Don't be such a Torment, Bats. (Superman/Batman: Torment - Alan Burnett)

Member Name: SWSt

Product:	Superman/Batman: Torment - Alan Burnett
Date:	14/10/09 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some interesting plotlines, good strong opening

Disadvantages: Never reaches its potential, weak characterisation, some poor artwork

Variable. That's the word which springs to mind when thinking about Batman/Superman: Torment. Story? Variable. Artwork? Variable. Characters? Variable. Overall effect? A mediocre tale that could have been so much better.

When Torment gets it right, it's an enjoyable and immersive tale. It's never going to be one of the greatest stories ever told, but it certainly shows quite a bit of promise. This serves to make it all the more disappointing when that potential is never fully realised.

The story sets up an interesting plot where Superman starts to lose his mind and ends up under the control of his enemy Darkseid. The grim, driven Batman, meanwhile, falls in love with Darkseid's daughter-in-law, Bekka and starts to lose focus on his lifelong war on crime. Can he put aside his new-found obsession in time to save The Man of Steel?

A feature of these Superman-Batman tales has been how the relative treatment of the two heroes has varied according to the writers. If the writer is a regular on the Batman comics, he is the dominant character and vice versa. Since the two heroes are very different, this can affect how much you enjoy the tale.

This is very definitely a Batman tale. Both the artist and author are regular contributors to Batman titles and it shows. Aside from a few key moments, Superman barely features. If you're a Superman fan, you'll find this a most unsatisfactory tale.

One of the saddest losses in this title is the "dual narrative" technique which has worked so well in previous titles in the series. This saw the same events portrayed from the perspective of both Superman and Batman (who, of course, have very different outlooks on life). It gave an interesting insight into the minds of the two heroes and highlighted people can perceive the same events very differently. Since Superman features so little in Torment, everything is seen from the perspective of Batman the narrative fails to offer any new insights into his character.

The early panels are promising. Superman is losing his mind, whilst Batman is trying to track down Killer Croc, but the story you expect to come from this never emerges. Instead events take a wild swing as they leave Earth and head for Darkseid's domain. I was rather concerned about this. Batman always works best in the "real world" and is less suited to "space adventures" featuring aliens and monsters. Torment, however, bucks this trend. This plot development is well handled and feels natural, with Batman slotting into this environment far better than previously.

The real problem comes from the characterisation of Batman. From being the dark, gritty avenger, he suddenly falls head over heels in love with the mysterious Bekka, and starts acting like a giddy teenager. Since we all know the Dark Knight is pretty much impervious to the charms of women, this is very out of character and not well handled. Since these tales are quite short, there is insufficient time to develop this aspect properly. Batman's fall for Bekka is very sudden. Whilst the reasons for this are explained to a degree later in the story, it's never satisfactorily explored and always feels like a convenient plot device. Similarly, the resolution of Bruce Wayne's internal conflict (his desire to be happy vs. Batman's need for vengeance) never meshes together or has the emotional impact that it should.

The need to wrap everything up in six relatively short parts means that bigger issues remain untapped and the potential of the title is limited. It's a shame, because Torment offers a lot of exciting ideas and you can't help but feel that in the hands of a better author - a Jim Lee or an Alan Grant - this would be a much more intense, far stronger story.

The constraints of the format particularly come across in a very abrupt and massively disappointing ending. One minute Superman and Batman are on Darkseid's exploding ship, the next they are back on earth with only a quick dialogue box saying "we managed to escape before the explosion..." This is the comic book equivalent of "and they all went home and had their tea." A brief epilogue attempts to rescue things by adding in another layer of emotional depth (and presumably set up a future tale), but the damage is already done.

The artwork is very strange. It ranges from the very good to the really quite poor. The two key bad guys - Darkseid and Desaad are well drawn, whilst the alien landscapes and battleships provide convincing backdrops for the action. Some of the other characters fare less well. Batman is well drawn in some panels, less so in others. Some images stress the grim, gritty side is played up, whilst in others, the drawings are almost perfunctory as if the artist couldn't really be bothered. Bekka, meanwhile, suffers from the all-too-common fate afflicting female characters: all skimpy costume and impossibly shapely physique, although she is generally well drawn and pleasing to the eye (sorry, Mrs SWSt!)

Once again, though, it's Superman who comes off worst. The panels which feature him are awful. It's very clear that the artist has very little experience of drawing Supes and even less interest in learning. On his rare appearance, he looks like he was drawn by an artistically gifted child, rather than a professional comic book artist. It's a good job he features so infrequently, because whenever he does, the quality of the art plummets significantly.

If you're not a Batman or Superman fan, you're probably scratching your head by now, wondering what on earth I am going on about and who all these characters are. That's another issue with the book (and indeed, this series): it expects you to have quite an in-depth familiarity with the DC Universe. If you don't, you won't get a great deal out of any of the titles in the Superman-Batman series.

Torment offers little new for Batman fans and nothing at all for Superman's. It's not a dead loss, but there is nothing to make it stand out from the crowd of similarly themed Batman tales. Mediocre. The word was almost made for this book. Mediocre and variable.


Basic Information
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Batman/Superman: Torment
Alan Burnett
Titan Books 2008
ISBN: 978-1401217006

© Copyright SWSt 2009

Summary: Not a bad tale, just a very mediocre one