Batman and the Mad Monk is a retelling of the 1939 adventure of Batman's encounter with the strange villain known as "The Monk."



The 1939 tale re-appeared in one of the DC "giant-size" issues during the 70's. The wikepedia entry on the monk ( don't read it if you don't want the story to be spoiled ) states that the Monk reappeared years later as well.

<B>Batman and the Mad Monk #1</B> takes place in the continuity of Matt Wagner's ( Mage, Grendel ) prior arc, <B>Batman and the Monster Men</B>. While you don't really have to know anything about that arc, there are brief discussions about Hugo Strange, the villain from the prior arc, which occur in the new story.

Batman and the Mad Monk #1 is set in a sort of "year one" continuity; Gordon is still a police captain, the city government is still basically corrupt, Catwoman is just appearing on the scene as a villain, and Bruce Wayne is still dating Julie Madison.

( Note: Although Madison had been an actress in the 1940's-era Batman comics, she was reintroduced as a law-student in Batman and the Monster Men. )

The story opens as Batman encounters the villain he mentally refers to as "this... Cat-woman." They tangle briefly. A follow-on conversation with Gordon about Hugo Strange causes Bruce to be late for his date with Ms. Madison.

Gordon introduces a new mystery to our caped-crusader; a series of mysterious killings that have a morbid pattern about them.

We're introduced to Julie's father, who seems to be self-tortured about something relating to Batman.

The issue closes with a gruesome look at those who have been committing the mysterious killings.

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Like most modern comics, the story is paced a bit too slowly for my tastes. I like to think that there's a bigger story brewing here, though.

Having said that, the issue was really enjoyable. We get to see a couple of action scenes and are getting to see new depth applied to older characters.

Wagner both wrote and drew the issue; the combination of the two often leads to an unparalleled synergy that makes for precise storytelling.

I'm going to follow this series to #6 simply because I can't wait for the trade. If they reprint the original 1939 story, I may pick up the trade as well.

The classic story ends with an action that's later defined to be out-of-character for the Batman. I'm anxious to see how Wagner ties this up.

thanks, Jim. I may pick this up. But I may not, as that slow story disease kills me. One downside of a limited series these days is that I am virtually guaranteed that the writer pitched one central story idea, and managed to spread it out over 6 issues.

The 52 miniseries has taught me a lot about the limitless ability to spread things out. I once thought 52 would be chock full of continuity changing developments every week, with the Big Three featured on almost every page. Instead, it's a meandering fest of "what can we do to fill this week?" and "how are we ever going to write 52 of these?"

I found it harder to read this issue than I did the first arc, but I still love the art. I wish all of his women didn't look angry enough to kill the Batman everytime they saw him.

BTW ... the original story appears as the first entry in volume 1 of <B>The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told</B>.

I really enjoyed the Monster Men series, and Mad Monk is off to a great start. I wish the price tag were a bit lower ($3.50 for a Batman mini-series without any extra story pages is a bit steep, but I guess they aren't expecting this one to sell as many copies as a typical issue of Detective), but I'm willing to pay it for a book like this.

I just read the final issue a couple of weeks ago and thought I would wrap up my commentary on the series.

While I enjoyed the first few issues, the last few really failed to hold my interest. I was really disappointed with the ending.



My hopes were not answered. The story was stretched out waaaay too long.



He changes the original ending; he ensures that the Batman we see is in continuity with most of the Batman stories told.