Batman White Knight

I reckon Batman White Knight was miss-sold to the readership. On the surface, it’s a tragic character study, with the first issue seeing The Joker undergoing some ‘aggravated self medication’, and coming out the other side cured of his homicidal psychoses. While a traumatised Bruce Wayne seems to be sinking further into his vigilante mania, the reformed Joker takes it upon himself to address the social injustices of Gotham City as model citizen Jack Napier. So I was expecting some sort of Breaking Bad style crime thriller on the slow corruption of power or the inevitable downfall of Good Men. I’m glad to say that White Knight is all those things and so much more: it’s a love letter to the entire mythos of The Dark Knight.

The main creative force behind this 8-issue miniseries is Sean Murphy, who wrote and provided the pencil and ink artwork. As such, the storytelling is really at it’s strongest when it’s being driven by the visuals, and at it’s weakest when Murphy relies on peripheral figures (Harleen Quinzel and Batgirl in particular) to deliver expository dialogue explaining the character arcs of the protagonists. Fortunately, Murphy builds up a strong supporting cast, including such classic mainstays as Dick Grayson, Commissioner Gordon, Detectives Bullock and Montoya.

The comic also crams in a surprising amount of eye-popping action, along with a massive dollop of fan-service, and the plot beats throughout pack an emotional wallop to match the physical explosions. The end results could best be described as “what if the makers of the Fast and Furious franchise made a live action Batman The Animated Series movie”. If they cast The Rock as Batman and Jason Statham as The Joker; I’d watch it in a heartbeat.