Review: Batman Tales-Once Upon A Crime

Once Upon a Crime by Derek Fridolf and Dustin Nguyen is a twist on traditional fairy tales with a Gotham Perspective. In spite of having the same creative team, the stories differ vastly in their tone and quality. The most traditional retellings are a bit weaker while the more they branch away from the familiar tales the stronger the writing becomes.

The star of this book is the amazing artwork by Dustin Nguyen. Nguyen has a style of art that wonderfully calls back to the tone of Batman The Animated Series, and this adds a nice layer of nostalgia over all the the stories. Supporting this is the fact that he and Fridolfs fillÂ many of the stories to references to the characters and relationships highlighted in The Animated Series.

The first story feature Damian, and your enjoyment of it may depend on your love for that character. Waynocchio is the familiar story of a little boy made of wood and magically brought to life. The magic here is a combination of Zatanna’s powers and a Lazarus Pit. The story is told in a way the hews very closely to the traditional Pinocchio telling. Seeing Alfred as Jiminy Cricket and Batmite encouraging Damian to do wrong along with villain cameos trying to mislead him is good fun. Damian is not always an endearing character and this story is limited by his cynicism clashing against the backdrop of a fairy tale.

The second story The Princess and the Pea has less to do with the actual story than simply working as a celebration of the animated series. In this sense it shines, with Gotham Central as the backdrop for a lineup of villains being grilled as far as their involvement with stolen jewels. Seeing Bullock, Montoya and Harley facing off and seeing each villain’s perspective adding to the tale is a nostalgic treat. The moment Baby Doll makes an appearance, you know you have a team who loves the property involved and invested. The story-telling also allows Nguyen to showcase some beautiful art.

Much more traditional but beautifully rendered is Alfred in Wonderland, where our favorite butler mistakenly ingests the Mad Hatter’s formula and is whisked away to Wonderland with all the traditional parts of Wonderland. The artwork here is amazing, with Batman’s villains playing all the parts you’d expect, culminating in a great Jokerwacky flying above all. This is well made, and the second half of the story is an absolute delight but would have done well to have a few more surprises thrown in to the first half.

The best part of the entire book has to be The Snow Queen. Batman searches a frozen wasteland with the unexpected help of The Snow Queen. The story-telling here is perfect, including revelations by two very different villains, Poison Ivy and at the end, Mr Freeze. The revelations and story-telling style work perfectly to remind us what drives both Batman and his villains. Every page of this short story is an absolute masterpiece.

Batman Tales Once Upon A Crime is ostensibly a work for young children. But it is an easy, wonderful read for adults as well. While it would do better to stray away from the traditional story-telling a bit more, it is a lot of fun seeing these characters interacting against new backdrops but still keeping the cores of their personalities the same. Batman and his cast have always worked well against new backdrops and different worlds and tales such as these are much more interesting rather than tales that simply place superheroes in high school. The amazing art and solid character work here make this simple book an immense pleasure to read.

Writing 4 of 5 stars
Art 4.7 of 5 stars

Overall: 4.4 of 5 stars

Writer: Derek Fridolfs
Artwork: Dustin Nguyen
Colors: Dustin Nguyen
Letters: Steve Wands
Publisher: DC Comics

Author Profile

M.R. Jafri

M.R. Jafri was born and raised in Niagara Falls New York and now lives with his family in Detroit Michigan. He's a talkative introvert and argumentative geek. His loves include Star Wars, Star Trek, Superheroes, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Transformers, GI Joe, Films, Comics, TV Shows, Action Figures and Twizzlers.