Batman Begins: The Movie & Other Tales of Dark Knight

Batman One-Shots

by Scott Beatty, Kilian Plunkett (Illustrator), Serge LaPointe (Illustrator)

Batman Begins, the film by acclaimed director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia) and writer David Goyer (Blade), starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Ken Watanabe, Katie Holmes and Tom Wilkinson, can now be read as a graphic novel! This colorful adaptation of Batman Begins explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knights emergence as a force for good in Gotham. In the wake of his parents murder, disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. He returns to Gotham and unveils his alter ego: Batman, a masked crusader who uses his strength, intellect and an array of high-tech deceptions to fight the sinister forces that threaten the city. This collection also contains four more tales featuring the comic-book version of the Dark Knight!

This book collects stories from BATMAN BEGINS: THE MOVIE, SECRET ORIGINS OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST SUPER-HEROES, DETECTIVE COMICS #757, BATMAN #604, and LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #168.

Genres: Comics, Batman, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Adventure, Action, Graphic Novels Comics

156 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2005

About the author

Scott Matthew Beatty is a comic books writer.

Reviews

[Karan joshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Batman Begins and Other Tales" is an engaging collection of stories that provide fresh perspectives on the Dark Knight's origins and adventures, offering both depth and excitement to fans of the Batman universe."

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this review and more on my blog.

This graphic novelisation of the Batman Begins movie was enjoyable but not what I expected. The other stories of Batman seemed to take up half of the pages and they were defiantly not as good as the graphic novelisation of Batman Begins.

The artwork very much resembled the cast of Batman Begins and somehow managed to get across how the movie felt, or maybe that was just me reading in their voices.

I would recommend reading the adaptation of Batman Begins but it is debatable as to whether the other stories would be worth your time.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Batman Begins: The Movie & Other Tales of the Dark Knight

Bruce Wayne trains under Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins to become the Batman, the new protector of Gotham City.

The adaptation is excellent and the additional stories add an extra flavour to this great origin story.

[tony dillard jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This DC trade paperback is like a matinee movie in reverse. The comic adaptation of the opening chapter of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy by Scott Beatty and Kilian Plunkett is the main attraction. The accompanying 4 stories are like the animated shorts and adventurous serials you would watch as lead up. Only they come after the movie!

I can't really say a lot about the adaptation of 2005's Batman Begins. Unlike the 2008's follow up, The Dark Knight, I've only seen the origin story once. So I don't have any idea if Beatty and Plunkett's version of the movie has extra stuff that got removed before hitting theaters or not. I will say that reading the comic book version of the film has really pique my interest in seeing the trilogy again. Mostly because there is a lot of material in the comic that I don't remember.

While Batman Begins is what got me to buy this book, it's the 4 shorter Batman stories that really captured my attention.

First by Denny O'Neil and Dick Giordano is another origin story of Batman. Only this is the accepted DC canon version which focuses more on Bruce Wayne studying the science of criminology more than martial arts and the tools of stealth.

Story #2 is by Greg Rucka and Rick Burchett. It simultaneously tells of Batman taking down a gang while a family of 3 are trapped in their vehicle under the Gotham harbor. With time running out and water rushing in, this story has more of a Batman: The Animated Series vibe to it and was perhaps the best story of the bunch.

Story #3 is by Ed Brubaker. In a teaming with Catwoman, Batman explores what it is that makes him a vigilante. That faithful night in Crime Alley is referenced a lot. Art is pretty good. Yet, despite my feeling that Brubaker is the best crime comic writer of them all, he commits an unpardonable sin amongst fans of the Dark Knight by having the hero proclaim that his true identity is Bruce Wayne! Not the Bat!

The final story is an unusual Batman story by Fables head honcho Bill Willingham. It sees a rooftop Batman losing his footing and crashing to the streets below. Obviously injured from the fall, the Caped Crusader must be helped by an assorted group of Gothamites. I wasn't so much of a fan of Tim Fowler's art. But the story was so different and so very engrossing.

A great mix of stories celebrating not just the origin of the Batman but also of what makes a Batman. A worthy addition to my Batman collection of comics. Only it's not the feature that makes this book worth owning--- it's the backup material! In fact, I'd rather lose the comic adaptation and just add 3-4 more similar tales to the quartet of additional works!

[Jacob Shaffer · Rating 3 out of 5]

So the Batman Begins adaptation part of this book, is fine. It is Batman Begins, it just feels a bit flat. I think the problem is the muddled action realism vibe of the movie, ported to a comic book, is just a muddled action realism comic book. And I don’t love that

I read the next story, Denny O’Neil’s “The Man Who Falls” has some origin staples, Bruce falls in the hole in the backyard, parents unalived, Bruce tours colleges, Bruce hangs out by a trash can fire with the people of the town, Bruce starts FBI training?? That’s new to me
Bruce trains with monks, Bruce trains under Ducard, Bruce sees more Bats, Bruce fights crime as a guy and it goes terribly, a bat crashes through the window, Bruce adopts the Batman, and then BruceMan falls off a gargoyle and presumably glides but it’s not pictured. Bruce Bat is the Man Who Falls.

And then we start something else with a nice purple palette like a night time car ride and the text is confusing and I quit. I wanna go read other things.

There’s another story after that one too

DNF

[Martin Králik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ešte som nečítal komiksové spracovanie filmu. Môžem povedať, že prvá polovica tejto knihy, ktorý spracováváva úvodného Nolanovho Batmana, je výborná. Páčil sa mi aj klasický O´Neillov origin The Man Who Fall. Ale čo ma naozaj dostalo bol Ruckov príbeh o prvom stretnutí Batmana s Lucky Hands Triad. Celý iba v zelenej a slabo fialovej, napínavý a maximálne akčný, s minimom potrebných dialógov. Oproti tomu je ako päsť na oko nasledujúca farebná, atmosferická Brubakerova anekdota. Tým slovom by sa dal opísať aj posledný príbeh, no tá anekdota je čisto akčná a v závere prekvapivo vtipná.

[Tue Le · Rating 4 out of 5]

The comic-book adaptation of "Batman Begins" exceeded my expectation. It was actually better than the movie, which I thought was rather long-winded. The music was good but the plot does not compare to that of "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm," the definitive Batman film. The second Batman origin story was alright. It could do better without the superstitious or spiritual nonsense, however. The third story and fourth stories were not bad, and the last one was surprisingly funny. (Please read till the end.)

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty straight-forward adaptation of the film. Doesn’t really add anything, but is faithful. The other stories are kind of in a similar vein. “The One Who Falls” is one I’ve read before and definitely influenced the film. A couple of the other stories showed the time 11:38. Guess they’re George Lucas fans.

[Luis Dion-Dussault · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bien sympathique!

Jolie bd sans prétention! Ça résume tout à fait le film sans prendre de liberté créative.
En plus de l’histoire principale, il y a quatre récits supplémentaires qui se lisent assez rapidement, ce qui ne signifie pas qu’ils sont plates!

Pour les fans hardcores!

[Jean☺Smith1999☺ · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read this book in december from 2012, i liked so much.

[Heenee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty much word-for-word batman begins.😆
But the art was Phenomenal!!

[John Funderburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. The supplemental material is why I picked this volume up. Good stuff to be found here!

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still don't care for graphic novels. This was too much like the movie.

[Night · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, and the extra stories were fairly good too.

[CKE387 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the other tales more than the graphic novelization of the movie.

The first story featured is "The Man Who Falls" which retells the origin story of Batman. Enjoyable and has beautiful artwork by Dick Giordano.

Next is "Air Time" which poses the hero dilemma - is it more important to catch the bad guys or help the people who were injured during their crime spree/escape??? Which would you chose???

"Reasons" explains Batman's philosophy by revisiting Crime Alley where it all began, ending with his belief in the sanctity of all life (yes, even for criminals - that's why Batman doesn't kill).

Lastly, "Urban Legend" is a gritty, but humorous look at the night in the life of Batman. He loses his memory, don't know if he was a victim of a gang's revenge since he was found badly beaten. During the course of the night he's trying to break up a gang war, trying to locate the Batmobile by riding around town in a taxi, trying to save a prostitue from her pimp and winds up being sold by her to a rival gang to get the money to disappear before her pimp finds her. Loved it and liked the twist at the end, especially the Superman comment!

[Annice22 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The five stars are for the other four stories (The Man Who Falls, Air Time, Reasons and Urban Legend) in this book because the comic book adaptation for the movie was not very good. It was dull and the story was very choppy.

Those other stories were not only well written but fun to read and showed why Batman is such an interesting character. I see why they were included in this book because otherwise it would be a waste if only the Batman Begins story was featured.

[Victor Orozco · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice comic-book adaptation. But its way too short and takes away the drama from the story. Some of the other Batman stories added to this collection was nice.

Loved that one that is very much in keeping with Batman Year One but actually has Bruce meet the real Henri Ducard which was what Director Christopher Nolan wanted us to think Liam Neeson's character was.

The other stories weren't that great. Still its an okay collection.

B-

[Hollis Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't the best collection I have ever read but it is definitely redeemed by the last story. The main story (a comic adaptation of the movie) must be regarded as a failure. It attempts to squash an entire film into 68 pages of comic strip, resulting in a story that is totally incoherent and surely unintelligible if you haven't seen the movie.

[Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my short note on it here:
[http://gypsylibrarian.blogspot.com/20...]

[Kaleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

that book is so awsome that i cant tell you about it that is how cool it is.

[Mohamed Abdelrazek · Rating 2 out of 5]

A poor adaptation of a great movie.

[sixthreezy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Batman's dig on Superman on the last page... Perfection.

[Andrew Beet · Rating 5 out of 5]

i liked the adaptation of Batman Begins and i like reading the other tales of the dark knight there was a couple of stories i hadn't read before The Man Who Falls i had read

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad, as these things go.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

That last story was gold lol!