As one of the most recognizable figures on the planet, it's no secret to anyone that Batman has been the subject of many varying interpretations. Created as a forceful avenger of injustice, time eventually tamed his ruthless pursuit of vengeful conquest against what he considered to be a superstitious, cowardly lot. As a result, despite the many temptations that plague his often trauma-ridden existence, he does not kill, he does not give up, and above all, he remains entirely convinced in the singularity of an impossibly structured war on crime and it's eventual impact on a city without hope. Batman's crusade is made in the solemn belief that, as the victim of tragedy, it is within his power to prevent similar circumstances from befalling the innocent that Gotham City constantly threatens to drag down into the abyss. Whatever your personal interpretation of what Batman is, who he is, and what he stands for, these are the very basic foundations that have remained relevant to the character even today, nearly seventy-five years after his creation in 1939.
But with that crusade has come considerable cost. And with cost has come endless sources of debate between his most loyal fans and spectators. You could argue that out of all of comicdom, Batman is in equal parts one of the most hotly debated characters ever conceived and one of the most multi-faceted superheroes that exists, with strong contention over even the most classic staples of his mythos. One of the single most prevalent questions about him is one that is still asked, even with countless answers given: Who is the real man beneath the mask? Is Batman who he truly is at his heart, or is Bruce Wayne the embodiment of his soul? Was the child that watched his parents gunned down before his eyes killed alongside them, left with only a nameless spectre to roam around his consciousness until Wayne was finally inspired to give it a name?
It's an especially intriguing question to consider, given that the answer more often than not defines personal interpretation of all aspects dealing with The Caped Crusader. You could argue that he truly is Batman, that Bruce Wayne is the secret identity and that whenever he puts the cowl on, he's adopting his true face. But you could also just as passionately argue that without Bruce Wayne to tether him down, Batman would be left as an unstoppable force of vengeance, perhaps even worse than the criminals and the psychotics he constant faces. It's his morality that has constantly been the focal point of this argument, and what Darwyn Cooke's Batman: Ego does is confront the matter directly. The result is a fascinating, surprising, and perhaps even horrifying dissection of a character that most know as well as themselves.
The setup of Ego, in some respects, centers around one of the worst nights of Batman's career. Having used one of The Joker's henchmen for information in order to prevent the madman's inevitable killing spree to come, he unwittingly puts the criminal's family in harms way whenever The Joker threatens to kill them for the crook's inability to keep silent in The Dark Knight's hands. So whenever Batman discovers that the criminal, forced to the brink of madness himself, has killed his entire family and eventually shoots himself in the head to be spared the pain of what he's done, the normally stagnant vigilante is brought down under the weight of his own guilt over the predicament. It's a guilt that remains so strong that by the time he returns to the Batcave, a heavily distraught Bruce Wayne is convinced to relinquish his life as Batman, convinced that he's unable to go on.
It's from there that a strange encounter unfolds, building towards the predominant goal of Ego's story: to place Bruce Wayne infront of what is perhaps his most constant enemy and be forced to examine the most predominant aspects of his double life in order to decide whether it's worth the cost of his sanity. His most constant enemy, of course, being Batman. The two sides of his personality are split in order to show Bruce the glimpses of his childhood unseen, his adulthood unrealized, and his future uninhibited. An introspective and often haunting portrayal of the doubts that plague Bruce's mind, realized through a sinister figment that embodies his dark alter-ego, Ego looks to make you question nearly everything that Batman is, while simultaneously reinforcing what you truly believe him to be in an effortlessly solid entry into the character's already classic mythology. And the fact that Darwyn Cooke handles the art duties just as brilliantly as the scripting makes it all the more worthy of the the character.
Whenever most ask what some of my personal favorite Batman stories are, I'll generally respond with some of the classics. You've got your Year One, your Killing Joke, your Dark Knight Returns, and there are an abundance of other iconic stories to choose from aswell. But what you might not expect is that somewhere near the top of my list is a story that, compared to it's contemporaries, is a rather simple - but nonetheless effective - take on a character that asks the right questions, generates the right results, and ultimately makes you seriously begin to consider who the real man behind the mask is at his very soul.
It's called Batman: Ego.
Rating
5 out of 5
Reviewed by Alex Koch
