Welcome everyone to World of Bats, the Batman Book Club!
For this week we’ve weathered the red skies of the Crisis and continue @Aquamon’s venture through the lesser-known out of continuity/Elseworlds stories in The Dark Prince Charming #1-2, written and drawn by acclaimed European creator Enrico Marini.
What secret connection do both Batman and The Joker share with a strange and mysterious young girl? After she’s kidnapped by The Joker, Batman must plunge deep into the underworld of Gotham City and race against time to find out where she’s being held. The stakes are high, and for Batman, it’s personal!
Discussion Questions:
Have you read this story before or any other works by Enrico Marini?
What did you think of the art of this story, specifically the redesigns of some of the characters we see?
What did you think of the character of Alina, the little girl that Batman vows to save?
And of course, any other general thoughts, favorite panels, and everything in between can be talked about down below.
This round of Book Club will last from 2019-11-23T06:00:00Z → 2019-11-30T06:00:00Z, however like all previous iterations of the club, the topic will remain open for anyone new or behind or had been kidnapped and trapped in the sewers for an extended period of time can always come back.
Very good. His action sequences were excellent, you could really see how the movement went. I liked the redesigns, they all worked, nothing outrageous or anything. I especially liked that last page with the whole Johnny Depp as Joker vibe kickin’.
She was awesome! I liked her take down of the Joker, that was a cute touch. I would love to see a sequel and find out what becomes of her.
Like many others, this was my introduction to Enrico Marini, and right from the start I knew I was going to like this graphic novel. The art is phenomenal, and I really like the liberties he took with Batman’s cast of characters in their designs.
Now this might just be me, but did anyone else get a different feeling reading this story in comparison to the ones written by DC’s usual talent? Not sure if this makes sense, but I feel like there was something very European about how the characters spoke to each other and how the plot moved. Or rather, it didn’t feel like your average graphic novel for mature audiences, and I suspect that a huge part of that comes from Marini’s work in European comics.
As for Alina, I really liked her. I think there’s a lot more that can be done with this world if Marini decides to make a sequel, and if that happens I will be sure to pick it up first chance I get.
@ralphsix, glad you liked the story. I agree the action scenes were well captured. I really liked his character design as well. I felt his batman was a mix of Affleck and Bale’s. I really liked his version of Harley. The little girl was great, I am thinking she might have been the Jokers kid though.
I’m glad you mentioned Affleck as a comparison for this, because the final sequence for this reminded me a LOT of the Martha rescue scene in BVS in terms of certain beats and just the overall brutal physicality.
@Batman0803, I know what you mean with this having a different feel to it. It almost played out like a movie to me or a really good 2 part eps. I loved the art and will probably post a few of my favorite panels later.
I definitely noticed it too – I haven’t read a lot of European comics, but those I have read it definitely feels like a blend of the two styles. It also felt European in terms of how the female characters were portrayed – I doubt many American creators could get away with as many upskirt and lingerie shots that we get in this story!
I also felt it in terms of the dialogue – which I wouldn’t call bad at all, but seeing as how Marini isn’t a native born English speaker, some of the English dialogue felt stilted and weird, especially in some of the humor (the “stop twerking” line comes to mind).
But like everyone else is saying, if there was a continuation, I would buy it in a heartbeat!
Remember that Bruce does know who the father is, we just don’t see it.
I think the answer to that is complicated. It’s possible that Joker might have bore the seed, but at the end of the day, Bruce is going to be the one who takes care of her, who is likely going to encourage her desire to be some sort of crime fighter, either as a Robin or later on as a police officer (Bruce mentions to Gordon that she’s after his job).
To borrow from the other side’s movies, The Joker may be Alina’s father, but he ain’t her daddy.
Huh I cant seem to post a pick for my favorite panels, but pretty much all the splash pages of Gotham. I loved the art in this which of course if why I picked it but man did the story turn out great in my opinion. This has probably been my favorite random one I picked so far. I mean I really liked this story. It was simple and well executed. No need for some over the top epic plot just a well told story with great character representation with a slight flare and great art to support it. This was exactly the kind of story I was hoping to come across this month were the story held up with the art.
Agreed. I may have to go find it and post it myself, but my favorite is the one where Batman is hanging off an antenna so high up that there’s clouds obscuring the Gotham below, it’s a shot we rarely see with Batman, but it fits so well.
yes that was one of the ones I was going to post. I also cracked up when in the beginning Gordon is smoking a vap and Bats is like “You look ridiculous”
