Four-Color Criticism: Batman: Venom

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Foreward: A while back I asked Dames over PM if I could do a Comic Review Column. He responded in the positive, and so to begin this bold new era of four-color criticism I decided to review one of my all-time favorites...

 

 

Batman: Venom

 

Written By: Denny O'Neil

Layouts By: Trevor Von Eeden

Pencils By: Russell Braun

Inks By: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

 

Introduction: In 1989 DC Comics decided to do something a little bit different. To capitalize on the growing market for graphic novels, and long story arcs they created a title just for such a purpose. It was decided that a different creative team would do a five-issue story arc every five months. To insure success they made the title a Batman book. The decision was made because of Batman's popularity with readers and creators. As an added bonus all the stories would be set in the first 3 years of Batman's career. Since Crisis made this time tricky for Continuity buffs, it was decided that the title would be non-continuity and non-Comics Code. This set that stage for some compelling, and brilliant work. That title was called Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, and it too has become legendaryfor great storytelling and art. Perhaps, no story benefitted from the lack of restrictions better then Venom. To this day, Venom is one of the most controversial, compelling, and utterly brilliant Batman stories ever written. Without further ado, here is the review for... Batman: Venom

 

Venom, Part One: The opening scene shows The Batman at an abandoned and rapidly flooding tunnel. What at first glance should be a simple, effortless opening for Batman turns into something more. This is a message about the rest of the story: It will not conform to expectations, and it will not have a happy ending.

 

Batman reaches the child, but a cave puts chunks of rock and concrete in his way. The Caped Crusader manages to reach the girl… but not before she drowns; alone and in pain. Now we see where this is going. Batman wasn’t strong enough to lift the rocks, in not being strong enough, he cost a child her life. Batman’s weakness has long been his psychosis with never being wrong, never making a mistake. This situation plays perfectly into that, and will make Batman’s fall seem very, very, real.

 

Batman breaks the news to the girl’s father, a scientist named Dr. Porter. Porter is nonchalant about his daughter’s death, and more interested in telling Batman about what the kidnappers wanted from him. It seems they were after a new super-steroid he was making. He offers it to Batman, who declines. When the kidnappers strike at the doctor’s house, Batman stops one but can’t hold on to the roof of the kidnapper’s truck, and again his body fails him.

 

Once again we see the primary strength of Legends of the Dark Knight’s setting. Batman now is too super-humanly… competent to have made an error like this. But a Batman who has just begun his quest, one has never failed before, one who over-estimates his abilities and is still just learning… we can see him fail and believe it. We can see his obsession, his hubris, if you’ll forgive the term. But like the audience in a horror movie, we can’t snap him out of it. After tearing his shoulder while over-lifting, he launches an investigation into the identity of the kidnappers. As always his detective skills are top-notch, but his obsession costs him again. He refuses to sleep until he captures the suspects and his fatigue along with his injury cost him the fight. He goes back to Dr. Porter and this time takes one of his capsules. He fights the kidnappers again, and this time easily bests them, but the sinister laugh he omits afterwards is a dark foreshadowing of things to come…

 

Venom, Part Two: When we next see The Batman, it is some time later. He has now become a vicious bully, who is subtly being manipulated by Dr. Porter. After arguing with Alfred, who knows what is happening is wrong, Alfred resigns; leaving him alone. He goes to Dr. Porter and meets Gen. Slaycroft and his son, Timothy. (Who will become important later.) We now see how far Batman has fallen; he’s taking orders from criminals and is too dumb to realize it.

 

When he goes after the kidnappers (Who are obviously on Porter’s payroll and part of some bigger plot.) he finds them killed and only a warning from Timothy saves him from death. He’s run out of capsules and he heads back over to get more of them; unable to function without them.

 

This is powerful stuff. Batman is a man who we’ve seen take out SUPERMAN. But the key word is MAN. For all his accomplishments, he’s still a human, and his dangerous obsession and refusal to compromise are weaknesses that are every bit as deadly as kryptonite. He’s the world’s greatest detective, but he doesn’t even realize he’s working for the enemy. This is what makes comic books so wonderful, on the surface we may not be able to relate with these super-human characters, but deep down, we find ourselves inside them.

 

Porter tells Batman that as a final gesture of loyalty, and in exchange for more pills he must kill the one man who stands in Porter and Slaycroft’s way… Captain James Gordon. Batman seemingly agrees.

 

Venom, Part Three: Batman manages to stop himself from killing Gordon. He tells Gordon the situation, and tells him he’s going after Porter and Slaycroft. Batman makes a valiant effort, but Porter throws some capsules into the bushes, and Batman goes after them rather then continue pursuit of Porter and Slaycroft. This is Batman’s lowest moment, the deepest he will descend into addiction. This is also the moment Batman realizes what he has become, its ironic that the very thing that made him turn to drugs; his obsession with stopping crime, has no become less important then the drugs themselves. It’s a very poignant moment, and more powerful then all the “After School Specials” in the world.

 

Batman asks Alfred for help and he agrees Batman spends 30 days locked in the Batcave alone in an attempt to beat the addiction. Meanwhile, in Santa Prisca, Porter and Slaycroft form an invincible army of Super-Soldiers using Venom and special surgical implants.

 

At the end of thirty days the Batman returns; emaciated, bearded, and generally looking like Death warmed over. But he recovers, and tells Alfred his first order of business is to destroy Porter and Slaycroft’s operation before they ever do what they did to him to anyone else.

 

So as not to spoil the ending I won’t reveal what happens in Parts 4-5, but I will say it leads to a fantastic showdown on Santa Prisca (A Tropical Isle is not a normal locale for Batman, but it works here) and Batman’s final temptation with…Venom.

 

The Art: There fantastic lighting and the characters all look great. My one complaint about the art is that its impossible to build any kind of atmosphere or mood when half of your story is taking place on a bright sunny tropical isle, and half is taking place in hellish Gotham City, other then that; its excellent.

 

Overall Thoughts and Rating: Wow, this story is a must for any comic fan. The story drops a bit once it goes to Santa Prisca, but it is, in many many ways the PERFECT Batman story. Batman's basic weakness is explored, and his redemption makes you want to drop the comic book, stand up, and cheer.

 

***** out of *****

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

No one has ANYTHING to say?

 

 

[Guest Crucifixio Jones]

Before I even read it, I wanna say Zsasz I LOVE YOU.

 

I was gonna do "Gothic" for the site, but I don't believe there is enough interest.

[Guest SP-1]

Great review, Zsasz. It's good to see another Batman fan that understands the character.

 

I'm going to see if I can track down a trade of the VENOM arc.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Because I'm getting so little feedback I'm going to respond to everyone personally.

 

SP, maybe you could do some reviews as well. We could make the "Four-Color Criticism" the name for all TSM comic reviews, not just mine.

[Guest Steviekick]

That was a pretty good review, but i thought you spent too much time going over the details of narrative of the story instead of how the story was presented and the meanings behind it. You do have a good way of reviewing the plot development of the story.

 

I'm gonna post my review of Batman: Year 1

[Guest SP-1]

Hm. If I did do one it'd probably be on KINGDOM COME, which is, to me, one of the finest comic stories ever published. Alex Ross made it look like a movie, and the writing is phenomenal.