The Batman Fan Recreates Movie Poster in Mazzucchelli’s Iconic Year One Art Style
3 min readSee one fan’s recreation of a poster for The Batman done in David Mazzucchelli’s iconic art style from his influential 1987 comic, Batman: Year One.
Despite having been published over three decades ago, the impact of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One is still being felt today through films such as The Batman. — and one fan took it upon themselves to homage Mazzucchelli’s iconic art style in a recreation of a poster for the upcoming movie.
Depicting the Caped Crusader alongside his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, as well as the Riddler, Penguin and Catwoman, all wearing their classic costumes, artist John Black faithfully adapted Mazzucchelli’s iconic style in a recreation of a poster for The Batman posted to their Instagram. Black’s fan art faithfully encapsulates Mazzucchelli’s dark and muted style while also applying the same muddy color palette that gave Mazzucchelli’s illustrations their grounded, grimy effect and emphasized the comic’s portrayal of a corrupted Gotham City.
The fan art uses an official poster for The Batman that was revealed in January as its basis. As such, Black recreated everything from the characters’ positioning and Riddler’s question mark crosshairs right down to the “Unmask The Truth” text written in similarly sketchy handwriting.
Originally published in 1987, Year One is widely regarded by fans as one of the comics responsible for helping push Batman stories into a more grounded direction, along with Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns from the year prior. The Batman appears to be no exception to this influence, as the film shares several similarities with Year One. These similarities include following a younger, less experienced Bruce/Batman in the early years of his crime-fighting career, where he takes on street-level threats as opposed to his more eccentric rogues gallery.
Unlike Year One, however, The Batman will be opting to avoid retelling Bruce’s well-known origin story. Director Matt Reeves confirmed the film will be skipping the iconic events altogether, as the director explained in a recent interview, “We’ve seen it so many times. It’s been done too much. I knew we couldn’t do that.” That isn’t to say the relationship Bruce shares with Gotham City PD’s James Gordon has been skirted as well, as Reeves stated the two’s bond is key to the film’s plot. “I think from the beginning, the idea was that there was no question that the bond that Gordon and Batman had was central to the story in that they were the ones who were fighting against a stream of corruption,” the director said. “For me, movies are really about understanding and empathy.”
The Batman arrives in theaters March 4.
Source: Instagram
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