Batman: Damned was an incredibly ambitious story, and I think as writers we should try to be ambitious, however, the problems begin when our ambition doesn’t match the final result. I honestly think we can have an absolutely brilliant idea, but that doesn’t always mean the product (a comic, a novel, a poem) is going to do justice to that original idea. One of Azzarello’s main narrative resources was the use of John Constantine as an unreliable narrator, something we also see in novels or movies. And I’m fine with having an unreliable narrator, but if this narrator becomes too unreliable we enter a dangerous zone in which the story is no longer relevant within a certain narrative universe.
buried alive / enterrado vivo |
Swamp Thing |
According to Sam Stone, “In a way, the Joker's murder was only ever the inciting incident and not necessarily the central drive of the story itself. Azzarello has crafted Batman's own divine comedy as Bruce Wayne delves deeper and deeper into his own personal Inferno to confront his mortality head-on, with John Constantine as his guide through this nightmarish vision of Gotham”. A villain like Joker can never die, I think we all know that, and it’s clear that what Azzarello set out to do was having Batman travel to this personal hell, confronting his traumatic past and experiencing a unique kind of nightmare, and to accomplish this I don’t think Azzarello needed the Joker at all. Stone also affirms that “What has elevated the miniseries since its debut has been Lee Bermejo's hauntingly moody painted artwork”, I absolutely agree with him; furthermore, Bermejo had “plenty of room to breathe in this issue, with some jaw-droppingly beautiful visuals and spreads, with Bermejo delivering both sprawling action sequences and more intimate, emotional moments with equal aplomb here”.
In the first issue Batman reunites with Constantine and Deadman and starts investigating who was behind Joker’s death. That first issue, however, also became DC’s most controversial comic in the last decade, since it included the now infamous bat penis, which DC has decided to censor in all future editions of Batman: Damned. In the second issue, we have a very aggressive Harley Quinn that tries to ‘rape’ Batman. And a lot of readers seemed to be infuriated by Batman’s passive attitude throughout this miniseries.
Rich Johnston had pointed out that, from the very beginning, Azzarello paid homage to the Bat-trinity of Alan Moore (The Killing Joke), Grant Morrison (Arkham Asylum) and Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns), expecting to have Batman: Damned included in the Parnassus of those immortal classics. I’m afraid that Azzarello falls short of that honor, but that in no way means that this is a bad comic, it just can’t compete with the Bat-trinity. And even if it were a poorly written story, it wouldn’t matter at all, because “Bermejo's art remains the biggest driving force of Damned. His work is incredibly detailed [...] And it's more than just the detail fueling the art in this book. Bermejo brings a lush texture and haunting use of color to every page [...] It's a look that manages to balance gritty noir realism with surreal, supernatural weirdness. The oversized Black Label format only highlights Bermejo's incredible work that much more”, explains Jesse Schedeen and that’s 100% true.
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Cuando Batman: Damned fue anunciado, inmediatamente me interesé en el proyecto a causa de Lee Bermejo, aunque no necesariamente a causa de Brian Azzarello. Bermejo es un artista destacado y uno de los mejores en la industria del cómic, Azzarello es considerado en general como un muy buen escritor, y ha producido obras muy populares, como 100 Bullets, e incluso si no está en mi lista personal de los mejores 25 escritores de todos modos confío en él lo suficiente, ya que es un artesano muy correcto que sabe cómo contar una historia, especialmente en géneros muy específicos.
John Constantine |
Casper Rudolph explica que “Después de todo, la cuestión de qué es real y qué es ilusión ha sido parte de esta serie desde el principio, e incluso se aborda explícitamente en este número cuando Batman y Constantine van a ver a Zatanna: 'Ilusión. Realidad. ¿Cual es la diferencia? Tú lo eres. Tu percepción'”. Y sí, la percepción es importante, pero hay formas de preservar el difícil equilibrio entre ilusión y realidad, y formas de arruinar la verosimilitud de una historia. Y no estoy seguro de que Azzarello haya logrado preservar ese equilibrio.
Bruce Wayne |
En el primer número, Batman se reúne con Constantine y Deadman para comenzar a investigar quién está detrás de la muerte del Joker. Ese primer número, sin embargo, también se convirtió en el cómic más controversial de DC en la última década, ya que incluía el ahora infame bati-pene, que DC decidió censurar en todas las ediciones futuras de Batman: Damned. En el segundo número, tenemos a una Harley Quinn muy agresiva que intenta "violar" a Batman. Y muchos lectores parecían indignados por la actitud pasiva de Batman a lo largo de esta miniserie.
Crime Alley / Callejón del crimen |