BATMAN HIDDEN TREASURES #1

Review by: TheNextChampion

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Avg Rating: 4.0
 
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Written by RON MARZ and LEN WEIN
Art by BERNIE WRIGHTSON and KEVIN NOWLAN
Cover by BERNIE WRIGHTSON

Size: 56 pages
Price: 4.99

With SHIELD #4 on the hold for next week, I was stuck with picking another series to replace it. At the shop, this one-shot just screamed for me to pick it up even with a very hefty price tag. I’m not sure why this issue called me out like it did, but I am happy to pick it up.

This is a new release of a ‘lost’ Batman issue, and it is strange why they never released in the first place. It’s very well written from the perspective of a omnipresent narrator. This is a ‘prose’ issue, somewhat like the infamous Morrison-Joker prose issue in Batman. Unlike that issue however, this is easier to comprehend (waaay easier) and it’s mainly used to showcase Bernie Wrightson’s art. Boy, what a fantastic artist Wrightson is. If you don’t know; he has been an artist for a long time (from the Silver age onwards) and he’s known for his ‘horror’ style work. Read ‘Batman: The Cult’, House of Mystery (Silver age, not today’s), Creepy, Eerie; and a whole lot of comics like that. That’s what this issue is mostly, a horror comic, since it deals with Solomon Grundy. Even though this is mostly single pages with no panels; everything Wrightson draws in this is really fantastic. He sets the mood right away, the detail is fantastic, and if it was any other artist it wouldn’t look as good. The one page where Batman is in the forest, and the moon is bright in the background; really says it all actually.

The issue also contains a reprinting of another Wrightson work; this time a random issue of Swamp Thing by Len Wein. Well it isn’t random since it involves Batman as well; but it is weird why they had to include this. The issue would’ve been fine enough without this reprint and it is hampered by Alex Sinclair’s re-coloring of it. The new coloring definitely makes this a tough read, as it actually gave me quite a headache. New age coloring mixed with old school pencils just doesn’t work for me. If it was just the back up in it’s original form, I’d probably enjoyed it more. All together though it would’ve been better if it was just this ‘lost’ story and nothing else.

Even with the so-so back up, this was a fun comic to read. It’s a shame this was shelved so long ago because this has all the makings of a classic Batman tale. It’s written well, it has amazing artwork, and overall it just makes me want to re-read it again right now. Even with the heavy price tag, I definitely recommend picking this up. Trust me it’ll all be worth it once you see the first page Wrightson did.

Story: 4 - Very Good
Art: 5 - Excellent

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