Following the events of Cataclysm and No Man's Land, a multi-year story arc that had driven the entire Bat-line of comics to Hell and back, the two core titles at the time were handed off to two of comics then-up and coming crime writers, Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka. I've written about Rucka's work on Detective Comics before, and lauded it for its exploration of themes like gentrification and substance abuse, but today I'll be looking at the other side of the coin, Brubaker's Batman.
Rucka was plucked from the world crime novels to pitch in to the No Man's Land saga, scripting a few stories throughout the year-long event, usually involving either Renee Montoya or Harvey Dent, characters he would revisit many times. For Rucka, the transition from pinch hitter to full-timer was almost immediate, but Brubaker didn't get his crack at the bat until a little later. Immediately following the conclusion of No Man's Land and cover redesign was a brief stint by industry veteran and G.I. Joe Godfather, Larry Hama. Hama's run was panned by critics for being a bit too toyetic, as Hama's gadget-of-the-week version of the caped crusader was intended to run as an alternative to Rucka's more street-savvy version. It never clicked, despite some keen artwork by Scott McDaniel, and Hama had to make way for Brubaker.
McDaniel stayed on as Brubaker took over the book and immediately took things back to the mean streets and alleyways of a grimy, post-reconstruction Gotham. Brubaker set aside the gadgets and Batmobile upgrades in favor of a more personal story involving the murder of the Waynes and the changing of the guard in Gotham's underworld. He wasn't the first writer to bring the death of the main character's parents to the forefront, and he certainly wasn't the last, but what drew me in to this particular run was the connection Brubaker established between Bruce's father Thomas and the old guard in Gotham's underworld, namely the crime boss Lew Moxon.
In a flashback story just a few issues prior to #597, we learn that one of Lew's men once went to the Waynes to have one of his injured goons looked at. Wayne suggests they take the gunshot-stricken man to a proper hospital, but they refuse since the place will be swarmed with police and they'll be busted. They try to bring Wayne into the fold with the usually underhanded bribery and threats, resulting in a memorable outburst where Thomas (decked out in a Zorro costume) warns them, "Touch my family and I'll see you in Hell!"
The image of an enraged Thomas Wayne in full Zorro garb diving at a mobster must have been burned into young Bruce's memory as he undertook the journey to become the Batman. We see shades of Thomas in Bruce from then on, every time he pounces on a crook; every time he intimidates a hood. It's a great little bit courtesy of Scott McDaniel's art. Not everyone was a fan of McDaniel, who came to Batman after a lengthy stint on Chuck Dixon's Nightwing, but I always found the flaws in his work to be buried under layers upon layers of dynamism and interesting layouts. Yes, most of his male faces look the same (a la Jim Lee), but he seems to strive for something really interesting or eye-catching on every page.
The fued between the Moxon family and the Waynes seems to imply, at least for the extent of Brubaker's time with the character, that the murder of Thomas and Martha could have been a "hit" ordered by either Moxon or one of his associates. This is the dangling thread that Brubaker introduces in his run and uses to bait the reader furthur. The Wayne/Moxon dispute is reborn is the forms of their respective heirs: Bruce Wayne, our hero, and his boyhood crush and inheritor to the Moxon empire, Mallory Moxon. We get a few cute glimpses into their past via flashbacks, and their interactions (Whether as Mallory and Bruce or as Mallory and Batman) prove that Brubaker is a writer with a knack for old-school noir and pulpy drama.
It's almost a bad fit for McDaniel's art, except that Brubaker keeps the action very modern and martial arts-tinged thanks to the introduction of Zeiss, a hitman loyal to the Moxons who uses an interesting set of lenses to record and counter his opponent's fighting ability. This proves to be too much for Batman in their first encounter and only thanks to a lucky Batarang throw is Bats able to survive their second clash. As we dive into the issue I've spotlighted today, Zeiss and the Moxons have kept their trail squeaky clean and have remained one step ahead of Batman . . . until now.
"Crooked Miles" begins with a dead man wrapped in a rug. This grisly piece of evidence gives Batman to clues he can use to track down Zeiss and engage him again, after breaking things off with Mallory and recieving at least some closure about the true link between his parents and the Moxons. Brubaker's solution for Batman dealing with Zeiss is so simple you'll slap yourself. Rather than rely on a secret martial arts technique that the villain can't copy or some other means of tomfoolery, Batman simply does the one thing every hero in their own book should attempt once in a while: Call in other heroes.
Also a divisive character of the era is that of Cassandra Cain, the deaf-mute ninja Batgirl who made her debut along with her father Cain during No Man's Land. Since then, she'd graduated from Oracle's buddy to full-fledged member of the Bat-squad, acting as the newer, darker, Batgirl. I know a few of my friends at the time longed for the Barbara Gordon version of the character to make a return, but I preferred the Oracle/Cassie dynamic. They had kind of a Batman Beyond thing going on, with one hero doing the butt-kicking and another providing info and sage advice through an earpiece. The Batgirl series from this time deserves its own Back Issue Dive, so I'll summerize her character quickly: she's a badass who doesn't mince words.
So badass, in fact, that Batman tags her in during his third battle with Zeiss to even the odds. This sums up another thematic bit that both Rucka and Brubaker had been toying with up to that point: Batman doesn't have to be alone. His struggles in both titles saw him asking very personal questions and alienating those around him. Bringing Cassandra into this story is a kick-ass reminder to our hero that one of the things that gives him the edge over his opponents is his compassion, and with that, a capacity to help and train other outcasts like himself. Meanwhile, poor Mallory Moxon has built a fortress around her heart and blames Batman for allowing the assassin Deadshot to shoot her father. (In fact, Batman was dealing with Zeiss at the time.)
Just as "Crooked Miles" marks the end of one saga, it sparks another that would bring the entire Bat-line into the fold that summer. Bruce's habit of keeping his allies at arms length would come back to bite him in the spandex during "Bruce Wayne: Murderer", an arc that saw the reclusive Wayne examined like the Howard Hughes of the modern day, and his eccentricies making something like a murder in his own mansion seem more and more plausible to those who don't know about the Batman side of things.
Whoo . . . there's just too many jumping off points here for me as a reader. We go from Murderer to Fugitive to Hush to Under the Hood . . . there's also Joe Casey's Tenses, Gotham Central, Gail Simone's Birds of Prey, that weird Riddler arc from Legends of the Dark Knight. I think Batman and his world really exploded for me at this point and it wasn't until the Morrison/Dini period began in '06 that I would get my pull list back down to just two Bat-titles. Anyhoo, I cherich the Rucka and Brubaker runs as the last time Batman was really "street" in the main titles. From Hush onward, it's mostly big villains, Golden and Silver Age revivals, and attempts at new I.P.s like Gotham City Sirens.
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