No Man's Land

If you know anything about me, you know I love comics, specifically Batman comics. My all time favorite comic book series is the No Man’s Land series. This comic, along with The Dark Knight and Knight Fall, helped inspire the The Dark Knight Rises, which is one of my favorite comic book based trilogies.

This graphic novel (the complete No Man’s Land comic story) takes place after a series of horrible events decimated Gotham. These events lead to the government basically washing their hands of Gotham. They end up isolating the city and leaving the remaining inhabitants, including the inmates of Arkham Asylum, to fend for themselves. The story ends around the time the government starts to help them rebuild the city (which is a whole plot in itself). I’m going to address some of the highs and lows throughout the story.

*There will be spoilers!! You have been warned!

High Points

The Joker’s story line—in this comic, we get to see the Joker being truly twisted. He’s plan is to kill Gotham’s future, by kidnapping and killing all of the babies. In the process, he shoots and kills Gordon’s wife, almost causing him to go over the edge.

Introducing Cassandra Cain, Harley, and Zsasz—I know that this is not technically Harley and Zsasz’s first appearance, but I loved them in this story arc. It really fleshed out Harvey’s character. I have loved her since BTAS! I had never heard of Zsasz until this comic, but loved him right away (if you want to see more of him, I suggest watching Gotham). Cassandra Cain was also an instant favorite. I loved watching her progress and grow into the mantel of Batgirl (and having Barbara accept her in that role).

I loved most of the art. It is done by multiple people and the majority of the time it is on point. The only time I was not super thrilled with the art was during Azreal's arc.

Batman is my favorite hero, but I have always felt like he is a tad harsher than necessary on his sidekicks. I loved watching him progress from pushing them all away to realizing that they all had their place. I also really enjoyed when you get to see him doing his Bruce voice in the batsuit.

Low Points

The art at some points (mainly the Azreal arc) was not my favorite. I’m a fan of his character, but the art was so distracting to me that it was kind of hard to focus on what was actually happening. Also just a little annoying side note, the spines of the graphic novels are not the same and do not line up when shelved together.

There is a sizable arc involving the Ventriloquist. While i enjoyed his story, the accent the wrote for him is awful. I hated the way they switched the b sound out for a g sound in all of his dialogue.

There is a few instances of Batman being inconsiderate and giving his sidekicks impossible rules to follow. I know this shows his dark, broody side, but it drives me crazy.

With a comic book story spanning this many additions, there is bound to be some slow spots. Unfortunately, this comic was no exception.

All together, I would probably give this graphic novel an 8/10. The highs definitely outweighed the lows for me. It also helps to give more insight into the world that Nolan based his movies around. The novel based on the comics is also great too. Let me know if you’ve read it and how you liked it!