BATMAN: EARTH ONE VOL.2

我是個容易分心的大叔，正在看Star Wars小說的中途忽然回頭看Batman，難怪我看書的進度會如此緩慢。

這次看的是Batman Earth One系列的第二集。以下的故事撮要取自Wikipedia。

The events depicted in Volume Two occur six months after those of Volume One. A mysterious serial killer who calls himself "The Riddler," is murdering people in Gotham, hoping to get Batman’s attention.

Elsewhere, after losing track of one of the drug dealers he fought during a car chase, Wayne has Lucius Fox (who is promoted as the Head of Wayne Enterprises' Research and Development department) build him a custom-made race car. Prior to Batman’s first appearance, there were numerous sightings of “Killer Croc,” who was lurking in Gotham’s sewers.

Bullock remains traumatized over the travesties that occurred in Arkham Manor; Gordon tries to help Bullock to combat his alcoholism. Gordon needs Bullock as an ally in order to combat crime in Gotham.

Jessica Dent comes to Wayne Manor to visit Bruce in the hopes that, as the CEO of Wayne Enterprises, he could help her find five of the remaining members of Oswald Cobblepott's criminal organization within the city’s legislature. Despite Cobblepott’s death, his criminal empire remains active because of these five members. The corrupt officials have taken over the city’s police department, housing commission, public works, city council and the state court. With her brother, Jessica is desperate to find the officials in order to destroy Cobblepott’s legacy once and for all. Batman seeks Detective Gordon’s help in uncovering the identities of these corrupt officials.

After a bombing, Batman chases the Riddler who is challenging him. Batman falls off a balcony and meets an attractive woman in her apartment after she tends his injuries.

Seeing Gordon’s excellence as a detective, Batman asks Gordon to train him in forensics and deduction. As they track their murderous suspect to the sewers, Batman encounters Waylon Jones, a benign but mutated man whom the media dubbed “Killer Croc,” who is seeking refuge underground out of fear of society’s discrimination over his genetic disorder. With Jones' help, Batman discovers the Riddler's hideout; however, Batman fails to stop him from bombing a rapid transit train. Using discovered clues, Batman deduces that these killings were not random; they were actually targeted. Batman leaves Gordon an encrypted cellphone for the detective to contact him, calling it his "Bat-Signal".

Jessica reveals to Bruce that she knows he is Batman. With new information from Gordon, Bruce discovers the Riddler is targeting the people who Jessica and her brother are trying to find. Bruce is later accused of being the Riddler after the real Riddler frames him in an attempt to divert Gordon's investigation, but Jessica is able to provide Bruce an alibi so he is not arrested. During a riot at the police precinct caused by the Riddler, Cobblepott’s former henchman Sal Maroni fatally stabs Harvey Dent. Maroni then disfigures the district attorney with a Molotov cocktail before he dies. Jessica, in her grief, scars the left side of her face to match her brother’s. After chasing the Riddler (and with Waylon Jones’ help) Batman subdues the killer.

After he is cleared of all charges, Bruce generously writes a check to help the city's police department rebuild their precinct. Bullock begins to recover from his alcoholism. Batman offers Jones a place in Wayne Manor seeking his help in finding a location to hide his “Batmobile.”

After Gordon arrests a police captain who was one of Cobblepott's lieutenants, he is promoted to captain. In the epilogue, the woman who Batman met is revealed to be a cat burglar, who is now obsessed with him.

本作是EARTH ONE的續作，顧名思義，這是52個多元宇宙中的Earth-1，世界觀當然與正傳世界(Prime Earth)有所不同。

要說主要不同的話，我會說本作是比較貼近現實的。當然，有Batman這種超級英雄本身已不會是現實得哪裡。

既然是較為現實向，那當然會有部份情節調侃Prime Earth 的Batman，例如本作的Batman不會忽然消失的技倆，在本作中，Gordon與Batman在下水道聊天，Gordon說完一大堆說話後轉過身，已不見Batman的影踪，讀者們大概會覺得沒啥特別吧，反正他每次都是這樣離開的。可是下一個畫面就見到Batman只是蹲下來經去水道離開，這下我可會心微笑了一下。

此外，本作也有介紹一下Batman的有名玩具：Batmobile。不好意思，戰車在本作中並沒有露面，Batman只是駕著普通的汽車，本作是是交代Bruce Wayne用銀彈來讓製作Batmobile的團隊閉嘴，不要多問製作車子的原因。最終，車子被Killer Croc移送到一處「合適的地方」，相信會是這個世界的Batcave罷，不過這大概要到Vol. 3才能面世，嗯……如果Geoff Johns還有興趣再寫下去的話。

說到Killer Croc，他是本作中出現的一批新角色之一，與我們所熟悉的Killer Croc不同，在這個世界中，他只是個患有皮膚病的可憐之人，更徹頭徹尾是個好人，故也成為了Batman的朋友，頗有趣呀。於是本作中只有一個反派，那就是同樣首次出場的Riddler。這一次他不是個為興趣而犯案的瘋子，他是在背後支持Penguin支配Gotham的五名謀士之一，在Penguin死後，為了能全面接管Penguin的事業，於是設計殺死其餘四人，他那些看似是無差別殺人的手法，其實只是為了掩飾自己的身份和目的，所以就算是Batman答中了他的謎題，他照樣會下手。當然，他最終也敵不過Batman了，正義必勝嘛。

除了上述兩個耳熟能詳的角色外，Two-face也出場了。不過這個著名角色在這個世界又有了一點不同，他化身成Harvey Dent和Jessica Dent兩兄妹，前者也不用多提了，後者則是與Bruce有過一段情，並一早得知Bruce就是Batman。Harvey看來是個嚴重的戀妹狂，看到Bruce與妹妹在一起就會發颷，最終他在監獄暴動中被毀爛右半邊臉而死，妹妹精神失常下把臉也湊過去，於是倖存的Two-face就是Jessica Dent了。她也在Harvey死後得了人格分裂，從此兩兄妹共用一副身體了。不過她也只會在下一集(如有)才會有所發揮吧。

最後一個驚喜，就是Batman在中段一次交戰中被Riddler打暈，醒來發現自己被一個年輕女子所救，當時他身上的衣服已被褪下來，只餘下面罩，Bruce也不以為意。最終在結尾才知曉，那個女的原來就是Selena aka Catwoman。看來知道Batman真正身份的人越來越多了。

總括而言，本作的劇情緊湊，沒有冷場，動作場面豐富，所以很快就能看完這個150多頁的故事。雖然新意不大，但從另一個角度觀看Batman漫畫，就算是舊瓶新酒，也總能讓我滿足。之後就是觀看其他Earth-1故事了！


80分。