Batman: The Cult #1 (of 4)

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The ghastly gothic artwork of this collection sends shivers down my spine. The story is a very morbid one, even for the Batman. Never have I seen Batman so beaten and distraught and his beloved city of Gotham so ravaged. Gotham has had it's fair shares of devastation but none so vividly depicted as in here. One bright spot to this story is Jason Todd. I don't know if this is the way his Robin was written during his time but Jim Starlin did an admirable job at making the boy wonder the soul source of hope not just for Batman but all of Gotham. I really liked this portrayal of Robin, instead of another Batman going at it alone formula.

Horror: Part Psychological Horror, part Survival Horror. It makes Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth look like a children's movie at times.

Batman is pushed to his breakable limits as a religious madman converts Gotham's homeless into a zealous killing force. Batman himself it captured, tortured, broken, and brainwashed into joining this deranged cult. That is just the beginning of this brutal and grim tale of the dark knight. The homeless population of Gotham are disappearing, and violent crimes are on the rise. Batman believes there could be a connection between the two situations and he investigates.

Weeks have passed since the incident and the Gotham City Police Department have noticed Batman's absence. Robin often spends the nights at Commissioner Gordon's office trying to find a clue that would help them locate their missing friend, only to realize something major is happening in Gotham City. Disposable Vagrant: When it becomes apparent that the homeless of Gotham have seemingly disappeared, one cop comments that he doesn't care where they went, just that they're gone. To be fair, there are some interesting aspects of The Cult. It is easy to see how it could have inspired Christopher Nolan. In some respects, The Dark Knight Rises owes as much to The Cult as it does to No Man’s Land, with Bane using an almost religious fervour to raise an army of the dispossessed to claim Gotham as their own. Even the iconography is similar – the bodies strung up on the street lamps here evoke the bodies dangling from the bridge in The Dark Knight Rises. ( The Cult also provides the inspiration for that lovely “Batman visits Gordon in hospital, vows to return” scene.)Batman: The Cult is a four-issue comic book miniseries. It was published by DC Comics in their Prestige Format and released in 1988. It was written by Jim Starlin, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson, colored by Bill Wray and edited by Denny O'Neil. The controversy comes, in part, from the murder -- the one Batman apparently commits. Armed with a machine-gun and hallucinating, Batman opens fire on what he thinks is the Joker. The dying man then changes to look like James Gordon and finally the truth is revealed. However, the murder is shown in such a fashion to one could argue Batman didn't actually do the killing. But those are just the hardcore unable to accept the truth -- Batman murdered a man while under the influence of a cult, incapable of controlling his actions or trusting his own senses. Since then, always trying to hurt Gotham City, and each time, bigger and bigger his ambitions and the scope of his plans… When this series came out in 1988 I was newly married, finishing college and working two jobs. I had made a half-hearted decision to stop buying comics. When I read this Jim Starlin series, I hated it. It was the catalyst for me to stop buying comics. Taking cues from the work of Frank Miller, writer Jim Starlin presents a tale which is deliciously dark, filled with duplicity, and steeped in gruesome imagery. Batman: The Cult is often regarded as a fan-favourite story and with good reason – it reads very well and it looks gorgeous.