Comic Review: Batman ‘89 #1

DC Comics

Writer: Sam Hamm

Artists: Joe Quinones & Leonardo Ito

Letters: Clayton Cowles

Winged Freak Terrorizes! DC’s Batman ‘89 #1 re-introduces readers to the world of the classic Tim Burton Batman films nearly 30 years after Batman Returns. This six-part miniseries promises the return of Burton’s depictions of several classic characters as well as follow-ups and new takes on other characters and story beats not seen in that universe, and this debut issue makes great efforts to deliver.

Writer Sam Hamm, who wrote the story and screenplay for the 1989 film, returns to pen this new series. As first issues go, this one is incredibly dense, packing in a surprising amount of exposition in just 20 pages. Hamm catches us up to speed on Michael Keaton’s Batman and Billy Dee Williams’s Harvey Dent, and introduces the series’ central conflict and several new characters including an original take on Robin. It’s definitely exciting and at least a little nostalgic to return to this world and see these characters again, but I would have liked some more room for some of these story elements to breathe. There are quite a few subplots battling for attention here, both major and minor, and while this is still only the introduction to the story, I think a larger page count might have helped by letting us spend more time with Harvey Dent, for instance, or doing a bit more to catch us up with Bruce Wayne since we last saw him in Batman Returns.

The premise of the story itself somewhat resembles the 1993 animated Batman film, Mask of the Phantasm, in that members of law enforcement and some government officials have begun to turn on Batman and now seek his capture. While we have seen Batman take on the GCPD before, it hasn’t been a focal point of a Burtonverse Batman story before, and with Harvey Dent at the forefront of this crusade, it’s certainly a story with promise.

Joe Quinones and Leonardo Ito’s art is fairly strong in this issue. Quinones in particular does excellent work for the most part in capturing the likenesses of major actors like Keaton and Williams. Though stylized, there’s a clear resemblance between these characters’ page and screen depictions. Details like this and others (a brief appearance of a dead ringer for the Partyman himself, Prince, for instance) go a long way in making this feel like a natural continuation of the films that inspired it. Batman and his gadgets in particular look especially good, taking heavy cues with slight adjustments from the ‘89 film. As is the case with his characters, Quinones excels at translating details on things like the Batsuit and the Batmobile from screen to page, while the slight changes, like the choice to give Batman’s cape a brighter interior color, are subtle but help make the art easier to read and follow. There are some notable panels that show Batman’s expanded cape or silhouette that are striking on their own and a great representation of the look of the movies.

If there’s one complaint I have about the art, it’s that its depiction of Gotham City doesn’t go far enough into Burton Land. The original film opened with heavily shadowed establishing shots of the city, showing the full extent of its clutter, excessive grime, and exaggerated, almost claustrophobic architecture. These shots helped set the mood and tone of the film and remained consistent throughout. This issue tries to recreate that tone to an extent but unfortunately, I don’t feel like it was totally successful. There are pages and panels that show Gotham’s streets, but they don’t have the same level of clutter or loose garbage and simply aren’t as dark as they were in the film. The issue opens with an establishing shot similar to the ‘89 movie, but it focuses on a single building where Harvey Dent is, rather than showing us the entire city. There is a silhouetted building in the background of this shot reminiscent of the film’s climactic cathedral, but for the most part the unique architecture of Burton’s Gotham isn’t captured here. 

Batman ‘89 #1 is a strong effort to introduce a new story set in a 32-year-old universe. There’s more than enough setup here to keep things interesting even without the nostalgia factor, but this story’s status as an official follow-up to the iconic Tim Burton films, with Sam Hamm returning as writer, gives it that extra bit of appeal. Visually, the issue isn’t as consistent with the look of the movies as I’d like (apart from the stunning Joe Quinones cover), but makes up for that with the general faithfulness of its character designs and likenesses, as well as the impact of Batman’s appearances. Overall this series shows a lot of promise, and between this and Keaton’s upcoming return to the Batman role on film, it’s great to see that this interpretation of the character is still loved and respected.