In Batman: No Man's Land, Greg Rucka tells the story of Gotham a ruined city filled with limitless crime and a earthquake which obliterated the city. Now the US Government has decided to break all connections with Gotham and has abandoned it, leaving the citizens of Gotham to defend and look after itself. Now characters like Commisioner James Gordon must try to bring law and order to the streets of Gotham. But the task proves to be difficult as high profile criminals like the Joker, Two-Face/Harvey Dent, Bane, Harley Quinn and ordinary criminals and thugs are loose on the streets of Gotham. Not only that but Gotham's hero, the Dark Knight aka Batman is nowhere to be seen. What will happen to the streets of Gotham? As the story continues, we slowly discover more and more about the characters themselves. The author does a great job using the third person omniscient point of view. Due to this we learn more about the characters and discover some secrets. Greg Rucka also does an excellent job with the description of characters and scenes. His description is extremely vivid and detailed almost to the point that a reader feels like he/she is living it. Batman is proof of Greg Rucka's vivid imagery. Batman is a character who is revered on the streets of Gotham. He is a criminal's worst nightmare and is extremely intelligent. He puts fear into the hearts of the criminals and yet at the same time struggles to keep a dual identity as Bruce Wayne. He has also sworn to protect the innocent while at the same time seeking justice but not vengeance. This book is filled with mystery and suspense. There are so many clues and pieces of the puzzle that the reader has to take the time to think about it in order to figure out what will happen, which is good thing. I applaud the author for the creativity. It makes the book much more unique. There are many themes to this. But the important theme is the classic concept of Good Vs. Evil. In the book there are good characters like Batman, Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, Commissioner Gordon and his police and there are villains like Lex Luthor, Joker, Two-Face, Bane and the Penguin and while the villains have their own evil agenda, the heroes are trying to prevent it.Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I gave it 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. I really loved the character of Batman and i loved the way the author wrote him. It just made me like Batman even more. I also liked the way the author described things in the book. His vivid imagery was marvelous. I would recommend this book to people who love superheroes like me or to readers that like action, suspense, and mystery. Batman: No Man's Land is a great book and i suggest everyone to read it!
I loved the crossover event on which this book is based. No Man’s Land was a year-long story which occupied the Batman comics for about a year, involving Gotham City being declared no longer part of the United States of America. Lawlessness ruled the land and for 12 months, Batman and his extended family worked to bring Gotham under control from both the tinpot dictators who had taken over the streets and Batman’s rogues gallery.It’s a fairly good novelization which I suspected, considering Rucka was a key figure in orchestrating the original comics from which this work is taken. No Man’s Land was always just as much story about Police Commissioner Gordon as it was about The Dark Knight. Rucka preserves that dynamic in his book, painting Gordon as a survivor of Gotham with no interest in help from his former ally. The author streamlines the year-long story fairly well, hitting the key notes (the Batman/Gordon rift, the introduction of the new Batgirl and Harley Quinn, the unravelling of the Gotham City Police Department) with precision.The author also does a good job cramming all the exposition you need into the book without making you feel like you’re reading a primer on Batman comics. The device he uses, an extended letter being written to Commissioner Gordon from his daughter (and original Batgirl) Barbara, is quite effective without feeling like a total info dump every couple of chapters.Rucka also makes insightful trims to the story for the purposes of clarity. He sacrifices the participation of third string superhero Azreal to no great loss. Catwoman is conspicuously absent; her major contribution to the comic storyline is here taken over by Barbara Gordon. Poison Ivy, a key player in the NML books, is mentioned but has no significant scenes.The most glaring omission is that of (view spoiler)[Superman, who made several NML appearances over the course of the crossover.On the surface excising the Superman cameos makes perfect sense as it was one of the aspects of the comic that made no sense. Batman was a card-carrying member of the Justice League. Why wouldn’t he call in his godlike compatriots to fix up Gotham City, rather than let it become a warzone? The writers of the comics eventually paid some lip service to the problem, and certainly having Superman and Green Lantern blow in and rebuild Gotham would have been an awfully unsatisfying conclusion to the story.In a strange way though, taking Superman out of the story leaves the final third of the book in a strange way, when the “savior” of Gotham City is revealed to be someone directly tied into the Superman mythos. It’s a bit awkward. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Batman: No Man's Land (2001)?
What a great book! It was interesting to read because I've only seen the movies and as usual with a book you get the character depth and development that films have a hard time bringing out. I was talking to a friend and he said that Christopher Nolan and his brother began reading the Batman comics when he started working on Batman Begins. I could really see where he drew his inspiration. Specifically with Bruce Wayne and Batman and the complex layers of their personnas. Other than that though all the main characters are completetly different than portrayed in the films. Well with the acception of Alred and Lucius, I suppose. They're both pretty much same as seen in the Dark Knight trilogy. And a lot of other characters I've heard of, but have never seen are central in this world. Overall this was very compelling and sent me on a very enjoyable roller coaster ride. Makes me want to read some of the comics now.
—Kris
batman no man's land was a very suspenseful novel that included a wide variety of super villians and heroes. when the government can no longer handle Gothem city and abandons it by destroying all connections to the islands by destroying bridges and allowing no one to go in or out. All the criminals are running lose and gangs rule the streets. the police department is doing its best to maintain the city and the batman has returened and helps clean up Gothem city along with batgirl and other heroesafter. My favorite part in the novel was at the end when the batman was going to reveal himself to the police commitioner Jim Gordon his secret identity which anyone would give anything to find out. To my suprise Jim Gordon turned away and didn't see Batman's true identity because he didn't want treat anyone any differently. He didn't want to change his relationship with the batman and see him differently as a person with flaws, he just wants to see him as the batman. i recommend this novel to those who are looking for an action suspense super hero super villain filled story.
—Daniel Padulo
After my good experience while reading "Knightfall" (you can read the review of that one here: Knightfall, I was sure that I will enjoy to read this other storyline of Batman titled "No Man's Land". My only regret is not being able to get it on Hardcover edition, since I have "Knightfall" in that presentation, it could be great to get that one in hardcover too. However I wasn't aware of the publishing of this novelization and when I found out, the edition that I found then it was the softcover edition. Maybe later I could try to get it in that form but it wasn't just the same since I already read the book. Anyway, I'm glad of buying it, since the same as with "Knighfall", the event of "No Man's Land" implied a lot of comics related to Batman, so completing this event on single issues and/or TPBs could be expensive, while in the prose novel format, it was incredible cheap and I was able to enjoy and to know the event. Certainly this storyline is a good one too, and while in "Knightfall" many of the book is centered on Batman, Bane and Azrael. On "No Man's Land" you have a lot of character developing in the chapters. I was amazed of how good they presented Harvey Dent/Two Face, not only you really feel two personalities inside of one body, and not only that but also, Greg Rucka, the writer commisioned to make the novelization of the storyline, was able to make Dent a really likeable character. I am not saying that he made a "good" person, he is still a psychopatic criminal but Rucka gave him a lot of depth to that character. And as I say, you have a lot of developing of characters in this novel since "No Man's Land" indeed is a place where nobody is in command, not of everything, so you are able to read how each main character is controlling and managing their self-appointed zones. Highly recommended.
—Alejandro
