High Volume: Year One. Part Three. Audio. The voice that will define your world...
My first Jim Gordon was the Arkham Knight. In some way, it's an ultimatum variation that had the honor of both reciting the famous line about criminals from the debut issue and announcing Batman's death.
Jim could be rude, dangerous, because that's how circumstances work. More often than not, however, he was tired, observant, loving. We're talking about the man who lived his work. Who lost his wife because of it, almost lost his daughter twice...
He continued because he believed in the Law. That some people deserve help while others deserve second chances. Year One was the culmination of the journey. The point of no return, after which he could not going back. His future became in the commissioner, the mayor, the Batman.
My soul belongs to this cluster of pathos, duty, confidence to the system. But it's an old approach. It's the idea of world near the end of time. It doesn't work right these days.
At first I was angry with audio-adaptation for dropping the shadow of the Bat's flashbacks from the script. Every hero has golden steps.
It's a stage that fully demonstrates how a character is both perceived and perceived by the world within comics.
On an external level, i.e. for our world, it also carries a strong weight because we're talking about elements that have become entrenched in society's public consciousness after their first appearance or the debut of a particular element.
For example, Clark's connection with trains is a consequence of 2 basic concepts at once - the phrase "Faster than a rushing train" and numerous covers/moments where he stops the train.
When we talk about Batman's first steps, it's about completely "overcoming" himself as a human being. On the surface, it's just a cool and intimidating demon. But on an ideological level, it's really about trying to break beyond all the limitations that humans have. We show the Knight as a monster because his liberation, at this stage, a priori cannot be otherwise. This is what he strives to become - the perfect weapon of fear.
The Batman passage always messes up the bad guys' plans. It's an unfortunate flashback after which the integrity of their story is compromised. In other words, Batman destroys the evil that has become the norm. And we need to see it! Aren't we?
There are two major points of divergence in the comic and the film adaptation.
First, the pitches of Bruce inside the burning house are very different. If in the second half, when he starts beating the police, it's more about overcoming himself, through great pain, through effort.
In the movie, it's more about the invulnerability of the hero. The power of the image that Batman is. Even the music supports this narrative, creating an upbeat and frightening (if you're a cop in the building) mood. You know that no bullet will take him. He's an instrument of Justice. And he hits hard.
In the comics, Bruce is a human being and a bit of a victim of circumstance(in a moment, not the entire project). He's still incredibly strong and able to scare, but at the same time...the text emphasizes his vulnerabilities.
Perhaps this is why Miller spells out the moment of Batman's preparation for future missions as he came to "summon the bats". Whereas the cartoon relies specifically on the action itself. The awakening of the creatures of the night and Gotham takeover.
All of this leads us to a simple conclusion. If Miller, being the beginning, is interested in revealing HOW Bruce works, then the animation that came out at the peak of Batman's career speaks to WHY he works. That there is a Batman as a symbol, as an image in people's minds...
The audio adaptation emphasizes speed of analysis, something no one else does. Batman here acts like it's an everyday routine, nothing more. It's our days. The well known character with new patterns and psychology. Maybe that's why it doesn't need all those classic flashback moments...
And yet, why so much Jim in our text? I start with him, then I think about Bruce...crazy!
Jim finds his place through Gotham. The city shows him the true faces of people, the price of love, the difference in ideas...
In audio, he sounds softer and acts lighter. He feels younger. Juggles Frank's killer mistakes and animation's caring. The audio is more about observing what's going on, a calmer rhythm of life. On the surface, he's younger.
Ideologically, rightly older. As if he's finally found his peace. If we change Bruce's position, we change Jim's. We change Jim = we change Bruce. Because Batman would never have succeeded without a purge within the police force. And the GCPD wouldn't have been successful if they'd gone to Gordon's head or his family.
At the end of the comic, we see Bruce's silhouette in the darkness. In the animation, Wayne is smiling. In the audio, those two are literally laughing after saving their son. They did it. They defeated the Darkness.
And if you still remember past posts, we've said that each adaptation is a reflection of its era, the condition of the medium within that.
Audio has...strange times these days. We have the successful The Flash and The Sandman. For Batman, we have the utterly failed Spotify projects and the good as an idea but broken in the implementation aspects Audio Adventures. Year One has its own difficulties. There are some baffling action moments here. It doesn't convey the intensity of the pain of the blows. Sometimes it requires context, which is impossible to find if you don't know the comic. That's...absolutely not ultimate start.
But it also has important new things. A really young Holly who sounds like a child for the first time, not a teenager. Gentle Barbara.
You feel the pain in Jim's words when he talks about the possibility of losing his wife.
Fishbride my doomed yuri pair even just thinking about the fact that the bride is immortal whereas Nina is an altered human
I’m so sad I just finished this piece right before the finale came out, it’s bittersweet in a way but there’s a lot of turns the next season could bring
I really like the dynamic that Dr phosphorus is touch starved in actual canon, like you could infer that by his own nature but it’s nice to be given that I hope people run with that to the bank
Say hello to Lottie Good, otherwise known as scarlet shroud. A young meta human girl with the power to swim in shadows. Her and her brother have been in foster care of a good long time before being placed with a kindly grandma. She’s a mercenary alongside her older brother but she’s far more ruthless, she also is just a general hater.
