In this suspenseful tale of idealistic beliefs, Batman faces off against a foe that fights not for global domination or personal gain but instead the end of crime and corruption. Believing that a society of anarchy will right the wrongs of the world, a young teenager artificially augments his mind in order to create a world of chaos. Taking on the persona of a red-cloaked vigilante, Anarky sets forth to save society by ridding it of its laws. Sympathizing with the young anarchist's goals but not his methods, Batman must now find a way to stop an adversary who is not only as intelligent as the Dark Knight Detective but also as driven.
Alan Grant was a Scottish comic book writer known for writing Judge Dredd in 2000 AD as well as various Batman titles during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is also the creator of the character Anarky.
Alan Grant first entered the comics industry in 1967 when he became an editor for D.C. Thomson before moving to London from Dundee in 1970 to work for IPC on various romance magazines. After going back to college and having a series of jobs, Grant found himself back in Dundee and living on Social Security. He then met John Wagner, another former D.C. Thompson editor, who was helping put together a new science fiction comic for IPC, 2000 A.D., and was unable to complete his other work. Wagner asked Grant if he could help him write the Tarzan comic he was working on; so began the Wagner/Grant writing partnership.
The pair eventually co-wrote Judge Dredd. They would work on other popular strips for the comic, including Robo-Hunter and Strontium Dog using the pseudonym T.B. Grover. Grant also worked on other people's stories, changing and adding dialogue, most notably Harry Twenty on the High Rock, written by Gerry Finley-Day. Judge Dredd would be Grant's main concern for much of the 1980s. Grant and Wagner had developed the strip into the most popular in 2000AD as well as creating lengthy epic storylines such as The Apocalypse War. Grant also wrote for other IPC comics such as the revamped Eagle.
By the late 1980s, Grant and Wagner were about to move into the American comic market. Their first title was a 12-issue miniseries called Outcasts for DC Comics. Although it wasn't a success, it paved the way for the pair to write Batman stories in Detective Comics from issue 583, largely with Norm Breyfogle on art duties across the various Batman titles Grant moved to. After a dozen issues, Wagner left Grant as sole writer. Grant was one of the main Batman writers until the late 1990s. The pair also created a four issue series for Epic Comics called The Last American. This series, as well as the Chopper storyline in Judge Dredd, is blamed for the breakup of the Wagner/Grant partnership. The pair split strips, with Wagner keeping Judge Dredd and Grant keeping Strontium Dog and Judge Anderson. Grant and Wagner continue to work together on special projects such as the Batman/Judge Dredd crossover Judgement on Gotham. During the late 1980s, Grant experienced a philosophical transformation and declared himself an anarchist. The creation of the supervillain Anarky was initially intended as a vehicle for exploring his political opinions through the comic medium. In the following years, he would continue to utilize the character in a similar fashion as his philosophy evolved.
Grant's projects at the start of the 90s included writing Detective Comics and Strontium Dog, but two projects in particular are especially notable. The first is The Bogie Man, a series co-written by Wagner which was the pair's first venture into independent publishing. The second is Lobo, a character created by Keith Giffen as a supporting character in The Omega Men. Lobo gained his own four issue mini series in 1990 which was drawn by Simon Bisley. This was a parody of the 'dark, gritty' comics of the time and proved hugely popular. After several other miniseries (all written by Grant, sometimes with Giffen as co-writer), Lobo received his own ongoing series. Grant was also writing L.E.G.I.O.N. (a Legion of Super-Heroes spin-off) and The Demon (a revival of Jack Kirby's charac
Batman: Anarky is a 1999 trade paperback published by DC Comics. The book collects prominent appearances of Lonnie Machin as Anarky. This trade paperback collects: Detective Comics #608–609, Batman Chronicles #1, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #40–41, and the four-issue miniseries Anarky and collects four storylines: "Anarky in Gotham City", "Anarky: Tomorrow Belongs to Us", "Anarky", and "Metamorphosis".
"Anarky in Gotham City" is a two-issue storyline (Detective Comics #608–609) which has Bruce Wayne as Batman investigating a new vigilante in Lonnie Machin as Anarky. Anarky continues his war against crime by targeting a business owner dumping pollutants in a river. Batman recognizes his M.O. and eventually catches Anarky, revealing him to be a disguised, twelve-year-old paperboy. As a child prodigy with extensive knowledge of both radical philosophy and improvised munitions, Lonnie was confident that violent change was necessary to improve social conditions. Batman condemns his actions, but expresses admiration for his idealism.
"Anarky: Tomorrow Belongs to Us" is a short story from Batman Chronicles #1 that has Lonnie Machin serving time in a juvenile correction facility, he creates a makeshift hologram projector and two-way communicator, and uses it to leave the impression that he is still held in detention. He then escapes and sabotages a politician's ad campaign in order to promote anti-electoral propaganda. Anarky uses his communicator during his adventure to carry out a political dialogue with his fellow detainees, narrowly returning before guards notice his absence.
"Anarky" is a two-issue storyline (Batman: Shadow of the Bat #40–41) which has Lonnie Machin being released from juvenile detention on parole, and uses the internet to create a company, "Anarco". Through Anarco, Machin sells anarchist literature online, secretly acquiring millions of dollars. He channels this wealth through a proxy organization, "The Anarkist Foundation", to donate the funds to political groups he supports, including gun protesters, eco-warriors, and clean energy lobbies. His activism and later vigilantism brings the spotlight on him from Bruce Wayne as Batman and Tim Drake as Robin.
"Metamorphosis" is a four-issue storyline (Anarky #1–4) chronicles Machin's narrow survival of an explosion and use of the confusion in its aftermath to fake his death. Several months later, he is now stated to be fifteen-years old and has begun a new plan to liberate the world of government. As Anarky, he attempts to create a device which will emit beams of light on frequencies which will trigger the human brain of all who see it. The people will then be de-brainwashed of all the social constraints which society has placed on the individual.
Alan Grant is the penned the entire trade paperback. For the most part, it was written rather well – the origin story of Anarky was particularly interesting. Anarky is a highly thematic, political, and philosophical vigilante. The first two stories were influenced by the philosophy of anarchism, while the final story focuses mainly on anti-statism, but other concepts are explored: atheism, rationalism, and bicameralism. This trade paperback tracks the character’s evolution from a petty, street-crime fighting vigilante to a competent freedom fight in opposition to powerful forces of evil.
Norm Breyfogle (Detective Comics #608–609 and Anarky #1–4), John Paul Leon (Batman: Shadow of the Bat #40–41), and Staz Johnson (Batman Confidential #1) penciled the trade paperback. Together, all three of them did a g00d job in their respective stories. Their respective styles meshed and complemented rather well with each other.
All in all, Batman: Anarky is a comprehensive evolution of a character that is not that well known in the Batman mythos – Lonnie Machin as Anarky in this uneven trade paperback.
A perfect compilation of some of the best Alan Grant stories starring his character Anarky who is actually a much more interesting person than Batman. The Anarky mini-series is probably the boldest superhero comic I have ever read. Grant is not afraid to express his opinions about the nature of evil, class struggle, wars and lots of other social issues. And he does it by properly utilizing imaginary characters that are actually best at representing ideas. Forget about your Bendises, Johnses, and other wannabe gritty bullshitters who don't know the meaning of realism. This is as gutsy as superhero comics can get!
And well done to Goodreads' recommendations for deducing from my adding Fight Club 2 that I might be interested in this, which I did indeed read about 15 years ago and had never remembered enough to add in the interim. From my faint recollections, it wasn't as good as it could have been, though unusually Batman didn't come across as a bigger idiot than the other hero with whom he had methodological disagreements.
As the title suggests , it was the creation Anarchy and some of his "adventures" . Anarchy if you didnt know was one of the first iteration of DC's Iron Man . The suit and computer making a dude powerful to fight crime . But Anarky was kinda a communist and an outlaw . Meh , i have never been an Iron Man Fan and lesser of a fan of Anarky , so reading through this book felt like a task and i was bored . The art is decent though so there's that to be grateful for
This book pretty much chronicles the creation, development and fall (well as much as any comic character can truly fall) of the character Anarky who I will admit knew very little of until I read this. The introduction actually is fascinating in its own right in that the writers wanted to paint him as a distorted version of Batman in that they were fighting for the same people but using different approaches and through different ideologies. The book consists really of 3 different stories which not only chart the career of Anarky but also link him in to events in the Batman universe and have a number of interesting cameos. The artwork varies from story to story as you would expect but to be honest the Anarky is presented as perfectly as the bat him and is perfectly presented though out. An interesting read of one of Batmans lesser foes if foe he really was. It would be interesting to see what other appearances Anarky makes.
Supervillain who thinks they are better than everyone else and is going to fix the world. Oh, and of course, they are pretty much better than everyone because of their extensive training, brain enhancements, and other techno-babble. If that sounds like a less selfish Ayn Rand hero, that's because this is a mix of anarchism and objectivism. And if you weren't sure, then just flick to one of the many double-page rants the character has.
The more you think about this one the dumber it all seems.
Creación del escritor Alan Grant y del artista Norm Breyfogle, la aparición de este personaje en los cómics en Detective Comics obedece a las inquietudes filosóficas y políticas de Grant, y a la premisa "¿Qué pasaría si Batman se enfrentara con V?"
Alan Grant, uno de los mejores escritores de DC en los 90, al igual que Alan Moore, era anarquista. Así, se dio a la tarea a crear a Lonnie Machin, alias Anarky, como un antagonista para Batman. Su intención no era hacerlo un villano, sino un antihéroe con cuyas motivaciones Batman pudiera sentir empatía, pero cuyos métodos no pudiera aprobar. Anarky, por su parte, si bien respeta a Batman, considera que está equivocado porque combate las consecuencias de un sistema fallido e injusto, en vez de combatir al sistema en sí.
Anarky no tiene ningún empacho en romper leyes que le parecen injustas. El industrial que contaminaba el río de Gotham obedecía los reglamentos y estándares que mandaba la ley. Pero eso no era suficiente, pues a pesar de que la ley dijera que eran válidas, las acciones del empresario estaban destruyendo un recurso invaluable. Como bien dice otro personaje en el mismo cómic, el banco era dueño del terreno y podía construir allí lo que quisiera, mientras que los desposeídos que se refugiaban en sus casas de cartón estaban allanando propiedad privada. Anarky lo ve desde otro punto de vista: el desahucio de los pobres es un acto de injusticia, sin importar de quién sea la propiedad según las leyes.
El anarquismo del joven Machin es del tipo más clásico: está en contra de toda forma de autoridad y jerarquías, y a favor de la absoluta libertad del individuo; considera que el poder siempre corrompe y que las élites (políticos, empresarios, líderes religiosos) trabajan para sí mismas y se enriquecen y empoderan a costa de la explotación del "hombre común". Además, señala, dichas élites han construido un mito de su propia superioridad que hace que los demás los necesiten en el poder.
This starts with Anarky's early appearances as a vigilante opposing Batman, then wraps up with a four-part miniseries (a later, short-lived series got its own volume). The early encounters are fun — it's refreshing to see a vigilante antihero who actually works against the rich and powerful, and doesn't kill, rather than gunning down crooks. However the miniseries is a mess — talky, preachy and culminating in an incredibly cliched conclusion. Grant did better with his second Anarky series, though it didn't last.
Olvidaba que esta saga era malita. No es su culpa: Anarky es un personaje interesante (en teoría) pero cae en demasiados clichés político-sociales que terminan por hundir la historia.
A la mitad me arrepentí. Leeré The Killing Joke para compensar.
Re-read this morning in memory of Mr Grant. The anarchist philosophy espoused in it seems a little naive in places, but this is a book with a hell of a lot of heart, and Anarky themself is a fascinating character that very few other writers at DC have ever gotten right.
Societal vigilante Anarky gets the spotlight in this collection from DC comics. Introduced in the opening arc, Anarky is shown as a freedom fighter seeking to assist the downtrodden common man in taking back power. Despite his good intentions, Anarky uses methods of fear and violence to make his point - bringing him into contention with the Batman. Young Lonnie Machin is eventually revealed as the manifesto-spewing antihero, whose machinations end up sending him to juvenile hall. The second story is a follow-up on Machin's Anarky activities, as he uses a little social disobedience and trickery to help put the skids on a politician's campaign run. The third arc sets Anarky against those who have used him, as he tracks down a corrupt doomsday prophet who has used Machin's monetary donations to bankroll a plot of terror and extortion. The volume concludes with Anarky seeking to eradicate crime in all its forms. Using essences of good, evil, and madness - obtained from Batman, Darkseid, and Etrigan the Demon, respectively - Machin builds a machine that would fix the world. While the idea of the character holds merit, Anarky fails to hold interest due to the obvious and overt natures of the characterization. It does not help that this volume was reprinted without the Darkseid chapter of the final arc, which hurts Alan Grant's take on the character. Printed only to capatilize on the Anarky persona being utilized in the Beware the Batman TV series, this book only helps line the pockets of the DC bigwigs. Skip this volume in favor of actual anarchist writings.
Otro estupendo cómic de Alan Grant y Norm Breyfogle, en el que Batman tendrá que enfrentarse a un nuevo enemigo: Anarquía. Argumento: "Batman se enfrenta a un enemigo que lucha no por la dominación global o el beneficio personal, sino por el fin del crimen y la corrupción. Creyendo que una sociedad de anarquía corregirá los errores del mundo, un joven adolescente aumenta artificialmente su mente para crear un mundo de caos. Adoptando la personalidad de un justiciero de capa roja, Anarky se propone salvar a la sociedad deshaciéndose de sus leyes. Simpatizando con los objetivos del joven anarquista, pero no con sus métodos, Batman ahora debe encontrar una manera de detener a un adversario que no solo es tan inteligente como el Detective del Caballero de la Noche, sino también tan motivado".
Anarky's origin story is the best part of this trade, with the rest of the material falling in two categories: the awful junk with the demons Etrigan and Blasfemy and the story that closes out the trade, the conceptually interesting but tediously written dialogue of Anarky as he describes the utopia that he seeks as a result of his form of crimefighting. It's uneven, and the Blasfemy stuff is terrible, but if you skip over that two-parter, Alan Grant will definitely make you think with his red-robed "Voice of the People."
Anarky debe ser la creación favorita de Alan Grant, se nota la dedicacion en las historias y en la pasión de los discursos de este antagonista de Batman. El TPB incluye el debut del personaje en Detective Comics 608-609, y varias historias que no conocia. Fue agradable leer algo fresco ilustrado por Breyfogle. Creo que faltan otras apariciones del perosonaje en la etapa Grant-Breyfogle, asi que solo por eso no le pongo un 4.
A difficult book for me to rate. There's a lot of good ideas. And Anarky is a unique character in the world of super heroes. But more than once, I felt like the writing was shallow. And then there were times were it just seemed mediocre. Perhaps I'll revisit this collection someday to see if how time changes my opinion of it. For now, *shrugs*
I like the comparison of the sense of justice between both heroes. Unfortunately It seems farfetch for a 15 year old kid to go through all that. Reading about a crime vs experiencing one is totally different on every level. Only the intro of Anarky was worthwhile.
Apparently, I enjoyed this more than most. I'm rather intrigued by Anarky despite the *highly* improbably origin and blatant sell on his belief system. It is indicative of the time when it was written though.