Batman: Off-World #1 – Jason Aaron, Writer; Doug Mahnke, Penciller; Jaime Mendoza, Inker; David Baron, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: The arrival of Jason Aaron at DC is huge news for the company—after all, he’s probably the biggest Marvel name of the last ten years. Any time a writer of this level flips over, there’s a huge question of how they’ll make their debut—and Aaron has chosen to do Batman vs. aliens. This in-continuity miniseries set early in Batman’s career chronicles Batman’s first foray into space as a non-powered vigilante on a cosmic playing field. With Doug Mahnke on board to deliver some seriously monstrous aliens, they kick things off mid-story, with Batman arriving on an alien spaceship—and immediately encountering some ruthless alien pirates, finding out just how little all his prep time means in a battlefield like this.
Batman quickly finds himself captured after a battle against some low-level mooks and some powerful robots, and becomes just another cog in the machine of a pirate slaver who runs the entire operation. A massive crew of prisoners/workers, all of which are from different planets and were either captured or offered as tributes, make up the cast, but a Tamaranian fugitive with a dark secret may be the breakout character. Of course, this being Batman, there has to be a surprise—and that’s that Batman didn’t find himself here by accident or become a victim of circumstances. Rather, it’s all part of his plan—one might even say his prep time—and he’s exactly where he wants to be.
The thing that makes this comic work so well right out of the gate is that while it’s putting Batman in a very unusual situation for him, this is very much a Batman story. There’s a flashback that shows why he made the decision to go into space that is painfully in character. After all, there are two things Batman won’t tolerate—crimes like slavery, and outside agents coming into Gotham to cause trouble. You combine those two, and you get a Batman who is determined enough to put his neck literally on the line. This makes an interesting parallel to Superman’s Warworld Saga, which had a more mythic take on the concept. But that’s not Batman. Batman is here to get his hands dirty—and this first issue makes me very confident that Aaron’s time at DC will be spectacular.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
