It's a cyberpunk Batman. It's not the example people think of first (i.e. the Batman Beyond TV series), but it's borrowing lots of cyberpunk ideas and concepts. There isn't cyberspace, artificial intelligence or megacorporations and its Batman is still a scary man who goes out at night and hits people, but it does feature:
(a) a depressing and semi-dystopian vision of the near future (2039), in which the government wants to know everything about everyone. If they get a sample of Batman's blood, for instance, they'll find him from his DNA and it'll all be over. Even police dogs have cameras fitted into their skulls. Jim Gordon and the GCPD are the catspaws of the feds, deceived and ordered off the case by more influential people. "What, and admit there's someone out there they can't identify or control?"
(b) hacking databases, guessing computer passwords and extracting compressed data from pixels in an image. "It's an S-Tek, sophisticated organic processor, homegrown from secondary human-genetic tissue stock. Concealed organics don't register under scans like metal and plastics do."
(c) a video call where someone looks like Satan.
It resonates today, given current US politics. Calling Batman's actions a "terrorist attack", for instance, is reminiscent of the Trump administration's loose definition of the word "terrorist". 2039 also isn't far off the current date, although of course that was chosen because it's 100 years after Batman's debut in Detective Comics. The book's main Cassandra failure is the suggestion of an impending US military coup to overthrow the government, which is almost the opposite of the problems with recent US military activity.
This series won two Eisner Awards, for "Best Limited Series" and "Best Writer/Artist". Frankly, though, it's slow and not that exciting. Computer databases? Uh huh. The Batman action is okay, but ultimately the plot's about uncovering dirty high-tech secrets, digging up the truth and cops doing detective work. You could almost tell this story without Batman, although the fact of his existence and his rebellious activities are a major motivation for the authorities. This is as much Jim Gordon's story as it is Batman's (which is true of many of the best Batman stories).
I like Pope's version of Batman himself. He's ugly. He pants and wheezes. At one point, he nearly dies. He doesn't suggest someone who's really a billionaire, although admittedly he has some high-tech gadgets. Best of all, when really trying to scare people, he wears freaky Nosferatu false teeth. To quote Pope himself... "I wanted to present a new take on Batman, who is without a doubt a mythic figure in our pop-psyche. My Batman is not only totally science fiction, he's also a very physical superhero: he bleeds, he sweats, he eats. He's someone born into an overarching police state; someone with the body of David Beckham, the brain of Tesla, and the wealth of Howard Hughes... pretending to be Nosferatu."
Did I enjoy this book? Dunno if I'd go that far, but it's interesting. Paul Pope is an American alternative cartoonist and there's something eye-catching about his raw, crude lines. His Batman himself is fairly opaque and we don't really see under the hood (as the cops and feds are busting their guts to do), but he's quite an effective horror figure. I liked the green Alien-cam glimpse of him. However, the real hero might be Jim Gordon and his story works well. This is an interesting reinvention, at least, and I'm looking forward to rereading it in 2039 to see how it compares to what real life's got up to by then.
