The Riddler: Year One (2022-) #4

The Riddler: Year One (2022-) #4

by Paul Dano, Bill Sienkiewicz (Cover Art), Stevan Subić (Penciller)

After a shocking discovery that unleashes a primal scream, we are sent back into Edward Nashton’s past. Like drifting through a nightmare, we experience Edward’s traumatic upbringing, beginning with with an abandoned baby howling on the steps of the Gotham Orphanage. Through the filter of Edward’s memories, we experience his brutal past, but also learn about a once-possible hope-a hope that was dashed and that led to his lifelong obsession with and hatred of Thomas Wayne. Actor Paul Dano (The Batman) and artist Stevan Subic continue the origin of the Riddler, leading up to his appearance in Matt Reeves’s epic film.

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics

38 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 25, 2023

About the author

Paul Franklin Dano is an American actor. He began his career on Broadway. He won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance for his role in L.I.E. (2001) and gained wider recognition for playing a troubled teenager in Little Miss Sunshine (2006). For playing identical twins in Paul Thomas Anderson's period drama There Will Be Blood (2007), he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Dano had critically acclaimed roles in 12 Years a Slave and Prisoners (both 2013). For his portrayal of Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy (2014), he earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He played The Riddler in The Batman and a caring father in The Fabelmans (both 2022), receiving a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for the latter.

Dano made his directorial debut with the drama film Wildlife (2018), based on the novel by Richard Ford; he co-wrote its screenplay with his partner, Zoe Kazan. Also in 2018, he starred as a convicted murderer in the Showtime miniseries Escape at Dannemora, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor. Dano has also written the comic book The Riddler: Year One (2022).

Reviews

[Krystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, the throwback issue.

Here we see Edward's traumatic past and damn, it made me so friggin depressed.

This particular issue is all about the artwork. Long stretches of panels with very little talking. Plenty of symbolism and I know a lot is still going over my philistine head.

I can't say I enjoyed it because it was so brutal, but it was a fascinating read and its good to see the series back to full strength after the previous issue.

[Bryham Fabian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The two-day wait for #5 to be released will feel like forever. I was delighted to learn that Paul Dano had decided to write a prequel to his own villain. Dano understands the scars and growing contempt of his character quite well, Stevan Subic's art complements the storytelling perfectly. The drawings don't focus on the literal, I mean depicting what's going on in the outside world.

Subic places the emphasis on the drawings, the textures, the gestures and how suffocating the atmosphere is, based on how Edward Nashton feels. Feeling. That's the magic word, we feel the city as Nashton feels it. When the identity crisis attacks him, the comic makes it clear. When depressive obsession and anxiety resurface, you know it. You understand better why Nashton ended up a cross between T. Kaczynski and The Zodiac killer instead of a brilliant computer scientist appreciated in his guild, with a family and earning a good salary.

It is painful to read, especially if you, or someone close to you, suffer from a mental disorder or mental issue and you watch as little by little, to this invisible enemy consumes everything in its path, often without the social circle of support to stop them from falling into the abyss. The point of no return. If with Batman: The Killing Joke, we learned how quickly human sanity can die after a bad day; here we see how agonizing and distressing the process can be when sanity dies slowly.

A gem of a miniseries... so far

[alli · Rating 5 out of 5]

this issue really made me feel for edward and now i’m depressed on a rainy sunday:/

[Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

8 5 12 16 13 5

[Etienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5/5. Really good, dark and slow but really going deeper into the young mind of the Riddler. I like it!

[jj · Rating 4 out of 5]

dano and subic good stuff

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This issue was beyond an emotional Rollercoaster.

[Hannah Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baby Riddler 🥺

[Kastie Pavlik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I've loved every volume, but this one hits all the heartbreak notes so hard. :'( In the broader universe of Batman, I'm disappointed that the Waynes would let the orphanage run like that during their lifetime. I could see it falling after they died, but to let this happen under their noses and offer these kids pointless platitudes in a mayoral bid makes them seem no better than any other Gotham socialite. It's no wonder we watch Edward wilt, yet cling to some sort of hope and thrive with books as friends, and then devour his hope and mentally shatter when it's ripped from him like everything and everyone else in his life.

8 5 12 16 13 5

I just watched The Batman again yesterday for the... Well, I've lost count how many times. I heard Dano telling this story in my head and heard him screaming in the scenes toward the end. It's striking that he understands the character so well. The psychology. The intelligence. The tiny mental fissures that fracture and rupture and break wide open. The killing of innocence. Of hope. Of swallowing your inner child to survive. To commit internal suicide and completely lose your sense of self. Or perhaps rather to kill off emotion so you cannot be hurt because you cannot care. To no longer know who you are or why you are forced to live without purpose. To wear your face as a mask.

I feel like I say it every time: the art, the tone, the story - it all feels straight out of the movie. I shifted from The Movie to This Comic without missing a beat. It's truly an excellent character study for this version of the Riddler in this Elseworld version of Batman.

4 1 13 14 7 15 15 4 1

[Rob Vitagliano · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars, easily on this one. Best issue yet. I feel like you get so much of his backstory and it might even explain his whole idea of flooding the levees more than anything I got from the movie. Also, I might be reading into this, but is there a chance that the kid picking on him at the orphanage turns into the Joker? That would be beyond wild. This book is disturbing and this issue is quite sad, but it's deep and adds a lot of weight to the movie for sure.

[Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent writing and artwork

Strong recommendation for anyone who has enjoyed The Batman and or is interested in The Riddler's Origin. Two issues to go and i look forward to every new issue.

[eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved getting a look into this version of riddler’s childhood! it was the most intriguing part of his story to me since watching the batman since they made such major changes in comparison to usual backstory fodder for him.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah I would become a supervillain too if that happened to me

[Jamie Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

9.5/10


19 1 4

[ryka 𖦹‧⭑.ᐟ · Rating 5 out of 5]

cried my eyes out oh my god baby ed and the horrific things that the world dealt u with ☹️😭😭

[Ruby-Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

The art and storytelling is so eerie and beautiful.

[Axolotl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how everyone is writing in a letter-to-number cipher for this! Loving Gravity Falls taught me well. I loved seeing a cipher used and being able to decipher it on my own!

[Daniel Bingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started: 19/09/2023
Finished: 19/09/2023

[ComicBookCult Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hauntingly beautiful, the colour choices here are something else. This book is a masterpiece

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit more about young Edward. I did wonder if this fits well with the Before the Batman novel, but it's been a while.

[jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

this issue is by far the best and also the saddest one out of the bunch.

i loved seeing the orphanage. everything abt this issue was perfect, i adore it so much. the colours in this issue fit the tone so much i loved seeing baby eddie and u can see each reference from the film slowly gather throughout the comic which was super cool! also baby bruce too :,)

there’s unexpected violence in this comic and it deals with a lot of childhood trauma but i enjoyed this little flashback sort of storyline that we got to see. excited for the next issue!!!