Batman - Year One
During the last two days i've read "Year One" four times. I seriously think now it's the best graphic novel ever made. For my entire life i agreed with the most people and rankings and stuff that the greatest Graphic Novel is either "Watchmen" or "The Dark Knight Returns". And i really love both of these stories ( TDKR a little bit more i think ) but now, i think they are no match for this masterpiece.
STORY
What i love about this comic's story is that it never gets boring. There's so many diffrent scenes, not so much action, a lot of talking. You can never really remember what will happen next. Seriously, during my life i've read it a hundred times. During the last two days i've read it four times. And yet i can never tell what will happen in a page. Maybe my memory's broken or something...but i don't think so. It's just the charm of Frank ( The God's ) Miller's writing. All these awesome lines like :
It's been fifteen years since i had to take out a green beret. Even so...he deserves a handicap.
Hell yeah!
Anyway, it's the charm of this gritty and dark story combined with the fact that it's more of a Jim Gordon origin story than Bruce Wayne's. Yes, Bruce Wayne does appear there too. But most of the story is told from the point of view of Gordon ( even though the writer probably wanted to make it 50/50...). The most memorable moments come from the part of Jim Gordon ( except obviously for the scene in the burning flat ).
ART
David Mazzucchelli is a master. And though i wouldn't include him in my top ten artists of all - time lists, he fits perfectly this book. He has sometimes problems with faces of his characters and that's the only thing i have to point out. When he draws Jim Gordon's face "en face" The face just looks weird and fake. Hopefully he doesn't do it all the time. It's just this feeling i have in my guts.
Except for that one thing everything is perfect for me. His action secuences along with Miller's writing gets better with every page.
As an example i'll give another page from the secuence above :
PAM! BUM! CRASH! These bodies fluently moving, while Jim Gordon's in-head monologue is just plain awesome. It's amazing. And at the end when Gordon is leaving the place, and just says : "He'll never report it. Not Flass. He'll make up some story that involves ten attackers and never i did it. But he'll know. And he'll stay away from Barbara."
Great.
OVERALL
This story is amazingly made by two VERY talented artists. Frank Miller is the master of both art and story, while Mazzucchelli is an amazing artists. And their teamed-up work ends up to be one of the greatest comic-books ever made.
In my opinion this is the greatest Graphic Novel in the history. And i really think nothing will change my mind.
And...that's it.
