“Yesterday’s” Comic> Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm movie adaptation

They told Bruce he needed a hobby. Naturally, he took that to extremes, too.

Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm

DC Comics/Warner Brothers (1993)

This adaptation is a mini-comic, larger by mini-comic standards, adapting the theatrical movie based on the animated series. It was packed in with my old VHS copy of the movie. I could have done this as a Free Comic Inside article because of that but there’s not enough here for a long article for me to discuss since I plan to do a Video Review of the movie someday. As such, this isn’t a full review but sort of a highlights.

For those of you who haven’t seen the movie (and if you haven’t then you should–it’s my favorite Batman movie), a new vigilante called the Phantasm (although never on screen or in the adaptation) arrives and murders members of one particular mob. Batman, seen at these events and Phantasm’s silhouette being similar to the Dark Knight’s, is fingered as the murderer and the current DA (who also happens to have ties to this mob) is determined to bring him down over Gordon’s objections. Meanwhile, Andrea Beaumont, the woman Bruce almost married and left Batman for before his career began, return to Gotham and she has a connection to all this as well. But there’s one more gang member tied into this, only he goes by a different name now…the Joker!

What they got right: The art is as good as in the movie. There’s an extra…not so much scene as angle…where you get to see Batman’s early costume, a design that would be used in other flashbacks and the Kids WB version of the show, The New Batman/Superman Adventures. It actually looks better in this comic. As an adaptation the book is fair…

What they got wrong: …but not perfect, even taking into account that this was a free mini-comic packed-in with the VHS tape. (I don’t know if there was a full-sized version on store shelves when the movie came out.) There are a few panels where the dialog is missing a scene or some lines that would make what we get make sense. For example, in the scene where a counterfeiter (Phantasm’s first victim) is talking to his men about how real the counterfeit bills looks he suddenly snaps “You’ve got a problem with that” with no context. Later, when Joker is taunting Phantasm over another of her intended victim’s body, the first part is cut off so he appears to be in mid-thought about his realization that Phantasm is the murdering vigilante and not Batman over the deep end. Otherwise it does hit the important beats and at least attempts to get the emotional side that was important to this tale of Bruce Wayne’s first lost love and what it meant to his future as Batman.

Recommendation: If you do come across the adaptation and want to have a complete run of the TV show tie-in, it might be worth having. Otherwise, just get the movie because it’s amazing and one of the best Batman stories ever made. Like I said, someday it’s getting the Video Review treatment.