Batman: Off-World #1 is notable for many reasons. It marks Jason Aaron’s first full-fledged DC story after a 15-year run at Marvel. It sees Doug Mahnke, himself no stranger to Batman, returning to illustrate the Caped Crusader’s latest adventure. But above all else, it’s the first Batman comic I’ve enjoyed in a long time. A good deal of that is due to the story the creative team cooked up, which manages to be insane in all the right ways.
Taking place roughly a year into Batman’s career, Batman: Off-World #1 finds the Dark Knight out of his league when a mob boss he’s been pursuing hires an alien warrior as muscle. Outclassed in every way, Batman decides that the best course of action is to launch an experimental starcraft and fight any aliens he can encounter. His ship ends up traveling into the Slagg Galaxy, where he’s abducted by a group of slavers. But this might be the practice that Batman needs…
What drew me to Batman: Off-World #1 is how it perfectly captures the wild, weird and awesome ride that most of Aaron’s comic book work entails. Seriously, “Batman travels to outer space to learn how to fight aliens” is the exact brand of crazy he’d come up with. But more than that, Aaron realizes that the DC Universe is a fantastic place. A common criticism I’ve had of Batman stories is that most writers and fans tend to try and “ground” Batman in some form of reality. To which I say: he’s best friends with a solar-powered alien, he fights villains that include a sentient mass of clay and an actual crocodile man, and he’s literally traveled through time. More Batman comics could stand to embrace the fantastic like Off-World does.
What also makes Off-World such a great read is Mahnke’s art. Mahnke’s delivered some great Batman stories, notably the resurrection of Jason Todd in Batman: Under The Hood, and here he delivers a truly otherworldly experience. Apart from Batman, nearly every character in this book is an alien. I mean “alien” the most extreme sense of the world; some of these guys have claws where their faces should be while others are pulsing masses of flesh. The most visually striking of these extraterrestrials is Ione, a Tamaranean Batman encounters in the cells. Unlike the Teen Titans’ Starfire, Ione is very rugged and jaded – various alien tattoos cover her body, while one of her eyes has been replaced with a ominously glowing prosthetic.
Adding to that otherworldliness is the heavy inks from Jaime Mendoza, and the colors by David Baron. Baron splashes the pages with hues of varying intensity; the interior of the ship Batman’s imprisoned in is a bright green while the skies of the Slagg Galaxy are a bright pink. In his bluish-black cape/cowl combo and grey bodysuit, Batman sticks out like a sore thumb – which is good, given that he’s the star of the book.
Batman: Off-World #1 is the weirdest, wildest Batman book in a long while, and it’s worth the read. Jason Aaron’s DC debut is off to a good start, and judging from the final page Batman’s prepared to take on anything and everything – no matter what galaxy it comes from.
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