BATMAN: The Widening Gyre

Writer: Kevin Smith
Artist: Walt Flangan
Lettering: Jared K. Fletcher
Released by DC

Intertextuality is a funny thing; it only works if you get it! So when I picked up Kevin Smith’s newest attempt at rendering the Gotham landscape I was shocked to see a blending of Yeats’ Poetry, what is considered high literature, with the superhero genre, which is usually regarded in a less then prestigious light, coalescing in a dialogue suited for Clerks III. Comical, yes, but just not the right style for the brooding bat. As each issue progresses Smith seems to figure out which characters, like the wisecracking Robin and the cougaresque Catwoman, are more suited to his askew eccentricities and bawdy jokes. Thankfully Smith finds his stride after the free-for-all of the 1^st issue. Combining some of the heaviest hitters from the Rouges Gallery, including Baron Blitzkrieg, Poison Ivy, Etrigan, Croc and the Joker in one plot structure. Smith also sets up the continuing story arch which introduces a new masked vigilante and flirts with the idea of the dark knight,hanging up his cape and cowl and retiring into the arms of our favorite bombshell Silver St. Cloud to the become Bruce Wayne he is thinks he is searching for.

Each villain, even if only seen for one panel adds another layer of intertext to the plot, especially when you follow the schizophrenic story line. As Smith explained it, the series will have twelve issues split into two six-issue books. Issue # 1 will run through September 2009 to April 2010 and, after a six-month hiatus, Book 2 will run through July 2010 and through December 2010. This split in release dates mimics the intertextual outline of the title, a line from the William Butler Yeats poem "The Second Coming" located below.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

~William Butler Yeats

Yeats’ poem uses Christian imagery concerning the Apocalypse and second coming allegorically to describe the atmosphere in post-war Europe. As each Issue is released it is entitled after the next segment in the poem: Issue #1 - the widening gyre, #2 - Turning and turning, #3 - the falconer, #4 - Things fall apart, #5 - centre cannot hold, and #6 - Mere anarchy.

The gyre is representative of a theory of history and metaphysics, drawn from Yeats's book A Vision, which he claimed to receive from spirits. The theory centers on a diagram composed of two conic helixes or gyres, one situated inside the other circling in a continuous cycle. Yeats claimed that model captured the contrary motions inherent in the process and access of history in the lives of the individual. This model is indicative of the caped crusader constantly cycling duel identities within himself which is played out again and again through Batman’s personal history as he constantly faces his laundry list of villains: never escaping, never faltering, until now. His Personal History is set in a model of perpetual motion, forever repeating, because of his traumatic beginning.

The intermix of poetic line and reasoning, allows Smith to transgress through the Batman universe pulling in past exploits and battles to inform the current situations. The flashbacks are creatively constructed with a washed out colour pallet and more traditional character design harking back to a mid sixties Bat with a flamboyant bowl cut boy wonder. There is even an instance where Catwoman tries to seduce Batman, in Issue # 5, wearing Eartha Kit’s purple and pink ensemble as a throwback to the glory days of Adam West and the live action series. The story line parallels the Bat’s internal identity struggle, reinforcing it by collapsing the past, present and future. The attack of Barron Blitzkrieg allows for Batman to Patrol with Dick Grayson as Nightwing, and flashbacks to remind the reader of the Dynamic Duo when Dick still donned Robins Green and Red, while at the same time reminding us of the present Robin, Tim Drake, over the intercom while the whole cataclysm of remembrance and resurgence is tied up by the future savior Baphomet. Smith seems to be trying to saturate the plot with so much memorabilia that from chaos a new hero will emerge, rather than a re-envisioning, but at this point it’s unclear which character will survive as the protector of Gotham.