is how they can stay alive until somebody comes to rescue them, and that cannot happen until the Batman figures out what has happened. "Reasons" is a "Batman" story by writer Ed Brubaker, penciller Scott McDaniel, and inker Andy Owens, has our hero tangling with Catwoman and finding out something when she calls him on hanging out in the neighborhood of the Monarch Theater (where Bruce Wayne went with his parents before they were killed), along with his tendency to let bad guys shoot him while he is wearing his Kevlar armor. So this story actually fits the grand design here.
The final offering is "Urban Legend," written by Bill Willingham with art by Tom Fowler and inks by James Sinclair, drawn from "Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight." Basically Batman is beaten so badly that he does not remember that he is Batman. That means the great detective has to figure out what he was doing, because clearly whatever he was trying to do he has not finished the task. Fortunately the gang that ends up with an unconscious Batman believes that the enemy of their enemy is their friend. A minor story, but it does focus on what Batman means, as the twist at the end clearly indicates. So chances are that you will probably like the other tales of the Dark Knight collected here more than the movie adaptation.
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