Say what you will about his films and the eternal lateness of Daredevil: The Target issue two, but Kevin Smith can spin a yarn when he wants to. His love for the Bat is no secret, as fans of his Fatman on Batman podcast can attest, and his love for a certain run in particular is what drives today's selection, Batman: The Widening Gyre.
In the late 70's, writer Steve Englehart and artist Marshall Rogers produced a short run of Batman stories centered around Bruce Wayne and Batman's love affair with a woman named Silver St. Cloud. Collected in trade paperback as Batman: Strange Apparitions, this all-too-short run of issues sees Batman dealing with the likes of a post-Denny O'Neil revamped Joker, Dr. Phosphorus (who would go on to be the inspiration for the character Blight in Batman Beyond), crime boss Rupert Thorne, and the now-in-a-major-motion-picture hitman Deadshot. Stylistic ripples from this run could be felt for decades to come, even as the majority of Batman comics in the next decade would follow in the footsteps of Frank Miller and Alan Moore.
Smith and his artistic collaborator Walt Flanagan clearly hold that run in high esteem, as this series sees not only the return of Silver St. Cloud to Bruce Wayne's life, but a reflection on a "simpler" time, before uzis replaced death rays and eating hearts became the new trend among Gotham psychos. As Bruce Wayne considers giving up the cape and cowl life to be with Silver, his alter ego takes a new young crime fighter under his wing.
The character Baphomet is a bit of a cipher. We know he looks up to Batman, but he doesn't seem intimidated or even especially beholden to his style of righting wrongs. Baphomet's true identity and motivations remain a mystery right up until the final, devastating two page splash of the last issue, and once that genie is out of the bottle . . . well let's just say Smith and Flanagan have their work cut out for them when and if the sequel, Batman: Bellicosity ever comes to be. (I'm not going to spoil it here, but yeesh . . . if you've read it, you probably had the same reaction.)
I'm putting the cart before the horse here. And the horse is a fun read. Each issue jumps back and forth in time between the grim avenger of the current Bat-status quo and an earlier (and usually lighter) version. Smith's Bruce Wayne is a little more candid than the usual portrayal, and a bit more human. We get all kinds of intimate secrets about both Batman and Bruce's private lives and once you learn the origin of Silver's nickname for Bruce, "Dee Dee", you'll be one hundred percent certain you're reading a Kevin Smith story.
There are guest stars galore, from Aquaman to Etrigan, and a bevy of classic Batman villains, all rendered competently by Flanagan. His figures might seem a bit odd at first, but I found his illustration style growing on me as I read on. He clearly relishes the chance to draw the grotesque and horrific, and Smith's diversions into the darker side of Gotham give him ample opportunity.
Overall, it's a satisfying six issues with a cliffhanger ending that will either leave you scratching your head or filled with nerd rage. Either way, I think its safe to say this comic will get a reaction out of you.
Also, I guess it bears mentioning that the run by Englehart and Rogers that I cited at the beginning of this post did in fact get a sequel miniseries from DC in the early 2000's, but that's a back issue dive for another time!
Thanks for reading!
Twitter: @ChrisBComics
More Batman Stuff: Gotham Animated
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