Product Description

It's 1962: a world of Jazz music, beatniks and Bohemians. JFK is in the white house. The Beatles are still in Hamburg and Elvis is out of THE service. And in Gotham City...two thrill-crazed youths are calling themselves Batgirl and Robin, grabbing headlines and making waves. When bored heiress Barbara Gordon meets free-spirited circus daredevil Dick Grayson, sparks fly right from the start. But when Dick's family are murdered, mere mischief becomes serious business as Batgirl and Robin arm themselves and set out to get justice. At the same time, Gotham's newly appointed Commissioner of Police has assigned Detective Bruce Wayne, to take down the young thrill-seekers and solve the murder mystery.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #956694 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Batman's story has been told innumerable times; and the nice thing about the Elseworlds series of books is that it allows for yet another telling. In Howard Chaykin's hands, this is a good thing, and his Thrillkiller makes for a completely new version that manages to be both faithful and completely reckless. It's a fantastic addition to the Batman mythos.

For once, our story starts elsewhere: it's the 1960s, but not the Summer of Love--this is the American '60s of Beat Poets and a nation still struggling to throw off the shackles of 1950s conformity and repression. It's an era in which institutions are corrupt and almost nobody questions them--something the buxom (but healthily proportioned) Batgirl and her sidekick Robin aim to do something about. But vigilantes aren't welcome in Gotham City, so rising star (and honest cop) Det. Bruce Wayne is assigned to both end the corruption in the GCPD as well as to bring in the not-so-caped crusaders.

In Chaykin's hands, the entire mythos is changed: Wayne is penniless and Barbara Gordon, mostly estranged from her Police Commissioner father, occupies stately Wayne Manner. The Joker, never referred to here by that name, is as vicious and twisted as ever, but her protégé may trump her yet. Dan Brereton's art is a masterpiece: painted panels that exude the noir of the story; and his re-imagined costumes may be the most striking yet. --Randy Silver

Customer Reviews

The Dark Knight just got darker....
This is a superb reworking of the myth of the Dark Knight. Starting not with Bruce Wayne but with Robin and Batgirl, the story offers readers a new and thought provoking version of Batman's origins, as well as the origins of some of the major villians. The story pumps along at a high adrenalin rate, and the moody artwork adds tremendously to the whole story. (So why isn't Amazon featuring the cover??) Highly recommended.

Dissapointing though different
To be fair to my score I must point out that I am a big "Elseworlds" fan and a big "Batman" fan so had high expectations for this book.

The book tells of an alternate Gotham set in the 1960's but a dark and distressing scene far from the flower power of our own history.

The story is as dark and tragic as any batman story with the traumatic events that created Robin (as told in the batman story) been given an even more sinister twist. Batman is seeming replaced by "Batgirl" Barbara Gordon though a more busty mentally disturbed version.

Robin is cast as the same impetuos youth with what a favourite author of mine would term "much of the gypsy about him" and his dark brooding looks make him a hit with the locals.

Batman himself is seemingly nowhere to be seen though Detective Bruce Wayne is far from an average Jo and his keen crime fighting instincts and sense of right and wrong are as keen as ever.

The story itself is excellent sadly the fight scened have much of the Adam West about it rather than the brilliance of The Return of the Dark Knight. The story is also slightly disjointed a side effect of the darkness of the tale.

From a personal point of view I didn't really enjoy this tale dispite its huge potential.

few thrills fewer kills
Its Elseworlds and its gender-reversal time. Batman is Barbara Gordon, Robin is all grown up and sleeps with her , the Joker is female too and doesen't sleep with anyone and Bruce Wayne is a poor, honest cop.
So the scenario is a little interesting when it should have been and easily could have utterly fascinating.
The book is let down by a mediocre script and oddly irritating, if rather competent, art. Chaykin was never much of a writer. This one proves it.