Book Review JIM Starlin Batman THE Cult

BOOK REVIEW JIM STARLIN BATMAN THE CULT 1988 DC Comics

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An epic scale Batman graphic novel adventure in which Gotham City is taken over successfully and completely by a sinister religious cult leader called Deacon Blackfire.

Batman investigates a series of missing people cases and finds that the homeless are vanishing from the streets in droves. Investigating, he discovers a very literal underground movement, as the cult that Blackfire is running is operating from a secret base in the Gotham City Sewers.

Batman is captured, and chained up in the sewers where Blackfire brainwashes him with drugs and endless sermons, and food deprivation. When Blackfire sends his army of devotees out to attack the criminals on the streets and also to take down any political opponents able to stand up to him, Batman is among their ranks, though his instincts to help him to save some from assassination. 

Escaping with the aid of Robin, Batman escapes from Gotham, which becomes a private state, preparing for a siege against the US army who are due to take it back for America. Batman is pushed to the brink of giving up altogether, shocked by having been turned into a follower and by his failure to save many. Even Commissioner Gordon has been shot and wounded and forced out of town.

Finally deciding to attack the city and take it back, Batman. with Robin, goes in with a new souped up Batmobile,  firing tranquilliser darts and gas jets to take down innocent cult members.

On getting to Blackfire, he finds that the crazed preacher has a death wish and a desire for martyrdom and hopes to be killed off to become a new Christ figure. Batman pulverizes him until he begs for mercy so that his followers are shocked out of their complacency and belief. Angry at being duped, they tear Blackfire to pieces and Batman is unable to prevent it.  

Excitement and tension abound, but it’s a highly predictable story on so many levels. Only the extent of Batman’s seduction into the cult is a surprise, as with the level of violence, with hangings and beheadings galore. Robin gets more to do than in many stories, saving Batman but eventually becoming a helpless victim of the rampaging mobs and reduced to screaming for help.

The writer seems unsure as to depict Blackfire as an outright charlatan or as having genuine mystical powers, with hints to him both being in it for the money and having been an immortal, active for hundreds of years. It’s a fun story but certainly a flawed one. The biggest problem for me is Batman being a prisoner in chains for a week or more. A/. No one thinks to unmask him. B/. Though Robin searches for Batman, no one asks why millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne also seems to have vanished for so long such unconvincing unanswered questions ruin the story for me.

Arthur Chappell