Review: ‘Batman: The Dark Age’ #2 Sees Bruce Head For ‘Nam
by Olly MacNamee
Summary
While a young Bruce Wayne learns his trade in the deepest, darkest jungles of Vietnam, back home there is the usual government deniability as well as the outbreak of the Summer of Love. Batman as an Uncle Sam stooge wasn’t what I was expecting in this entertaining and intriguing second issue of ‘Batman: Dark Age’ #2
Overall
10/10Writer Mark Russell and artist Mike Allred with Laura Allred on colours and Dave Sharpe on letters, continue to deliver a very different origin in Batman: Dark Age #2 to the well-trodden one of the comics. A young Bruce Wayne sits rotting in jail before having his jail time cut by being recruited by Sam Lane and the US Army to go fight in the Vietnam War. But once there, the unfamiliar starts feeling familiar as he is whisked away to learn the arts of guerrilla warfare from none other than Ra’s Al Ghul. It’s all done with the mind of a writer who often finds new ways to frame old stories with an artistic style very fitting of the singing sixties it hopes to capture. The last great Golden Age of American “foreign policy” as they entered a war that would become one of many that didn’t sit well with the public.
Talking about finding new ways to tell familiar stories, a good example of this is when Bruce and his covert colleagues hear of a Superman back home in America, expecting this new caped crusader to end the war. But instead, they only hear birds and planes overhead. And not a shining knight in red and blue. As for his group’s actions on the battlefield. All put down by the American government to bats.
In the narration of an elderly Bruce Wayne recounting his past, he can’t help but show admiration for Ra’s, even though he never takes up his deadly methods of dealing with prisoners, and even though they get results. There is a recognition, even decades later, that Ra’s was a catalyst for the birth of Batman, alongside his time in ‘Nam. Another example, much like he did in both Superman: Space Age and Fantastic Four: Life Story, of matching fictional fancies to real-world socio-economic politics.
As Bruce returns to America truly embracing the peace movement and colourful fashions of the Summer of Love generation Russell continues to surprise. Subtle additions that reframe this Batman as Mark Russell’s very own Batman, with the darkness of Gotham, and Vietnam dominating the colours provided by Laura Allred over the very slick and dramatic drawings of Mike Allred, who creates enlarged panels on the page that help illuminate clever and subtle script economically and effectively. Another enthralling issue, particularly because of its intriguing new remix of the Dark Knight legend.
Batman: The Dark #2 is out now from DC Comics
