Batman: Damned

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Batman: Damned
Cover art of Batman: Damned #1 (November 2018), art by Lee Bermejo.
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
FormatLimited series
GenreSuperhero, horror
Publication dateSeptember 2018 – June 2019
No. of issues3
Main character(s)Batman
John Constantine
Creative team
Written byBrian Azzarello
Artist(s)Lee Bermejo

Batman: Damned is an American comic book published by DC Comics. The three-issue limited series, written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Lee Bermejo, began on September 19, 2018 and concluded on June 26, 2019. The series experienced numerous delays throughout its run, with the third issue being rescheduled a total of five times. Damned was the first series published under the DC Black Label, an imprint allowing writers to present unique takes on DC characters for a mature audience, and Azzarello and Bermejo described it as a loose sequel to their 2008 graphic novel Joker.

A

Deadman, Zatanna, the Swamp Thing, and the Enchantress
. Damned sold well and received positive reviews. Critics praised Bermejo's art, though opinions regarding the story were mixed. The series also became subject to controversy due to a scene in the first issue featuring male
full frontal nudity
, the allowance of which led to editorial shakeups at DC.

Publication history

Development

Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, the writer and illustrator of Batman: Damned.

Batman: Damned was written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Lee Bermejo, who had previously collaborated to produce the villain-centric comics Lex Luthor: Man of Steel (2005) and Joker (2008).[1] It was the first title of publisher DC Comics' Black Label[2]—an imprint designed to allow writers to present unique takes on traditional DC Universe (DCU) characters for a mature audience—and was announced alongside the line in March 2018.[3][4] Bermejo and Jim Lee contributed cover art.[1] Bermejo said the project came about as a result of Joker: "Every time we do a project, that project leads us to the next project we're going to do together. Even if we don't know it right away".[2] Similarly, Azzarello described Damned as a quasi-sequel to Joker. He said one did not have to read Joker to understand Damned, but if they read both they would see connections. The series' narrative is a reverse of Joker's. In Joker, Batman was not physically present until the final pages but nonetheless plays a significant role; conversely, in Damned, the Joker only appears at the beginning but remains a narrative driving force.[5]

Talks of a Joker sequel began after the

R-rated DC film Watchmen (2009) underperformed at the box office, DC's corporate sibling Warner Bros. became opposed to producing superhero fiction for a mature audience, and development halted.[6][7] The project was revived as Azzarello and Bermejo were working on a crossover featuring Batman and the Justice League Dark. Azzarello struggled to write a story when Lee suggested to launch Black Label with it.[6] Damned was Azzarello's second Batman story that took over a decade to produce, following Batman: Europa (2016).[7]

Azzarello and Bermejo sought to restore a sense of vulnerability to Batman in Damned.[5][8][9] Bermejo noted that modern interpretations of the character depict him as someone who is always ready, which renders his human side absent.[5][9] They had grown tired of this and wanted to reverse what Bermejo called "'Robocop'-ification".[8] Azzarello described Damned's Batman as a fish out of water; while the story is about him, he has no control over it.[10] The duo wanted Batman to be in a new, unusual situation within the story.[5][2] He also thought that "if ... someone else has the upper hand on [Batman], it completely changes the dynamic of the story... he's suddenly a way more interesting character".[11] Azzarello realized during the initial discussions for Damned that John Constantine needed to be part of the story,[10] and chose him as narrator because he would leave Batman confused.[11] The series' depiction of Constantine is more in line with his original portrayal in the DC Vertigo series Hellblazer (1988—2020), in which he was depicted as a foul-mouthed conman, than his recent, family-friendly appearances in the DC Universe.[9][10] Azzarello, who wrote many issues of Hellblazer, believed the maturity was an essential part of the character.[10]

DC set up this imprint. 'Take our characters, do something mature'. When that opportunity was given to us, we decided, let's not half-ass this. Let's go all the way. We'll either go down in a blaze of glory or we hit the ball.

Damned allowed Azzarello and Bermejo to showcase their interpretations of DC's supernatural characters,

Suspiria (1977), rather than an effects-driven film.[2]

Each page took Bermejo around three or four days to complete. Because he colored it himself, it made production longer than the average comic.[10] Bermejo was inspired by photography, such as the book Uncle Charlie by Marc Asnin,[5] and said that while the art is in his traditional style, he thought it was more colorful than people would expect.[2] Azzarello waited to see the finished page so he could write the script,[5] as Bermejo's art sometimes inspired dialogue changes.[9] Damned was printed on wide paper with a matte texture cover, which Bermejo thought was ideal for his style.[11] The letterer, Jared K. Fletcher, "came up with really, really interesting font" featuring free-floating captions and changing sizes, which Azzarello said helped the series stand out.[10]

Publication

The physical editions of Damned were published as

prestige format comics, which are square-bound, larger than normal comics, and have higher-quality paper.[10][12] DC published the first issue of Damned on September 19, 2018,[1][12] with a cover date of November.[13] The following issues experienced numerous delays. The second issue was initially scheduled to be released on November 21, but was delayed to December 5 that September so Bermejo could redraw four pages.[14][15] In November, it was delayed again to December 12.[15] Meanwhile, the third issue was rescheduled a total of five times.[16] It was initially slated for release in January 2019, before being pushed to March 13.[14] In February, DC canceled all orders of the issue[17] before announcing it would release on May 22, but was later delayed to June 19, then again until June 26.[16] A hardcover collected edition was released on September 4, 2019.[18]

Synopsis

Setting and characters

A

foil, serving as the bridge between what Batman knows and what he does not.[10]

In addition to traditional

CBR.com wrote that the series takes "unfamiliar approaches to otherwise familiar characters".[19] Recent incarnations of Harley have depicted her as heroic, but Damned depicts her as villainous. Out of grief over the Joker's death, she adopts aspects of his appearance, including dying her hair green, adorning makeup resembling him and wearing his traditional purple suit. Meanwhile, in the world of Damned, Etrigan is a rapper named J. Blood who performs at a nightclub called the Cavern,[21]
and Deadman, the ghost of a man named Boston Brand, communicates by temporarily possessing individuals, leaving them terribly ill when he vacates their bodies. The Spectre, an agent of Heaven, is represented by a rambling homeless man in a green hood, who appears as a figure of judgment.

Plot

During a fight (immediately following the finale of Joker), Batman and the Joker fall off the Gotham Gate Bridge. The Joker seemingly dies, while Batman is knocked unconscious and awakens in an ambulance. Batman fights the emergency medical technicians and runs off, only to collapse in a street. Constantine rescues Batman and brings him to a hotel room. There, Batman learns of the situation from the news. He fears he may have murdered the Joker and Constantine offers to form an alliance. Batman returns to the bridge to investigate, where a homeless man claims to have seen the devil kill the Joker. The man disappears before Batman can question him.

Flashbacks reveal that when Bruce was a child, his mother, Martha, discovered that his father, Thomas, had had an affair with another woman. While Bruce played outside, Thomas and Martha got in a fight, resulting in Thomas driving away. Bruce fired a cap gun at Martha's face and she made Bruce promise to never point a gun at anyone. Batman's memories of these events become plagued by the Enchantress, who implies that he had a hand in the Joker's death and offers to make a deal to rid him of fear. In the present, Batman goes to the Batcave and hallucinates that his suit is attacking him. While Batman observes Gotham street activity, Deadman appears and warns him of dark forces that plan to oppose him.

Batman and Constantine meet at a church, where a statue of Jesus has been desecrated with a painting of the Joker's smile. Batman begins to doubt that the Joker really died, while Constantine encourages him to seek out Etrigan for information. Batman finds Etrigan at the Cavern and fights through the crowd to confront him. Etrigan, angry for being interrupted during a performance, orders the crowd to point firearms at Batman. Suddenly, an explosion destroys the building and the Bat-Signal, desecrated with the Joker's smile, lights up the sky. Etrigan saves Batman, but tells Constantine that he only did so in order for Batman to experience more suffering.

It is revealed that the bombing was orchestrated by Harley Quinn, who is unable to cope with the Joker's death. Batman confronts Harley, who beats him with a baseball bat, injects him with a drug that paralyzes him and attempts to rape him. Batman, however, manages to gain the upper hand and, possessed by the Enchantress, strangles her against the Bat-Signal. Later, Batman awakens trapped inside a coffin underground, but is rescued by the Swamp Thing. Constantine arrives and talks to the Swamp Thing before the Enchantress appears and Batman defeats her.

Constantine takes Batman to meet Zatanna at a club for magic-based patrons and she uses a spell to send them into a vision of the night when Bruce's parents were murdered by

Spectre
, reveals the truth of the incident on the bridge; Batman was fatally stabbed by the Joker and consciously allowed the Joker to fall to his death, fearing what would become of Gotham if he was not there to stop the Joker. Batman, realising he has been dead this whole time, exchanges places with the body in the morgue and dissipates. A living Joker then emerges from the river underneath the bridge, while Constantine implies that this is the start of a new chapter.

Reception

Batman: Damned received positive reviews from critics.[22] On Comic Book Roundup, a comic book review aggregator, the series holds an average rating of 7.5/10 based on 81 reviews.[23] The series sold well; the initial print run of the first issue sold out and the second issue received more preorders than the first, a rarity in the comics industry.[24] The third issue, despite delays and a lack of publicity, was also a bestseller.[25]

Nudity controversy

The first issue of Damned features a scene in which

CBR.com, while some readers accepted the scene for humanizing Batman, it left others uncomfortable.[22] The scene soon became subject to online ridicule,[27] and late night talk show hosts Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert made jokes about it.[29]

While the controversy caused the issue's initial print run to sell out, it was embarrassing for DC

TimeWarner had just merged with AT&T, and as a result, pursued a "family friendly and corporate" product at the time of Damned's release.[30] DiDio said the controversy "really took the attention away from what we thought was quality storytelling".[31] DC decided to remove the nudity from future printings,[28] causing prices of uncensored copies to skyrocket, and "rethink who they are as a company".[24] Editorial changes following the controversy, out of fear of a repeat,[32] led to development on other Black Label titles halting and the cancellation of the religious satire Second Coming. DC also made the second issue of Damned returnable,[24] and the controversy led to the series receiving minimal promotion.[30]

DC's rationale that the nudity was unnecessary for the story was met with criticism from journalists, who felt it conflicted with the mature nature of Black Label comics.[32] For instance, Eric Francisco of Inverse argued that many ignored the context of the scene,[8] while Alex Abad-Santos of Vox said the removal "[brought] to mind some of the egregiously risqué female costumes in mainstream comics that don't seem 'additive' to the story beyond providing titillating thrills".[27] Susana Polo of Polygon criticized the outrage as unjustified and overblown, finding the nudity barely visible.[33] Bermejo called the debacle the biggest non-controversy in comics history.[30] He claimed that DC mistreated him and Azzarello following the controversy, including unusual encounters with other DC employees and Bermejo constantly having to redraw artwork due to editorial interference.[30]

References

  1. ^ a b c Saavendra, John (June 20, 2018). "Batman Kills the Joker in Upcoming DC Story". Den of Geek. Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Narcisse, Evan (August 16, 2019). "The Team Behind Batman: Damned Say They're Going to Fuck With the Dark Knight's Head". io9. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
  3. Comics Beat
    . Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  4. CBR.com
    . Retrieved June 23, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Sondheimer, S.W. (August 6, 2018). "Azzarello and Bermejo of Black Label's Batman: Damned". BookRiot. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
  6. ^
    Den of Geek!
    . Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  7. ^ a b Dyce, Andrew (September 10, 2019). "Batman Damned: The Story DC Took TEN YEARS To Tell". Screen Rant. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  8. ^ a b c Francisco, Eric (September 20, 2018). "Everyone Is Missing the Point About Batman's Dick". Inverse. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
  9. ^
    ComingSoon.net
    . Retrieved June 1, 2019.
  10. ^
    SyFy Wire. Archived from the original
    on May 30, 2019. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
  11. ^ a b c d Francisco, Eric (September 18, 2018). "DC's Horror Comic 'Batman: Damned' Aims to Fix Batman's Biggest "Problem"". Inverse. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
  12. ^ a b Schedeen, Jesse (September 19, 2018). "Art is King in Batman: Damned (Batman: Damned - Book One Review)". IGN. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
  13. ^ a b Azzarello, Brian (w), Bermejo, Lee (p). "Book One" Batman: Damned, vol. 1, no. 1 (November 2018). Burbank, California: DC Comics.
  14. ^ a b Johnston, Rich (September 27, 2018). "Batpenis Strikes Again – DC Comics Won't Reprint Batman: Damned #1 – and #2 is Late". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
  15. ^ a b Johnston, Rich (November 21, 2018). "LATE: Doomsday Clock #8, Batman Damned #2, Shazam #2". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
  16. ^ a b Arrant, Chris (May 30, 2019). "Batman: Damned Finale Pushed Back On Schedule Again". Newsarama. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
  17. ^ Johnston, Rich (February 14, 2019). "DC Comics Cancels Orders for Batman Damned #3". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
  18. ^ "DC Comics May 2019 Solicitations". Newsarama. February 19, 2019. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  19. ^
    CBR.com
    . pp. 1–2. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  20. ^ Johnston, Rich (September 21, 2018). "Five Theories About Batman: Damned #1 – Enchantress, Suicide Squad, the Joker and Batpenis". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  21. CBR.com
    . Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  22. ^
    CBR.com
    . Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  23. ^ "Batman: Damned Comic Series Reviews". Comic Book Roundup. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  24. ^ a b c d e Johnston, Rich (March 10, 2019). "Batman: Damned Forced DC to Rethink Who They Were as a Publisher". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  25. ^ Johnston, Rich (June 30, 2019). "The Bleeding Cool Bestseller List, 30th June 2019, Batman Damned #3 – "Huh, Didn't Know That Was Out"". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  26. ^ Johnston, Rich; Lamberti, Rod (September 29, 2018). "Comic Store In Your Future – How We Sold Batman: Damned #1". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  27. ^ a b c Abad-Santos, Alex (September 20, 2018). "Batman's penis is in a comic book for the first time ever — but not for long". Vox. Retrieved June 4, 2019.
  28. ^ a b Parker, Ryan (September 20, 2018). "DC to Censor Full Frontal Nudity In Future 'Batman: Damned' Printings". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  29. ^ Martson, George (September 21, 2018). "Batman's Damned Nudity Has Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers Cracking Up". Newsarama. Retrieved September 23, 2018.
  30. ^ a b c d Bat Force Radio, Bermejo, Lee (June 2019). BatForceRadioEp195: Lee Bermejo talks Batman: Damned # 3! (SoundCloud).
  31. ^ Polo, Susana (October 8, 2018). "Batman's nudity controversy made DC Comics publishers reassess other Black Label books". Polygon. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  32. ^ a b Pulliam-Moore, Charles (October 9, 2018). "After Revealing Bruce Wayne's Penis in Batman: Damned, DC Is Rethinking Its Black Label Imprint". io9. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  33. ^ Polo, Susana (September 20, 2018). "Reports of Batman's penis have been greatly overhyped". Polygon. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
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