Though we love them, Tim Burton’s two Batman films have a few loose ends. Batman Returns might be a little tighter, but sometimes feels more like a soft reboot. Author John Jackson Miller has swooped down to tighten the links between the two. Following in the footsteps of Craig Shaw Gardner who novelized the Burton films, Miller brings us Batman: Resurrection. For the first time in years, I want to revisit Burton’s Batman, because Miller resurrected my interest.
Set a few months after the first film, the novel gives us a Gotham City still twitchy from the Joker’s reign of terror. Bruce Wayne suffers nightmares of that night in the bell tower, his subconscious convincing him the Joker still lives. At least he can take some action in funding a hospital ward for the victims of Smylex, the nerve toxin that comic fans know well.
One victim, aspiring actor Basil Karlo, falls prey to an even more horrific variant. Again, fans will recognize that Miller has brought Clayface into this world, but as in Batman Returns, we’re not just seeing the rise of one villain. Besides, Karlo may be a monster, but like Karloff’s monster, he’s more than a little misunderstood.
Batman: Resurrection accomplishes what the films had little time to do — truly get inside everyone’s heads. Bruce is far from invulnerable, and still figuring out how to best use the technology at his disposal. Miller also drops hints that Bruce hasn’t fully figured out a hard line between his personas. It’s a tricky line to walk when he finds both selves working with Commissioner Gordon and reporter Alexander Knox.
Miller’s use of Knox redeems the character. Absent from the second film, Knox stays vaguely irritating here, but starts to become important to Batman’s crusade against crime. That crusade also gets some examination. Batman Forever awkwardly addressed it (Peter David’s novelization went deeper), but Miller also draws a hard line that that’s a different continuity.
He’s subtle about it. The book teems with Easter eggs, tying up loose threads big and small in both movies. Max Schreck and Selina Kyle both appear, but more to start building a bridge to Batman Returns than being key players. Miller gives Julie Madison a larger part to play, but again, with a destiny different than what you may have missed in Batman and Robin.
The novel also loosely adapts a major villain’s arc from comics, but carefully not pushing too hard past plausibility. That’s a fun element in general; Bruce, Alfred, and Jim Gordon are all reasonably constrained by 1989 technology. It’s still science fiction, but not wildly so.
Back to Clayface — Miller creates a blend of various comics incarnations, but it’s great to see a personality that’s almost back to that initial 1940 appearance. It makes sense; something about Burton’s film felt like Gotham City had remained rooted in the 1940s as the rest of the world moved on.
All in all, Batman: Resurrection provides a welcome return to Burton’s world, with a clearer eye that warrants seeing the story continue. It will, with another novel next year. In the meantime, enjoy diving back in here and then in DC’s Batman 89 comics, which take place after Batman Returns.
The only thing missing in this novel is Prince. But you can put the album on and listen as you read. Have a Bat-party, man.
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