BATMAN KNIGHTFALL - Book review

 

Dennis O’Neil’s novel Batman Knightfall was published in 1994 and was mainly adapted from a story arc serialised in the following DC comics, many of which he edited: Batman, Batman: Shadow of the Bat, Detective Comics, Legends of the Dark Knight, and Robin; with additional material from Batman: Venom, Batman: Sword of Azrael, and Batman: Vengeance of Bane – all published between 1991 to 1994. I read the series at the time but have only now got round to this book. (My TBR pile is enormous!)

Way back then O’Neil and his other editors wondered, after the release of the Batman Returns movie, that there was a risk of saturation, scaring off potential readers. Also, there was a feeling that in the time of Eastwood, Schwartzenegger et al piling high corpses maybe Batman was an anachronism, even passé – especially as the caped hero would never kill. They decided to test the concept with the Knightfall story arc. The readership response was conclusive: they wanted a ‘Batman who was avenging and compassionate. The Batman archetype is the creature of darkness who serves the common good, the devil on an angel’s mission’ (p349).

The familiar characters in the comics are here; firstly, Commissioner Gordon: ‘… sometimes he despised himself for his reliance on the masked vigilante, but he knew that without Batman, his job would be impossible. Gotham City hadn’t had an honest government since the Civil War… Batman was necessary – a necessary evil… if Batman’s a devil, he’s my devil. I’ve made a pact with him and I’ll keep it. Until he steps over the line. Until he kills someone. And then? The day that happens it’ll be the end for both of us, and probably for the city, too’ (p11).

There are appropriate dark moments in the tale, but there’s also banter and wit: it’s become a cliché almost that after Gordon’s meeting with Batman the Dark Knight would tends to vanish. ‘I’ve finally figured out how you do that. You’re one of those ninjas, aren’t you? You learned it in Japan.’

Batman said, ‘Correspondence course. It was either ninja or air-conditioning repair, and I already had a black suit.’ (p24).

At this time, Tim Drake is the third incarnation of Robin. The first, Dick Grayson, naturally grew older and became crime-fighter Nightwing. Jason Todd, the second, was killed by The Joker. The Drake family lives close to Wayne Manor, which is handy. Tim is still a novice Robin, but a fast learner.

At the beginning, the criminal psychopath Bane crosses paths with Batman and escapes. Bane realises that if he wants to control Gotham, he must first get rid of the Dark Knight. So he embarks on his strategy, diverting Batman to numerous crime scenes, to fight felons; and eventually he even releases several terrible criminals from Arkham Asylum. Finally, Batman confronts Bane and in his worn-out frazzled state is no match and his back is broken. Bane contemptuously dumps Batman in the street.

Alfred and Tim find Batman and take him to the Cave and thence to hospital, pretending that Bruce Wayne had a serious RTA. Bruce is worried, however; although he has apprehended several escapees from Arkham, there are others still on the loose, more than the police department can handle. He informs Tim that a substitute Batman is needed – and selects Jean Paul Valley, who had previously been a costumed avenger, Azrael. (Clearly, Nightwing was otherwise occupied).

In their own ways, both Bane and Valley are psychologically damaged. Bane’s back-story makes grim reading (pp19-32), but sheds some light on the warped violent character. At an early age Valley had been brainwashed by his religious father to follow the Ancient Order of St Dumas and train to be an assassin. Yet in an earlier adventure, Azrael was instrumental in saving Batman’s life.  

Talking of psychos, we meet The Joker only briefly; he is one of the escapees: The bright red lips slashed across his white skin curled upward into a smile. ‘Of course, hurting people really isn’t done in the best circles.’ His lips curled down. And up again. ‘So I’ll do it in a straight line.’ (p51).

While taking weeks to recover, Bruce is determined to fight crime from his bed. ‘Sometimes there’s a clue to the present in the past,’ Bruce observed. ‘The story of your life,’ Alfred replied dryly (p223). Obsessed with combatting crime, Bruce pushes Alfred to the point where his faithful manservant finally has enough and with regret leaves his employer…

A number of questions are raised and answered about the Dark Knight, not least what drives his soul. Also on display is the power of redemption. O'Neil's Afterword is enlightening too.

If you are a fan of Batman, then this should be in your collection. Just don’t take 29 years to get round to reading it. Mea culpa…

Editorial comment:

The substitute Batman drove the batmobile into the rear of a school bus – in an attempt to prevent the children being killed. Yet a short while later, Robin is following the batmobile and ‘noticed the damaged rear end and wondered…’ (p284). But of course it was the front end of the vehicle that sustained damage. Blame the editor…

Book of the film - Wonder Woman

Novelizations of films have been around a long time; one of the first being King Kong (1933). In the 1960s and 1970s they became very popular. What’s the appeal? Before the advent of home video (VHS and then DVD), a novelization was often the only way to re-experience the film. And yet, even now, when DVDs are available at very reasonable cost, there's still a commercial market for film tie-in novelizations.

It's no mean feat to write a novelization. Bear in mind that the usual length of a film script is much shorter than a novel; my film script for my vampire crime thriller Chill of the Shadow came to 120 pages, 22,500 words, while the book’s word-count was 80,000. Those additional words provide the reader additional visuals, backstory, and characters’ introspection.

The main problems for the writer of a novelization are that they may be working from an early script and they have a very tight deadline, possibly as little as a week or two. Novelizations are invariably published prior to a film’s release. This can be seen in Dewey Gram’s version of Gladiator, an excellent book: there were scenes in his novelization that did not appear in the theatre release, though ultimately they were reinstated in the Director’s Cut. 

Prolific author Nancy Holder has done a sterling job with her Wonder Woman novelization. 

The book begins, as does the film, in the present, in Paris, where Diana Prince, the Curator of Antiquities worked in the Louvre Museum. She receives a package from Wayne Industries, a sepia photograph – ‘a moment of triumph frozen in time, shared by the four unsmiling, heavily armed men who bracketed her. Though the monochrome photo couldn’t show it, the eyes of the man standing to her right had been intensely blue, as blue as the sea that surrounded Themyscira, the island of her birth…’ A hundred years ago. When Wonder Woman came into being.

Then we travel to the past, to Themyscira, and the childhood of Princess Diana, a wayward child who is fascinated by the history of the Amazons, the inhabitants of the island, a place where no man lives. Long-lived, they train as warriors in order to combat the last surviving god, Ares. Holder evokes humour and mischief as Diana, the only child on the island, grows into young womanhood.

Scenes shift neatly, until Diana witnesses something other than a bird plummeting from the sky and falling into the sea. She dives to investigate – and rescues the pilot, Steve Trevor, from a sinking airplane. Happily, the Amazons are fluent in many of Earth’s languages. The interchange between the pair is of wonder on both sides, leavened with mystery and amusement.

It transpires that Steve is a spy, fleeing from German General Ludendorff and his warped scientist, Dr Maru. This evil pair has concocted the means to prolong the War to End All Wars at a time when Germany is seeking armistice.

Diana joins forces with Steve to combat this menace, and in the process witnesses the inhumanity of war - and also the selflessness and bravery exhibited.

Skilled actors can convey emotions and to a certain extent their character’s thought processes. And in the movie they do just that. Holder then gives their thoughts and fears life on the page, whether that’s the naivety of Diana or the pure evil of Ludendorff and his acolyte. 

If you haven’t seen the film and yet are curious about the character, then this book will offer an intriguing and adventurous tale, well told. If you have seen the film, then this provides further insight for several characters, not only Diana, and as you read you will visualise again many of the scenes.

An exciting story, told with pace, wit and affection. A pity about the poor editing.

Editorial comment
As stated above, it’s highly likely that a tight deadline was set for the book, so in the rush a large number of errors have not been corrected. Considering it would only take a couple of hours to read the book, I still find the quantity inexcusable. To begin with, I glossed over most typos, but eventually I felt compelled to highlight some; the following should have been spotted:

‘Diana moved passed it…’ Should be ‘past it’. (p78)

‘So let’s you and I remind them, shall we?’ Should be ‘you and me’… (p95) [Drop the other subject (you) and what are you left with? So let I remind them, which is silly; So let me remind them, however, works.]

… she didn’t feel the cold as he died. (p144) Should be ‘as he did’.

‘Steve leaped off his horse…’ and then 11 lines further down, ‘He swung down from the saddle…’ (without having remounted!) (p209)

‘… she gripped the horse’s mane and pressed her things against its flanks,’ (p211) Instead of ‘things’, it should be ‘thighs’

‘Diana gave the horse a nudge with her spurs…’ (p211) Where’d she get her spurs from? She’s wearing Amazon boots under her misappropriated dress and at no time did she fasten on spurs. ‘Nudged with her booted heels’ would work.

‘…Every sense fired as she the truth crashed down on her.’ (p237) That rogue ‘she’ should have been excised.

‘The weapons were being stored back in the aft (of the plane)…’ (p242) ‘back aft’ or ‘aft’ would suffice.

‘The team’s objective had just spit into two…’ (p242) That ‘spit’ should be ‘split’.

‘… and he ran them hand along the magical rope.’ (p253) ‘them hand’ probably should be ‘his hands’ or ‘those hands’.

***

Note: There is also a DC Icon young adult novel about Wonder Woman, Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo, which has received good reviews on Amazon.

'Novel works on two levels...'

Many thanks to LesleyAnn for her review of Sudden Vengeance, a vigilante crime thriller which can be regarded as a 'guilty pleasure'...

Here's her review, to be found on Amazon.COM:

'When trust in the forces of law and order break down, when child molesters, rapists, thieves and murderers go uncaught or virtually unpunished then something’s got to give. Reading this tale of a righteous vigilante on the loose in the crime-ridden English town of Alverbank, I was reminded of a possibly apocryphal tale doing the rounds when the first ‘Death Wish’ movie was screened. The time was 1974 and New York a dangerous place to live. Charles Bronson was cast as a mild-mannered man whose family was devastated as the result of a violent home invasion. So he buys a gun… The story goes that whenever the film was shown in New York, every time Bronson blew some punks away, the audience stood up and cheered.

'A recent film ‘Harry Brown’ had elderly ex-soldier Michael Caine reaping revenge for the murder of his friend by a teenaged gang on his North London housing estate.

'And what with Marvel Comic heroes going back to the 1930s, stories of avenging angels are nothing new. Here, however, Morton’s writerly viewpoint offers a twist in the tale because the reader doesn’t know the identity of this masked avenger - The Black Knight – until the end. Several highly plausible possibilities are thrown into the frame while the police warn, the villains quake and the local press praise.

'This novel works on two levels, firstly as a crime mystery where readers become the detective and secondly by forcing each reader to question their own take on the morality or lack thereof of The Black Knight. In other words, would you stand and cheer like those folks in 1974 New York?'

Thank you, LesleyAnn!

 Available from your Amazon region here

Writing – Visualise this: read a comic

It’s an old axiom: writers should read. We read all sorts, of course – from cereal packets to literary masterpieces. It’s all grist to the mill – the brain. Naturally, if you write in a particular genre, it makes sense to read works in that sphere. But if you want to bring freshness, sometimes it’s a good idea to read outside your favoured genre – outside your comfort zone, even.

If you’re writing contemporary fiction, you may believe you can wing it by not doing any research. That’s possible, but not highly likely. The modern world is complicated.

If your fictional world is in the future or on an alien planet, then you may think that since everything is ‘made up’, then ‘anything goes’ – but you’d be wrong. Characterisation, motivation, logic, genetics, science, history, magic – any or all of these subjects may be pertinent, not to mention types of clothing, armour, weaponry.

If you’re writing a historical novel, then research is definitely required; but don’t just stick to the history books, read fiction set in your chosen period – not to slavishly copy, but to absorb the place, the patterns of speech, the manners, and the everyday lives.

 
One resource writers might not consider is comics.
 
Comic books have been around a long time and have developed to a high degree of sophistication.

Comics – like those story-boards for movie-makers – help the viewer/reader visualise a scene and the action. Not all modern comics are action-packed, some are emotional in content, their characters with real-life issues. Not all comics are for kids, either.

Delving in my pile of magazines the other day, I came across a March 2003 copy of Write Now! ‘the magazine about writing for comics, animation and science fiction’. No longer in print, copies can still be purchased online. Within its pages is a lengthy article by Dennis O’Neil that may be of interest to all writers of genre fiction.  Dennis O’Neil is an award-winning writer and editor, now retired.

 

O'Neil first asks what is a story? His answer is that it isn’t a random slice of reality, but a structured narrative. That’s the essence: structured. Within that structure it should aim to evoke an emotional response from the reader and reveal character. Usually, without character there is no story. In the best stories, everything must count, and quotes from Poe: very word must be aimed towards a final effect. And with Poe we know what that effect should be!

 
He advises the writer not to waste words or images, because that’s a sure-fire way to bore the audience.
 
Naturally, for stories in comics, there are advantages: the visuals tell much of the tale. But good comics are a symbiosis of word and image. Fiction writers can do the same, to a certain extent, by visualising the scene – imagine you’re detailing the scene for an artist to draw. If you do that, then the reader can ‘draw’ the scene in their head.
 
Comics invariably have constraints thrust on the writers/artists – number of pages and preferred ratio of image/text, often depending on the publisher. Genre writers have similar constraints, in all probability – length of book (word-count). So, descriptions may have to be broad visual brush strokes and not contain too many complex sub-plots – unless you’re writing a series!
 
He pleads for clarity – establishing characters and conflicts early on. Within scenes, make sure there is no confusion – do you know where everybody is standing, what they’re doing? Employ that inner artist to ‘draw’ the scene.

Dialogue: it should be obvious who is talking at any time. In comics, this is easy – we have those speech bubbles, but even these cues are cunningly placed to move the story forward, from character to character, panel to panel. In your fiction, you can attribute speech without labouring the point. If there are only two characters speaking in the scene, then you don’t need ‘he said’ or their names most of the time. Speech in comics is usually brief – minimum number of lines per bubble. In reality, that’s the case too: avoid lengthy speeches, edit it down to fit the ‘bubble’.

 
He advocates never simply inserting a character; that person has to have a reason, a purpose for being in the story.

Always keep in mind what he calls the ‘story spine’: what the story is about. Its theme, its ‘message’, its reason for being!

 
Story must have conflict – it may be emotional rather than physical. There must be something at stake: the set up.
 
The story must lead to the most powerful moment: the win or lose instant.

In all likelihood, if you use ‘structure’ in your story, you’re going to provide pacing which will produce a page-turner.

 
Basic structure can vary, as nothing is immutable, but it’s always worth knowing what works, and then twist it afterwards to your own ends:
Hook
Inciting incident
Situation and conflict
Complications
Climax
Denouement
 
Critically reading comics can emphasise these guidelines and prove helpful in your genre fiction writing.

ALIENS AND COWBOYS REVISITED (sort of...)

Reading some commentators, you’d think that the concept for Aliens and Cowboys was new. Yet combining western and science fiction genres goes back to the 1950s, if not earlier.

Certainly, the pulps had fun with cross genre books, and comics tended to follow suit.

Here is an eye-catching cover of a DC Comics Special from 1970.

 

The Special is a crafty idea, as it repackages previously published tales about several DC frontier characters within a cross-genre story arc. There’s a book-end and linking storyline ‘Behold the Wild Frontier’ where the modern-day Gramps tells frontier tales to his two grandsons. This arc is drawn by Gil Kane, I reckon (author and artist credits were not given), and here’s the first page.

 

The rest of the stories are drawn by their respective illustrators of the time. There begins a Daniel Boone tale, ‘Son of Chief Black Fish!’ Then Gramps went on to relate the story of ‘The Junior Ghost Patrol!’ featuring Tomahawk. Next up was Davy Crocket with ‘War Stick of Chief Fighting Elk!’ This was followed by Kit Carson and ‘The Raiders of the Oregon Trail!’  We’re moving forward a little in time, I guess, and now meet Buffalo Bill in ‘Young Bill – of the Pony Express!’ No sooner is that story told than Gramps relates the story of Pow-Wow Smith, Indian Lawman. (The only story title that doesn’t boast an exclamation mark!) And the book-end/story arc concludes with Gramps meeting up with aliens. The comic is rounded off with a DPS text story, ‘Death Hunt’, uncredited.

 

[Eli Katz (April 6, 1926 – January 31, 2000) who worked under the name Gil Kane and less famously Scott Edward, Gil Stack and other pseudonyms, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character. Kane co-created the modern-day version of the superhero Green Lantern.]

Ah, those were the days.