World Famous Comics: Batman: No Man's Land, Vol. 5
Batman: No Man's Land, Vol. 5
By: Devin Grayson, Greg Rucka Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: DC Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 208 Publication Date: April 01, 2001 Release Date: April 01, 2001
Product Description: Fans of Batman are lucky to get Greg Rucka--the talented, gritty young author of Keeper and Finder, among others--sharing time with their favorite licensed character in this novelization of DC's complete No Man's Land comic series. (And fans of Rucka--assuming they get around to reading this at all--will still likely hold the opinion that Atticus Kodiak could take Batman in a standup fight any day.) DC shook up Gotham--literally--in its 1999 Batman plot arc: a 7.6 earthquake rocked Gotham City, wreaking enough destruction to bring the broken, crime-ridden, runt kid-brother of Metropolis and New York to its knees. In the story line's most indulgent liberty, those fat cats in Washington decide to write off Gotham, +รก la Escape from New York, blowing up the connecting bridges, mining the surrounding waterways, and signing into law the Federal Declaration of No Man's Land, which makes it a crime to even set foot in the city. The usual suspects from Arkham Asylum, Two-Face and the Penguin, the Riddler and Dr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Mr. Zsasz, file out to begin running the show, strong-arming and manipulating the block-by-block turf battles that envelop the now-ultraviolent city. A conflicted Batman shows up fashionably late, only to find that these lunatics are the least of his worries: Lex Luthor, Superman's archfoe, has nefarious designs on Gotham too. Could this possibly get any better? Sure, No Man's Land is derivative fiction, but the appeal of Rucka--and, of course, Batman--can make this one worth the read. --Paul Hughes
Not A Bad Ending After suffering through the 4 previous trades leading up to this I was expecting the ending to suck. However i was quite surprised. The last book pulled it together and provided me with a satisfying ending. The story wasn't as jumpy in this book and I enjoyed it. However if you didn't read the previous books you'll have trouble following it.
If you want to run the gauntlet and read the whole series I will say the ending is great but you might just want to read what it is online and save yourself the time and money.
Meh The whole "No Man's Land" saga is a little tedious. Don't get me wrong, I do own them all and I read through it about once a year.
This is kind of weird time for Batman where they were basically trying to reboot the book into the "New Gotham" look and we got arty books like "Evolution". I picked this up trying to piece together the history referenced in Bruce Wayne's speech during the "Fugitive" Epilogue.
This is the kind of book that will appeal to the OCD collectors like myself that want to have all the Batman books, but I wouldn't recommend as the first Batman thing you read.
Gotham redeemed... When Gotham was reduced to broken buildings and rubble by an earthquake registering 7.6 on the Richter scale, the city was deemed to be beyond repair by Congress. Gotham was evacuated and then its bridges blown up, its tunnels made inaccesible, its waterways mined. Those who remained in this No Man's Land were very much on their own. Without law and order, without electricity and running water, without its champion the Batman, Gotham descended into anarchy. Urban warfare erupted, as gangs carved up their own tribal territories and terrorized the weak and the innocent. One hundred days later, the Dark Knight finally appeared.
BATMAN: NO MAN'S LAND was published nearly a decade ago, so none of this is really top secret stuff anymore. Still, SPOILERS alert for the following:
BATMAN: NO MAN'S LAND Volume 5 is the final entry in the trades collecting the year-long No Man's Land story arc, which originally published in 1999. It starts with "Ground Zero," a 52-paged tale which takes us back to the early days of No Man's Land and fills in the gap between Bruce Wayne's failed attempt to influence Congress and Batman's eventual return to Gotham. This story also details how the Huntress became Batgirl. Bolstering the must-read factor is some of fantabulous artist Greg Land's early work.
Back to present-day No Man's Land. By the 312th day, most of the gangs and supervillains have been taken out. After grueling months of scheming and feverish fighting, Batman finally senses an ending. In "Shellgame" Lex Luthor begins his publicity campaign to "save" Gotham and the Joker feels left out (never a good thing). As these issues begin, Batman and Commissioner Gordon may have reconciled but the same can't be said for Batman and the Huntress. The Huntress has joined up with vicious ex-cop Pettit and his Strong Boys, and, certainly, Batman believes there'll be some fallout from that. "Endgame" is the big finale to No Man's Land and features a Batman engaged in a showdown on two fronts - with Luthor, as his real estate takeover is revealed and with Joker, who on Christmas Eve has kidnapped Gotham's babies. It all culminates with Gotham City at last on its way to recovery, but there is also one final shattering tragedy.
NO MAN'S LAND is one of the most ambitious storylines the Batman brain trust has ever attempted, and, if Wikipedia's right, only about half of the related comic book issues made it into these trade collections. I really enjoyed this huge story arc, a bit more even than KNIGHTFALL (see Batman: Knightfall, Part One: Broken Bat), which is also tremendous. I won't even harp too much on that the overall artwork failed to match the epic feel of this comic book event. But I'm into post-apocalyptic adventures, and this one definitely qualifies. And not only does NO MAN'S LAND focus on the Bat, but his supporting cast also gets plenty of attention. Sharp character development went into Oracle, James Gordon and Sarah Essen, the Huntress, and the near-mute Cassandra Cain. Cassandra, in particular, emerges as my favorite character in all this, and it was pretty inevitable that she would garner her own monthly series as the all new, all different, all kick-@&& Batgirl. Matter of fact, if I could point out one of the few faults in this trade, it's that Batgirl isn't much on-camera. Okay, I also didn't like that, most of the time here, Robin simply skulked around, keeping tabs on the Huntress and the Strong Boys. But these petty quibbles of mine don't change the fact that NO MAN'S LAND is a gripping, intense, and - despite the sometimes dubious artwork - well-presented adventure.
FYI: BATMAN: NO MAN'S LAND Volume 5 collects BATMAN #573-574, BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #126, BATMAN: NO MAN'S LAND #0, BATMAN: SHADOW OF THE BAT #94, and DETECTIVE COMICS #740-741.
As I've mentioned elsewhere, for those who just don't have the time or inclination to read the five trades collecting BATMAN: NO MAN'S LAND, Greg Rucka adapted the thing into a truly terrific novel (Batman: No Man's Land).
Great final chapter of epic saga This is a great ending to this epic tale. I highly recommend it for any Batman fans. It has a shocker of an ending and things in the Batman universe are changed forever. Great writing and art make for an enjoyable tale even though the changing focus on different characters can be a little distracting.
A Fair Ending... So, the first couple volumes of "No Man's Land" were excellent, possibly the best part of a series I have ever read...then came volume three. Starting with volume three, each story was hit and miss. Some were good, others were mediocre, and some...far below the 'good' line. This one is pretty much more of the hit and miss. However, it has a great ending that I'm pretty sure would please anyone who likes Batman at all. Not as great as the first couple volumes, but definatly not a waste of your time or money, "Batman: No Man's Land, Vol. 5" gets a 3 out of 5.
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