When I was regularly reading monthly Batman comics throughout the 1990s and early 2000s,
my favorite title was Shadow of the Bat. I enjoyed how it tended to focus more on
characters and psychology, telling often dark stories but in ways that didn’t feel grim
or gratuitously violent — usually. The main writer of Shadow of the Bat was Alan Grant,
and he will definitely be the subject of one of a future entry in this series — but this
video is not about Alan Grant, or Shadow of the Bat. It’s about what came next.
Shadow of the Bat was canceled in 1999 — its final issue was cover dated February 2000. Alan Grant
had already left as the writer, but even so I was kinda sad to see the title go because during its
heyday in the early to mid-’90s it published some of my favorite Batman stories. But then, I heard
that DC Comics was introducing a new monthly Batman title to replace it — and that title,
Batman: Gotham Knights, was being written by Devin Grayson. And suddenly I wasn’t sad any more.
Devin Grayson has written extensively for Batman, Nightwing, Catwoman, and other top-tier DC
characters since the late 1990s. I became a fan of her work from the very first time I read one
of her stories — which, though I didn’t know it at the time, was the very first comics story of hers
to be published. It’s titled “Like Riding a Bike,” it’s drawn by Rodolfo Damaggio, and it’s in issue
number seven of The Batman Chronicles, a quarterly anthology that DC published from 1995 to 2001.
It’s about Dick Grayson, a.k.a. Nightwing, receiving an unexpected visit from his old
friend and Teen Titans teammate Donna Troy. Dick and Donna catch up, provide each other
some emotional support, and talk about what their careers as crimefighters mean to them, why they
do it. There’s a bit of action — a gang of muggers attacks Dick and Donna while they’re out and about
— but there’s not a superhero costume in sight, and even when Dick is acrobatically kicking some
ass, the story is clearly more interested in what he’s saying than in the flips and the strikes.
Immediately, I saw that Devin Grayson understood how to write Dick Grayson — I can only imagine
that she may have been drawn to the character in part because of their shared last name. The next
story of hers I read, in The Batman Chronicles number nine, is also a Dick Grayson story,
only this one takes place several years earlier than “Like Riding a Bike,” when
Dick is still Robin. The story, which is drawn by Duncan Fegredo, is titled “Photo Finish,”
and presents Devin Grayson’s version of the first meeting between Robin and Batgirl — Dick
Grayson and Barbara Gordon, though they don’t learn each other’s real names in this story.
As with “Like Riding a Bike,” the focus of “Photo Finish” is on the characters.
There’s enough action to keep things visually interesting — comics being a visual medium and
all — but what’s really important is the dialogue, the banter, the playful tension
that exists between Robin and Batgirl as they get to know each other and begin to form a bond. It’s
very well done. And as a longtime fan of Dick Grayson, and Barbara Gordon, and Dick Grayson
and Barbara Gordon — know what I’m sayin’? — this story lands right in my sweet spot.
Devin Grayson wrote a total of five stories for The Batman Chronicles. I’m not going
to talk about all of them here, but I will bring up one more because it’s relevant to
my main subject. That story is titled “The Contract,” it’s penciled by Marcos Martin,
it’s inked by Vince Giarrano, and it’s in Batman Chronicles number twelve.
This story is part of the “Cataclysm” storyline that was running through all of
the Batman books at the time. Gotham has been devastated by an earthquake. In this story,
we cut back and forth between a group of survivors trapped beneath a collapsed building,
and a team of mercenaries who have been contracted to get them out. Batman himself
never actually appears in the story, but he is a topic of conversation among both groups.
Among the mercenaries and the survivors there are those who believe Batman exists and admire
or respect him, and those who consider him an urban myth — and an especially cruel one,
given their present circumstances. If Batman is real, the non-believers say, and he’s the
hero he’s supposed to be, where is he? Why isn’t he here, helping to rescue these trapped people?
As the mercenaries work their way down to the survivors, we learn more about the oddly
specific contract they all signed in order to do this job, a contract which apparently stipulates
that they do not use guns, that they protect each other, and that they do nothing intended to crush
another person’s spirit or rob them of faith. When the mercenaries finally reach the survivors,
it’s a moment of triumph for everyone. The mercs — gangsters and crooks who initially
took the contract for the money — have gained a sense of meaning and accomplishment from acting
to safeguard life; and the survivors, including a young boy who has been waiting and hoping for
Batman to come to their rescue, have their hopes of making it out of this building alive fulfilled.
The Batman-loving kid is at first disappointed that his hero hasn’t
appeared in person to save them, but then he reasons that Batman must have sent these guys
because he can’t be everywhere at once. This is confirmed by one of the mercs,
who also gives the kid some money, not wanting to violate the faith clause of the contract.
And, it turns out Batman did send them — or rather,
as a final peek at the actual contract reveals, Bruce Wayne did.
When Devin Grayson began writing Batman: Gotham Knights, she continued that focus on characters
and relationships. It was a book about the Batman Family — the team of Batman, Robin,
Nightwing, and the others who work closely with Batman. The stories in Devin Grayson’s run are
filled with some of the best character work ever done in a Batman comic. These are characters who,
despite their outlandish personas and larger than life adventures, are essentially human.
They are a chosen family, they are a team, they depend on one another, they love one another,
but they also disagree, and have tension, and fight, and break apart, and come back together.
There’s not just emotional tension between the characters — Grayson acknowledges the dramatic
tension between the concept of Batman as a seemingly natural loner and the idea that he
works closely with others — people like Robin, and Nightwing, and Oracle — Barbara Gordon,
the former Batgirl, now using a wheelchair and providing tech support with almost supernatural
competence — people who know his secrets, people who increase his vulnerability.
Grayson takes that contradiction and examines it and draws story from it.
Grayson also confronts one of the most cutting — and most valid — criticisms of Batman as a
character: if Bruce Wayne really cares about fixing the problems that make life in Gotham
City so awful, why doesn’t he try to address those problems as himself, using his wealth and
influence, instead of spending his time dressing up in a costume and beating up street criminals?
The response to this from defensive Batman fans is usually to say that, actually,
Bruce Wayne does use his money to do good for the people of Gotham, in addition to his activities as
Batman. He runs the Wayne Foundation and funds numerous other charities and social programs.
The problem with this response is, while we hear about the good Bruce Wayne is supposedly
doing for Gotham, we hardly ever see it. There’s an excellent reason for this — it’s just a lot
more exciting to read about Batman chasing down a supervillain or investigating a crime than it is
to read about Bruce Wayne sponsoring an employment program for recently released prison inmates or
something. But the thing is, this is fiction, and if we don’t see it happen in a story, it doesn’t
feel like it really did happen. If it’s important, we should see it, not just hear about it in a line
of dialogue every once in a while. So, if Bruce Wayne’s philanthropy was that important . . .
Devin Grayson finds a way to turn Bruce’s non-Batman benevolence into a story with “The
Contract” in Batman Chronicles twelve, with the reveal that it was Bruce Wayne who hired
the mercs to rescue the people trapped under the collapsed building. And, she finds a way to turn
it into a story that centers on Bruce himself in issue number thirty-two of Gotham Knights, cover
date October 2002 — a story with pencils by Roger Robinson and inks by John Floyd, titled “24/7.”
The first few pages give us glimpses of Bruce Wayne’s morning: reading the paper and drinking
coffee while bantering with Alfred at Wayne Manor; attending a board meeting at Wayne Enterprises;
and dropping in on another meeting where Bruce uses his persona as a superficial playboy
interested only in public relations to convince a representative of another company to participate
in a program that will make that company’s operations more environmentally friendly.
From there, we see an ex-con applying for a job in the accounting department. The ex-con,
Mickey, tells the manager about how he spent his time in prison studying,
and how he was released early for good behavior. Mickey explains that he is so determined to go
straight because of Batman. It was Batman who caught Mickey during a robbery and told him,
“You can do better, Mickey.” Inspired by the fact that Batman, of all people, not only believed in
him but knew his name, Mickey swore to do better for himself after paying for his crime. The scene
ends with the manager offering Mickey a handshake and saying “I think we can work something out.”
Cut to Bruce treating a group of senior citizens to a gourmet lunch at a fancy
restaurant — something he apparently does on a daily basis. Cut from there to Bruce
encountering a young employee in the elevator and offering him a full college scholarship. Cut from
there to the Bludhaven Police Department, where Dick Grayson works as a cop, where a delivery
of bullet proof vests has just arrived, courtesy of Wayne Enterprises. Knowing he’s from Gotham,
one of Dick’s fellow cops asks, “What do you think Wayne wants in return for this
generous donation?” To which Dick replies, “Mostly, I think he’ll want us to be safe.”
Cut from there to Bruce giving a speech at the dedication ceremony for a memorial to events
depicted in the “No Man’s Land” crossover, which followed the “Cataclysm” storyline and saw Gotham
City cut off from the rest of the United States for an entire year. We cut briefly to an exchange
between two people in the crowd who disparage Bruce for being “in the Bahamas the whole time,”
unaware that, as Batman, Bruce remained in Gotham during the No Man’s Land period. Following the
speech, Bruce shares a quiet moment with his old friend Leslie Thompkins, who long-time Batman fans
know as the woman who comforted young Bruce in the immediate aftermath of the murder of his parents.
Cut to Bruce playing golf with fellow rich guy Fritz Manning. Bruce plays
on Manning’s vanity to convince him to turn a recently purchased property into
a community center rather than a coffee shop franchise, reminding Manning that
“the nice thing about community centers is that you get to name them after yourself.”
From there, we see Bruce dropping in to check on the family of Lucius Fox,
his company’s former CEO who is recovering from a stroke at this point in Bat-history. Then,
we cut to a scene of two men preparing a romantic dinner together in celebration
of what they call Batman Day, the anniversary of when Batman saved the life of one of them.
Speaking of Batman, by now it’s evening, so we get a few sketches of the Dark Knight doing his
thing. He prevents a carjacking, then saves the would-be carjacker from getting run over by a
bus. The mere possibility of his presence is enough to convince a member of a gang
of jewel thieves to walk out on the job. He watches approvingly from a rooftop as Robin
beats up a gang of white supremacists who were in the act of vandalizing a synagogue.
He rescues Detective Montoya and some other cops from a shootout with a well-placed smoke
bomb. He makes a quick stop by Arkham Asylum to continue an ongoing chess match with Two-Face.
We see an off-duty cop coming home after his shift and taking his wife out for a
midnight walk, unafraid because everyone in the neighborhood knows Batman is usually in the area
around this time, so crime is virtually non-existent, for a few hours anyway.
We see Batman interrogating an informant,
persuading him to talk by dangling him over the side of a bridge.
We see Batman checking in with Oracle, who updates him on the status of Robin, Batgirl,
Nightwing, and the Justice League — everyone’s all good, seems like a relatively quiet night.
Then, Batman asks about Oracle’s father. “How’s Jim?” — Jim being Jim Gordon, of course, who at
this point had retired from his job as police commissioner after being shot by a dirty cop.
Barbara is obviously moved by Batman’s question. “Dad’s good,” she says. “Thanks for asking.”
We get a series of even briefer, single-panel scenes of Batman making
a few final stops along his patrol route, then see the Batmobile returning home,
and Bruce Wayne on his way to bed. He says good night to Alfred to bring us full circle,
then climbs the stairs to get around three hours of sleep before starting all over again.
And we end with a splash page of the sun rising from behind the tombstone of Bruce’s parents,
a typically grim and macabre symbol transformed into a representation of hope and renewal.
Ever since it was first published, this story has been praised for the way it presents Bruce
Wayne. Instead of just throwing in a line referencing the Wayne Foundation or something,
we actually get to see how Bruce is using all of the resources at his disposal to help the people
of Gotham, in big ways and small ways. We see him working different angles with different people,
appealing to the greed or the ego of his fellow businessmen,
speaking to them as a peer, manipulating them to do more responsible, socially
conscious things. We see his generosity. We see him taking an interest in other people.
The story deserves every accolade it’s gotten for its depiction of Bruce as Bruce,
but let’s not forget what it shows us about how Bruce operates as Batman,
as well. Mickey, the ex-con applying for a job, credits Batman with turning his life
around — not by beating some sense into him, but by telling him, “I think you
can do better for yourself than this.” We see that even when he’s out on patrol by himself,
Batman checks up on his partners. He stops at Arkham Asylum to visit Two-Face — a dangerous
criminal who has tried to kill him many times, but who is also his old friend Harvey Dent.
He asks Barbara Gordon about her dad — not because her dad is the Police Commissioner — he’s not at
this point — because Batman genuinely wants to know how Jim Gordon is doing.
In other words, he cares about people. We see that Batman cares, and we see that it matters.
In addition to that, we see that Batman has principles that go beyond “no killing” and
“crime is bad” — it’s no random detail that the punks we see Robin smacking
around while a smiling Batman observes are Nazis interrupted while committing an act
of bigoted desecration — it’s a deliberate creative choice that Devin Grayson makes to
tell us something important about Batman and his team and which side they’re on.
We also see that Batman does more than solve puzzles, escape from death-traps,
and crash through skylights to pummel supervillains and their gangs of goons.
The scene of the couple preparing their Batman Day celebration reminds us that he also saves
people. He even saves criminals, as we see when he prevents the carjacker from being run over.
And, yes, we see that Batman’s activities also involve using violence — that carjacker
he saves from being hit by a bus is a dude he’d just knocked unconscious
with a batarang a moment before. He gets a crook to spill his guts by holding the guy
off the edge of a bridge and implicitly threatening to kill the guy when he’s
reluctant to talk at first. He’s frequently not a nice guy. He does things that push or
sometimes outright break moral boundaries. He’s scary, and brutal. He’s not Superman.
In short, “24/7” shows us Batman in a holistic fashion, letting us see the full person in a
way that we almost never get to, in any medium. There’s no plot to speak of. There’s just a series
of thumbnail sketches, held together by the thread of Bruce/Batman’s presence, or influence, or
impact, and through these sketches we get a sense of who he is, what he does, what he cares about,
and what a difference he makes to the city and to many of the individual people who live in it.
It’s one of the best stories published in the Batman comics during this period — or
any period, really. It’s one of my personal favorites. And it takes on added significance
when you factor in that it was also Devin Grayson’s final issue as the regular writer
of Gotham Knights. She was leaving the book she started — the first woman to be the main writer
of an ongoing monthly Batman comic — and this was her parting statement: a story about a Batman who
cares about his community and its people, who looks after his friends and surrogate family,
and who — with the exception of the three hours he sleeps — spends all day,
every day using all the tools at his disposal to make the world a better place.
I don’t know about you, but to me — that sounds like the best Batman ever.