I am a HUGE fan of 1989’s BATMAN! BATMAN RETURNS, its 1992 sequel? Well, not so much. But that’s neither here nor there.
Thanks to the folks at Random House, I got an early look at a new “direct sequel” to Tim Burton’s BATMAN, BATMAN: RESURRECTION — a new novel by John Jackson Miller.
While I know they exist, I’ve never partaken in the medium of genre/IP novels. I’ve only read a few of the novelizations of previous Batman movies (namely BATMAN in 1989 and BATMAN FOREVER in 1995). So, reading BATMAN: RESURRECTION was new for me. And…
I liked it!
In short, RESURRECTION begins not long after the end of BATMAN (and probably a few years before the events of BATMAN RETURNS) where we saw The Joker fall from Gotham Cathedral to his (apparent?) death. Gotham is still recovering from The Joker’s Smylex gas attack on the city (the “Money, money, money…hubba, hubba, hubba…who do you trust?! parade). Now that Batman has revealed himself as being “real” to the people of Gotham (He gave us a signal!”), we see that he now works a bit more hand-in-hand with the GCPD.
On the Bruce Wayne side, he becomes more of a public figure (I never understood how Alexander Knox and Vicki Vale recognize Bruce Wayne in BATMAN — they are investigative journalists for chrissakes!) and is doing his best to help the city recover from the aforementioned Joker attack.
Speaking of The Joker, his presence is still felt all over the city. As things in Gotham return to normal — well, “normal” for Gotham — Batman and the city begin to wonder if, somehow, The Joker is still alive.
I found this to be a detective story with a heaping of noir first and foremost. Yes, there’s a lot of action, but that’s secondary. And while I won’t spoil it, some new Batman characters (Basil Karlo!) and old Burton-Batman characters show up in this tale.
In case you’re wondering, it seems that this novel is indeed in the same universe as the recent BATMAN ’89 comic books released by DC. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of the comic book series, but for those who are, this novel does nothing to conflict it.
If you’re a fan of Tim Burton’s BATMAN films, this is definitely for you. If you like Batman stories in novelized form, it’s probably for you as well. Give it a go! – Bill “Jett” Ramey
