Let’s not forget what came right after Hush…
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DC in 2025 will be re-releasing the famed Batman: Hush storyline as a series of Facsimile Editions — and publishing a Hush 2 sequel by the same creative team, led by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee. But don’t forget the excellent story arc that came right after, Broken City. — Dan
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By PETER STONE
For decades, drawing a Batman comic was the bellwether of the comics industry. If you wanted to find out if you were one of the best artists, you desperately tried to get on a Batman book to compare yourself to all the others who had come before you. I believe it is still that way. Look at some of the artists drawing Batman these days: Jorge Jimenez, Clay Mann, Jorge Fornes, among them. Every comics great has tried their hand at the Darknight Detective.
Which brings us to a little artistic gem from 2003-04 called Batman: Broken City, written by Brian Azzarello and drawn by the unique and wonderful Eduardo Risso, with evocative, negative-space covers by Dave Johnson. Risso is an Argentinian artist who had a huge career before he ever set foot on American soil. With a knowledge of anatomy and storytelling, Risso takes Azzarello’s story and adds a brand new look to the Caped Crusader.
Cover by Dave Johnson
His Batman drifts more toward Frank Miller than Neal Adams, but there are moments when Risso shows the Dark Knight in his more athletic form. His storytelling is always clear and concise and, as a reader, you’re never confused as to what is going on. There might be some David Mazzucchelli in there too, because there are very few forced perspective images.Risso just moves the camera around to create interesting compositions. He seems to love the close-up of main characters, showing their emotions or pain. Does it seem just a bit cartoony? Perhaps, but that just adds to the entire style he has created.
Batman #620. Colors by Trish Mulvihill.
Risso is a master of black ink. He creates silhouettes in a way no one else does. . foreground figure will be all black except for a necklace. A background figure’s face may be black except for his eyes and gritted teeth, but his upraised arms are clear as a spring morning. Black shapes fill the backgrounds, and sometimes even foregrounds are loaded with industrial shapes. Although, this may seem simplistic compared with the inking of Neal Adams or Kevin Nowlan, nothing could be further from the truth. Everything Risso does is carefully planned out and executed with intent. It never seems random. This is one of the parts of his style that makes him so unique.
The writer, Brian Azzarello, co-created with Risso the hard-boiled 100 Bullets, a fascinating book that ran a perfect 100 issues. With Broken City, Azzarello gives us an Elseworlds kind of story. Killer Croc is not the giant lizard/dinosaur creature that Jim Lee drew that later influenced so many others. No, this Killer Croc is a man with a horrible skin disease — as he was originally devised in the 1980s. He wears suits and has his teeth fixed… before Batman knocks some of them out.
Scarface and his “controller” Arnold have somehow switched personalities, making Scarface much nicer and Arnold a homicidal maniac. There are new characters like Fat Man and Little Boy, a nod to the infamous nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Gotham City is not exactly the same… it’s a little darker.
Broken City is a noir kind of detective story featuring Batman as Sam Spade. He’s not out to save Gotham or capture the Joker at Coney Island. He just wants to find the killer of a young woman. Of course, there is a femme fatale who cannot be trusted, and there are a ton of suspects; Batman must whittle the list down until he discovers the real killer. It’s a dramatic story with a superhero as the lead. A nice change from the high-tech, super-armored Batman who seems to be able to do anything — including defeat the entire Justice League.
If you’re looking for a Batman story that harkens back to an earlier time when the Masked Manhunter was a detective more than he was a superhero, this might be the story for you. There’s plenty of action, but also plenty of mystery and, well, detecting. There’s even a tough cop (the great Detective Crispus Allen) who fills in the Commissioner Gordon role, except he doesn’t like Batman very much.
Broken City originally ran in Batman #620-625 — published directly after Jeph Loeb and Lee’s Hush — but is collected and widely available. If you enjoy Risso’s art (which I certainly hope you do), there are 13 collections of the entire 100 Bullets series. Or if you like his Batman, check out Paul Dini’s Dark Night: A True Batman Story, or “Flashpoint: Batman, Knight of Vengeance.
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MORE
— BURIED TREASURE: Alan Davis’ The ClanDestine. Click here.
— BURIED TREASURE: Jan Strnad and Gil Kane’s SWORD OF THE ATOM. Click here.
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Peter Stone is a writer and son-in-law of the late Neal Adams. Be sure to check out the family’s twice-weekly online Facebook auctions, as well as the NealAdamsStore.com.
