Batman knows on how to put on a freakinâ show when he wants to. And heâs polite, too.
Whenever my brain randomly moves to thoughts of Batman, this is the series of panels that comes to mine. Itâs a page from Batman #405, part of the Batman Year One storyline. This 1987 arc contained Frank Millerâs great re-imagining of Bruce Wayneâs first outings as Batman. Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli make up one of comicsâ best teams when they work together, able to use space and silence to stunning effect.
Part of the appeal of this page is in how quiet and polite the Dark Knight is here. Yes, the cape swirling in silhouette is a great moment. But my favorite panel is the silent one immediately afterward, where the detail of that poor waiterâs uncontrollably shaking hand drives home just how scary even a novice Batman must be. Poor guy, heâs probably just some actor doing catering gigs in between auditions only to have the wall explode and a creature-of-the-night walk in and commandeer his bananas foster. And the way that Mazzucchelli controls the light sources, so that the terror of that final black panel hits home? Sheer genius.
So, yeah, thatâs the Batman sequence I canât get out of my head. Whatâs yours?
