At The Height Of The Most Critical Upheaval In America's History, Batman: The Blue, The Grey, And The Bat

 

This week I read Batman: the Blue, the Grey, and the Bat by Elliot S. Maggin, Alan Weiss, and José Luis García-López.

    This story is set in the midst of the Civil War, following Union General Bruce Wayne after he is sent out west to the territory of Nevada by request of President Lincoln to protect a discovery of vast gold deposits from falling into Confederate hands. To disguise himself and dumbfound his foes, the eccentric General dons the guise of The Batman, a horse-riding caped-crusader draped in Union Blue. 

    Being as much a Civil War Western as it is a Batman story, unlike in other Elseworlds Bruce is aided far more often by real-life figures than he is by variations of Batman's more traditional allies. Though he still has a Robin (reworked as an orphaned Native American whose parents were slaughtered by confederates), his closest allies throughout the story are the real-life legendary lawman James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok, President Abraham Lincoln, and writer Sam Clemens, better known in the modern day by his pen-name "Mark Twain". 

    Fast paced and dense with twists and turns, this story was both a fun Batman story and a Western in general. Without as much of a need to world build as stories such as last week's Batman Holy Terror, the creators were able to spend more time fleshing out the characters, adding subplots, and slowly escalating the stakes of the story into a satisfying conclusion. Elliot S. Maggin and Alan Weiss's story very well threads the needle between demonstrating an accurate understanding of the Civil War period of North American history without alienating readers with an only surface-level understanding. The art by Alan Weiss and José Luis García-López also matches the tone perfectly, with intricate linework and thick inking harkening back to the old pulp western stories this tale draws from as well as the political cartoons of the 1860s. 

    The biggest flaw in this story, in my opinion, is the story's depictions of Native Americans and African Americans, which while not depicted negatively, are often sidelined and shown more as assets to assist the progression of the white characters than characters in their own right. The naming of the Bat-talion of freed black soldiers who join Batman in his adventure "the Dark Knights" also felt uncomfortable. The handling of this story's Robin is probably the only real positive when it comes to this story's minority depictions, as it fairly well executes a subversion of the "Native American savage" trope to refocus the white Confederates as the true savages. This plotline did seem somewhat undeveloped though and I believe would've benefited from being given more page-space. 

   

    Overall, though weakened by it's depictions of minorities, I would consider Batman: The Blue, The Grey, And The Bat a better Batman Elseworlds than Batman: Holy Terror on account of its more developed story and characters and absence of distracting cameos which bogged down the latter (though Batman: The Blue, The Grey, And The Bat does include many real-life figures who could be considered cameos, they all work to progress the plot and bolster the central focus of the story rather than distracting from it). 

    That leaves us with this end ranking:

1. Batman: The Blue, The Grey, And The Bat
2. Batman: Holy Terror

   These last two stories have focused on a difference in the Batman story springing from a change in setting, but next week we'll be seeing how an Elseworlds story can be shaped instead by a change in the Caped Crusader himself. Stay tuned next week for a journey into a Gotham City defined not by a shining Bat-Signal in the sky but instead a glowing Green Lantern with Batman: In Darkest Knight.