In Batman: Gotham by Gaslight – The Kryptonian Age #1, readers return to the 19th-century world of Gotham by Gaslight.
Batman: Gotham by Gaslight – The Kryptonian Age #1 main cover by Leandro Fernandez
Title: Batman: Gotham by Gaslight – The Kryptonian Age #1
Writer: Andy Diggle
Artist: Leandro Fernandez
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Cover: Leandro Fernandez and Dave Stewart
Variant Cover Artists: Francesco Mattina, Kendrick “Kunkka” Lim, Jock
Release Date: June 11, 2024
This comic book review contains spoiler.
The Story
The year is 1860. The place is the Kansa Tribal Territory, a Native American territory a year before Kansas was officiated into the Union. A kindly couple: Jonathan and Martha Kent, arrive in a horse and buggy from the smoke-and-soot-filled city. Right as their horse Pegasus is nearing his last leg, a meteor comes hurling out of the sky and lands in a fiery pit just a few meters away, destroying their carriage and killing the horse. Martha notices that the crater contains a pyramidal vessel emitting a green radiance. A little ways off, a group of Natives sees the emerald glow fill the sky.
The year is 1893. The place is Gotham City. Selina Kyle heads to an evening Gala, but not before making a pit stop in a Narrows alleyway. She comes across a homeless woman with a child and presents her with several silver dollars and a calling card inscribed: “Felix Home for Destitute Women.” Deeper into the alley, Selina encounters a group of scarlet women surrounding a small fire. One of the women wears a black-eye given to her by a dirty Gotham cop. Selena vows to take revenge and asks if any of them have seen their ‘nocturnal visitor.’ They haven’t, and the injured woman speculates that he might be dead. Selina has her doubts.
At the Gotham Museum Gala entitled: The Kryptonian Age, Kyle arrives and asks to be introduced as “Lady” Selina Kyle. She is immediately confronted by a snooty aristocrat and her weak-willed husband for providing charity to women of “ill repute.” Kyle feigns grief and requests that the host show her to his private office. Once alone, Kyle opens a window and lets in her buggy driver: Holly (presumably a 19th century cockney version of Holly Robinson) to take her place at the Gala while Kyle changes into her own feline jumpsuit. While Gotham socialite and Bruce Wayne fiancée Julie Madison speaks about industrial progress at the turn of the century, Selina sneaks into the Kryptonian Age exhibit and purloins a luminescent emerald ring.
Selina takes the ring to a couple of buyers at the Gotham docks who look suspiciously like dollar-store versions of Mad Hatter and the Penguin. They’re soon murdered though, along with the rest of their crew when a gang of bow & arrow-wielding assassins appear in pursuit of the ring. The leader discovers the ring is actually a forgery when the “Bat-Man” suddenly appears and engages in a fight with the gang. The fight escalates to the top of an elevated passenger train. When it finally comes down to mano-a-mano, the group leader reveals herself to be the one and only: Talia al Ghul.
The Kryptonian Age crash-lands! (Credit: DC Comics)
It has been 35 years since the original Gotham by Gaslight hit comic shelves, and while there have been a few brief revivals as well as a 2018 animated movie, it remains one of the most discussed but least iterated Elseworld stories. That’s something writer Andy Diggle, artist Leandro Fernandez, and colorist Dave Stewart seek to change with their newest take on the classic setup featuring hints not only at a wider array of Batman characters, but also the DC universe at large. The first issue of the Kryptonian Age strikes a nice balance between the original ‘89 and ‘91 stories, which largely showed restraint in utilizing Batman universe characters outside of Wayne and Gordon, and the animated adaptation which took a decidedly more fan-service based approach by filling its cast with familiar faces in Victorian era dress-up.
Here, Andy Diggle gives readers the best of both worlds by slowly reintroducing us to a fully realized Victorian era Gotham while also showing us fan-favorite characters such as Catwoman and the League of Shadows. As the title indicates, they even hint at a future Superman appearance. Diggle imbues this issue with a perspicacious gravitas by opening with an abbreviated excerpt of Walt Whitman’s poem “Year of Meteors (1859-60)” and giving the characters intelligent period-accurate dialogue (get your dictionary ready for this issue).
Selina Kyle takes center stage in part one, and Diggle has her character adopt a socially progressive attitude when it comes to what are termed here as “destitute women,” even to the point of being scorned by the high-society types later on. This Robin Hood-demeanor is obviously in-line with her character and provides some nice historical insight into the social mores of the time. Perhaps our attitudes today don’t vary that much from those of 130 years ago. Maybe we’re just better at hiding it. The story is perfectly paced, with a patient and moody reintroduction to the world in the first 25 pages leading to a sudden burst of action when the Batman of Gaslight finally appears.
Leandro Fernandez’s art and Dave Stewart’s colors are truly stunning. From the expanses of the western frontier in future Kansas, to the grime of the forever corrupted Gotham City streets, the pair creates a fully-realized world that not only builds upon what has come before, but exceeds it with flying colors. The theme of class disparity is hammered home by the dripping ugly alleyways contrasted with the pristine starkness of the museum Gala. In a bout of paradoxical ingenuity, Fernandez positions the panels of the ‘destitute’ from below so that we are looking up at them into a skyline polluted with ugly metallic structures and smokestacks. Conversely, at the Gala we are looking down at the prim and proper suits and dresses that mask an inner ugliness in the Gotham upper class.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with an advanced copy of this comic for review purposes. You can find this comic and help support TBU in the process by purchasing this issue digitally on Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
