Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s graphic novel Batman: Year One is a pivotal piece in understanding comic in an academic setting. It is a retelling of Batman’s origin story and explores several different themes all playing into the hero’s journey and the development of Batman’s friendship with Jim Gordon. This comic also focused mainly on the criminal underworld in Gotham, rather than the iconic villains in the Batman universe. This aimed to create more of a narrative that focused heavily on characterization from internal dialogue.
The utilization of internal dialogue, matched with vibrant colors and a variety of page layouts to form the story aim to help develop the themes and reinforce the concept of justice and morality in the characters. The visual elements in Batman: Year One, specifically the use of text fonts in narration bubbles, and the use of color on a panel to panel basis, aims help develop the internal dialogue and the themes of justice and morality, which aims to allow the reader to see a new side to James Gordon, and Batman, and changed the way comics are viewed in a narrative perspective.
The use of fonts in narration speech bubbles aims to characterize and enhance the narrative, impacting the reader’s perceptions of every individual character, but mainly for James Gordon, who was given a bold font slightly different from the font in speech bubbles, with a yellow background, and from Bruce Wayne/Batman, who was given a cursive font.
Something very characteristic of this graphic novel is the amount of text on a page. Because this aims to create more of a narrative, they rely more on the use of text, both speech and internal dialogue. The graphic novel starts from the perspective of Gordon, in a jagged narration box with a yellow background. He begins, “Gotham City. Maybe it’s all I deserve, now. Maybe it’s just my time in Hell.” (Miller, 2). This is split between three different text boxes over a dark wide shot of a train. There is a strong contrast between the colors, but the tone remains the same. The color on the page remains rather monochrome, using mainly shades of blue and some black, as though to set up the mood of the comic, being rather dark conceptually. This begins to show the complex morality and theme of justice in this story. This further develops in a series of action-to-action panels on page 19. Action-to-Action sequences, according to Scott McCloud displays a single subject in a progression, and are common within superhero style narratives such as those of Jack Kirby (McCloud, 70). This series of panels on page 19 of Year One displays the character Detective Flass, getting beat up in a sequence by Gordon. The text on the page is only that of Gordon’s internal dialogue.
This series of panels maintain the darker color scheme, contrasted by Gordon’s narration bubbles, shows the complex morality, as the man that Gordon is beating up is later revealed to be harassing Gordon’s wife Barbara. It starts to show a certain amount of complexity within the characters, as Gordon is beating up a cop, but for a good reason. This series of panels is mainly blue and black, the characters for the most part being silhouetted in the frame. The colors in these panels maintaining the monochrome as the panel introduced first, with the same yellow narration box, shows that “The ideas behind the art are communicated more directly.” (McCloud, 192), while the splash of yellow and the bold jagged font is used to draw the reader’s attention. Making the main focus, the internal dialogue rather than the conflict in-panel.
The majority of Bruce’s/Batman’s internal dialogue consists of him trying to figure out the right steps towards becoming a hero. The first chapter is Bruce’s story, then the rest is Batman. It’s important to understanding the narrative, and the characterization portrayed in this story. Even from the beginning, Bruce’s internal dialogue is conflicted, he is trying to figure out his place in his own story. Bruce goes out one night, in an attempt to stop what seems to be a prostitution ring, and ends up getting beat up and knocked out. He escapes and begins to shakily speak in his internal dialogue. “… hope I didn’t … do anything stupid … getting here … done enough wrong tonight …” (Miller, 16). Bruce is showing a sense of morality, even in his dizzy state. He recognizes the risk of taking on this seemingly self-given responsibility. One of the first times the audience sees the bat-suit, is well into chapter 2. He is narrating the scene, while there is no dialogue or sound effects. There is a strong sense of motion, as these panels are also set up in an action-to-action sequence (McCloud, 70). This sets up the sequence that follows. The internal dialogue in this scene serves as the narration of what happens in the panels, as well as Batman’s internal sense of morality. “The one to my left calls for his mother — to my right the other collects his senses and leaps to position — he’ll be trouble — the strong one gets scared–too scared — no — I’m no killer –” (Miller, 31) While the audience sees these all happening in sequence, the internal dialogue is still stating these. This aims to give more detail and helps cement Batman’s internal sense of morality, as he interrupts his own narration to state he won’t kill.
The development of the relationship between James Gordon and Batman begins later, near the end of chapter two. There is a switch between their two perspectives often, sometimes between panels. They seem to be at odds at first, Batman making an off comment about Gordon stating “All the right people seem to hate him.” (Miller, 36), and Gordon stating “Batman. He’s made enemies of every criminal in Gotham — and nearly every elected official.” (Miller, 52). But then we slowly start to see this shift. Gordon later begins to come to terms with the corruption in Gotham. This panel takes up an entire page, has no gutters, and is in an all black background, with Gordon not in the middle of the frame, but rather off center and to the lower left corner. “He’s a criminal. I’m a cop. It’s that simple. But–but I’m a cop in a city where the mayor and the commissioner of police use cops as hired killers … he saved that old woman. He saved that cat. He even paid for that suit. The hunk of metal in my hands is heavier than ever.” (Miller, 70) This panel is very interesting in that we have a variety of color being used to display intense emotions, while the background of the scene is pitch black, to fit the tone. Gordon’s internal dialogue begins to shift towards the realization of the state of his role, and what he wants to do about it. And into chapter 4 of Year One, the audience no longer gets any of Batman’s internal dialogue, only Gordon’s, to reaffirm the conclusion to the character arc, and his coming to terms with his own personal concept of justice and morality.
Batman: Year One offers lots of different visual elements, that focus on several aspects of narration as well as the visual storytelling process. It’s the utilization of fonts in narration boxes aimed to set up and further characterization, as it strongly connected to the characters internal dialogue, and how the audience was able to distinguish between them. The use of color offered to set up the tone in the story, as was used to directly inform, rather than to be pleasing to the audience’s eyes. Finally, the Action-to-Action sequences were used in tune with the internal dialogue as a way to show and tell simultaneously. It was used to the advantage of the author, as well as to the audience in grasping a new understanding of this iconic superhero’s origin story in the light it was portrayed in.
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