Musings of a Punk Rock Father

I read Batman Year One yesterday. I've been meaning to for years. I made it a priority when I heard that Aranovsky was going to adapt it for the first good Batman film since Schumacher ruined the franchise, but then Christopher Nolan did Batman Begins instead.

I liked that Miller's story featured the origins, essentially, for both Batman and Commissioner Gordon. In this book, he is Lieutenant Gordon, then on the last page he is Captain Gordon. Miller cuts back and forth between the two stories, revealing the similarities in the two characters. His storytelling is strong, as is his dialogue. He writes the two characters so well that the reader would be able to figure out which character was speaking without the use of different lettering for each.

I've come to appreciate how comic books can utilize narration in a way that seems lazy in films. Bruce Wayne and James Gordon narrate throughout the book, but it serves the story rather than help the author avoid any real creativity in the storytelling.

Now I need to read The Dark Knight Returns.