Batman: Resurrection Review

The release of Tim Burton’s film Batman in 1989 unleashed a pop culture phenomenon. Indeed, alongside Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie more than a decade earlier, it’s the film that launched superhero cinema. It’s no wonder there’s been numerous sequels and attempts to capitalize on the world Burton, his cast including Michael Keaton’s Batman and Jack Nicholson’s Joker, and crew created for that film. Something which has extended from Burton’s own 1992 film Batman Returns to the more recent Batman ‘89 comic from the film’s co-writer Sam Hamm. Now, thirty-five years after the film’s release, comes a literary sequel in the form of John Jackson Miller’s Batman: Resurrection.

What’s clear is that Miller has a great love and appreciation for the 1989 film. It’s something that you can sense throughout, from the spot-on characterizations that make it easy to imagine the likes of Keaton, Michael Gough, and Robert Wuhl among others reprising their film roles in the mind’s eye. Indeed, given the characters such as Wuhl’s Knox or Kim Basinger’s Vicki Vale who didn’t return for Burton’s sequel, it seems all the more fitting that they should appear here and feel spot-on. Miller also shows an appreciation for the wider universe that’s expanded out from the 1989 film with appearances of characters from Returns and some nods toward the Batman ‘89 comic. Sitting alongside a host of references and Easter eggs throughout, it’s something that goes a long way toward adding to the atmosphere of the novel and the sense that this is a literary sequel to the 1989 film.

As does the world building Miller does. The sense of loose threads from the film, what happened in the aftermath of the panic over cosmetics the Joker caused and the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Vicki Vale along them, linger over the novel for much of its length. The former serving as something of the novel’s backbone, from the origin story for one of the novel’s villains to how the characters (and Gotham City at large) are still reacting to the aftermath some months later. It’s something that makes Resurrection a far closer sequel to the 1989 film that even Burton managed with Returns in 1992, no mean feat given the passage of time.

Atmosphere and (arguably) fan service is one thing, but is there a story to go along with it? Miller delivers in that department, as well, crafting a new mystery for the cowl-wearing detective to solve. One that, as the subtitle suggests, partly involves some potentially unfinished business from the film. A matter that is further complicated for Batman by the addition of new villains from the rogues gallery (to say who would be to diminish part of the novel’s fun) offered in a form not out of place in the world the film created. Nor is there a lack of twists and turns along the way with red herrings and plenty of things which are not what they seem in the classic mystery/thriller tradition. That the world’s greatest detective gets a mystery to solve is something else which speaks in Resurrection’s favor.

Which isn’t to say it lacks action, of course. Far from it as Miller builds up sequences in prose that would have cost millions to realize on-screen. Among the highlights being Batman dealing with an arson, a thrilling Batmobile sequence on a Gotham bypass, and the addition of new vehicles to the Dark Knight’s fleet. All done in service of the plot and leading to a finale that, much like the novel itself, builds upon the original film to a satisfying conclusion.

From Miller’s spot-on characterizations and world building to an engaging mystery and thrilling action, Batman: Resurrection is the sequel to Burton’s 1989 film you never knew you needed. More than that: it’s a better sequel to it than Burton’s own cinematic follow-up. For fans of the original film wanting more of their favorite characters or looking for an (officially licensed) answer to some burning questions, it’s well-worth a read, as it is for fans of Batman and good thrillers in general.

So turn on Danny Elfman’s Batman Theme and return to Gotham: 1989.