Batman: No Man’s Land Volume 1
Title: [amazon_link id=”1401232280″ target=”_blank” locale=”US” container=”” container_class=”” ]Batman: No Man’s Land Volume 1[/amazon_link]
Creators: Bob Gale, Alex Maleev, Wayne Faucher, Denny O’Neil, Roger Robinson, James Pascoe, Devin Grayson, Dale Eaglesham, Matt Banning, Sean Parsons, Jaime Mendoza, Ian Edginton, D’Israeli, Greg Rucka, Frank Teran, Cam Smith, Scott Beatty, Chris Renaud, Sal Buscema, James Hodgkins, Lisa Klink, Guy Davis, Kelly Puckett, Jon Bogdanove
Page Count: 544
Cover Price: $29.99
Release Date: December 13, 2011
Collects: Batman: No Man’s Land 1, Batman: Shadow of the Bat 83-86, Batman 563-566, Detective Comics 730-733, Azrael: Agent of the Bat 51-55, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight 117-118, and Batman Chronicles 16.
Review: I’ll admit it – I’m a Marvel fan. Always have been. But I have a soft spot for DC Comics. Every once and a while I tell myself that I’m going to give DC one more shot. I tried to pick the Superman books at the One Year Later storyline. Couldn’t get into it. I tried Teen Titans when they relaunched in the early 2000’s. Lost interest. Read Batman in the early 1990’s circa Knightfall… and actually make it to Zaero Hour, then that was it. Read the death and return of Superman. Completely lost interest 1 month following his comeback. There’s something about DC where I just don’t care about the characters. (With the exception of Green Lantern, but that’s another story.)
If I’d have read this story when it was first serialized, I might have stuck with DC a bit longer.
So here I am in 2012, ready to give DC yet another “one more shot.” I was also feeling somewhat nostalgic and I was in the mood for a big chunky paperback, so I picked up the new edition of No Man’s Land Volume 1 – it seemed to fit all the bills. Let me say, I was so impressed with the characterization and story development that I blew threw this book in three days. It’s not the perfect story, not by far, but this book was an excellent read.
My biggest problem is the completely unrealistic storyline. Yes, I have no problem reading stories about superheroes, mutants, zombies, barbarians, and talking mutant ninja turtles, but a story where the U.S. government blows the bridges to a city and complely disowns it I feel is too far-fetched. Aside from the implausible setup, the story works. It just works.
The second string characters take center stage in this story. Batman only appears in couple of stories, and Robin and Nightwing are only in one panel each. Everything else is about the supporting characters and their fight to save their city.
There were a couple of slow moving parts, such as the first couple Azrael issues, and the art ranged from “I can’t wait until this issue is over” (D’Israeli) to “I like this, who is it?” (Eaglesham) to “Why won’t this guy retire?” (Bogdanove). But for the most part, the art fit the particular story.
This is a heavy book, printed on decent paper. Relatively thin for almost 550 pages, but hefty.
Summary: Good book, great characters, very little Batman (but not needed), far-fetched setup but great payoff. Looking forward to Volume 2.
Overall: 4 out of 5.