Batman: Dark Age #1 is written by Mark Russell and published by DC. Artwork is by Mike Allred, colours by Laura Allred and letters by Dave Sharpe. Main cover art (left) is by Mike and Laura Allred.
Batman: Dark Age #1 is available from today, in print and on digital where all good comic books are sold. Grab your digital copy from Amazon Comixology UK right here.
Synopsis
Meet Bruce Wayne, Gotham’s favorite delinquent son. In an origin story like no other, witness the boy become a dark knight shaped by a city in turmoil as it marches towards its prophesied doom. Set against the backdrop of actual historical events, Gotham comes alive, filled with the iconic characters who’ve loved and hated Batman over the years like you’ve never seen them before. Spinning out of the Eisner-nominated Superman: Space Age, Mark Russell and Mike Allred return to give audiences a look at Batman as a figure in American history fighting for justice in a world gone mad.
Review
In 2024 Batman will celebrate his 85th birthday, a huge milestone in the legacy of any pop culture icon. In celebration, DC is launching a completely original take on the character’s origin, seen through the lens of the equally legendary Mark Russell. Russell, re-teaming which Mike and Laura Allred with whom he created the Superman: Space Age series, takes aim at another satirical commentary on our modern world.
Dark Age spins directly out of the events of Space Age, taking back to the origins of this world’s Batman. Issue #1 has a lot of ground to cover, setting out a past, present and future for this version of the character.
The book starts in 1956, narrated by Thomas Wayne. The elder Wayne’s words are overlaid across images of a shining beacon of the future and scenes of Batman in action. Visual cues would suggest there are different eras at play. But the words are an ethos for the life of the city itself. Striving for a future that most of us would suggest is unlikely ever to happen. Russell soon adds some context as we learn that an older Bruce, in 2030, is watching back footage from the Gotham World’s Fair 1956 and remembering the words of his father.
It appears that Wayne Manors as it is now known, is an old folks home overseen by a Dr. Grayson who has some interesting artwork on her office walls. Keep your eyes peeled Super Friends. Mike Allred layers this world with lots of visual easter eggs for you to watch out for. In this world Bruce is reeling from a diagnosis with threatens to rob him of his entire identity. It isn’t fully explored but is touched on enough to give us reason to understand why we’re about to dive in to his past. Here lies part of the heart which beats underneath Batman: Dark Age, said best by Bruce in this issue “we are our memories”. We are we without them? What and who defines our identity? In the case of Bruce that goes doubly when most of his life is spent pretending to be somebody else. So it seems that Russell has set the stage for a potentially complex psychological deconstruction of Bruce’s identity. Both in and out of the cowl.
Diving in to the past we begin to unearth the divergences between Russell’s story and mainstream adaptions of Batman. I won’t go in to great detail here as part of the journey of a book like Batman: Dark Age is experiencing those changes first hand. Russell carefully cherrypicks moments to tweak in order to setup a wider story rather than simply to create talking points amongst the fanbase. The structure of Wayne Enterprises (check that logo, another cool easter egg) and members of its board are of particular interest. The company seems much more wide ranging and has a more intrinsic connection with the running of the city. It gives more credence in the missions of both Thomas and Bruce Wayne in their respective timelines.
Young Bruce’s story is far more angsty and rebellious than other incarnations. His push back against the system feels like a natural reaction to the circumstances around his parent’s deaths. The rebellious nature doesn’t feel a million miles away from Robert Pattinson’s version of the character, refusing to engage with the Wayne legacy. But in the case of Dark Age Bruce, his role within the company is more of a spectre looming ahead of his 18th birthday. Much of the focus comes before that, putting the spotlight on his relationship with Alfred and his troubled relationship with the law. There’s a recklessness to Russell’s Bruce which is born from the circumstances surrounding his life. A lot of which is tied in to the looming presence of The False Face Society. Russell has tapped in to a version of the character who has a distinctly raw and different voice because of his lived experiences. Though we don’t get to spend much time with his Batman it’s clear that lived experience will deliver a very different vigilante down the line.
The easter eggs keep on coming throughout the book. Some of them clearly written in to the script. Otherwise which come purely from Mike Allred’s delicious sense of humour in the visual design of this world. Certain characters are obvious whilst others are perhaps only hinted at. But what is clear in the design language is that Batman: Dark Age is very much a Batman for long-time Bat-fans. Readers of Superman: Space Age will understand the approach that Allred takes to the design. Everything is familiar and feels as if it comes from the same world.
Verdict
Batman: Dark Age #1 is a bold and imaginative take on the Dark Knight’s origin. Changes to the classic storyline are a tantalising glimpse in to a possible future for Bruce Wayne in a Gotham rife with a different kind of corruption.
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