Batman: Year One Chapter 4- 'Friend In Need' Retrospective.

by Dave Scrimgeour & Kevin McCluskey

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Writer- Frank Miller
Illustrator- David Mazzucchelli
Colourist- Richmond Lewis
Lettering- Todd Klein

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Synopsis

As Jim Gordon ends his affair with Sarah Essen, whilst cracking down on Gotham's corrupt officials, Bruce Wayne also continues to wage his one man war on the city's criminal element. However the felons retaliate by threatening, not only to expose Gordon's affair, but also violence against his wife and newborn child, which ultimately places Gotham's future Commissioner and Dark Knight on a collision course, sparking the beginning of a beautiful, and longstanding, friendship.

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Dave
We're now on to Part 4;  the final chapter.  What are your initial thoughts on the cover?


Kev
I think it's a great cover.  Albeit somewhat misleading, as Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne don't really come face-to-face when Bruce is dressed up like a bat.  It's VERY noir-ish.  Which, of course, means I can't get enough of it.


Dave
It IS misleading, but I like it as well.  It creates this sense of a long overdue meeting of these two.  I always liked that 1980's Batman cape being large.  And it was deliberately made to be LARGE here.


Kev
Ha, ha!  Yeh!  Although, not quite as big as it would get in a year's time with Todd McFarlane in 'Year Two.'  Which was just ridiculous, but stunningly, beautifully so.


Dave
"He's out to clean up a city that likes being dirty.  He can't do it alone."  I like that.  It's very voice -over, trailer sounding.


Kev
Yeh, those little tag-lines have been really effective.  This one sounds like it could've been used for the Sylvester Stallone vehicle 'Cobra.'  And.....we’re back to Hoppers, for more Nighthawks action.  Although it looks to be a much more solemn “affair.”  See what I did there?

(Cheating) Shitehawks At The Diner.

​Dave
Yeah, you can see that Jim's crossing the line here, and it's not looking good.  That's a good panel of the two of them kissing in the office though.  Plus, the pressure of him being all over the media as this hero cop is conflicting with his infidelity.  I see it's quickly jumping the narrative between dates again.

At least put the photo of your wife face down on your desk, so it doesn't have to witness your affair, Jimbo.

​Kev
Yep.  With the photo of Barbara on his desk as well.  Ouch!  Jim is essentially Gotham’s version of Elliot Ness at this point, isn’t he?  Which ties into the Gotham comparisons to Chicago, I suppose.


Dave
That's a good point, actually.  I hadn't thought about that.  But he is not quite as much of a boy scout as Elliot Ness, especially in his personal affairs.


Kev
It would certainly seem not, no.  I like how Gordon says to Dent, “....and I don’t think you’re crazy- -”  Maybe not yet Jim.  Just give Big Harv time.  Just give him time.


Dave
Indeed, and Batman is taking a leaf out of Spidey's book, and climbing up buildings now.


Kev
Ha, ha!  I thought exactly the same thing.  He really is doing his best Peter Parker impersonation here with the wall crawling.  He actually looks like a bat clinging to the wall, in the top panel of page three though.  Excellent work by Mazzuccelli, once again.

"In the chill of night, at the scene of a crime, like a streak of light, he arrives just in time."

​Dave
And way before Tom Cruise was pulling this shit in the 'Mission Impossible' films too.  Just shows how Bruce can also operate without barely any equipment.  I like the contrast here, between the panel of Batman climbing up the wall, and the one of Jefferson Skeevers, and how those two panels are completely contrasting in colour.  We're back to the old cherry red.  Which has been a staple of 'Year One.'


Kev
Richmond Lewis's work on this has been outstanding as well.  I hadn't realised she completely re-coloured it for the collected edition either.


Dave
There's been a great blending of colours between panels.  It's all been very cleverly done.

"A million magic crystals, painted pure and white."

​Kev
Fantastic use of colour to tell elements of the story, eh?  This has got to be one of the first instances where we’re openly discussing cocaine use in a Batman comic, right?  Comic Code be damned and all that.


Dave
Yeah, I reckon this would have not been featured in a Batman comic up until this point.  So, again, Miller pushing the boundaries a bit.


Kev
Definitely.  As you've said before, this story is certainly not aimed at kids.  Would children be interested in Jim Gordon being a cheating scumbag?  There's no explosions, or baddies being punched in the face, so I reckon not.


Dave
And it's also Batman giving Skeevers the heavy handed treatment.  "I'm fine" says Skeevers.  That panel of his face is funny.


Kev
Yeh, it really is.  Clearly he is not fine.  Ha, ha!  Miller is really leaning into the fear, almost horror, elements of Batman here.  “You can never escape me.  Bullets don’t harm me.  Nothing harms me.  But I know pain.  I know pain.  Sometimes I share it.  With someone like you.”  That's pretty scary stuff.  Although, it’s a bit Batfink as well.  “Your bullets cannot harm me.” etc. etc.


Dave
Again, he's aiming for a grittiness in the storytelling, and not a cartoonish type story.


Kev
Definitely.  This is full-on noir, mixed with gritty 70's Hollywood thriller stuff.  This isn't Adam West or 'Super Friends,' that's for certain.


Dave
It's slowly building up again, this pressure cooker, as Flass has now been implicated, and the walls are about to come tumbling down.  This tangled web of corruption is unravelling very quickly.  I like that panel of Gordon at his desk, as he tells Merkel to get Dent and forget to tell the Commissioner.

"Aim for the flat top!"

​Kev
Yeh, Mazzuccelli's rendering of Gordon's office in those panels is superb.  Like a classic '70's cop movie.  Jim clearly HAS been working long hours.  Look how bloodshot his eyes are on that second last panel of page 6.


Dave
Yeah, and of course, the old trump card is played.  He's been caught out with Essen.  And how Jim never saw it coming in such a distrustful organisation, I'll never know.  What on earth is that painting on the back wall supposed to be?  It looks like a clown.  And why is there a roadworks sign on the front of Loeb's desk?


Kev
I did wonder that about the Stop sign myself, and I have no idea about the clown face painting either.  Maybe it's a bit of foreshadowing to the arrival of The Joker in Gotham.  Or maybe I'm reaching.


Dave
Then we jump to Gordon at Wayne manor, and it’s interesting how he talks about the treatment from Alfred.

"You want to know the truth? I don't think I've ever been in this room before."

​Kev
Yeh.  I quite like feisty, Alfred.  Which is something else that Gordon is quick to pick up on.


Dave
That's another good panel there, a longshot view of them entering the room to highlight how big the place is.


Kev
It certainly provides a sense of the scale and the majesty of Wayne Manor.


Dave
And it's giving Bruce a chance to work on his alter-ego.


Kev
Definitely.  Bruce is really playing up to his alter ego as an idiot, socialite playboy here.  Or as Barbara Gordon calls him, “.....a pig.”  Jim is not convinced by the act, of course.


Dave
Yeah, it makes sense, but he's trying to overcompensate and be a bigger douchebag than he needs to be.  And we also get a wee reference to Superman thrown in for good measure.


Kev
Yeh, that's a nice little reference to Superman there by Alfred.  I love stuff like that.  It just speaks to the wider DC universe without getting bogged down in the continuity of it all.  I also like that Flass questions whether Skeevers will be “alive enough” to testify.  Love the “enough” there.  It's doing a lot of the heavy lifting in that sentence.  Flass is more or less saying, 'I won’t kill him, but he might not be capable of speech.  Or much else.'


Dave
This issue is really jumping between dates now, and there is very much a sense of trying to cram in as much as we can as we near the conclusion.


Kev
Yeh, the pace is really ramping up.  The dates are flying by.  One single panel per day here.  And as much as I’ve been a little critical of Miller for certain aspects of his writing, his portrayal of women being prime among them, he is utterly fantastic at conveying so much story, often multiple threads of story, dare I say even “exposition,” in a single word balloon, in a single panel, and it doesn’t feel forced, or clunky, or rushed.  It’s tight, lean, and economical storytelling.  It’s superb.  Although, it's probably no surprise that I'm such a big fan of it, as I’m a bit of a sucker for that kind of writing.  Some of my favourite prose is like that too.


Dave
Barbara is looking extremely demoralised.  And Loeb is the next target for Selina's adventures.


Kev
Ha, ha!  Loeb’s house is full of the shite that a lot of the people who read this would have.  He’s a nerd.  Says the man-child who has two figures of Batman on the mantelpiece above his fireplace.


Dave
And Batman is the figure of blame for any crime now.  You can sense the rivalry in Selina, as she wants her acknowledgement for what she's doing.


Kev
Yeh, the storyline with Selina doesn't really go anywhere though.  In this story, at least.  It does set the stage for what is yet to come between the two of them, to be fair.  So I'll give it that.  I'm not sure Bruce is hiding his identity quite as well as he should be, if his company announcements of breakthroughs in the application of “lightweight, durable plastics” coincide with his use of them as Batman.  Excellent panel at the top of page 9, of Batman in the glider, by Mazzuccelli though.

"Get up us high as you can (Bruce), you might get a tan."

​Dave
Even the panel on the bottom of page 8 is great as well.  It's just all silhouettes, but yeah, that one on page 9 is excellent.  The colours blend together so well.

".....I was up there three hours. Three bloody hours! I did loop the loop over Dymchurch."

​Kev
Yeh, that silhouette is fantastic as well.  I suppose you could compare Bruce to Horatius, Frank, yes.  Gordon too.


Dave
Time for a bit of Catwoman action though.


Kev
True.  This is Selina's main contribution to this chapter.  Going back to what you said earlier about the pace picking up here, Miller REALLY gets lean with the storytelling here on pages 11 and 12.  There really is no “wasting (his) time.”  There’s no fat on it whatsoever.  It’s shredded.  Much like Bruce is, because of all those one handed press-ups.


Dave
He's just showing off now.  Next it will be the Bruce Lee press-ups on his fingertips.


Kev
Ha, ha!  That’s also quite amusing, with the article that Alfred is reading perfectly describing Bruce as he’s thinking out loud.


Dave
I like that scene.  Alfred is really relishing this isn't he?  All while Bruce is desperately trying to listen to the news broadcast.  “Shall I fetch your tights?"  "Never during the day Alfred.”  A reminder that Batman is a night time operator.  Unlike the old Adam West show, where he was always out during the daytime.


Kev
Alfred's getting sick of Bruce's shit, and Bruce has been back less than a year.


Dave
It's funny how, as we jump between Bruce and Selina, they are both listening to the same broadcast.  The news in Gotham is at an all time high level of importance.


Kev
The news is definitely an important storytelling device in Miller's Gotham.  Good to see that Jim is taking his turn with the night time feeds.  Not breastfeeding though.  Slacker!


Dave
Loeb's got some really funny, quirky tat in his office.  The Mickey Mouse phone, for example.


Kev
Ha, ha!  I know, right?  Remember, he is a collector of pop culture memorabilia though.


Dave
It's that quirky humour that has subtly weaved its way into this story.  So this is setting us up for the finale, as Gordon is quick to spot something is wrong, and that it’s a set-up.


Kev
Yeh, Miller writes Gordon as a smart cookie.  Even if he is a sleep-deprived new dad, running on only a couple of hours of sleep.


Dave
Good panel of Jim pointing his gun in the garage.  A bit of an action set piece here, and the stakes have never been higher for Jim at this stage.

"Well my name is, Jim, but most people call me, Jim."

​Kev
Richmond Lewis’s use of the muzzle flash as the light source, in the darkness of the underground car park shoot-out, is an excellent touch.

"Yeah, but I shoot with this hand."

​Dave
Lucky thing for Bruce that he was shot in the chest.  It's funny how Bruce has to grab a bicycle seeing as Jim took his motorbike.


Kev
Ha, ha!  Yeh, Jim is also smart, and experienced enough to know that if he lets his wife and child be abducted, they are as good as dead.  Bruce, however, is still green enough to let Jim get the drop on him here, but clever enough to wear some body armour, at least.  That person is well thinking, ‘Is that billionaire playboy, Bruce Wayne?!?!  Why did Bruce Wayne just steal my push bike?' though.


Dave
Such a basic shoot-out, but it still works so well.  It’s not overdone, it's just nice and simple.  And of course it culminates in the old car going over the bridge shootout, or explosion.  Or both.


Kev
I do like a basic shoot-out.  There was one at the end of the second season of ‘The White Lotus,’ and it was so gripping, and felt more realistic, because it was so simple.  Actually, come to think of it, it wasn't even a shoot-out, more just someone popping-off on a group of people.  Again, I think Miller has done a cracking job of conveying the fear Gordon experiences, having brought a new life into the shithole that is Gotham.  “I don’t hear my baby cry.”


Dave
It gets more tense here as Gordon struggles with his assailant.


Kev
Yeh, and anything involving an infant is going to up the ante, I suppose,  isn't it?  Also, smart move by Miller having Gordon lose his glasses in the struggle, so that he can’t see Bruce’s face, even when he’s stood in front of him, handing him his son back.  As someone who can’t see for shit without his specs, this is something I can totally buy.  Plus, it also puts Jim in Batman’s debt, to such an extent that, even if he did suspect Bruce Wayne of being Batman, he’d never even question him on it ever again.  Someone saving your infant child from certain death is the sort of thing you could never repay, so that goes a long way towards explaining the relationship the two of them end up having, the “friend” ship.


Dave
Yeah, it's definitely one way to get yourself in the good graces of Gotham's top cop.  I wonder if Bruce did the old voice disguise here, like Keaton or Bale.  I guess he would have had to.


Kev
The barking dog voice?  Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!  Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!  That's all I hear these days when I watch those films.


Dave
Even Flass was smart enough to record all conversations with Loeb on paper.  No trust amongst the corrupt types eh?


Kev
Ha, ha!  No, not at all.  Like you said, it's all starting to unravel.  The jig is up.  Gordon's exposed all this corruption to the light of justice.  And we end on December the 3rd.  This really is a full calendar year of a story.  A proper ‘Year One.’

"Up on a rooftop, all covered in snow, I shot my pal, 5 minutes ago. I shot him with pleasure, I shot him with pride..."

​Dave
I like how it ends with Gordon, above the city, on a rooftop covered with snow, with a bit of an update on him and Barbara. We also get a reference to the Joker, and of course his new "friend" at long last.


Kev
Yeh.  The ending of ‘Batman Begins’ was clearly inspired by this.​


Dave
Oh yeah, this has been a big influence on the Batman films over the years.


Kev
Yeh, definitely.  There was even supposed to be an Aronofsky adaptation of this, with a young Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne, oddly enough, before we got Nolan's 'Batman Begins,' allegedly.  At the risk of sounding like I’m directly contradicting myself and what I said about it earlier, I think that the pacing of this final chapter is maybe a tad too fast for me.  It feels like it jumps around a fair bit, and that it’s a bit rushed.  The ending also feels very abrupt.  In saying that, Miller gets away with it because he has enough faith in the reader that they are coming into this story with enough prior knowledge about Batman and his world to fill in any gaps that may have been caused by the narrative leaps.  Leaps of faith, indeed.


Dave
Yeah, I kind of felt this issue wasn't as strong as the other ones, as it was too erratic and all over the place at times.  It jumps about too much, and it rushed the final meet between Jim and Bruce.  It's not a bad issue but it struggled to gain momentum.  The artwork, as usual, was great.  That is one consistent throughout this series.  I also feel that Miller's writing was purposely keeping things open perhaps there were plans to expand this as a series, so this was really just the pilot story.


Kev
Do you think it could've been another chapter long?  Or did it need some additional pages in this chapter, at the very least?


Dave
Possibly, but I think that leaving a lot of it incomplete was intentional.


Kev
I think you're right.  It was definitely written with the understanding that the reader would have enough knowledge of what was to come, so as not to require having it spelled out to them.


Dave
Saying that though, it's certainly been a good series to review.  It was not only a Batman story, but equally a Jim Gordon story as well, and I liked how the limelight was balanced between these two characters throughout it.


Kev
That's one of my favourite aspects of this.  In fact, I'd go as far as to say it's MORE of a Jim Gordon story than it is a Bruce Wayne/Batman story.


Dave
Yeah, both of these characters have their flaws, and that was explored throughout each issue.  There was no sugar coating here, not by any stretch of the imagination.


Kev
Nope.  Not at all.  It's certainly a raw story.  It's also been, in a way, one of, if not THE, most difficult “review” for us to do, in my opinion.  I say that because it’s probably the most well covered comic we’ve ever discussed.  It’s been done ad nauseam.  And yet, here we are, adding even more to the garbage pile of rubbish reviews.  There’s probably nothing that we’ve said over the course of covering these four issues that hasn’t been said a million times before.  It’s near impossible to review this story, in isolation, on its own merit, certainly at this point in time, as its shadow looms so large.  But, flawed as it arguably may be, it’s still a stone cold classic, and its influence and legacy, for better and for worse, cannot be denied.


Dave
True, I think looking on this with adult eyes, rather than kids’ eyes, the themes and issues we’ve discussed are so far removed from what our adolescent minds would have looked at.


Kev
Absolutely.  I don't think I would've enjoyed this if I had read it for the first time when I was 12 or 13 years old.  Certainly not when I was 9 or 10.  Even something as simple as that there just isn't enough Batman in it, would not have been to my tastes back then.


Dave
Plus, the grittiness of it would have been in stark contrast to the bright visuals that we were used to looking at in the 80's.


Kev
Definitely.  This, along with 'Watchmen,' and 'The Dark Knight Returns' set the tone for superhero comics for the remainder of the '80s in so many ways.  It was a seismic shift in terms of tone, the ripples of which are still being felt to this very day.  There's something I'm reaching for here as a final thought or conclusion here, but frustratingly, I can't quite seem to get there.

(D) & (K)

​The end.