I thought I’d review something to tie-in with Charles
Dickens Centenary. I didn’t want to go the obvious route of a straight
adaptation, so I found ‘Batman Noel’. This is basically a retelling of ‘A Christmas
carol’ but with characters from the Batman universe. The most interesting idea,
and the one that really grabbed me is the Batman is Scrooge. It came as a shock
reading it, because Batman’s nearly always pictured as the hero. The author cleverly
plays with the readers expectations all the way through, and there are some
unexpected moments. I tried to guess who the different ghosts and characters
would be in Gotham, I didn’t always get it right. I like books that surprise me
and this one did. The characters draw you in and there is an uneasiness throughout the book that Batman may have finally turned too dark.
The artwork is beautiful, breathtaking at times, a painted style that tells a lot
of the story for you. Yes, I know graphic novels should do that anyway, but
some artworks just do it better.
There’s a bit of bad language in the book, but I suspect some teenagers would love it. Reading groups who don’t do graphic novels would enjoy comparing it with the original ‘Christmas Carol’
A must read.
No comments:
Post a Comment