Batman: Gotham by Gaslight – The Kryptonian Age #1: A Return To Earth-19 Worthy Of The Original?

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight – The Kryptonian Age #1, the return to the Elseworld Earth-19 is a slow beginning to the series that looks to expand the world of the Victorian Age Batman as seen in the classic Elseworlds tales Gotham By Gaslight and Master Of The Future.

The issue begins with the classic yet period-appropriate arrival of Superman’s rocket which crashes on the prairie and is found by a homesteading Jon and Martha Kent in 1860 before jumping forward to Gotham City, in 1893.  Here readers are introduced to Selina Kyle, a woman of means who also runs a brothel in addition to her other nightly activities, and is full of cameos and easter eggs.,but very little Batman.

Diggle does a good job of establishing an overview of Gotham City and how there are two classes of society, the haves & have-nots, by following Selina Kyle on her way to an event where a ring that glows green is set to go on display which looks to be a be made of Kryptonite  Julie Madison returns as part of the society and looks to play a small role in this issue like in Master of the the Future.

The art is somewhat reminiscent of the art in Master of the Future by Eduardo Barreto but has a cleaner look and is a large departure from Mike Mignola’s work in the original.