Batman: Gothic

"Gothic"
Cover to trade paperback of Batman: Gothic.
Publisher	DC Comics
Publication date	April – August 1990
Genre	Superhero
Title(s)	Legends of the Dark Knight #6-10[1]
Main character(s)	Batman
Creative team
Writer(s)	Grant Morrison
Artist(s)	Klaus Janson
Letterer(s)	John Costanza
Colorist(s)	Steve Buccellato
Editor(s)	Andrew Helfer
Collected editions
Gothic	ISBN 1-56389-028-3

Gothic, also known as Gothic: A Romance,^[2][3][4] is a 1990 Batman comic book storyline that ran through the Legends of the Dark Knight monthly series and was later compiled into trade paperback form. It was written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Klaus Janson.

Synopsis

When the senior leaders of Gotham City's mobs find themselves hunted down by a figure from their past they turn to Batman for assistance. Initially reluctant, Batman's investigation into the identity and motives of the murderer uncovers a sordid tale from Gotham's past, an ancient Faustian pact, and a forgotten episode from his childhood.

Plot

Batman finds that a man known as "Mr. Whisper" is killing off five mobsters bosses one by one. The mobsters explain to Batman that he was a child killer over thirty years ago, and the mobsters had found and killed him when there was too much pressure from the cops over them. At the same time, Batman's investigation links Mr. Whisper with a hideous event in Bruce Wayne's school days, a bargain reminiscent of Don Giovanni, and the Gotham City Cathedral.

The events take Batman to a Monastery in Austria, where he finds the truth about the Monk Manfred, who had ruled the same Monastery in the XVII century and commited terrible sins, including the rape and murder of the only nun who lived there, and who had sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for avoiding the Black Plague. Manfred was also given three hundred years of life, after which he will be taken to hell. Batman discovers soon that Manfred is indeed Mr. Whisper, and also Mr. Winchester, a teacher Bruce Wayne had when he was a child and was studying in a men only-British model Boarding school. Winchester had terrorized the young Bruce and a lot of fellow students, and murdered one of them. Before leaving the school, Bruce saw clearly that Winchester's figure was shadowless, like Manfred's figure is said to be.

Batman monitors the mobsters that can be attacked by Mr. Whisper, who's out for revenge. When Whisper makes his try at one of them, Batman chases him, but he is eventually captured by him. Whisper tells Batman that as a sign of appreciation over his persona and what he represents, he has prepared an elaborate death for him, which is essentially a Rube Goldberg/Heath Robinson-style device. Whisper also has kidnapped a young nun that has recently arrived to Gotham as a hostage, and keeps her captive in the Gotham Cathedral. Whisper reveals his plan to Batman: He is going to cheat the Devil by giving him the souls of the whole city instead of his own. This will happen exactly at midnight, and to achieve his goal, Whisper needs a combination of magic and the very same plague that almost killed him, which will be activated when the toll of Gotham Cathedral's bell announces midnight. Whisper reveals to Batman that he has both elements ready, and his killing spree of mobsters was not really motivated by revenge, being instead only a way of passing the time while waiting for his deadline to come.

Batman escapes from the trap and arrives to the Gotham Cathedral a few minutes before midnight. He fights Whisper in the Cathedral, but the floor collapses and they fall into the subway tunnel. There, Whisper is run over by a train. Batman disables the Cathedral's bell that should have rang, and thus the plague is kept contained in the Cathedral. Shortly after, Whisper is confronted by the young nun, who reveals herself as Satan, who carrying with their pact, finally takes Manfred to Hell where he belongs. Later, Bruce Wayne receives a package with Whisper's/Manfred's heart. He flies back to Austria as Batman, and throws the heart into the river to let the nun who was killed by Whisper so long ago finally rest in peace.

Background

For Gothic, Morrison mixed elements from different mediums: The initial story arc shows how mobsters searched and killed Mr. Whisper when there was pressure from the police force to find the child killer who terrorized the city. This part of the story is very similar to the classic noir film M. An ancient pact between the Monk Manfred (later known to Batman and the organized crime underworld as Mr. Whisper) and the Devil is a reminiscence of the Faustian Bargain related to the German legend of Faust.

Mr. Whisper's true name, Manfred, is most likely a reference to the main protagonist of the dramatic poem Manfred, written by Lord Byron. Throughout the poem, Manfred succeeds in challenging all authoritative powers he comes across, and refuses to submit to spirits of higher powers. At the end, Manfred dies defying religious temptations of redemption from sin.

Critical reaction

IGN Comics ranked Batman: Gothic #16 on a list of the 25 greatest Batman graphic novels, saying that "Gothic offers not only a new twist to the origins of Bruce Wayne, but a dark and suspenseful tale perfectly suited for the Dark Knight."^[5]

Collected editions

The storyline has been collected into a trade paperback:

• Gothic (collects Legends of the Dark Knight #6-10, DC Comics, 1998, ISBN 1-56389-028-3, 2007, ISBN 1-4012-1549-1, Titan Books, ISBN 1-84576-671-7)

References

Bibliography

External links

• Batman: Gothic Review at IGN