Happy one year anniversary to "The Batman"! Since its release, the film would go on to be one of the best movies of 2022 and a sequel is set for release for October 2025. To celebrate, I wanted to take a look at a comic considered as a recommendation for fans of the film: "Batman: The Imposter".
Written by Mattson Tomlin with art by Andrea Sorrentino, "The Imposter" was a three-part miniseries focused on a young Batman hunting down a killer copycat while trying to evade capture himself. The book was released through DC's Black Label imprint, another one of which I reviewed back in 2019 with "Batman: Damned." Besides "Damned" and "The Imposter", the only other Black Label Batman series I've read include "Last Knight on Earth" by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo and "Three Jokers" by Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok. Between the four books, I've noticed a pattern: each have a good premise with amazing artwork but by the end leave me disappointed in some respect. So going back to "The Imposter" a year after first reading it, have those feelings changed towards this story in particular? Eh, not really, but they have softened a bit.
Those who loved the gritty tone of "The Batman" may be interested to know that Mattson Tomlin had an uncredited writing contribution to the script and is signed on to write the sequel with Matt Reeves in an official capacity. That said, Tomlin brings that same feel to "The Imposter", but with an even more grounded approach. The Bruce Wayne and Batman we see in this story is very close to Robert Pattinson's portrayal with his obsessiveness, with Tomlin doing an even deeper psych profile on the character and shows how very close Bruce could have been to being a serial killer (make your own Patrick Bateman comparisons here). The costume is a dead ringer for the film's version aside from a more traditional bat-symbol on the chest. Where it differs though is the lack of highly stylized gadgets. There's no Batmobile or grapnel imbedded in the gauntlet and closest thing to a batarang are double-edged throwing blades. It makes for a Batman that comes across as someone who you would believe is some street fighter and in turn makes him as fallible as the "Earth One" version of the character. Whereas "Earth One" could be compared to Brian Michael Bendis' more optimistic approach to Marvel's Ultimate Universe, "The Imposter" would be similar to the dark Mark Millar stories.
Going off that comparison, the Gotham on display is one of the more cynical and somewhat realistic versions I've seen. In this universe, Batman never became fully accepted by the city; his very partnerships with mainstay characters like Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent lead to their careers being ruined after an attempt to bring down corrupt judges resulted in no charges against them due to Batman's involvement and multiple criminals being released after having their cases overturned. And yeah, let's be honest, vigilantes just don't fly with the law by real world standards. And aside from Leslie Thompkins in a more reluctant capacity, Bruce has no allies to call upon at this point in his career. Yes, even Alfred isn't present with this version having abandoned Bruce at a young age after being unable to deal with the boy's needs following his parents' murder. While this is a less traditional Batman story outside the mainstream comics continuity, it's really hard to swallow Alfred Pennyworth of all people leaving Bruce behind, especially as a child.
While not the main focus, "The Imposter" does give us a glimpse at some of Batman's rogues gallery in this universe. Given the grounded approach, we don't see anyone too fantastic or colorful. We have brief shots of Penguin, Black Mask, and Zsasz as well as non-supervillain depictions of Ventriloquist and Ratcatcher, both of whom have pivotal roles in the story. There also seems to be a Joker tease in the final moments of the book, but it's kind of hard to tell; if it's similar to what we've seen of Barry Keoghan's brief moments as the character in Reeves' film, then it's quite possible the Joker could fit here with this world as well.
Andrea Sorrentino was a great choice of artist for a book like this. His dark, gritty, and sometimes realistic style is perfect for Batman, especially one of this nature. One of the highlights of his artwork in "The Imposter" is how detailed the action scenes are; Sorrentino makes sure to pinpoint the damage being inflicted on or by Batman, from bullet wounds to broken bones and even shards of glass being stuck in the cowl. However, there are times where choices in panel structure or coloring can make it hard to follow what's happening in some scenes. This kind of hurt the identity reveal of the imposter Batman in the book's climax during my first read through, but I will admit I picked up more details and clues leading up to it the next time around.
Something I feel the need to talk about is how there seemed to be some miscommunication with the marketing department concerning the book. In the solicitations for the first issue and description on the back of the trade collection I have, it says Batman has been active for less than a year and that the imposter is a plan by Gotham's power brokers to discredit Batman and have the GCPD bring him down. In the actual story though, Bruce has been Batman for over three years. And while the one percent doing something about Batman is a theory in the first issue, it doesn't really go any further from there and could be considered a red herring. Now to be fair, while I think how the book was described would have been a good story in itself, the way the story actually goes still works as it's treated as a mystery we're trying to solve along with Batman. I guess it's not false advertising, but I think it would affect one's expectations.
Overall, "The Imposter" is a unique Batman comic in its approach and art style, for better and worse, and I certainly wouldn't mind a follow-up story in the future. I wouldn't recommend this as someone's first Batman comic (especially not for kids), but if you have basic knowledge of the character or indeed want something similar to "The Batman", give it a go.
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