Batman: Earth One and Batman '89

 Batman: Earth One, Volume 1 by Geoff Johns (2012) 142 pages and Batman '89 by Sam Hamm (2022) 152 pages

I've read a handful of Batman graphic novels on Hoopla recently. Let me recommend two. The first volume of Batman: Earth One with art by Gary Frank was very good. It takes place in an alternate world where certain characters and events are slightly different than in the regular Batman continuity. We see a bit more of Bruce's boyhood while his parents are still alive. And later when he is putting together his Batman costume/persona, I really appreciated that this version shows him as just a man. His body and his tech are less super. The police are under the thumb of organized crime. It is still a dark criminal world, but very grounded in reality.

Then a newer Batman graphic novel imagines that Tim Burton got to make a third Batman movie. Sam Hamm has a story credit on both of Burton's Batman movies. Joe Quinones illustrates the characters to look like Michael Keaton, Billy Dee Williams, and Michael Gough, etc. The story here provides a lot of things that I liked. We get to know Billy Dee Williams' version of Harvey Dent much more deeply. We witness his transformation into Two-Face. We are also introduced to a brand new character who becomes Batman's sidekick Robin. There were some panels where the action was not quite clear, but it was good to revisit this version of Gotham.

Batman: A Death in the Family

 

Batman: A Death in the Family by Jim Starlin and Marv Wolfman (1988) 272 pages

The edition I read on Hoopla is actually two Batman stories for the price of one. Jim Starlin is responsible for the A Death in the Family story. And Marv Wolfman is responsible for a story called A Lonely Place of Dying. The first story is famous because readers of the Batman comics had the opportunity to vote for how they wanted the story to end. The Dick Grayson/Robin character had grown up and a new Robin named Jason Todd was trained as Batman's sidekick. The readers decided this new Robin character should die. It is an exciting globetrotting adventure rather then being confined to Gotham. There are multiple mysteries and Batman and company facing off against their greatest foe, the Joker. In the late '80s Batman was becoming darker than ever. The second story suggests Batman needs Robin to humanize him again. It is an origin story of yet another new Robin named Tim Drake. A good chunk of this story follows the Teen Titans, Dick Grayson's new group, rather than Batman, and I was a little lost since I am not familiar with those characters. When we do get back to Batman he is matching wits with Two-Face, but I was disappointed in the plot developments.