Panel Vision - Batman: Book of the Dead

Today marks the premiere of what’s sure to go down as one of the most notorious flops of 2016: Gods of Egypt.  There are a lot of reasons Gods of Egypt is more or less destined to fail, not the least of which is the horrendous white washing that informs so much of the films representation of the ancient Egyptians.  However, the mysticism of Ancient Egypt has always had a hard time working its way into the popular consciousness.  The most any of us know about the faith of Egypt tends to come from the cavalcade of Mummy movies produced by Universal and Hammer films, hence why Anubis is the most well known Egyptian deity. 

Egyptian myth is funny that way, the deities are all instantly recognizable and unique but beyond visual recognition their particular brand of aesthetics just doesn’t capture the imagination.  My theory is that it’s because the mythic Egyptian oeuvre has already been colonized by a far more dominant informing genre than fantasy adventure: science fiction and as evidence I submit Batman: Book of the Dead, in which Batman proves the gods of Egypt came from space.

First thing of note about Batman: Book of the Dead is that it was published under DC comics’ Elseworlds imprint.  Elseworlds was a practice that sprung up mainly in the ‘90s and is, for my money, one of the most thrilling and interesting forms of storytelling in the DC canon.  Actually, describing Elseworlds as being in the DC canon is pretty misleading in its own right as the whole point of Elseworlds stories is that they are specifically out of canon. 

See, comic writers have always enjoyed telling superhero stories that couldn’t, wouldn’t, or shouldn’t happen with established character history, identity, or persistence.  Previously, these stories were slotted into the Multiverse as a way to excuse them from continuity or existed under the banner of ‘Imaginary Stories,’ but by the ‘90s that was all abandoned.  So, DC launched the Elseworlds emblem to promote stories like say Red Son, about a Soviet Superman, or Gotham By Gaslight, about a Victorian Batman. 

Batman tended to attract the bulk of these Elseworlds stories, as evidence by this being the third Batman Elseworlds I’m showcasing.  However, Batman: Book of the Dead is also noteworthy for letting me talk about Doug Moench, whose work I showcased once before in Haunted Gotham.  Moench is one of the strangest major talents in the realm of DC and Marvel and his insane history is a big part of what elevates Book of the Dead from just another misfired Elseworlds (of which there are tragically many) to bizarre glimpse into his mad psyche. 

Published in 1999, and boy does it show, Batman: Book of the Dead is an Elseworlds in one of the strangest ways I’ve ever seen.  Where most books work off the idea that everything about a universe is being reworked, Book of the Dead keeps almost the entire universe the same with sole exceptions being changes to Batman’s family history and the history of Ancient Egypt.  In this version, Ancient Egypt was developed by a race of aliens in power armor that Egyptians took for Gods.  What’s kind of funny is that Ancient Egypt in the main DC universe was ALSO visited and developed by aliens, only in the main universe it was Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s people the Thanagarians.  Plus, that’s not even getting into the various aliens that visited Marvel’s ancient Egypt.

If that seems like a preponderance of aliens sweeping in to build the pyramids there is kind of an explanation for it.  See, in the 1970s when Jack Kirby returned to Marvel comics he brought with him a newfound obsession with the, then new, Ancient Astronaut theory.  The theory that “aliens built the pyramids” is way more common now but back in then it was new and didn’t even come close to the mainstream till it’s appearance on The X-Files in the ‘90s.  So at the time of a lot of these comics having aliens build Egypt was the cool, hip, under ground approach to the mystery of the pyramids. 

Aside from the swap on which aliens built which famous landmarks Book of the Dead also plays around with Batman’s origin, having his parents now be Egyptologists that were murdered by a secret elite council of the global historians and archeologists.  The idea is that the Waynes were getting dangerously close to uncovering the secret that aliens built the pyramids and had to be silenced less their discovery discredit the careers of Big Archeology.  It’s one of the stupidest and most contrived re-workings of a character death ever put to paper.  It’s right up there with Batman: Fortunate Son where Bruce’s parents were killed after warning him against rock ‘n’ roll thus making Batman hate rock music forever. 

All of this weird re-working and rewriting of history is actually pretty unimportant to the overall plot of the comic or the universe we’ve been dropped in.  Despite having aliens build the pyramids and Bruce’s parents killed by villainous academics Batman and his rogues gallery all still exist exactly as you know them from the main universe.  This is where we get into the weirdness of Doug Moench as an author and the bizarre obsessions that tend to translate across his work.  

Moench had always wanted to write Batman but didn’t get the chance to until the ‘90s.  Before that, Moench had been writing for Marvel but that didn’t stop him from trying to write Batman.  To accomplish this he developed a new character called Moon Knight, a gritty urban avenger of the night complete with mooncopter and moonarangs and with an aesthetic informed predominately by…Ancient Egypt. Specifically, Moon Knight was the chosen avatar of an ancient Egyptian moon god. 

Eventually Moon Knight evolved into more than just Egyptian Batman and Moench moved over to DC where he penned Knightfall, in which Batman’s back was broken by Bane.  However, not content with writing both Batman and off-brand knock-off Batman, Book of the Dead is Moench fusing his two favorite Batmen together.  In the story, Bruce’s Batman costume is the spitting image of an Ancient Egyptian Bat-God who Moench shoehorns into the Egyptian myth of the death of Osiris. 

Now to be clear, all of this weirdness and bizarre combinations don’t make Book of the Dead all that interesting as an actual read.  Despite being a talented writer in the past Moench pretty much just checked out on this particular project.  There’s little to no action in the comic, no central villain, and most of the plot is just Bruce/Batman and an archeologist named Dr. Ramsey talking about how aliens totally built the pyramids.  It’s a lot like the endless Ancient Aliens shows on the History Channel, tons of half-truths and quasi-evidence being thrown around at the reader.

Also, just in case you thought maybe all the evidence and examples given in the comic to prove aliens built the pyramids were made up or there as flavor, the book features a reading list in the back cover for the sources of the various facts it’s presenting you with.  The big problem is that here, all those false equivalences and leaps of logic are just exposition without a plot to hang it on.  There are some really cool looking flash backs to the Gods of Egypt as they prepare to leave Earth but they really don’t make up for the rest of the comic.  Also, the main plot is about trying to avert the Mayan apocalypse of 2012 which is pretty hilarious in retrospect. 

Batman: Book of the Dead is a unique curiosity at best but still one worth checking into if this measure of weirdness appeals to you.  Stuff like Big Archeology killing Bruce’s parents is pretty fun and this particular vision of Egyptian deities as aliens in power armor is pretty cool.  Still go into it with measured expectations as a lot of the “evidence” being thrown around can get pretty tedious and all the flashbacks in the world can’t make the extended exposition worth sitting through. Still better than Gods of Egypt though.

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