Batman Thrillkiller (Batman (DC Comics Paperback)) 
asked by runabout on November 13, 2006 8:21 AM
In Elseworlds, heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places - some that have existed or might have existed, and others that can't, couldn't or shouldn't exist. This is one of those stories.
The year is 1961, a time of transition between the fifties - the decade of Ike, McCarthyism and Jack Kerouac - and the dawn of the Sexual Revolution, the Vietnam War and turning on, tuning in and dropping out.
Like the rest of the United States, Gotham City is filled with giddy optimism. And no one could guess at the dark days that lay ahead - especially her two masked defenders Batgirl and Robin!! For them, the joyride was about to end... and the last stop was Death!
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This is an Elseworlds Batman story. I bought part one of this graphic novel as a comic book which I purchased from a craft store that was selling old comic books from an estate sale for 50 cents each. I loved the artwork and was very intrigued by the beginning of this story and therefore was very happy to eventually find the complete graphic novel for sale. Well, the ensuing chapters proved to be a bit of a letdown. To give you an idea, Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) is Batman at first, in a manner of speaking, and Dick Grayson is still Robin. Barbara bought Wayne Manor and she and Dick live there because Bruce couldn't afford the place after his parents were murdered. Bruce is now a cop working under Jim Gordon and he's basically penniless. Barbara and Jim are very much at odds with each other ever since the death of Jim's wife. He wanted Bruce and Barbara to get together, but Barbara loved the younger Dick Grayson, whom she met after trying out for the circus (seriously). As for the other characters, the Joker character has been replaced by Bianca Steeplechase, looking disturbingly like Joan Crawford with green hair. Dinah is here for some reason portraying the wife of a murdered cop (no Ollie in sight, her husband's name is Lance), and she and Bruce have an affair accompanied by some of the corniest narrative I've ever read ("They're weak...emotionally bruised...unprepared...He wants her...She wants him...") Yeah, you get the picture. Selina Kyle makes a brief appearance as a pole dancer until she gets murdered. Dick gets murdered by Bianca Steeplechase. In her grief, Barbara cuts her hair like Dick's and dons his costume. Harley Quinn even makes an appearance as a young woman named Hayley who falls in love with Bianca Steeplechase. Whatever. And the artist, Dan Brereton, is really very good, but apparently rather limited in models because Bruce, Dick, and Roy Harper all look EXACTLY THE SAME. The storyline itself of a Nazi drug lord was uninteresting to say the least. It was an interesting premise for an Elseworlds Batman story, but the execution of it left something to be desired.
reviewed by vicky123 on November 16, 2006 4:42 PM
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For some members of the Batman fan base, the 1960s will always be linked to the image of Adam West camping it up in tights against an array of colorful foes. Writer Howard Chaykin reclaims a bit of the Batman legacy from that decade with "Thrillkiller," a lushly, darkly painted Elseworlds story that offers an entirely new stamp on the story.
In "Thrillkiller," Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered in his childhood, but their debts left him penniless. Without the Wayne resources at his disposal, his vendetta against crime took a different route, and now -- 1961 -- he works as a police detective on the Gotham P.D. Police Commissioner Gordon's estranged daughter Barbara -- herself an heiress on her late mother's side -- has purchased Wayne Manor, and from there she and her boyfriend Richart "Dick Grayson" Graustark operate as Batgirl and Robin. They are cool but flashy, and they wield beatnik aggression against foes that resemble but are still quite different from the usual Batman gallery of rogues -- a green-haired, pale-skinned woman, a crooked cop with scars marring one side of his face, a scaly-skinned hoodlum.
Colorful bad guys notwithstanding, the world of "Thrillkiller" is a dangerous place to operate, and our heroes don't always dance blithely out of harm's way. And, as you'd expect, Batman too makes an appearance before this tale is done.
The story by Chaykin is tight, exciting and appropriate to the era. The painted art by Dan Brereton is a suitable vehicle for the story, matching the early '60s atmosphere and giving the main characters the rugged good looks of teen idols of the day. Action is a bit wooden, looking at times more posed than kinetic, but that never interferes with the story's flow.
The graphic novel, published as a collection in 1998, includes the three-book "Thrillkiller" mini-series from 1997 as well as the one-shot sequel, "Thrillkiller '62," from 1998. Combined, it's an exciting alternate world that I'd love to see explored further.
By Tom Knapp, Rambles.NET editor
In "Thrillkiller," Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered in his childhood, but their debts left him penniless. Without the Wayne resources at his disposal, his vendetta against crime took a different route, and now -- 1961 -- he works as a police detective on the Gotham P.D. Police Commissioner Gordon's estranged daughter Barbara -- herself an heiress on her late mother's side -- has purchased Wayne Manor, and from there she and her boyfriend Richart "Dick Grayson" Graustark operate as Batgirl and Robin. They are cool but flashy, and they wield beatnik aggression against foes that resemble but are still quite different from the usual Batman gallery of rogues -- a green-haired, pale-skinned woman, a crooked cop with scars marring one side of his face, a scaly-skinned hoodlum.
Colorful bad guys notwithstanding, the world of "Thrillkiller" is a dangerous place to operate, and our heroes don't always dance blithely out of harm's way. And, as you'd expect, Batman too makes an appearance before this tale is done.
The story by Chaykin is tight, exciting and appropriate to the era. The painted art by Dan Brereton is a suitable vehicle for the story, matching the early '60s atmosphere and giving the main characters the rugged good looks of teen idols of the day. Action is a bit wooden, looking at times more posed than kinetic, but that never interferes with the story's flow.
The graphic novel, published as a collection in 1998, includes the three-book "Thrillkiller" mini-series from 1997 as well as the one-shot sequel, "Thrillkiller '62," from 1998. Combined, it's an exciting alternate world that I'd love to see explored further.
By Tom Knapp, Rambles.NET editor
reviewed by onthemic on November 25, 2006 10:03 PM