Batman - Dead White

John Shirley (The Specialist, Traveler) has experience writing movie, game, comic, and television tie-in novels. He has authored books in the Alien, Predator, Hellblazer universe as well as gaming platforms like BioShock, Borderlands, Resident Evil, and Halo. I learned about his Batman novel, Dead White, when interviewing one of Shirley's writing protegees, David Agranoff. Dead White was published in paperback by Del Rey in 2006.

The plot concerns a white supremacist deemed White Eyes amassing a cult following through a network of high-tech weapons. When these weapons appear on the streets of Gotham, Batman swoops in to investigate. The novel's informative first-half hones in on Batman's search for the weapons and the various tentacles operating from White Eyes' operation. With this being a sort of “ret con” approach, Shirley is careful to explain that despite the year of 2006, Wayne is fairly new in the role of Batman. He's experimenting with what works, how to improve various technologies and systems, and the importance of maintaining a day/night contrast of the Wayne/Batman persona.

While Dead White is a Batman novel, it easily could have been one of Shirley's The Specialist adventures. I kept visualizing Jack Sullivan in place of Bruce Wayne. As the first-half closes, some of the book's action takes place in San Francisco through the eyes of a former Gotham policeman named Cormac. He's in California searching for his missing son. His investigation leads to a rural Pennsylvania mining town in the fictitious Hatchet Mountains. Cormac's arrival in the small town aligns with Batman's own arrival there to track down White Eyes' and his operation center.

While Batman purists may object to the body count, the high-rise levels of violence, and the overall mythology of the character, I felt that Shirley's novel was enjoyable and provided a sort of action-adventure fantasy that placed the Dark Knight in a type of vigilante Mack Bolan adventure. I did enjoy Shirley's introspective analysis of Batman hypnotically seeing the costume in various places, a representation that he's not only the suit, but the embodiment of justice. The costume appearing in the dark recesses of the cave, and at the height of battle scenes, was a neat admission that emphasizes the character's ambiguous struggle. 

Dead White is a men's action-adventure paperback worth pursuing no matter if you are a casual Batman fan or a hardcore Batfanatic. Recommended! Get the book HERE.