Batman: City of Madness #1: Vengeance Is A Dish Best Served In Madness

Batman: City of Madness #1 is one part spiritual sequel to Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth sequel, one part a “Call of Cthulhu”/Stranger Things homage. Writer and artist Christian Ward seems to look to bring Batman and Gotham into the realm of cosmic horror, highlighting the exploration into the ideas of trauma and vengeance. Diving into this highly stylized version of Gotham city, Ward introduces a fun new look into a familiar, yet wholly unique world.

Right off the bat, Ward sets up a lot of new things for this three-issue mini series. First of all, there is a strong emphasis on Alfred’s feelings about Bruce’s status as Batman. Alfred has been dead in the ongoing continuity for almost four years now, making it feel welcome to see him have a strong role here, especially as one of the narrators. Ward uses this time to highlight the relationship between Batman and Two-Face, which is where the connections to Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth begin. This relationship is seemingly very hingent on the context from that series, yet Ward does a great job establishing context here to make sure this still can be standalone. This is exemplary of Ward’s ability to pay homage while making sure that it is exclusively for fan service and not a requirement before starting this series.

Ward also uses the opening pages to introduce a new character, one who (only one issue in) has one of the strongest storylines. Tying into the issue’s themes of vengeance, this boy’s story revolves around an incident in which his father was racially profiled and killed by a police officer in Gotham. Throughout the issue, the boy travels to Gotham in order to kill that officer, when things go awry and he is assaulted by some of Gotham’s more criminally unusual citizens. This storyline not only ties into the themes of the series, but it also is a very poignant discussion that is current in today’s political and societal landscape. 

Getting into the nitty-gritty, a large portion of this issue deals with the set-up and revelation of the secret Gotham underneath Gotham. While not directly given a name, it is revealed that the Court of Owls had been guarding the entrance to this world, practically serving as protectors by making sure it stayed shut. Yet again, this is another spectacular example of Ward going out of his way to use established continuity and build upon it in a new and meaningful way. Fans of the Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo run of Batman will definitely know about the Court of Owls, and will definitely appreciate their inclusion here. Using this familiar group to set up this cosmically horrifying concept is a stroke of genius, especially when the Court is placed into somewhat of a heroic role. Their connection to Batman throughout this series looks to be an intriguing new direction.

While not a lot about this underground Gotham is revealed, the introduction to the Batman Below is nothing short of horrifying. This character has to be one of the best designs of the year, rivaling the immensely popular Batman Who Laughs. The character design seems to be a mix of Batman and Cthulhu, highlighting Ward’s horror sensibilities. This cosmic horror Batman, especially the design and aesthetic, seems reminiscent of Ward’s work on his recent collaboration with Ram V on Aquaman: Andromeda. This character is destined to make a splash on the public zeitgeist, with the design being first and foremost a tour de force from Ward. 

The part of this book that everyone will be talking about is Ward’s art. From the pencils all the way down to the expressive and explosive colors, Ward’s Gotham comes across as a mystifyingly horrifying place. This is mainly due to the small details, such as the detailed night sky and visceral backgrounds. Every page is full of so much nuance and detail, looking like something out of a poster book. This is made all the better by the Black Label prestige formatting, a perfect format for a series of this sort caliber.

While Ward takes over most of the creative roles here, the award winning Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou does the lettering. Otsmane-Elhaou delivers a fun, unique style of lettering that looks wholly unique to this book. This lettering also mixes well with the abstract styles of Ward, mixing in with the different page designs, giving all of the characters their own, unique voices. Overall, this pairing between Ward and Otsmane-Elhaou seems like a match made in heaven.