The Batman's arch-nemesis known as the Joker arrives on the scene in Gotham City to cause chaos and ensure you never rub another man's rhubarb. Hilarity ensues as a man dressed as a giant rodent and a man dressed as a killer clown trade fisticuffs across the city. Bam! Zok! Kapow! Hold on to your butts, boys and girls, it's time to dance with the devil in the pale moonlight!
Fantasy author Craig Shaw Gardner was no stranger to making a quick buck from the film novelization back in the day. Also penning novelizations for Back to the Future Part II and The Lost Boys, Gardner was probably a safe pair of hands to pick to write the novelization for 1989's Batman. There was no guarantee that Batman was going to be the marketing and merchandising juggernaut it eventually did become, but with Jack Nicholson attached to the project for a while and an in-demand Tim Burton directing, there were obvious signs, so this book coming to pass when it did should surprise no one.
After a night at the opera goes horribly wrong and turns Bruce Wayne into an orphan, the grown multi-millionaire cum entrepreneur cum philanthropist cum aloof playboy begins a crusade of fighting criminal scum across the streets of Gotham City disguised as the Batman. The Batman soon crosses paths with Jack Napier, second-in-command of a group of local mobsters with their hands firmly in the pockets of the Gotham City Police. A police raid on Napier and his men at Axis Chemicals turns into a chaotic shootout and although Batman tries to save as many lives as possible, he inadvertently causes Napier to fall into a vat of acid that causes horrible scarring and chemical burns. Napier emerges and dubs himself 'the Joker' and vows revenge on Batman, Gotham City, the police, his former mob associates, and anyone and everyone in between. Meanwhile, an astute photo-journalist named Vicki Vale finds herself drawn into covering the discord surrounding Batman and the Joker's war. Vicki can't quite put her finger on it, but the handsome millionaire Bruce Wayne seems to be connected to this story somehow...
As with many novelizations, what will intrigue diehard fans of the film are the little bits and pieces from whatever draft of the script the author was working from that were either cut from the film or excised altogether before shooting began. For instance, we have a sequence where Bruce Wayne slips on a ski mask in broad daylight to hide his identity and ziplines around Gotham to chase after the Joker and his goons at one point. The existence of such a sequence lends credence to the notion that director Tim Burton was heavily influenced by Frank Miller comics at the time, because Bruce in an impromptu ski mask disguise is something seen in 1987's Year One (and later used by Christopher Nolan in his own loose interpretation of Year One, 2005's Batman Begins). There's also an extended date scene with Bruce and Vicki Vale which includes the infamous horse riding scene that actress Sean Young, originally cast as Vicki, was practicing for when she injured herself and had to drop out of the film. None of this bonus content is essential to the story, but if you're a fan it's nice to have an expansion to a story that we're already familiar with.
And familiar you will be if you've seen the film. Most of everything else on offer in Gardner's book is a close interpretation of what you saw on screen. Batman and Joker fighting in the bell tower? Check. The Joker and his goons raiding the art gallery? Check. Batman being a doofus and revealing the Batcave and his secret identity to the first skirt that flashes her eyes at him? Check.
All of the above would normally be perfectly fine, but this is a novelization that struggles somewhat simply because of the medium it's trapped in. Certain things that make the film version of Batman so cool and so memorable are things that can't really be translated into the written word. One can't exactly channel the iconic Danny Elfman score or the kitschy Prince songs into a book. Nor can they accurately show off Tim Burton's visual flair with the art deco backdrops or the particular rain soaked patina of the Gotham City streets. The Joker's lines of dialogue come across as flat without Jack Nicholson's over-the-top panache in delivering them.
As such, unless you're someone who already collects older film novelizations, I would only recommend Gardner's Batman to absolute diehard fans who want to tear through this as a random curio of the era.
