Batman: Kings of Fear one of the year's best

Well, that's awfully nice.

Kelley Jones just gets better with age, honing his abstract style to do more storytelling alongside visuals that put Bats and his rogues gallery into perspectives no other creator has thought to try. The covers alone are worth picking this one up, and the insides are even better. Some of the panel layouts and way Kelley works off Peterson's cool concept--what if Scarecrow drugged Bats enough to get him talking--were so good I just stared at them for several minutes. And that's not to underplay Scott's work here as a writer--he really digs into the psychological concepts of Batman, even if I disagree with some of the answers we find in the series. I don't read a lot of DC material right now, but I'm glad I got to this one, it's highly recommended and requires no prior context beyond a general knowledge of the characters.

I admit, I thought it was pretty swell, too.

Batman: König der Angst!

Today I Learned: that the German edition of Batman: Kings of Fear is titled Batman - König der Angst and I couldn't possibly love that more. And to discover it on Halloween yet!

It's available from Panini as well as the German and Austrian Amazons, with the translation courtesy Josef Rother.

Man. The only thing that makes the Batman even more the Batman is when he's German. (I think that's the answer to one the Riddler's riddles. But probably not really.)

Batman: Kings of Fear — a Coming of Age story?

Yet another list of overrated books came out a while back and to the surprise of absolutely no one who's ever paid attention to any of these things, J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye was on it because of course it was. Catcher in the Rye is the Comics Sans of literature these days: it's the easiest of targets. Think it's overrated? Think it should be replaced by something written by someone who's not a dead white male? I won't necessarily object to the former and will almost certainly cheer the latter.

But even if those things are true, I find most of the criticisms of Catcher (and Comics Sans, for that matter) to be easy, obvious and trite. Now, admittedly, I'm not sure I've read the novel in its entirety this century. But when people complain about poor spoiled rich Holden Caufield, it gives me pause. Because while I bow to few in my kneejerk dislike of those born with a silver spoon in mouth, when I think of Catcher in the Rye, I think of its protagonist who, over and over, literally from the very first page, is begging for help...and no one will listen to him or take him seriously. And it's not like it's hidden: Holden calls himself a madman in the first paragraph of the first chapter. And then again and again throughout the novel, he's trying to tell people he's losing it:

I’m crazy. I swear to God I am.
I swear to God I’m crazy. I admit it.
I’m crazy. I swear to God I am.
I swear to God I’m a madman.

Those second and third examples? They're on the same page.

And no one takes him seriously. Child of privilege or not, you have to feel for the kid.

It reminds me of what John Lennon later said about the title song for their second film:

When “Help!” came out, I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it’s just a fast rock ‘n’ roll song. I didn’t realize it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie. But later, I knew I really was crying out for help.

I mean, how much more obvious could it be? And yet no one listened. 

Which brings me to this review of Batman: Kings of Fear, and why I'm so pleased by it:

Batman: Kings of Fear is a series of 6 mini-issues focusing on The Dark Knight’s innermost fears and motivations… An almost Catcher in the Rye mission split with several references to A Christmas Carol: The Scarecrow takes Batman on a tour through what has happened and what might have been.  

[I]t’s a simple premise, but things get complicated when Batman has to reflect upon his life as a crime fighter. The dialogue hums nicely as does the flow from issue to issue. (I always worry about that when reading these types of mini-comics.)  

A seriously fun ride that may be a bit deeper view of Scarecrow and Batman than I’ve ever seen. One I’ll be recommending to many.

I mean. Salinger and Dickens? I'll take it.

Batman: Kings of Fear video review

Well, now, isn't this a nice way to kick off the weekend? (A: it is if you're me or Kelley Jones.)

Probably goes without saying, but just in case: lots of spoilers in there. (Including one for Spider-Man: Far from Home.) 

Batman: Kings of Fear review

Look, since I wrote Batman: Kings of Fear, I'm not going to say this guy's right about all this...I'm just going to say he makes a highly persuasive case, which has the added benefit of not being wrong at all. 

***

[A] consequence of having so many Batman books flooding the market is that potential readers are not aware of which of those comics are worth investing their time and money. An excess of merchandise by the same brand can lead to some good stories being lost in the mix and that approach is counterproductive.  

Let’s take this 2018-2019 miniseries, Kings of Fear, written by Scott Peterson and drawn by Kelley Jones: it flew under the radar while it was published and it has not gained any major hindsight from critics in the last couple of months, which is a shame given that this book provides us with some very fascinating insight on Batman as a character and delivers a conclusion that is actually quite refreshing for those of us that perhaps are not very thrilled with the direction the character over the last few years. 

What sets Scott Peterson apart from the rest of the current Batman writers (with a notorious exception being Peter J. Tomasi and his exceptional Detective Comics run) is the fact that he acknowledges these criticisms of Bruce’s war on crime, but he also offers us the chance of viewing the other side of the coin, as if this were a debate of sorts. This results in great scenes like Batman helping a little girl and her showing that his motivation is to prevent kids from going through what he went through, that his villains don’t keep coming back because he creates them or prompts them but rather that they are just insane and a scene with a professional in Arkham that tells him that his husband actually did time in jail and never committed another crime again because he was still terrified of the Batman, becoming a family man and a honest worker.  

You also get Gordon’s take on the matter, which seemed like a callback to Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One, in my view, and, most importantly, Alfred’s take, which to me defines the whole argument: that Batman might not be the most pleasant solution, but is one that has given a lot of possibilities and help to Gotham as a whole, often hidden beneath Bruce’s obsession to do more and never-ending quest to push himself even further.  

This is what I find the most appealing about Kings of Fear: it tackles a topic that has been discussed for years among comic book fans and it delivers an answer that is actually counter-cultural in these modern times, showing Batman as a force that has provided good to the city that he has sworn to protect. All through the Scarecrow’s classic psychedelic lens 

In a market that is filled with Batman titles, Kings of Fear is short and yet entertaining book that also offers a major insight into the Dark Knight’s motivation and place as a hero.  

mad editing and lettering skillz

So I had a problem.

That I'd have a problem isn't news to anyone who's ever met me. But this one was pretty unique.

As others have picked up on, I like the comics I write to be as sparse as possible, when it comes to dialogue. I don't care for sound effects, generally speaking, and I hate thought balloons. (Yeah, I still like first-person captions, in some contexts, at least. What can I say? Comics from the mid-to-late 80s were very formative.)

Batman: Kings of Fear was a bit different. Since it was set as Doctor Jonathan Crane's dissection of the Batman's psyche, it was always intended to be more dialogue-intensive than most of my works, but still with large stretches of silent or nearly silent panels or pages and even entire scenes. And when I'd get the pencils from Kelley Jones the great and terrible, I'd pretty much always say, yup, that's exactly what I was looking for! And then be amazed when he'd suggest I add some dialogue. I mean...why clutter up his phenomenal art with [what I saw as] unnecessary copy?

Still, I'm all about the cooperation, so I generally did as he requested, no matter how wrong he was, because, as Immanuel Kant once asked and answered, "what is going to achieve one's goals? Working together as a cooperative unit."

And then we got to the final issue. Here's what I wrote for the opening:

Page One

Panel One

Batman, out of control, has the Scarecrow by the front of his costume and is screaming into his face, out of control. Or maybe he’s got at least one hand around his throat? This is a scary, violent image.

            BATMAN: yaaargh [dialogue to be tweaked, presumably, after being pencilled]

Page Two

Panel One

The Batman is very clearly just about to kill the Scarecrow....when…

Panel Two

…he glances over or up or whatever works logistically and sees the guard all trussed up over in the corner, nearly forgotten.

Panel Three

And the danger passes. Because the sight of the victim (or at least a witness) makes the Batman remember who and what he is. (A damn hero is what, Kelley, you cynical, jaded son of a gun.) So a similar pose but now all the tension is gone.

Panel Four

Sad tired Batman is sad and tired. He drops the Scarecrow, who falls on the ground in a heap.

            BATMAN: Why?

Here's what Kelley drew:

 

Perfection! Print it! (Well, I suppose inking and coloring it first might be advisable. Especially considering how good the inker and colorist were for this issue—namely Kelley Jones and Michelle Madsen, respectively.)

And then Kelley said those dreaded words: "I think he should be saying something in the first panel of the second page." I grimaced. I scowled. I looked at the pages again. And for once I didn't entirely disagree.

It really did look like it could use a tiny bit of dialogue, that the Scarecrow should be saying—perhaps babbling—something. But what?

I thought for a moment, and then I wrote:

            SCARECROW: i'm sorry okay oh my god i'm so sorry please don't hurt me please don't hurt me please don't i know i probably deserve it and you’re probably really mad and i don’t blame you but please don't you're really freaking me out i'm so sorry

And I thought...yeah, I kinda like that. 

The problem was, that wouldn't look good in a word balloon. First of all, there's simply too much copy. And I could cut it way down, obviously, but I thought having the Scarecrow word vomit all over the dark knight was the most effective way to go, and trimming that overly copious copy down too much would kneecap its efficacy.

So. What to do, what to do? Well, one of the nice things about working in this business is that after a while you tend to develop a group of peers to whom you can turn for advice, whether it's in the initial spitballing or looking at an entire storyarc to make sure it works on a structural level or who'll be willing to go over an individual line of dialogue with you and pick it apart and put it back together over and over and over again until it shines like the top of the Chrysler building.

In this case, I turned to the utterly indefatigable Devin Grayson. I explained the problem to her, sent her the page and the dialogue. She looked at it for about half a second and then suggested:

what if there's no actual dialog, but the background is a faded scroll of Scarecrow blather. Like the whole background, in a very faint font, is just all "no please don't okay you win just don't hurt me"? Almost like Scarecrow's blathering on but Batman doesn't even really hear him, it's all just in the background, wallpaper...

And I thought, oh hell yes.

But that brought up the next problem. Which was that lettering that was likely to be pretty tricky, which meant it might not work out at all the way I wanted, and could really annoy the letterer, something no writer ever wants to do (and all writers do anyway).

Fortunately, in this case, I had (my apologies to all the other very fine letterers working today) the best letterer in the biz on the job: the great and hirsute Rob Leigh.

I ever so politely asked if he could take the babble and fill the second and third panels with it...and this is what I got:

I am a very lucky man.

(Writing this just now, I discovered a note to myself during an earlier draft, where it's all silent, except for the Scarecrow whispering, very softly, in one of the first two panels, "you're scaring me." I like the final version much better...but I must say, that amused me.)