Batman the Imposter

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Mattson Tomlin: What a big question. You know, I think that my entry was definitely Batman: The Animated Series. There’s something about that show. It was for kids, but it was so adult. He’s a scary “I am the night, I am vengeance” kind of guy, but also a real empath, who cared about people in a way, that’s kind of disarming and not so on-the-nose. It really made use of all of the characters in this wonderful way that only the comics otherwise managed to do. The story is an Elseworld of a kind with a younger Batman so there are a few discrepancies with the regular series. It is very dark indeed, with a lonely Bruce Wayne consumed with the inner rage he fights to control and who chases after the imposter threatening to ruin what he’s built as Batman. One of the better Batman comics to come out in the past several years. It’s being touted as a “jumping-on point” for fans of the Matt Reeves movie (though whether any of this is in continuity with that universe remains to be seen). Dark and gritty without succumbing to the nihilism of the Snyderverse. Strong YEAR ONE and GOTHAM CENTRAL vibes, with a few f-bombs thrown in for the grownups. Although I initially thought this comic would tie in with Reeves’ film, Batman: The Imposter is ultimately doing its own thing, albeit yet another grounded, gritty take on the Batman mythos. The story centres on Bruce Wayne, who has only Batman for a couple of years, and during one night after being a bloody pulp, he finds himself reunited his old childhood psychologist, Dr. Leslie Thompkins. As much as Thompkins is determined to help Bruce with his mental state, a Batman imposter is causing chaos in the city through murder, making the real Batman a target of the GCPD, including Detective Blair Wong. Frankly, it scares me, because I know it’s territory that could upset a lot of people in the same way that taking Alfred out the way that I did. I knew that that was gonna upset a lot of people and at the same time it feels narratively earned. I think that I just have to kind of go there, and if people hate it, they hate it. Otherwise, they might appreciate that there’s something different here. So yeah, that’s a long way of saying I would love to do lots more in this universe.

Batman: The Imposter collects issues 1-3 of the DC Comics series written by Mattson Tomlin and art by Andrea Sorrentino. A unique new vision of Gotham, built to be the logical next step for fans of the 2022 film THE BATMAN!There are lots of ways to explore Bruce Wayne's early years as Gotham's Caped Crusader, as evidenced by everything from Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One to Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman: Zero Year, but Tomlin wasn't interested in telling another origin story. What he was interested in was an in-depth exploration of Bruce Wayne's motives and drive, something he achieved by immediately putting the character in conflict with a new version of Gotham City staple Dr. Leslie Thompkins. We've seen pieces of that around, so it's not anything new, Tomlin said. "But again, really leaning into [the realism] in this way. Does he hold a press conference and say, 'No guys, that's not me. It's this other'? It just creates all of these complications for him that to me really felt like, 'Man, that's going to be tough for Batman to get out of.' And I love making his life hell. So that, for me, was really, it just felt like a very clear kind of obstacle." He's a character that there's just some dialogue that will never come out of his mouth, and anybody that goes to therapy, they know, suddenly they're saying things they've never said before," he continued. "So it just felt like a good place to put him because it was new, and kind of puts him on his heels."

Andrea Sorrentino's european and peculiar style adds a lot to the whole ambiance of course. The funny thing with Sorrentino is that I don’t even like his style but can’t help being fascinated with it. It catches up your eye, whether you like or not, and never lets go of you. Still, some panels are not always clear and the storytelling, though ambitious, is sometimes confusing. It’s not that it’s superhuman, it’s that it is a coping mechanism. So then leaning into certain realities of that…I don’t think that we talk enough about the mental health of Bruce Wayne. On the one hand, it’s visually cool and exciting to dress up as a bat and go beat people up and at the same time, that’s deranged. The point that so many creators and fans bring up about how Bruce Wayne should be in Arkham along with all of the villains, I don’t necessarily disagree with that. So it just kind of felt like, lean into that a little bit more, let’s be a little bit more honest about what’s going on with this guy. All the property destruction and chaos caused by Batman's war on crime is unlikely to endear him to Gotham's wealthy and powerful, who in turn pressurize the police into taking a tougher stance on the vigilante. Bittersweet Ending: Tends towards Downer Ending. While Batman does stop the murderous imposter, his legacy remains tarnished, perhaps irrevocably, since it's impossible for the authorities and the public to really know which Batman did what. The wealthy and the powerful of Gotham remain opposed to Batman, so he's unlikely to ever enjoy again the limited leeway he once did with the GCPD. Detective Blair Wong knows his true identity, and is ambivalent about him at best, further complicating his situation. The one positive for Bruce by the end of the story is that he's come to some kind of an understanding with Leslie Thompkins, and even sends Arnold Wesker to her for therapy.The story begins with Batman being seriously injured and on the verge of death following an encounter with armed store robbers—the kind of low-level criminals whom, in more mainstream adaptations, he would be able to take down almost effortlessly. Here we see all too well the very real physical risks involved in even the smallest acts of vigilantism. What I find amazing is the level of detail with the world building that you’ve put in place here, whether it’s determining where these villains are in their evolution, or just where Gotham City is, in relation to having a Batman. There’s there’s a lot of stuff in here about the economic consequences of what happens when there’s somebody like Batman operating. There are hints of a class war element, there’s graffiti that speaks to very timely, real world elements. Is there a Bible for the world that you’ve created? How much of the previous two years of Batman’s life do you already have in your head? Director and screenwriter Mattson Tomlin ( Project Power, Little Fish) has teamed up with Eisner-winning suspense and horror artist Andrea Sorrentino ( Joker: Killer Smile, Batman: The Smile Killer, Green Arrow) to create a gritty, hard-boiled version of Gotham City, where every punch leaves a broken bone and every action has consequences far, far beyond Batman’s imagination!

A surprisingly solid Batman story. Usually I absolutely hate stories about “realistic” superheroes, but this was well written and the author had a decent voice for Bruce Wayne. It was also helped immensely by the incredible art from Andrea Sorrentino, who continues to be one of my favorite artists in all of comics. Seriously, the action scenes in this book alone make it worth buying at cover price. Batman must clear his name after an Imposter begins murdering cops in the batsuit, but how does one prove their innocence from behind a mask? Localized print versions of the series will also launch day and date in the following territories: Spain, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, France, Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, and Argentina. This was dark and gritty and contemplative - - and I loved it. Writer Tomlin makes some subtle changes to the Gotham landscape in a story of the early years of Bruce Wayne as Batman. Alfred is gone (he bailed out early due to an uncooperative young Bruce) and Bruce Wayne/Batman is a true loner, except for his psycho-therapist, Dr. Leslie Tompkins, to whom he's revealed his secret identity. Tompkins is a strong and important character, as well as Detective Blair Wong. Jim Gordon is already out of the picture, a disgraced former police officer.Batman: The Imposter – A Three-Issue Prestige Format Series Offering Up a Unique Vision of Gotham’s Dark Knight! Certainly doing something that was very grounded, and something that was a detective story, that is something I'm very interested in," he said. "But honestly, I think that it might have come from a tweet. You know, the internet goes wild, and one of the memes that was going around is something like 'Bruce Wayne would rather dress up as a bat and beat people up than go to therapy.' And I just thought, that's kind of awesome. Let's send him to therapy! And I hadn't quite seen that in a really head on kind of way before.

Bryan, Carl (2021-11-25). "Review: Batman: The Imposter #2". Dark Knight News . Retrieved 2022-11-24.When director Matt Reeves was first developing his upcoming reboot The Batman, he co-wrote the script with Mattson Tomlin, who is a filmmaker in his own right, having written and directed his debut feature Mother/Android. Although Tomlin remains uncredited on The Batman, his involvement led to him writing his own Batman comic for DC Comics, working alongside with one of the best artists working today, Andrea Sorrentino.