SuperHeroBooks - Batman and the Mad Monk
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List Price: $14.99
Our Price: $6.50
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Manufacturer: DC Comics
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9781401212810
ISBN: 1401212816
Label: DC Comics
Manufacturer: DC Comics
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 144
Publication Date: 2007-04-07
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: 2007-04-07
Studio: DC Comics
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Graphic SF Reader
Comment: This sequel of sorts to Batman Year One is actually pretty good, and seems to keep to the style reasonably faithfully.
A subplot involves Commissioner Gordon establishing and defending himself against various corrupt cops, still.
They have a bigger problem in that people keep turning up no longer alive with their throats torn out and drained of blood.
When Bruce Wayne's girlfriend runs into those responsible, things get personally bloody for Batman.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An OK book
Comment: Many good reviewers and fans had stated how good this book is.
My only gripe with this title is just how shallow is: not much character construction, not of Batman, not of Gordon, not of Nicholai Tepes, not of Alfred.
Pluses:
* Great art, specially inking. Batman looks superb
* Many sub-plots going on, that keep things entertaining.
* Solo Batman is great. Keep them coming!!
* Tongue-in-cheek allusion to Robin
Cons:
* Flat-out lot-to-be-desired story, a bit cheesy at times.
* Another person finds out who Batman is.
* The villain is not such a worthy opponent and the fight scene is fairly short.
It really deserved a 3.5 star rating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: BATMAN NOIR
Comment: Batman and the Mad Monk is a sequel to 2005's Batman and the Monster Men, also written and illustrated by Matt Wagner. This story takes place very early in Batman's career, predating his first encounter with The Joker. Batman "persuaded" an organized crime boss to forget about the debts owed to him by businessman Norman Madison, father of Bruce Wayne's current flame, Julie. Yet the encounter with Batman has left Norman mentally scarred, and more in fear of the Batman than the crime boss. Batman is already working closely with "Captain" Jim Gordon, a situation that puts Gordon into conflict with the corrupt police commissioner. Batman also has his first encounter with Assistant D.A. Harvey Dent, before he becomes Two-Face, but already, as Batman points out, bound by the law, but smoldering for justice.
Gordon asks for Batman's assistance with a recent series of murders where the victim's throats were torn out and they were drained of all their blood. His investigations lead to the discovery of a shadowy group known as the Brotherhood who have taken up residence in the decrepit Rallstone Castle, built by a family even more wealthy than the Waynes. The group is led by the charismatic and hypnotic Niccolai Tepes, Tepes also having been the family name of Vlad Dracula. Niccolai and his underlings soon set their sites on Julie Madison and plot to use her to help steal her father's fortune, after which they will make her a blood sacrifice. Niccolai bites, but doesn't drain Julie, keeping her as his thrall until she can get her father to will over his estate. Batman, weakened after a fight with a pack of wolves and nearly crushed between a wall of spikes, will have to face off against the powerful Niccolai in order to save Julie's life.
While this Batman story is set in modern times, Wagner infuses it with a permeable scent of 1930's crime noir, and set against a backdrop of classic Universal Studios horror films. Batman's exploration of Castle Rallstone leads him into deadly traps as steps turn to slippery inclines as well as the aforementioned crushing walls of spikes. It's just like something out of an old movie serial. It's funny, but criminals always use the wall of spikes despite the fact that I don't think I ever saw anyone actually get killed by them. When Batman battles Tepes' wolves, you can almost hear Bela Lugosi proclaiming, "Children of the night...what music they make!"
Wagner's art only serves to take the reader back to the days of beautiful dames and melodramatic villains. In typical, nonchalant villain style, Tepes doesn't even check on the person whose fallen into his trap in the castle, confident that whomever it was, won't be getting out alive. Wagner is also able to show a Batman who is extremely vulnerable (he takes a major butt-kicking in this book) yet also extremely resourceful, relying on his wits as much as his fists. We can only hope that Wagner doing a Batman mini-series will continue to be an annual event.
REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON
Customer Rating:
Summary: disapointment but i want more Wagner comics!
Comment: There is good news and there is bad news when it comes to Batman and the Mad Monk.
First the good news.
The book does what most Batman movies, and for that matter most Batman comics don't, it keeps the love interest and story moving forward rather than discard them for a cute new villain. The art is also pretty top notch throughout, it's not Jim Lee but its style is very akin to something wholesome yet enticing. Think cartoon style.
Batman is still new to this whole crime fighting thing, and he also hasn't had to fight the big villains (yet). What this does is allow Wagner to focus on Batman and his new rank as Gotham's protector. Once the jokers and killer crocs come in this will be a different book. Nobody is going to argue that.
Now for the bad news.
Continuing the storyline where we left off makes for a lot of back story people will need to know. If you haven't read Batman and the Monster Men you'll be confused. Another aspect carried over is his girlfriend's father and his weelings-and-dealings with the mob. At this point we don't' care anymore. Before we cared about his plight due to the impending danger he brought to Batman's girlfriend. Now it doesn't even matter, she's in danger all on her lonesome. Wagner seems to be carrying over this gangster theme but Batman isn't even involved (at least not in this book).
The villain in this book isn't very well thought out. Is he just some cultist or something more? We never really know, and he's introduced so suddenly you feel cheated there wasn't more back story on him. Sure we see the murders he's committed and his henchwoman doing her job, but who is this guy? Strong storytelling is absent when I could care less if he's on the next page or not. When he does end up fighting Batman a cheap confrontation involving the Bat mobile and the big climatic battle leave much to be desired. We read through pages of the evil lurking in the shadows, but never really get a sense of danger since everything is so easily defeated. Even when Batman is stuck in one of those spiky walls closing in on you rooms, he simply struggles for a few panels, then sneaks out "just in the knick of time, woo!"
The overall theme is also lost here, the dark knight and the "darkness in the night" or some such direction Wagner is going with it. You can tell he's going there, you can see it since we've seen it done before better, but it never really makes the strong connection. We sit waiting for some confrontational dialogue, some moment Batman faces his own image...but it never comes. What a let down.
Ultimately by the end of the book you feel short changed. The bad guys are so poorly written and introduced you think if Paul Dini wrote this he could fit it into one issue. A cult who sucks people dry of their blood could easily fill 32 pages rather than 128. In the Wagner-Batman mythos I'm sure this will be better read when there is a volume to follow it, but as it stands alone it doesn't leave you wanting more. Wagner's take is fun and refreshing at times, but this one needed more thought. Or at least more intrigue. Batman and the Mad Monk...the Mad Monk of what; by books end I don't think anyone really cares anymore.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wagner has me hooked
Comment: For me, with this second entry in the Dark Moon Rising series of Batman novels, Matt Wagner joins my list of the best Batman writers in the past 5-10 years or so alongside Miller, Dini, and Loeb. Not only can he write the character well, his art is quickly becoming what I imagine when I think of Batman. I think other writers/editors agree too, as more and more of Wagner's Batman illustrations appear on covers.
The Mad Monk picks up where The Monster Men leaves off, the first book in this series. A new villain is introduced, but Batman and the rest of his relationships are developing. It's still early in the dark detective's career and he's having to deal with keeping his identity secret from his girlfriend, and sovling cases with Gordon for the first time. Wagner weaves a simple tale, inspired and reinterpreted from one of Batman's earliest adventures where he encounters a Monk cloaked in red who may or may not be a vampire. Batman is investigating the recent murders while trying to balance out time with his girlfriend Julie, who was introduced in Monster Men. Julie's father Norman returns, as well as crime boss Sal Moroni.
What I'm really enjoying about these books, are how they intertwine story and art elements from both Year One as well as Loeb and Sale's Bat books. It's beginning to bridge the gap and fill in the time between Year One and The Long Halloween in Batman's continuity. It's making Bruce's early years of crime fighting that much more enjoyable to relive for me.
It's hard to say if I enjoyed this more than Monster Men or not. They fit so nicely together that I like to think of them as an ongoing storyline. Julie's character is getting more interesting and less annoying in this book as she deals with being the neglected flame in Bruce's life as well as her father's downward spiral into alcoholism and paranoia. Batman's partnership with Gordon is in full swing by this point, although it's clear that Gordon struggles with his affiliation with a man that dresses like a bat and how that might affect his career and his family. Overall some good solid development all around. The inner monologue and dream sequences contribute greatly.
Not quite as much action in this one as Monster Men, but still some excitement in every chapter. The way the story is told visually is really fluid and helps the flow of each scene. I hope Wagner is in the process of writing another installment, because currently he's creating some of the best recent additions to the Batman canon.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Writer/artist Matt Wagner pulls back the curtain on theearliest adventures of Batman in this blood-curdling sequel to BATMAN ANDTHE MONSTER MEN! In this dark, moody tale, the young Dark Knight learns that there are moretwisted faces of evil than those worn by the street criminals and mobstersof Gotham City. Now, Batman must counter sinister machinations and newdimensions of wickedness as he confronts the hooded menace of the Mad Monk!
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