Batman Tales: Once Upon A Crime (2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

Batman Tales: Once Upon a Crime takes 4 classic children's stories and adds a Dark Knight twist to them.

+ Damian Wayne is home sick with a fever. In his dreams, he imagines that

he's a little wooden boy who dreams to become a real life sidekick. 

+ Detectives Bullock and Montoya are tasked with finding who stole a very

expensive diamond called ‘The Green Pea’. So let's haul in every baddie

Gotham has into questioning from Harley Quinn to Two-Face in order for Bullock and Montoya to get to the bottom of things.

+ Faithful butler Alfred Pennyworth is cleaning Wayne Manor when he falls

through the looking glass into Wonderland. They ought to call it Arkhamland

as all of the characters Alfred meets are from Batman's Rogue's Gallery.

+Lastly, Batman is assisted on a wintery night by a mysterious woman clothed

in snow and frost in this adaptation of Han Christian Andersen's The Ice Queen. 

Derek Fridolfs and Dustin Nguyen reunited to bring young adult readers this digest volume of myth and fable. In 2009, the pair first joined forces in the

creation of the L'il Gotham Universe where Batman's friends and foes are just a bit smaller and a whole lot cuter. Fridolfs and Nguyen's first entry was a short story in Detective Comics Annual #27. This resulted in a digital miniseries spin-off, the aptly named L'il Gotham.

 

In the digital series, Batman and son Damian celebrated the holidays in a way only the Caped Crusader can- fighting bad guys! On Thanksgiving they fight bargain shoppers and thieving birds during a scheme planned by the Penguin. On New Year's Catwoman contemplates whether to spend the next 12 months

on the straight and narrow or keep on as a master cat burglar. 

Once Upon A Crime continues with that same fanciful style first ushered forth in the annual and digital spin-off. Fridolfs and Nguyen are real students of the Batman Family. The creative duo seem greatly influenced by Batman: The Animated Series with appearances by series characters such as Roxy Rocket, Condiment King, Nora Fries and the Phantasm.

The second story which is modeled after The Princess and the Pea was the best of the quartet. Great dialogue and very creatively plotted. The Pinnochio story was pretty good as it paints a picture of what life would be like if Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul wed. I felt that the Wonderland story was just too gosh darn silly. Lewis Carroll's classics starring Alice weren't known for being

very logical. But that yarn lacks that mathematical edge that reflected Caroll's passion for numbers. Though Nguyen’s illustration of the Jabberwock was breathtaking.

The final story was very different in tone. That story was completely in verse. It also lacked the humor of the other 3 tales. I'm not very familiar with Andersen's The Ice Queen. Isn't this what Disney's Frozen is based on? If so, then geez did Disney take a lot of creative license. While I didn't really know the original source material, I really liked this story for its tragic journey that ends in hope.

For my reading challenge, I'm supposed to read and review a Young Adult Graphic Novel. Amazon classifies this book as being for readers aged 8-12. According to several educational websites, a Young Adult reader is one from ages 12-17. While I am on the low end of the spectrum of the age range with this book, I'm still meeting the qualifications for this task.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Completing this review completes Task #35 (Young Adult GN) of the 2022 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge. 

Batman: L'il Gotham: Volume 2

 

When volume one of this series came out, I couldn't sing its praises loud enough. So you could imagine how thrilled I was to get my hands on the companion piece. Well, this concluding volume by Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs just couldn't hold a candle to the first.

   The genius of L'il Gotham is its devotion to the Batman mythos while focusing on the Caped Crusader's gallery of foes and the Batman Family during a particular holiday. But since a Flag Day story is probably pretty dull, Fridolfs had to get some ideas elsewhere.    
            
   That quandary has the series creators sending Batman to the island nation of Japan in an adventure with Aquaman. But by having them fight enemies of the King of Atlantis and no holiday theme available, this opening story didn't have that magic as other adventures have.

     Thankfully things do pick up in the next tale that involves Bruce Wayne going on vacation and getting kidnapped by pirates. But it isn't until Batman and son Damian go to Comicon that the fun and quality of the series returned to its original levels. At this point, we are back in the holiday season with fun times through Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Sadly, when we get to the New Year, the series ends with flashback tale.

   Like many great series, this one ended too soon. Li'l  Gotham  was one of those rare all ages affairs that appealed to both kids and adults. But for whatever reason, this book only lasted for 12 short issues. The often great writing and always fantastic art makes this a must for any fan of the batfamily. In fact, a line of action figures based on Nguyen's designs is a fan favorite amongst collectors. Plus, holiday comics are always a special treat. And there are quite a few in this series. 

   Worth Consuming. 
  
   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.