Paul Gulacy

For a sci-fi story from the 80's, this story really stands out, even among the ones currently published. It's just that there's such a fun array of characters, a fascinating plot with surprise twists and turns, and some very thought-provoking matters about life and immortality and humanity, and I honestly can't complain about the art. I have my dad's old one from the 80's, and would never have known of it if he hadn't held onto his magazine collection. I absolutely loved this story, and the show more surprise ending - I shan't spoil it for you - is truly worthy. I also loved Phaedra's make-up, it might seem retro, but within the comic it was actually very lovely. It's a really creative story and though some people might consider it dated, it's honestly a classic. show less

This edition of Prey collects two stories; the first, "Prey" (duh), follows on pretty well from Matt Wagner's two Dark Moon Rising stories even though they were released later; Batman and the Monster Men ends with Hugo Strange becoming a television psychologist, and that's exactly what he's doing here, and even though nothing in "Prey" indicates they've battled before, nothing indicates they haven't, either. "Prey" is a solid early days of Batman story, capitalizing on Batman's early show more inexperience, and giving him an effective villain in the person of Strange, who actually in working psychologically here, unlike in The Monster Men. My favorite bit is something you could only pull off in the comics medium; Strange is frequently seen talking a blond woman in his apartment, but it's very late in the game that you learn she's only a mannequin. Only in comics would a mannequin be indistinguishable from an very complacent person.

The second story is "Terror," which is set about a year later, when Batman's rogues gallery was much more developed. (It takes place between Batman: Year Two: Fear the Reaper and Absolute Batman: Dark Victory, which are coming up later in this readthrough.) Both Scarecrow and Catwoman play key roles in the story. Unfortunately, it feels much less focused than its predecessor, and Strange is shockingly eliminated about halfway through. Effective as a "twist," and the repeated image of his corpse is haunting, but I kept on expecting him to come back to life somehow and set this story back on the path it seemed to begin on. A waste of a good villain if nothing else.

Batman "Year One" Stories: « Previous in sequence | Next in sequence » show less

A quintessential early Batman story. Batman is still trying to figure out how to coexist with the police force in Gotham so he won’t have to be up against both them and the criminals. He knows his greatest link is Gordon, but Gordon too must walk a tight rope within the force.

Amidst this, Dr. Hugo Strange is brought in as a specialist to assist the force in catching Batman once and for all. But the police have no idea how obsessed Strange is with Batman and he quickly takes the mission show more off the rails.

There was some more theming that questions how Batman is different than the criminals themselves and some great scenes between him and Catwoman in this volume. show less

I first became aware of this during the early run up to The Dark Knight Rises when Anne Hathaway was in as Catwoman and Tom Hardy was rumored to be Hugo Strange -- there were quite a few people who were convinced that Rises was going to be an adaptation of Prey. It's a pretty good story, with Batman facing down Hugo Strange and Catwoman for the first time. It's clearly something that came out of the wake of Year One, down to the cursive Batman narration/printed Gordon narration. I think it show more has a strong start, but sort of loses its way towards the end -- I would have liked to see more of the early Catwoman, but she seems really underused here. The art is a nice build on Mazzuchelli's work in Year zone in a few different ways and has some nicely staged fight scenes. Overall pretty solid, but not quite classic. show less