Review of
Batman:
No Man’s Land Volume Three ISBN 1563896346
Five out of five stars
A dark premise
in combination with the Dark Knight makes for an excellent story of struggle
against the power of darkness. The premise is that a massive earthquake has
struck Gotham City and the federal government has declared the city
uninhabitable. The residents were ordered to evacuate and then the city was
sealed off from the rest of the country. Those that remained are engaged in a
ruthless battle for survival with criminal gangs carving out territory. A few
sections are controlled by people (such as Police Commissioner Gordon) that
genuinely want to make things better, but most are controlled by those with a
lust for power. Some of the bosses are the traditional adversaries of Batman
such as the Penguin, Two-Face and Mr. Freeze.
Within this mix
are Batman in one of his darkest forms as well as Robin and a second generation
Batgirl. Superman flies into town with the goal to aid in the recovery and
meets Batman, who tells him to get lost. Puzzled, Superman ignores him and
flies off to do some good. With the help of an engineer, they are able to get a
power generating station back online, but this creates even more problems.
Faced with an “I told you so”, Superman flies off and leaves the solutions to
Batman.
Commissioner
Gordon and Batman are not allies; in fact Gordon is showing signs of the same
mental instability that plagues Batman. Gordon is so opposed to Batman that he
is willing to make a temporary alliance with criminal gangs in order to capture
territory from another.
Post-apocalyptic battles to recover
civilization have been a staple in literature and the movies for decades,
sometimes they are well done and sometimes they are ridiculous. While there are
some questionable premises in this story, it is easy to ignore them as Batman
and his entourage struggle to restore some modicum of civilization to the
ravaged streets. Great artwork and dialog about people under tremendous stress.
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