One of the great things about comics are alternate-reality scenarios. The No Man’s Land series, which spans four reasonably thick volumes, is an excellent specimen, offering most (if not all) of the significant Batman villains, while providing a fresh look at relatively stale heroes including Batman, Commissioner Gordon, Oracle, and Huntress.

The premise is simple: Gotham City has suffered several major catastrophes, which are covered in a separate story arc aptly named Batman: Cataclysm, and has been left to rot by the US government. We’re told in flashback that there were significant political debates and a mass evacuation, but in the end the seedier, poorer, unlucky, and more stubborn elements stayed in the ruined city. The isolation is akin to Snake Plissken’s predicaments in Escape from New York and Escape from LA. As a result a new pecking order takes hold: tribal gangs. The gangs vie for territory and inevitably brush up against each other.

Unlike traditional comic story arcs, which generally have a single super-complicated story line, No Man’s Land approaches the premise with an episodic style. As events unfold they impact the future, but everything is told through vignettes.

The most interesting vignette is first in the collection and features Commissioner Gordon as the leader of the Blue Boys. Essentially the remains of Gotham’s police force have formed a gang. While Jim Gordon’s intentions are good, his police behave exactly like criminals: they forage for supplies, tag territory, and kill rivals when necessary. This story line revisits a central Batman philosophical question: do the ends justify the means? In the story these questions are raised bluntly: there is no more official law, so what gives Gordon’s gang its authority? Throughout this particular episode Batman is distinctly absent, a ploy to make the reader wonder if the Dark Knight has abandoned his city.

The vignettes remain interesting through the end of the volume, but never recapture their initial power. All in all, Batman: No Man’s Land is an engaging post-apocalyptic read.

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