What-up, my GHG-nation under a groove, gettin’ down just for the FUNK of it!!! HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!! Thought I’d give an overall comic mini-series review to a tasty comic title that I had recently completed reading. None other than Batman: Black & White, the 6 issue short story anthology mini-series filled to the brim with black and white 8 pagers by various creators such as Neal Adams, Chip Kidd, Sean Murphy, Chris Samnee, Michael Allred, Cliff Chiang, Dave Johnson, and even MORE creators than gadgets that the Dark Knight could ever manage to fit into his trusty utility belt! Okay, maybe not THAT many, but a LOT of creative talent, to be sure.
Going to shoot straight from the hip on this one: IF you count yourself as a TRUE BATMAN FAN to the Nth degree and haven’t read this short story-filled mini-series, TURN IN YOUR BAT-COOLNESS CREDENTIALS NOW!!! Honestly, HOW IN ALL THAT IS GLORIOUS AND GEEK CAN A TRUE BAT-FAN NOT HAVE READ THIS (not the first Batman: B&W mini-series either, there was the first in the 90s, the b&w back-up shorts in the old Batman: Gotham Knights title, as well as some various collected editions)?!? This thing was soooo obviously a product of love and dedication by all those involved producing it to put into our ever-ready hands. Budgetary constraints? Okay, I’ll give you that as an excusable reason. Same reason strikes us all, at any given time in life. Still, this thing was a JOY to partake of and something that NO BAT-FAN SHOULD MISS OUT ON! Not going to go over every short in this mini, for you (you’ve GOTTA read them for yourselves, my minions). From the get-go, the first short in B: B&W #1 by writer, Chip Kidd and illustrator, Michael Cho featured the Bat on a mission to find the nefarious Clown Prince Of Crime, The Joker. Our heroic Caped Crusader ends up missing, leaving behind a confused Robin The Boy Wonder (Dick Grayson) who gets some help from a certain Man Of Steel, in an effort to find out what truly happened to the M.I.A. Dark Knight. The writing on this short was so impeccably done and the “lost line” style art of Cho was to die for to the point that you could only WISH a true Lazarus Pit existed, only to bring you back from that deadened state, in order to read it all over again, in a crazed fury.
In the 1st issue alone, we also got a very thought-provoking tale by masterful Batman artistic alum, Neal Adams, featuring the Caped Crusader realizing (in ZOMBIE form, no less) that there are SOME THINGS THAT EVEN A BATMAN CANNOT DO A D@MN THING ABOUT. Also in that ish, was a nice short by writer, John Arcudi and artist, Sean Murphy showing us Bruce Wayne working on his ride, the sleek and sexy super-charged Batmobile and recounting an adventure dealing with the Batman: The Animated Series villainess, Roxy Rocket, that had so much creative horse-power, you’d get severe whiplash just by the act of reading!
Other notable tales set in the world of the Batman include a couple of killer pieces, both written and illustrated by Rafael Grampa and Rafael Albuquerque, respectively, in book #2. Issue #3 featured a Batman tale written and drawn by Lee Bermejo detailing an undercover Robin learning RULE NUMBER ONE, as according to his crimefighting mentor. #4 features a GHOSTLY tale by writer, Nathan Edmondson and artist, Kenneth Rocafort, as well as a SWEET Batman vs. Penguin tale by brothers Michael and Lee Allred. Issue #5 features a story called Hell Night where the Bat is put through his paces by an opponent you won’t expect, and when you see WHO it is putting our bat-winged wonder through his trials, it’ll all make perfect sense within context of story. Last, but certainly not least, issue #6 gives us a cool tale written and illustrated by Cliff Chiang featuring Batman and Robin going up against the maniacal morphing mo-fo known as Clayface. Also the creative team of Olly Moss and Becky Cloonan give us an interesting peek behind the publicly perceived nightlife of Bruce Wayne and just how it is that he can keep his street-cred as an all-around ladies’ man, while truly, he prowls the rooftops of Gotham wearing the cape & cowl.
All that sounds pretty sweet, huh?!? Well pimps and pimpettes, THAT’S NOT EVEN HALF OF THE BAT-COOLNESS in this mini-series of shorts! Those were just a mere smattering of succulent superhero short story synopsis samplings! Not to mention that each issue had some of the most extremely epic Bat-covers to come down the pike in recent memory. Covers by the artistic likes of Marc Silvestri, Jim Steranko, the aforementioned Olly Moss, Amanda Conner, Joshua Middleton, and Doug Mahnke. Best part of all? These shorts aren’t saddled by any pre-existing continuity or regulated to the mainline DC Comics universe, be they current New 52, alternate, infinite, multiple, Elseworlds, or otherwise. These tales are all standalone stories that kick-it unrestrained like a bad-@$$ bat outta hell set upon a dastardly devious criminal up to no d@mn good.
Having said all that, going to go full-on GEEK here and give this black & white 6 issue beauty to behold an unabashed 4.75 black bats out of 5 (Not the full 5 because of the factor that this isn’t an ongoing anthology series…AND IT SHOULD BE)! Yep! It was THAT INCREDIBLE a read! So what are you waiting for?!? Check this entire thing out! You’ll NOT regret it, Bat-fans! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! Would your friendly neighborhood Preacher Man steer you wrong?!!!?
