As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, I keep hearing people claiming that this all feels like a movie. They’re probably thinking of medical disaster dramas like 1995’s Outbreak or 2011’s Contagion (Jason Read wrote a few insightful remarks about the latter here). Or, if they’re cinephiles concerned with the virus’ link to xenophobic paranoia, perhaps they’re thinking of the powerful film noir Panic in the Streets…
Such comparisons may sound heartless and naïve, but I’m the last person who can deny pop culture’s appeal as a mediator for our perceptions and as a source of provocative imagery to discuss what’s going on in the world around us. Hell, the first thing that came to *my* mind was Batman comics’ own take on this subgenre, namely 1996’s crossover Contagion, in which the Dynamic Duo struggled to contain the spread of the seemingly unstoppable Apocalypse filovirus (also known as ‘The Clench’) in Gotham City.
In turn, that got me thinking about Batman-related books that would make for an ideal reading experience at the moment, especially for those interested in the franchise’s quirky history of mixing all-out action, dark comedy, and social commentary.
CONTAGION
Like I said in the intro, the reason for picking this book, which collects an arc about an epidemic, should be pretty obvious for anyone who has been watching the news. Still, some readers may be skeptical of a storyline where the Dark Knight ends up fighting a disease, that is to say, a villain without motivation that cannot technically be outsmarted and certainly cannot be punched or kicked in the head. In part, the whole thing worked at the time because, under the remarkable editorship of Dennis O’Neill, writers Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant, and Doug Moench had been fleshing out Gotham’s population and institutions for a while, so it was fun to see all these familiar characters deal with the challenge at various levels. It’s one of those tales in which the city itself is the protagonist!
Although this means that new readers may occasionally find themselves a bit lost among the expansive cast, the overall plot is still quite easy – and gripping – to follow, even if you miss some of the background about the bumbling new police commissioner, Andrew Howe, or Azrael’s complicated history with the sinister Order of St. Dumas… (The 2016 collected edition features a handful of extra stories set after Contagion‘s events, but it probably would’ve made more sense to include a few comics that preceded them.) It helps that all the creators involved knew how to spin a damn entertaining yarn: not only do the heroes go on a globetrotting quest to find survivors whose immune system can provide a cure, but they also have to compete with mercenaries hired by the city’s elite, who are trying to save their own skin after having accidentally sealed themselves in with the Clench in a luxury complex called Babylon Towers. The latter subplot provides both an original setting *and* an effective vehicle for Land of the Dead-style satire.
As usual with this sort of crossovers involving multiple series by different creative teams, the artwork is all over place (Tommy Lee Edwards’ angular pencils are a world apart from Kelley Jones’ round, caricatural style, as are Robin‘s bubblegum colors from the oversaturated shadows on the pages of the Batman issues), but at least the writing is generally pretty tight and consistent. I am also a big fan of Contagion’s sequel, Legacy, which was itself collected into a couple of graphic novels not that long ago.
BIRDS OF PREY: VOL.1 (2015 edition)
Whether you’re a fan or a detractor of DC’s latest movie flop, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), you could do worse than to track down the original source of the material, by which I mean the mid-to-late 1990s’ Birds of Prey comics, way before Harley Quinn joined the team and stole the spotlight. Collecting the first batch of butt-kicking team-ups between Oracle (Barbara Gordon) and Black Canary (Dinah Lance), Birds of Prey: volume 1 is thrilling high adventure at its finest, with a fair amount of humor, a dash of politics, and the added bonus of focusing mostly on female heroes and villains (including cool guest appearances by Lois Lane, Catwoman, and the Huntress).
Writers Chuck Dixon and Jordan B. Gorfinkel do an especially good job with the characterization of the spunky Black Canary, who finds herself seemingly in way over her head time and time again. We also get a sense of the shifting geopolitics of an increasingly globalized world, as she investigates terrorists in Africa, fights mobsters in the former Soviet Union, and faces a revolution in the Caribbean. The art – by Gary Frank, Jennifer Graves, Matt Haley, Steffano Raffaele, Dick Giordano, and, in the last chapter, Greg Land – is as slick and punchy as required from such an action-heavy comic.
ARKHAM ASYLUM: LIVING HELL
One of the leitmotifs of the ongoing campaign for the Democratic nomination has been the indignation over the prepotent attitude of billionaires, from the ones trying to buy their election to the one who already sits at the top of the political chain, not to mention all the other ones who exploit the current system with little consequence for themselves. It can therefore be quite cathartic to go back to the saga of Warren White, a rich bastard who pretended to be insane in order to dodge jail, only to find himself sentenced to the gothic mental institution where Batman’s rogues are kept between stories, in 2003’s mini-series Arkham Asylum: Living Hell.
Many great creators have sought to imagine everyday life in Arkham, but nothing beats this hilariously pitch-black prison yarn by Dan Slott and Ryan Sook, with moody colors by Lee Loughridge. With a mosaic structure that keeps shifting perspectives, Living Hell populates the titular madhouse with a host of fascinating new characters (like the traumatized security guard who lost a hand to Killer Croc) while also providing amusing takes on classic rogues (Two-Face cuts his hands, so he has to find someone to flip a coin for him; the Joker decides to kill everybody whose name is a palindrome, just for the sake of it…). In addition to crafting a number of witty set pieces, Slott’s clockwork-like script manages to bring it all together into an apocalyptic ending, with a smooth leap into horror fantasy (including a visit from the demon Etrigan) that gives the book’s title a surprisingly literal meaning.