Writer: Duane Swierczynski
Penciler: David Lapham
Publisher: Quirk Books
Publication Date: July 2008
Format: Hardcover

There have been many successful ventures in bringing crime or a crime spin in many modes and venues of fiction over the last few years. In novels spurned by thoughts of guns and occasionally music you have seen the credibility of Chabon, a black Banneville, the teeth of Joe Pitt, and the likes of Grimwood, Liz Williams and Matt Hughes mixing Science Fiction with mystery - nano with noir - find a place in the neighborhood where butterflies circle Ford’s transparent house, crime is truly around every corner, in every reality, in every fantasy. The comic book market field has not been behind; indeed it may have been at the forefront even before the current generation of writers who could very well be described as crime writers given too sweet a deal to not spend the bulk of their time writing iconic heroes. Brubaker, Bendis, Rucka, Ellis, Azzarello, Eric Powell, all were bred on more than Moore and Gibbons, more than the Stan and Jack, - they are the product of an audience that finds normality and extremity in crime as criminals became to define not the abnormal fantastic, but more and more the mundane, even semi-acceptable, getting by. Often times now, a protagonist is not a criminal simply because we need an oddball to offer that non-criminal, the non-unique perspective. In the case of the detective in Murder at Wayne Manor, we find another who wades through reality a step away from the fantastic in hope to find or insure for others the sanity in the world that took his parents.

To understand Batman is not to start with Bruce Wayne. It is also not to studying the mantle of the Bat, the detective, or the billionaire playboy. It is a word that Brad Meltzer once so succinctly used to define in a single panel the Batman mythos: orphan. Dickens has illustrated to us the ingenuity and tenacity of the young mind that too early had to levy judgment on his surroundings. Something happened that never should have happened and has molded the mind of the master tactician who never again allows for the unexpected. It is a bit of a running joke in the comics’ community that “if Batman has time to prepare, he could beat – fill in the blank – .” Be it a god in Darkseid, the entire Justice League, or, yes, Chuck Norris. The revelation, the unique aspect of Batman is that if he was to be extraordinary he should be Keyser Söze; in the next world he’d be the Joker; most of the time he’s just go and do whatever it is rich kids do when they suffer whatever they view as loss. Instead, he is something else – more like the god damn Batman than we’d want to care to admit - and this is why the formative and declining years of the character are what draw us. We want to know the how and the end-game of a rare specimen – how did he come to being and how is he going out. It is this understanding that made Frank Miller a superstar in the field with Year One and Dark Knight Returns – as he strikes to the hearts of Batman by giving it the initial modern beat and the final arrest.

Among the names that aren’t mentioned above in my list of crime writers in comics are David Lapham and Duane Swierczynski. The former wrote, drew, and created the series that brought the indie crime element everybody take credit for now popularizing in modern comic with his Stray Bullets, a crime – not just comic – classic. Before that, Lapham penciled the last new Super Hero team that mattered, Harbinger; and at the time you heard utterances of ‘a young Miller’ at VALIANT associated with his art. The latter spend his nights writing crime novels that have quickly become my favorite to recommend – to currently not like Duane Swierczynski is to freely admit you’ll never be hip. Beyond telling me Paul Auster and Darwyn Cooke were going to work on a Phantom Stranger series, I can’t think of a combination of words that was as unexpected and as appealing as Swierczynski-Lapham- Batman-Mystery-Original Graphic Novel involved in a pitch phrase.

I have had the opinion for some time now that all that we now know as comics now should just be original graphic novels so we can cut the crap and just have line-ups like this representing creative project like this. The story takes place in the aforementioned formative years, when Batman’s fights were in alleys and along side roads, when he was the freak in the costume. A body of a women is found by landscapers doing work at Wayne Manor and the mystery begin that will challenge Bruce’s foundation; the orphan’s foundation – the idea, the ideal, that his father was a good man. Such a mundane feeling but it’s spark to the motivation that we know would later evolve into an Icon. If truly taking it to heart and in all honesty, what stronger emotion could one feed on? That our father is who we think he is, is a fundamental connection we have as children, especially with sons, and Bruce never had the chance to view him in any other way that age would allow to make that process gradual. Messing with the memory of someone’s parents is a good way to get your ass kicked. Messing with the memory of Batman’s father is putting into question the mantra that allows the Dark Knight to exist. The key to the whole mystery is the simple question of, is this an attack on Batman or is it attack on Bruce Wayne and it is a question we are supposed to ask ourselves even while we can assume the victim already has.

A comic book with Batman in it has been going on stands since 1939. Before Dark Knight; before Neal Adams; before the Joker; before there ever was a comic called Batman, there was a comic called Detective comics that now has over 800 issues, and Batman has been the main feature since issue#27. The company itself, DC Comics, is named after it and it makes Batman not only one of the two most significant character in the history of Super Hero comics, it also makes him as classic and successful a crime/noir character you can find. His (alien) planet didn’t blow up, he didn‘t catch a luck bug bite, he wasn’t given a magic word by a Wizard – his mom and pops were got by a cat named Joe Chill in an alley in the noir city, Gotham.

The subtitle of this book is An Interactive Mystery. There is truth to the title as the book itself offers fully interactive clues, an old photograph, a coaster, a terrific section of a newspaper and more and they are there for you to examine, turn over, interact with. There is danger with stories like this becoming more novelty than substance and though the mystery itself is not one that you won’t discern before you run out of the pages the discovery is that you aren’t alone. It’s a rather clever misdirection in that way but by no means a book that’s trying to set standards, it exists knowingly as a chapter in a story that later becomes one. The end is a test, I’m a comic book fan; my life is shared with mylar and acid free boxes, where condition means something to me and to get to the end of the story you must pull a sticker to read the last chapters. I feel a bit silly to admit that it wasn’t an instantaneous decision – did I really know what was going to happen? That I made the decision to pull the sticker speak volumes to anybody that’s ever collected anything, it came off, D&D had me committing overstreet sin, as no matter how good the story so far; especially because of how good it was - we have to see the end; the simplest stories still need an end with a Hastings in the crowd. We want it to be explained to us, and afterall, we may miss another Lapham classic snapshot that makes up for a stint on Detective that challenged even the most defiant of his fans.

Upon conclusion what you are left with from Batman: Murder at Wayne Manor is - in terms production value - is a real quality production. It’s a graphic novel that was constructed with care and it’s biggest drawback is with little doubt its value as a book in terms of rereadability. As I noted before, the mystery itself is rather minimal, and upon a second read the comic book fan will notice appearances of some of their other favorite creators in panels but after that you are left with something that is done, something that is complete. To that, I’d say not everything in life is meant to uncorked and enjoyed at leisure over and over. Put the decanter away, take a shot with Swierczynski the wheelman, and Lapham riding ‘gun. You’d be a fool to ride along, but travel is this fool’s paradise.

Read/Post Comments

Buy it Now at Amazon!

Related Entries

Topics: Batman, Batman: Murder At Wayne Manor, David Lapham, DC Comics, Duane Swierczynski, Quirk Books