Interesting comic book, with a few flaws.

books:


	• Batman: Cataclysm (Prelude to No Man's Land) Chuck Dixon DC Comics, 1999 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

bring down Gotham

What we have here is a major earthquake that pretty much destroys Gotham. You get to see what Batman and company would do in the face of a major natural disaster. On a scale that we've never seen (after all, they do close it off). It's a great story with really good art. It helps keep Batman from becoming stale.

C A T A C L Y S M !

Gotham City. The Dark Knight. The innocent populace. The venal and the corrupt villains. And a 7.6 earthquake.

This is the story of Batman's darkest hour as he and his fellow vigilantes desperately rush out to salvage what's left of their beloved city after a devastating earthquake, which killed thousands and left many more wishing they had died with the rest.

Gotham barely survived the terror of the 'Contagion' plague...

The `Legacy' Virus further drove it to extinction...

Now, it is a shambles due to the 'Cataclysm'...

The Batman's city is dead.

It is beyond help...

Enter now 'No Man's Land'...

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Well put together

Batman can handle criminals. But how can he fight a Earthquake? How can he fight the natural destruction of a city?

A lot of crossovers nowadays are pathetically poorly coordinated. But Batman: Cataclysm is very well coordinated and flows pretty well. If you don't read the writing credits you wouldn't be able to tell how many different writers were involved. The main story following Batman, Oracle, Nightwing and Robin are intersepersed with vignettes starring Two-Face, Ra's al Ghul and others. One of the few week points is a vignette starring Robin is put in out of order. In it Robin, while rescuing trapped victims, says in the narrative that he hasn't found his family, but about five pages before he was reunited with his family. But most of the story flows well, and it's believable. Batman and Alfred are trapped in the Batcave well below ground. How do they get out? The Batmobile exit is blocked, the stairs up to the mansion is blocked, the access to Robin's house is blocked. So how do they get out? It's handled very clearly and as realistically as any comic book can get.

The real strong point of this story though is the artwork. Almost every comics artist can draw a decent figure but there are a sad number of artists who don't or can't draw backgrounds. But the Batman creative crew is occupied by artists who can draw buildings and scenery. As Gotham city is an essential part of the Batman mythos this probably isn't a coincidence. As such the scenes of the destroyed city are amazing and horrific. The falling skyscrapers, Wayne Manor split down the middle, rubble two stories high are all handled well, and you really feel how intense it is for these people to lose their city, their home.

I was really impressed with this work. The story continues in the No Man's Land story arc, and after reading this I definately want to go read those.

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prelude to No Man's Land

I was collecting comics at the time this story arc came through, and enjoyed it throughly. It shows you just how hard the caped crusader had to work to try his hardest to save his city. I reccomend the whole No Man's Land collection for anyone who hasn't read it yet.

Interesting comic book, with a few flaws.

The greatest entity about Batman: Cataclysm is that it had excellent artistry; most of the pictures/scenes made sense, and are clear. For the most part, this book contains well-thought writing, which makes it better to understand . Although, there are a couple cons in this book that I must share with you. There are about four grammar errors, and some of them may keep you mind-boggled for the rest of day/night thinking about what they were trying to express. Once you get to meet Ra Al' Ghul, he can make the story confusing because of his wording. Overall, this book will get very exciting with its art, and knowing if you're a Batman fan, you'll love this book.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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