by Joe Schickman, Reporter

Award-winning artist Rafael Grampá is set to turn the Batman legacy completely on its head this September in his brand new Black Label mini series, Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham. I had the opportunity to speak with Grampá about Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham at 2023 San Diego Comic-Con, and he informed me that this is a much more adult take on the vigilante, which sees him shedding his humanity and untethering himself from the trappings of his billionaire playboy persona to take on the vilest aspects of humanity. We here at ComicsOnline are left with so many intriguing questions about how this will work, and what we can expect as we eagerly await the launch of this potentially game changing story! 

Warning, there will be spoilers ahead.

In this four-part story written and drawn by Grampá with colors by Matheus Lopes, Batman makes the (not completely) unprecedented decision to abandon his Bruce Wayne persona to focus exclusively on wearing the Mantle of the Bat, severing himself from social constraints in his crusade to rid Gotham City of crime. With variant covers boasting the talents of Jim Lee, Frank Miller, Paul Pope and Jose Villarubia, Priscilla Petraites and Frank Martin, and a particularly bloody cover by David Finch, this series will be available in both color and noir (black and white) versions. But be warned, this take on Batman is not for the timid or faint of heart.

Grampá is no stranger to influential takes on comics in general, or on the Batman in particular. Already carrying a prolific career in art and animation before breaking onto the American Comic Book scene, Brazilian born artist Rafael Grampá was being heralded as an up and coming comics superstar back in the 2000’s, and since then his career has continued to span across publishers, titles, and mediums. His debut graphic novel Mesmo Delivery turned heads winning the Eisner Award for best anthology in 2008 with its wonky style, larger than life characters, unimaginable story, and visual aesthetics to match. With his art and storytelling credentials firmly established, he began working on dozens of covers for a myriad of publishers and interior work for Vertigo, Marvel, and DC comics, where he was able to imprint his stamp on Batman in the Batman: Black and White series in 2013. After working on a number of projects off the page, Grampá returned to collaborate again with the unquestionably influential Frank Miller, lending his talents to 2020’s The Dark Knight returns: The Golden Child (where Grampá’s depiction of Carrie Kelley’s Batwoman is truly fantastic!). 

But this year’s Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham sees Grampá take a turn as writer as well as artist on a Batman story, fully helming the creative process and throwing in some exciting twists to the narrative, coupled with his inimitable visual design. With this new take on Batman’s crusade comes an all new challenge for the caped crusader as a mysterious serial killer stalks the streets of Gotham. Batman investigates the murders, which initially seem random and unconnected, as an all unfamiliar and deeply disturbing new rogues gallery emerges to challenge Batman with the most depraved and extreme evils the city’s seedy underbelly can produce. Through his investigation, Batman discovers that there is more here than meets the eye and that these murders are not only connected to each other, but somehow to himself as well. To tackle this new terror, Batman must face his own demons in order to defeat those facing the city, all without the safe haven afforded by the luxurious lifestyle of Bruce Wayne. In addition to promising a riveting tale, this story begs the fan favorite question, can Batman exist without Bruce Wayne, and vice versa? What happens to one without the other? What precedence is there for either to operate successfully alone?

The beauty and enduring nature of characters like Batman is that these are complex narratives containing labyrinthine, overlapping, and sometimes contradictory components. Over the years, writers and artists have pulled in key parts of the Gothic, Detective, and Vigilante genres to create a darkly dynamic and multifaceted figure. Those characteristics are brought out in assorted ways by the individual writer’s take, and lend themselves to infinitely varying understandings of the Batman for readers to enjoy, dissect, and interpret. This allows Batman to act as a more interesting canvas for exploration into themes of the darkness within humanity (Gothic), a search for answers and retribution (detective fiction), and who decides what constitutes justice (Vigilante Fiction). A core canonization grows over time as the zeitgeist finds focus on a shared understanding, but they take time to form, and sometimes stray far from their beginnings.

During Batman’s early days inspired by pulp characters like The Shadow, Dick Tracy, and The Phantom, Batman was at times nearly unrecognizable by today’s standards. Ideas like Batman does not kill and Batman hates guns are two core components of the character’s current construction, however, neither of these were true at its inception. Those quickly coalesced along with the Crime Alley origin story and other basic elements which stand to this day. Throughout it all though, it was classically Bruce Wayne who would transform into Batman when he was needed, slipping beneath stately Wayne Manor into the dark depths of the bat filled bowels of the estate, where he made the Batcave a home for his alter ego. It was taken for granted for decades that Bruce Wayne’s trauma found an emotional outlet through the adoption of his Batman persona, donning the cape and cowl to mask Bruce Wayne’s exploits and pain.

One of the great philosophical questions of the past few decades for Batman lovers is which is the true mask, Batman or Bruce Wayne? After witnessing the death of his parents at the age of eight, Bruce Wayne vowed “by the spirits of my parents [I will] avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life warring on all criminals.”  Yet, after years spent in training, both mentally and physically, Bruce Wayne realized that these skills were not enough by themselves to take on the criminal underworld which robbed him of his parents. He needed to adopt a guise to fight criminals with the tools of their own evil trade. He posited that “Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible…” just as a bat shattered through the glass of his mansion window, answering his unspoken question of what persona to adopt.This conscious transformation portrays a man with a mission, embracing the Batman as a needed tool, a means to an end, and not a fundamental shift in identity. At least, not yet.

In the following Batman eras we saw the titular character shift time and again. The Silver Age saw Batman move away from the darker themes of his Golden Age origins and give rise to Batman’s cheesiness, as represented both in the comics of the time, and in the Adam West starring Batman ’66 television series. In that series, Bruce Wayne and Batman held nearly identical ethoses, neither veering too far to either off their respective extremes, and Batman often bearing a wide smile similar to Guy Williams in Disney’s Zorro. Batman seldom threatened carnal violence, and Bruce Wayne’s playboy antics were basically wholesome tributes to Americana (of course with some exception). 

However, during the late 1960’s and 1970’s a resurgence of gothic tropes began seeping into more of the Batman storylines. In the Bronze Age tales grew darker, questions of self doubt plagued Bruce Wayne, and the more macabre villains that reigned in the Golden Age returned, the Joker chief among them who was mostly absent during the Silver Age, or relegated to a walking punchline turned punching bag. Writers and artists like Denny O‘Neil and Neal Adams brought a much needed gravitas back to the character as a grim, brooding hero, who was constantly at war with himself as much as with his rogues. This paved the way for the Batman that was to come.

By the 1980’s, writers had much more freedom to explore the darkest thematic elements of both Bruce Wayne and Batman, delving into the moral implications of condoning the existence of an extralegal hero. Were Batman’s methods justified by the outcomes? Was hunting down criminals in a (sometimes) one man war on crime the best way for Bruce to honor his parents legacy and effect change? Was he truly a hero or a necessary evil plaguing the criminal underworld as they did Gotham City? Where was the line between right and wrong and what did Batman truly stand for? This era even gave the opportunity to revamp Batman’s origins to match this further journey toward a forbidding character with the like of 1987’s Batman Year One. Which brings us to Frank Miller, an immeasurably impactful influence on Batman’s evolution, as well as an important inspiration turned mentor turned collaborator for Rafael Grampá. But before Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One, came his epic four part miniseries, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. 

Frank Miller’s hardboiled take on the vigilante in 1986’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns tells the compelling tale of a Gotham where Batman has retired leaving the city to decay as Bruce Wayne tries to live life without his alter ego, drinking and wallowing in self doubt and pity. Early in book one, Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon toast to Batman, and Gordon remarks on his gratitude that Batman “Survived Retiring.” Wayne responds that “He didn’t. But Bruce Wayne is … alive and well.” What Wayne doesn’t share with his long time friend is that inside “…the creature writhes and snarls…” and soon after, Wayne defines himself as “… a zombie. A dutchman. A dead man.” 

Wayne later reflects on Harvey Dent’s surgical transformation to destroy the Two-Face personality, and states “We must believe in Harvey Dent. We must believe that our private demons can be defeated…” all the while still wrestling with his own. Indeed the Batman demon was stronger than Bruce Wayne’s determination to remain retired, as he is continuously compelled to visit the batcave in the late night hours, even going so far as to shave off his mustache, seemingly without realizing it. This inability to defeat one’s internal demon is only further exemplified when a fully physically healed Harvey Dent can only see himself as a monster, now with two equally scarred halves, presuming that it was the attempt to rid himself of his other which allowed it to engulf him. This is the precipice upon which we find Bruce Wayne in the beginning of the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. But instead of exercising his darker half, as Harvey Dent attempted to do, Bruce Wayne lets the snarling creature free.

The story Miller continues to unfold clearly argues that Bruce Wayne cannot survive without the Dark Knight, and that the innate power of the Batman could ultimately be contained. The ramifications of attempting to negate that part of himself ends up destroying Wayne, and as the story progresses and Wayne further embraces his long repressed secret identity, Wayne is displaced, and there is little further use for him, except as a reminder of all that he is not. In the end, Bruce Wayne chooses to sacrifice his civilian identity to allow the Batman’s mission to continue unimpeded. Though technically not canon in the main DC universe, the events of the Batman: Dark Knight Returns clearly shaped many readers’ understanding of the character moving forward, including Rafael Grampá’s, and displays just how integral Batman is to Bruce Wayne’s identity. However, can the same be true of the Batman? Does he need Bruce Wayne to survive? Or does he only need his limitless resources?

In contrast to Miller’s representation, Bruce Wayne frequently had an active (albeit sometimes artificial) social life, and continuously championed charitable causes which he took great pride in and felt honored the memory of his parents as much as Batman ever did. He had genuine friendships as Bruce Wayne and important figures in his life as the son of Thomas and Martha Wayne, such as Dr. Leslie Thompson, Lucious Fox, Alfred Pennyworth, and many others. Bruce would often discuss the Batman’s actions with Alfred in the third person, recognizing the distinction between himself and the mask, and wrestled with the morality and ethics of choices he’s made as both Batman and Bruce Wayne. There were even several occasions where Bruce Wayne nearly abandoned his crusade, finding enough happiness in the life of billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne to bandage the open wounds left by his time in Crime Alley.

The tension between Bruce Wayne and Batman is given an additional interesting dimension in Mark Waid’s story Justice League: Divided We Fall, where each member of the Justice League has their identity fractured into their component parts. All are changed except for Aquaman and Wonder Woman, the only two members who are not living two lives simultaneously, including splitting Batman from Bruce Wayne. The characteristics of each half untempered by the other further prove the needed balance that is gifted from the combined whole. Bruce Wayne is filled with unfocused rage without a useful outlet, and Batman’s ruthless nature grows to barbaric extremes. This is paralleled in Darwyn Cook’s Batman Ego: A Psychotic Slide into the Heart of Darkness wherein the psychological constructs of both Batman and Bruce Wayne debate the validity and necessity of each other, and each’s limitations and dangers without the other. In the end it is decided that Bruce Wayne can accept the weight of Batman’s mission and actions, so long as Batman promises to stand as a symbol of hope as well as fear, and restrain himself. This shows the duality of Bruce Wayne and Batman, but clearly represents them as parts of a greater whole.

On the other hand, this is juxtaposed by characters like Rorschach in Alan Moore’s Watchmen, who truly lets his human identity die to adopt that of the violent vigilante, seeing the mask as his true face. It can be argued, and is often promoted by narratives throughout the past thirty years, that Batman falls into this category. In the pilot episode of the Batman Beyond TV series, much like in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, we see a retired Bruce Wayne lost without his alter ego’s mission to guide him, reduced to a reclusive shut in. Later, in the season one episode “Shriek“, Bruce Wayne is hearing his own voice speaking to him, at one point goading him to commit suicide. However, he tells his protege, Terry McGinnis, that he knew he was being tortured by outside forces and not losing his mind because the voices speaking to him, though in his own voice, kept calling him Bruce, and in his mind that’s not what he calls himself, again implying that Batman is the true persona. 

Further, as heroes are often defined by their villains, Joker’s take on Batman’s identity is deeply informative. Though it would provide a major advantage in their endless struggle, Joker has been shown multiple times not to care about Batman’s alter ego, seeing Batman as the true person. In the 1989 story Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean, at one point the Joker and his henchmen have Batman restrained. One of Joker’s men goes to remove Batman’s mask saying “I say we take off his mask. I want to see his real face” to which Joker admonishes him with “Oh, don’t be so predictable, for Christ’s sake! That is his real face.” Although the Joker’s take on reality is highly suspect, this lends credence to the concept that Batman is the true figure of importance. 

This all begs the question, did Bruce Wayne die at age 8 to give birth to Batman, or did an adult Bruce Wayne decide to create Batman as a tool for his crusade, and how did those two personas change and exchange over time? Did Batman only need the Wayne’s fortune to operate, and without that need, would he have shed the unnecessary playboy pretense long ago, or does Bruce Wayne keep Batman grounded as a tool to carry out a young boy’s mission to right the wrongs inflicted on him, while providing a controlled outlet for the rage within him? 

With the revelation that in Grampá’s Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham Bruce Wayne must seemingly die for Batman to carry out his mission, the enigma behind the Batman/Bruce Wayne dichotomy is pushed to the forefront.  We’ve seen insights into what might happen to Bruce Wayne without Batman, and though it doesn’t necessarily end disastrously, it cannot be put forth that it ends happily for Thomas and Martha Wayne’s only son. So what will happen when Batman attempts to operate without Bruce Wayne’s influence? Check out Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham #1 – in stores this week!

…

Please take a moment to FOLLOW & SUBSCRIBE to our updated ComicsOnline social channels.
We appreciate your support!

INSTAGRAM – COMICSONLINE
BSKY – COMICSONLINE
YOUTUBE – COMICSONLINE
FACEBOOK – COMICSONLINE
TWITTER / X – COMICSONLINE

Stay tuned to ComicsOnline for more exclusive interviews, comic book reviews, giveaways, and everything geek pop culture!