Review – More Social Commentary And Super Heroics In ‘Batman: Dark Age’ #3

So far in this rather radical reimagining of the Batman origin we have had Bruce the con, Bruce the black ops agent fighting in ‘Nam as part of Ra’s Al-Ghul’s crack commandos and now finally in Batman: Dark Age #3 we get Bruce the war vet and Dark Knight. A war vet who finds himself fighting his very own one-man war on drugs as Wayne Enterprise’s has got Gothamites hooked on painkillers. A story practically ripped from the headlines of contemporary America but transposed onto earlier ‘70s Gotham City; the target of this issue’s social commentary by writer Mark Russell.

Russell’s keen eye for including real-life issues but hyped up through the testosterone-fuelled kaleidoscope of the superhero genre reminds me of the writers riding the wave of that first outpouring of social commentary dressed up as superhero comics. The classic Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories of the ‘70s, the rise of heroes of colour with clunky-sounding characters as Black Panther or Black Goliath, or even Sam Wilson, the Falcon. These were the stories that I was drawn to as a kid and these are still the stories I am drawn to to this very day. Albeit today’s comic book writers are more sophisticated in their writing than those stories of the ‘70s. Writers like Russell – one of the very few voices in American comics today who regularly incorporate social commentary, often as dark Black Mirror-like satire – are rare. And writers like Russell who can weave such themes into any genre he chooses to turn his hand to and do it so consistently well are even rarer. But, it isn’t just the inclusion of such threads in his writing that keeps me coming back for more. In the case of this limited series, it’s also because of how impressed I have been with his totally new and novel way of representing Batman in a different light.

Of course, the streamlined pop-art stylings of Mike Allred’s a huge part of this book’s success giving it the kind of late Silver Age tone that’s so appropriate for this particular period drama. And a big part of that drama this issue is in Batman’s meet-up with his reality’s Justice League and the oncoming crisis across infinite realities (hmmm, I’m sure there’s a catchier way of saying that, right?) that Russell has made a big cornerstone of this and his previous Superman: Space Age series. 

It’s a fast-paced issue that covers a good deal of ground and by the end of this issue we get even more novel new ways of looking at Batman’s origin as well as the origins of a possible boy wonder teased too. A Batman hardened by prison and military service is a fascinating new take on this perennial favourite and one worth exploring if you haven’t yet decided to pick it up. That’s if you can find any back issues around. It would appear that this has sleeper hit written al over it f the sell-out of the third issue at my local comic book store is any indication of how well this comic is doing.

Batman: Dark Age #3 is out now from DC Comics