This…
...is the Batman & Robin Annual that's just been published by DC Comics.
It’s quite pleasant, in the way that Batman comics can be
when they’re not tethered down by whichever group-wide or company-wide
cross-over they’re lashed to in any given month.
The plot’s quite simple and also quite charming: Junior Batman, current Robin and Bruce Wayne’s lab-grown son Damian makes his way across Europe, sending messages to his father via iPad (or whatever the non-real-brand DC analogue for such things is). Daddy then follows this trail, finding unexpected items along the way. Obviously there’s a little more to it than that but you may want to read the comic yourself and it’s not my place to spoil it for you (though I will say that Bruce should have spotted Damian’s plan within one panel of the boy outlining it).
What entertained me most about the book was that Peter J.
Tomasi and Ardian Syaf, writer and artist respectively, did a bit of research
about the cities Damian and Bruce visit.
For a start, Damian’s first message to Bruce is shot in
front of the British Museum (though this is not named as such). This is the
panel in question…
…and this is the actual frontage of the BM.
Now, to somebody who’s lived in London for years and years
and who knows it pretty well, this comes as something of a shock. Surely every
American comic portrayal of my city knows that London is populated by Cockneys in flat caps, black taxis that
look like Chryslers, and badly-drawn Routemasters that could pass for furniture-removal
vans?
It gets a little more interesting when Bruce and Alfred the
butler get to London themselves, and head for the Lanesborough Hotel. Here’s
the comic version…
…And here’s the reality.
Pretty close, eh? Even more impressive is the part-obscured
roadsign on the opposite corner from the comicbook hotel; it reads ‘Lanesborough Place’, which is
technically the road in which the Lanesborough stands, although in reality it’s
on Knightsbridge.
The only problem I have with this is that it’s too damn
quiet. The Lanesborough overlooks Park Lane and Hyde Park Corner, which are not
the quiet, Mary Poppins-esque traditional London sidestreets they seem to be
from the map. They’re actually part of the busiest three-lane gyratory road
systems in the city, and regardless of the hour they and the streets
surrounding them are flowing with traffic.
But, you know what, it’s a comic so we’ll allow some
artistic licence and move on.
Now it just so happens that Barcelona is one of my favourite
cities in the world, second only to London, and it’s one I’ve spent a lot of
time in. As we’ve already seen Damian in front of an iconic building associated
with a specific city, it’s a good move to avoid repeating the trick. The easy
option to identify Barcelona would be La Sagrada Familia…
…but that’s a big old place without an easily-recognisable
frontage like the British Museum has; everybody knows the multiple spires, but how
many would get it from the main entrance? So instead, there’s this…
…the Lizard from Parc Guell, one of Gaudi’s indelible stamps
upon the city he made his own in a way that no other architect has in any other
city (except perhaps Oscar Niemeyer with Brasilia, but that’s all harsh and
modern and angular while Gaudi’s Barcelona just flows). Here’s the real one:
And it’s here that an element of doubt creeps in. It would
be lovely to think that both Mr. Tomasi and Mr. Syaf did this Grand Tour
themselves, leaving footprints for their fictional charges to follow. But in
putting together this post, my research into photographs for the real locations
has been nothing more taxing than dipping into a hotel’s website, or relying on
my own knowledge and memories of the cities involved, or, mostly, looking them
up on Wikipedia. That’s where (despite having many photos of all three of my
own, real photos on real paper in real albums) I obtained the pictures of the
BM, of La Sagradi, and of Parc Guell.
Admittedly, even this low level of picture research is more
than you’d usually get in an American superhero comic (see above re London
pictorial clichés), but it’s still a slight disappointment – even if it’s a
self-inflicted one – to let go of the idea of the two men, separately or
together, clutching suitcases and ramming trilbies down onto their heads as
they dash for that all important Spain – Greece connecting flight.
It’s in Greece that Mr. Syaf actually does let me down a little. Admittedly, the landmark in this sequence isn’t named as such, but it’s pretty much obvious it’s meant to be The Parthenon.
It’s in Greece that Mr. Syaf actually does let me down a little. Admittedly, the landmark in this sequence isn’t named as such, but it’s pretty much obvious it’s meant to be The Parthenon.
Except, this is a fairly cut-down Parthenon:
See? Just not enough columns!
Eventually Bruce ends up in London again, where he meets up
with Damian and where Alfred’s been indulging in his old career of acting,
because if you haven’t acted in years all you have to do is turn up at The
Globe and they’ll let you take a major role in that night’s performance because
after all it’s only Shakespeare and….
Gahhhhhh!
Now then: the comicbook Globe...
... is very much like the real
one...
...and that’s underlined by the fact that Bruce and Damian wait for Alfred by
a fence outside the main arena. Even if you only take the Wikipedia photo as
reference, the point of view’s been changed enough to keep the building fresh
but still recognisable. Good work, Mr. Syaf. The only thing that spoils this is, again, that The Globe is
on a busy stretch of the South Bank, a pedestrianised stretch that is very
nearly always full of people enjoying a stroll by the river or taking in some
ART, for the South Bank is very much the cultural centre of the capital and you
can’t walk more than ten paces without hitting some street theatre at the very
least. Also, it’s a bugger to cycle along; too many changes of level and banks
of steps, but that’s true of the river in general – it’s impossible to go more
than ten minutes without having to lose sight of the water. But that's just something that annoys me, and you probably don't give a monkey's, do you?
One last thing: Bruce Wayne is a rich man. A very rich man.
Possibly one of the richest men in the whole fictional DC Comics world if not
actually The Richest. I can quite happily believe this. What I can’t believe is
that he’d wear an off-the-peg suit. Especially one of these…
Ted Baker! Ted bleeding Baker! Might as well send Alfred
down to French Connection while you’re at it! Actually, Alfred's right, it'd be perfect for travelling because you wouldn't care about getting it creased up, or spilling airline food down it. And that applies anywhere in the world.
