Panel Vision - No Man's Land

As you probably know Puerto Rico recently suffered devastation at the hands of Hurricane Maria.  It’s a natural disaster of incalculable scale made infinitely worse by the federal government's point-blank refusal to help Puerto Rico in the manner that would befit our so-called leaders.  If you’re at all able to give please consider donating to organizations like United for Puerto Rico, Americares, Convoy of Hope, Direct Relief, Catholic Relief Services, International Medical Corps, or Unicef.  The people of Puerto Rico are in desperate need of help and it’s painfully clear that it’s going to have to come from us because those in power are too cruel or incompetent to take action. 

This idea of being abandoned by our own government has been a running theme in 2017, especially with the way the natural world seems to be coming apart at the seams.  More and more, the organizations we once trusted with our basic safety and day-to-day concerns have turned on us with, at worst, a predatory maliciousness and at best a blind idiocy.  

In that power vacuum citizens have had to rely on one another to fight the battles we can’t as individuals, be that in the form of mass demonstrations and call-in over healthcare or the civilian fleet that went to Houston after Hurricane Harvey.  This blend of federal abandonment with the greater need for joint community action seemed fairly familiar to me because it’s also the core of my favorite Batman comic of all time- No Man’s Land. 

Published in 1999, Batman: No Man’s Land was basically the last of the mega-sized Batman events that defined the Batman comics in the wake of the 1989 film.  There had been larger Batman stories before the ‘90s and there’d be big, Batman book crossovers afterward, but the ‘90s had the largest scale of any era.  This all started with Knightfall and steadily raised the stakes, first having Batman fight Ebola in Contagion, and eventually having him face an earthquake in Cataclysm. 

The idea was that in the wake of that earthquake Gotham city was so completely devastated beyond repair that the US government decided to declare it no longer part of the United States.  All entries onto the central island that is Gotham City were destroyed, the surrounding water mined, and a military parameter established around the city.  While the wealthy and able citizenry fled upon the announcement the city is still filled to the brim with the poor, disabled, mentally unwell, criminals, people seeking a new life, people who just couldn’t get it together to leave in time, people who refused to abandon the city, and all the inmates of Arkham Asylum. 

The event crossed over into all the ongoing Batman comics of the time and lasted for a full year in real time, all in all totaling 5 graphic novels of content- making it very difficult to review in total.  As such I’m going to focus on the broad strokes of the larger plot about Batman’s efforts to reclaim some sense of order in the city. 

The first volume is mainly about establishing the new status quo and Batman’s return to Gotham after trying to prevent the city’s exclusion as Bruce Wayne.  It’s a great intro that makes no bones about the cruelty of the city’s fate, especially with how the military refuses to let anyone even send supplies to the city.  It also establishes the new structure of Gotham, with the city segmented off between various street gangs, super villains, vigilantes, and the remnants of the GCPD. 

Gordon is the one leading the GCPD to try and reinstate order in the city and his arc in the No Man’s Land is one of the absolute best.  With Batman disappearing from the city Gordon’s story is heavily grounded in proving that he didn’t actually need the Batman, that he was a good cop who could keep order with or without a masked vigilante. 

Even when the Batman returns to Gotham Gordon refuses to make peace with him until it becomes absolutely necessary and even then only after an incredibly tense and well-written fight between the two.  The abandonment of the city, both by the US government and by Batman himself, pushes Gordon to the very limit and he comes out of the event easily the most wounded. 

As for the Batman, the No Man’s Land demands he change along with everyone else.  Part of that is physical- Gotham is now a ruined city that he can’t navigate the same way he used and one defined by tags and turf.  Moreover, it’s a city of moral grays- there are no more jails or even as clear good guys and bad guys, mainly it’s just a lot of people trying to survive. 

There’s also a need to co-exist with more evil in this world due to lack of resources.  Not even Batman can fight a whole city by himself which forces him into making deals with the Penguin while Commissioner Gordon’s dogged refusal to work with Batman forces him into aligning with Two-Face.  They’re both bad deals with a lot of risks but that’s because in the No Man’s Land justice is taking a backseat to simply surviving and ensuring that the community has the resources it needs to be alive tomorrow. 

If you’ve always been put off at Batman as a rich guy who beats up the poor this is definitely the comic for you as so much of his mission as mutated now to be about simply maintaining a community.  A lot of No Man’s Land is actively about tearing down the myths of Batman that way, confronting the core truths we’ve always accepted as brute fact about him.  

Like his relationship with Gordon, there’s no reason for Batman to constantly pull the disappearing act and keep Jim at arm’s reach, they’d work infinitely better if Bruce actually acknowledged they were on even footing and that he values Jim among his closest friends and allies. 

They even go out of their way to critique to the kind of overly militant, bloodthirsty authoritarianism Batman is often accused of through the character of Petit, former SWAT leader.  Petit acts as everything dark and twisted about the idea of Batman and the idea of police, the kind of guy who sees the No Man’s Land as an excuse to enforce the kind of violent, lethal policing he’s always felt Gotham deserves, to the point he eventually breaks from Gordon to form his own fiefdom in the ruble. 

Speaking of allies, that’s the central focus of volume 3, Bruce finally admitting that he can’t save Gotham all by himself, even though he wanted to.  This is one of those truths of Batman that comics like to remind us of every few years because so many hardcore Batman fans tend to miss it- specifically that Batman has always needed help, that he never did anything alone.  In the case of No Man’s Land, the lesson comes with a bonus as it featured the introduction of Cassandra Cain, the second Batgirl, and a pretty beloved Asian American women character. 

The story also did a lot to establish Oracle as a hero in her own right, especially as she worked to create an information network in the ruined wasteland of Gotham City without any help from Batman or her father.  That’s one of the great things about No Man’s Land, it was a story grounded in the idea of stripping away the extemporaneous to get to the truth of the characters and their world and that’s exactly what it did. 

the birth of the modern batman family

The story’s climax, which played out across the fourth and fifth volumes, raised the story’s sights from Batman and his allies to the entire situation of federal neglect and dismissal.  After his henchmen Bane made certain strategic strikes on the vulnerable city- Lex Luthor arrived on Gotham with a massive backing of LexCorp men and material.  I admit Luthor’s involvement in the finale is pretty out of left field but fits into the overall commentary nicely. 

His arrival acts as a publicity stunt to buy LexCorp a mountain of goodwill as well as highlighting the completely indecipherable legal status the city actually holds.  Basically, the army could only stop Lex from going to Gotham, once he landed in the city the only way the US could touch him would be to declare war on Gotham City, though they do freeze a lot of his stateside assets. 

Not that it actually matters because the real reason Luthor has come to Gotham City is to rebuild it and obtain for himself as much of the city as he can now that so much of the official records have been lost.  It’s a perfect indictment of the way big business seizes on areas abandoned by everyone but the struggling communities within to bleed them dry of whatever resources they have while being praised for this by a media overeager to brand corporate America a savior. 

This is also a big part of why Bruce doesn’t use Wayne Enterprise to rebuild the city, just lobby the government and preserve the records of ownership.  I admit that they probably could’ve had him use Wayne Enterprise resources a bit more but at the same time, it definitely would’ve clashed with this ultimate message- the point of the story supersedes the logic of the world in this case. 

I admit that just letting certain things go is a big part of liking Batman but this is a rare case where it’s more than just not questioning things that make the story more interesting, it’s about not questioning things that make the story more meaningful.  No Man’s Land is a story most concerned with the shape of the world as it actually is, revealing the truth of these people and their world in a way that only a natural disaster can.  

It’s a threatening world without a lot of comforts to it, a world where our government abandons us and actively blocks any attempt to help and the world of business sees us as just another chance to enrich themselves.  But there’s a hope there too, a chance to transform tragedy into strength- a strength we find in knowing ourselves, knowing each other, and knowing that, when all’s said and done, we aren’t that different.