(DISCLOSURE: BOF received a copy of BATMAN: REVOLUTION for review purposes.)
Sorry for being a tad late on this review…it was A LOT to read!
Thanks to the fine folks at Random House, I was sent an early copy of the new novel, BATMAN: REVOLUTION, to review for you BOF’ers here on, well, BOF. However, it’s a fairly dense book and took me longer than I anticipated to get through it properly. Nevertheless, I did finish it, and here I am with my thoughts.
Since you’re reading this review here on BOF, you know that BATMAN: REVOLUTION is the second novel by John Jackson Miller set in the “Burtonverse.” Meaning, the films BATMAN and BATMAN RETURNS are considered canon, and the two Joel Schumacher Batman films are ignored. Additionally, the recent BATMAN ’89 and BATMAN ’89: ECHOS (for full disclosure, I did not care much for either…at all) comic book stories are, I believe, part of this film/novel/comic book universe as well.
Alrighty then.
BATMAN: REVOLUTION gives fans of the aforementioned Burtonverse a nostalgic return to the world of Batman created by Tim Burton (even though B89 and RETURNS look and feel totally different). While the novel brings back characters we already know like Alfred, Selina Kyle, and Max Schreck, the “main villain” of this book is Norman Pinkus, a puzzle writer for a Gotham newspaper who eventually becomes…wait for it…The Riddler!
BATMAN: REVOLUTION is kinda-sorta a take on what BATMAN FOREVER might’ve been; though, it’s actually nothing like what we would have gotten if Burton stayed on for a third Batman movie. And I like the film we got with The Riddler in FOREVER — which is officially cinematic canon with its two predecessors — so I’m not all that interested in retroactive “What Ifs.” ANYWAY…
I’m not going to rehash the plot and all the details of this book, as it’s up to y’all to read it and judge for yourself. I personally found it to be an OK, yet overstuffed, story that juggles A LOT when it comes to the story, subplots, and characters.
The bottom line here is that this is for diehard Burtonverse fans, and it’s for that segment of Batman fandom that I recommend buying it.
Now, I shall not patiently wait for a novelization/comic book version of Joel Schumacher’s BATMAN UNCHAINED…which we ALL wrongly called BATMAN TRIUMPHANT for years. – Bill “Jett” Ramey
GRADE: B
