The Riddler: Year One #6
Kevin Rossi
Recap
The time has come. Edward Nashton’s long, painful psychological journey and downward spiral have finally brought him to the point where he is ready to take direct action against the corrupt of Gotham. Embittered and abandoned and believing the world is aligned against him, he’s reached the time to lash out. His extensive research and clandestine operations have left him with a deeper knowledge of the city’s web of criminality than anyone in Gotham. And now he knows exactly which targets to strike and when. As Edward finally dons the mask of the Riddler, the series ends right before the start of his first murderous attack, shown in the opening scene of Matt Reeves’s film The Batman. Actor Paul Dano brought this character to life onscreen, and now he completes Edward’s arc with this groundbreaking prequel. Together with renowned European artist Stevan Subic, Dano has crafted a disturbing and emotional tale, filling out the backstory of one of the most unique and terrifying villains faced by any version of the Dark Knight.
Review
The Riddler: Year One comes to a close with issue #6. The series was ambitious and quite an interesting take on a tie-in comic, especially because it was written by the actor who portrayed the character. Paul Dano is a perfectly capable writer who seems to have an understanding of how a comic reads. The Batman was packed with incredible performances, especially Dano’s Edward Nashton, and The Riddler: Year One gave Dano and readers an interesting opportunity to go a little deeper with the character. Though Dano didn’t write the script or his dialogue for the film, he must have contributed a lot to the character. He certainly retains the character’s voice in The Riddler: Year One, but by issue #6 it feels that we know too much about the character, leaving little room for questions, which misses the point of the character. Nashton is a nobody trying to make a difference, but we get that from the film.
Stevan Subic’s art is the highlight of the series and that should be noted. His style is quite unique and utilizes a lot of distorted and obscured visuals with heavy inking which feels perfect for the Gotham we saw in The Batman. Things can often feel a little off when a comic is adapting a film property. Likenesses either feel traced straight from the film or slightly off. Subic maintains his style while still capturing the likenesses of the characters we see in the film. Subic knocked it out of the park when illustrating Batman. He is shrouded in shadow and there is a monstrous quality to him. The first time we see Batman on the screen is the clearest we see him. Dano’s Nashton is delusional like in the film but the series adds another level by including some visual delusions. Subic takes advantage of the medium and shows these delusions as Nashton would be seeing them, which is something the film couldn’t do.
Final Thoughts
Overall, The Riddler: Year One #6 feels like a conclusion to the story Dano wanted to tell, but part of it is because it ends right before the events of the film. The series as a whole was ambitious and it is obvious that a lot of care went into it from Paul Dano, Stevan Subic, and Clayton Cowles. However, the series could have benefited from being only three or four issues. Readers witness Nashton’s descent into the character we see in the film, but things felt extremely drawn out due to the number of issues on top of issue #1 coming out almost a year ago in October 2022. The whole series was a big swing for DC Black Label and showed a lot of potential in the imprint.
The Riddler: Year One #6: Out of the Shadow
- Writing - 5/105/10
- Storyline - 5/105/10
- Art - 8/108/10
- Color - 8/108/10
- Cover Art - 7/107/10
