Comic Art

Today’s comic suggestion will be a somehow alternative one, not in a groundbreaking or exclusive sense but just because it presents a decent story in a mayhem of mediocrity. I never really liked all those Elsewords comics DC occasionally publishes (or the Marvel What If? for what it’s worth), indifferent stories that apart from the profound shock of reading a medieval scenario with Count Superman fighting Rasputin and vicious aliens had nothing else to offer. Batman – Nosferatu written by Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier and illustrated by Ted McKeever was something really different, not a masterpiece but still an issue I’m happy to hold on my bookshelf.

The story is set in an alternative future Metropolis, a combination of gothic and industrial elements, which prospers under the rule of Superman and Lois Lane. However many oppose them, such as the director of Arkham Asylum, Dr. Arkham, who often presents a depraved show of death and magic starring the Laughing Man, a nightmarish version of Joker. When bizarre murders begin to take place Bruce Wayne-son and Dick Gray-son will use their powers and influence to discover the vicious murderer and those guiding him. Through the pages other well knows DC characters appear in their changed forms for this world like the Penguin, Poison Ivy, James Gordon, Jimmy Olsen, Luthor, Bane, Man-Bat and the Killer Croc, all of them pulled out of the Kafka nightmare that exists in every work of Ted McKeever.

McKeever was the main reason I found myself interested in this, his work in Metropol was astounding, but the story was also pretty well written and I soon found myself lost in this innovative Nosferatu story from the beginning to the really good finale. You might want to check the other parts of the trilogy this was the second part of, Superman’s Metropolis and Wonder Woman – The Blue Amazon, there was supposed to be a fourth part as an epilogue about the  but it was cancelled under unspecified circumstances. Enjoy!

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