Scoop BATMAN: EARTH ONE by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank

[Trespasser]

I AM looking forward to this, but wish just the "regular comics" could get some of this love....)

datalore

This might just be my "regular comics" from now on. I love the idea of a massive done in one that a real, deep, involved story can be told in without having to slave to the monthly "get 'em back! mentality. I love the thought of getting an unhindered, modern take on my favorite hero by someone who absolutely respects and honors the history but isn't afraid to make it his own. Plus, Gary Frank! Come on!

[Five]

I'm so stoked for this. I've been waiting for Geoff to get his chance to write a comic featuring Batman, and a full graphic novel sounds awesome. Gary Frank on art will make this even better, I liked his Batman design on the Source and his Alfred looked quite badass. Can't wait for this.

[Patrick Gerard]

Reposting my baseless predictions from the news forum:

I shared these thoughts elsewhere online but I had to get them out here:

If Johns plays it smart, I think this will be more of an Alfred origin to avoid treading familiar ground. And I think Alfred will be this security expert/bodyguard who gets brought in by Thomas Wayne, anticipating threats to his family. Alfred is the contingency. The Batcave itself may exist in some form as Alfred's tactical nerve center.

And so Bruce takes his father's contingencies and co-opts them.

Also, my gut says that Thomas Wayne, even if he is killed by a random mugger, will anticipate his death due to sensitive medical research he's doing and that his research may well factor into Venom, Joker Toxin, The Mad Hatter's devices, Clayface and Lazarus Pits, reinventing the more fantastic elements into a medical espionage subplot that becomes personal for Bruce. Maybe working in guys like Tommy Elliot, Dagget Industries, Powers and the corporate/medical types as rival pharmaceutical giants, corporate saboteurs and such. With Arkham being a dumping ground for people who were test subjects for psychotropic technologies stolen from Wayne, intended as ways to better mankind, and unscrupulously put into development by his competitors and a few employees who started unauthorized human trials that Dr. Wayne was trying to halt. Maybe reinvent Martha either as another doctor (the more tired route IMHO) or as a politician, the more empowered breed of socialite, who is herself trying to clean up Gotham from the City Council.

In turn, this could rekindle the Gordon/Bruce friendship we've seen going back to Detective #27 if Gordon, a fierce man of integrity, can basically look at Martha Wayne and her civic agenda for a cleaner Gotham, go to Bruce guns blazing, saying, "You have the power to fix this city. I need someone to back me up. I need someone with connections who can trace the money. Who can halt the money laundering. Because the FBI is treating this city like a damn sociology experiment, watching how it all plays out. And the cops are all on the take." That would take balls for Gordon to ASK Bruce to step outside the system. And then be wondering, when he sees Batman, "Is this what I was asking for? Is this what Bruce Wayne got out of what I had to say? Is this his employee? A mercenary Wayne brought in? Or is Batman this all-seeing third party who knows everything?"

Yeah. A stretch in several places. But Johns is one of those guys whose wavelength I think I can read at times. The heart of it is Bruce Wayne, angry young man, in a world where everything is tied together and he's the outsider, the X-factor. It'll be Bill Everett Batman by way of Johns 80s Geek sensibilities. (Everybody thinks Johns is Roy Thomas reincarnated but I think he's basically Bill Everett if Everett grew up in the 80s as a genre fan.)

I can also easily see where the opportunity exists to get around the "Bruce Wayne steals from himself and makes things disappear" without Morgan Freeman magically waving his hand. The paper trail is something I can see somebody like Gordon following and the "pragmatic soldier of fortune", almost Rorschach angle works to address that.

"I take from Wayne, yes. Take from cartels too. Some are too fat to notice. Some think I'll wipe out the competition. Some are scared. Wayne is no common crook but he's dirty as the rest. He saw his parents die and he indulges with expensive hobbies. Eastern gurus. Gadgets. Women. He fiddles while Rome burns. I put out the fire. Everything he has is mine for the taking. He'll never say anything. His life is mine if I need it. Too guilty to stand up to me."

"I'm no vampire or leech. I'm a bat because bats are blind. Justice is blind. I don't have favorites. I sense how things are. I can't be bought. I don't get caught up in appearances. I do what men like Wayne are afraid to do in daylight because I don't live in daylight. I live where I have to and do what I have to. I perform a function that other people should have and have failed to. That's why they'll let me do it."

"You're the one man in this city who isn't guilty, Gordon. Your hands are simply tied. I don't have that problem. You can try to tie my hands and make me like you. You won't succeed but you can try. Or you can let me do what I'm here to do and see the results. Because if I break the rules, you don't have to. If you stop me, you will eventually have to become me and I don't think you can live with that. You're a good man. I'm not."

[Trespasser]

Nice!