Batman Black and White #1

Batman Black and White #1

Originally released in 2013

Written by Chip Kidd et al

Art by Michael Cho et al

The "Batman Black and White" series, along with other series like "Superman: Red & Blue", "Wonder Woman: Black & Gold", and "Harley Quinn: Black + White + Red", consists of various short stories by numerous comic creators (ones that have a history with the character in question or newer creators) focusing on the titular character of that book.  The stories are only a few pages long, giving us bite-sized snippets of the character's life, the lives of those around them, or the city that they inhabit.

The first story, written by Chip Kidd with art by Michael Cho, focuses on Robin rather than Batman. (it's unclear which Robin, though going by the art style that seems to be inspired by the Golden or Silver Age of comics, I'm guessing it's Dick Grayson)  Batman goes missing, and with the help of another hero, Robin tries to track him down.  The story feels a little disjointed, jumping around a lot in terms of time and location, but I do like the artwork here.

The second story, written and drawn by Neal Adams (who created Ra's al Ghul, the Green Lantern John Stewart, and Man-Bat for DC, along with Mockingbird and Sauron for Marvel) feels like it has more to say.  In it, Batman is a rotting corpse, barely able to string a thought together, and he's only whole when fighting the likes of the Riddler or the Joker.  When it comes to more ordinary crimes and moral/ethical issues, like a bank unlawfully evicting a family or someone being given a life sentence for shoplifting once, he returns to being a zombie, completely ineffectual and unable to help.  It's treated as a nightmare that Bruce is having, but given Adams's history with Green Arrow (a character who's infamously social-conscious, to the point where a team-up series with Green Lantern involved the two of them traveling across America and tackling social issues), it feels like a more pointed dig against Batman as a whole. (though I could be reading too much into it)

The third story shifts focus to Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, as Ivy is framed for contaminating a strain of plant-based burgers.  It's an all right story, but it feels like it's over too quickly.  Harley's the highlight, with writer Maris Wicks really getting Harley's voice.  The art by Joe Quinones is good, switching between a few different styles as we see Harley's thoughts in the flashback above.

The fourth story, written by John Arcudi with art by Sean Murphy, is mostly about the Batmobile, as Bruce tries to upgrade it after a car chase earlier that night.  I could tell, through both the art and the writing, that the people behind it were really passionate about cars, as Bruce goes into great detail on what his problems were, demonstrating how they impacted his driving through flashbacks, and what changes he could make to fix them.  I know very little about cars, so I don't know how accurate the dialogue was; it felt to me like how non-sci-fi fans would feel about technobabble.

The final story is more of a detective story, as Batman tries to solve a series of murders throughout Gotham.  The art by Chris Samnee is solid, really making Gotham feel like a place where light struggles to break through.  Howard Mackie's writing does a good job with taking a lesser known villain and contrasting that character with Batman's connection to Alfred.  Out of the five stories, this might have been the highlight for me, though it ended a bit too soon for my liking.  I like the concept of this series, showing the smaller adventures that Batman has and fleshing out his character (along with his allies and, to a lesser extent, enemies) in little ways.