Batman: Resurrection

De: John Jackson Miller

Narrado por: Will Damron

After The Joker’s death, Batman and Gotham City face a mysterious new threat in this direct sequel to Tim Burton’s iconic Batman.

The Joker is dead, but not forgotten. Gotham City is saved, but it is still not safe. By night, its new symbol of hope, Batman, continues his fight to protect the innocent and the powerless. By day, his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, wonders whether there may someday be a future beyond skulking the city’s rooftops or the cavernous halls of his stately manor alongside the ever-dutiful Alfred Pennyworth.

But even after death, the Clown Prince of Crime’s imprint can be seen in more than just the pavement. Remnants from The Joker’s gang are leading wannabes fascinated by his bizarre mystique on a campaign of arson that threatens the city—even as it serves greedy opportunists, including millionaire Max Shreck. And survivors of exposure to The Joker’s chemical weapon Smylex continue to crowd Gotham City’s main hospital.

To quell the chaos, Batman needs more than his cape and his well-stocked Utility Belt. Bruce Wayne is forced into action, prompting a partnership with a charismatic scientist to help solve the health crisis. But as he works in both the shadows and the light, Bruce finds himself drawn deeper into Gotham City’s turmoil than ever before, fueling his obsession to save the city—an obsession that has already driven a wedge between him and Vicki Vale. The loyal Alfred, who had hoped Bruce’s efforts as Batman could help him find closure, finds the opposite happening. Nightmares begin to prompt Bruce to ask new questions about the climactic events in the cathedral, and investigations by Commissioner Gordon and reporter Alexander Knox into the arsons only amplify his concerns.

Having told the people of Gotham City that they’d earned a rest from crime, Batman finds the forces of evil growing ever more organized—and orchestrated—by a sinister hand behind the scenes. The World’s Greatest Detective must solve the greatest mystery of all: Could The Joker have somehow survived? And could he still have the last laugh against the people of Gotham City?

©2024 John Jackson Miller (P)2024 Random House Audio

Continuing Burton’s Batman

The story provided a very interesting and unique telling of one of Batman‘s most well-known villains. It also allowed the reader to envision how this would’ve been portrayed on the big screen had Tim Burton been allowed to make something like this

A good follow up to the movie.

I’m looking forward to the next book in this series. Fingers crossed it happens. This felt like a Batman story, unlike the later movies.

PERFECT SEQUEL

I had such a fun time reading this book. amazing storytelling, amazing character development. I feel like this is a perfect sequel to Batman 89

Great Follow UP To Batman 89!

This was a fun listen that fills in a lot of info that lef up to the Keaton Batman 89 and shows you the after effects of the events of that movie. Some very nice origin stories and in depth look at the "Bat Tech". I am going to watch the movie again because this book will make youaware of little details you missed when you saw it before.

surprisingly well done

I was expexting a mid book that I would appreciate just because I love batman 89. this book surprised me because it was incredibly well done! mayhaps no S tier book, but a cut above the schlock this genre is known for.

Fun story, looking forward to the next one.

Great performance. He channels both Keaton and a little Conroy, so what’s not lot love?

AMAZING STORY!

Great story, well crafted, excellent character development and interaction. An excellent pairing of villains. This should have been the theatrical sequel to Batman (1989).
A must read for all Gothamites.

Great Exploration Of Gotham

The story is amazing: the ""villain" is a guy with the bad luck to be in a bad person. It's also an amazing way to give everyone (from Franco to Batman) an understandable motivation.

An Even Better Sequel To Batman '89 Than Returns

The release of Tim Burton’s film Batman in 1989 unleashed a pop culture phenomenon. Indeed, alongside Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie more than a decade earlier, it’s the film that launched superhero cinema. It’s no wonder there’s been numerous sequels and attempts to capitalize on the world Burton, his cast including Michael Keaton’s Batman and Jack Nicholson’s Joker, and crew created for that film. Something which has extended from Burton’s own 1992 film Batman Returns to the more recent Batman ‘89 comic from the film’s co-writer Sam Hamm. Now, thirty-five years after the film’s release, comes a literary sequel in the form of John Jackson Miller’s Batman: Resurrection.

What’s clear is that Miller has a great love and appreciation for the 1989 film. It’s something that you can sense almost every minute, from the spot-on characterizations that make it easy to imagine the likes of Keaton, Michael Gough, and Robert Wuhl among others reprising their film roles in the mind’s eye. Indeed, given the characters such as Wuhl’s Knox or Kim Basinger’s Vicki Vale who didn’t return for Burton’s sequel, it seems all the more fitting that they should appear here and feel spot-on with Will Damron as narrator capturing the spirit (if not the exact voices) of them as well. Miller also shows an appreciation for the wider universe that’s expanded out from the 1989 film with appearances of characters from Returns and some nods toward the Batman ‘89 comic. Sitting alongside a host of references and Easter eggs throughout, it’s something that goes a long way toward adding to the atmosphere of the novel and the sense that this is a literary sequel to the 1989 film.

As does the world building Miller does. The sense of loose threads from the film, what happened in the aftermath of the panic over cosmetics the Joker caused and the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Vicki Vale along them, linger over the novel for much of its length. The former serving as something of the novel’s backbone, from the origin story for one of the novel’s villains to how the characters (and Gotham City at large) are still reacting to the aftermath some months later. It’s something that makes Resurrection a far closer sequel to the 1989 film that even Burton managed with Returns in 1992, no mean feat given the passage of time.

Atmosphere and (arguably) fan service is one thing, but is there a story to go along with it? Miller delivers in that department, as well, crafting a new mystery for the cowl-wearing detective to solve. One that, as the subtitle suggests, partly involves some potentially unfinished business from the film. A matter that is further complicated for Batman by the addition of new villains from the rogues gallery (to say who would be to diminish part of the novel’s fun) offered in a form not out of place in the world the film created. Nor is there a lack of twists and turns along the way with red herrings and plenty of things which are not what they seem in the classic mystery/thriller tradition. That the world’s greatest detective gets a mystery to solve is something else which speaks in Resurrection’s favor.

Which isn’t to say it lacks action, of course. Far from it as Miller and Damron build up sequences in prose that would have cost millions to realize on-screen. Among the highlights being Batman dealing with an arson, a thrilling Batmobile sequence on a Gotham bypass, and the addition of new vehicles to the Dark Knight’s fleet. All done in service of the plot and leading to a finale that, much like the novel itself, builds upon the original film to a satisfying conclusion.

From Miller’s spot-on characterizations and world building to an engaging mystery and thrilling action, Batman: Resurrection is the sequel to Burton’s 1989 film you never knew you needed. More than that: it’s a better sequel to it than Burton’s own cinematic follow-up. For fans of the original film wanting more of their favorite characters or looking for an (officially licensed) answer to some burning questions, it’s well-worth a read, as it is for fans of Batman and good thrillers in general.

So turn on the audiobook and return to Gotham: 1989.

Perfect

This book fits seamlessly between Burton’s Batman movies, adding needed context to both films and introducing a fan favorite villain. No notes.