Batman: Year 100 (Comics) | Review

Most futuristic Batman stories feel like lazy extrapolations of current technology with a cape slapped on top. They imagine shinier gadgets but keep the same moral framework intact. Batman: Year 100 takes a different approach entirely.

Writer/artist Paul Pope (Heavy Liquid, One Trick Rip-Off) strips away everything familiar about Gotham and asks a much harder question: what happens when government surveillance becomes absolute and privacy dies completely in modern society?

This isn't comfort food for Batman fans looking for familiar beats. Pope's vision feels alien, populated by characters who've adapted to a world where anonymity is extinct. The result is more like dystopian science fiction that happens to feature someone wearing a bat symbol. You won't find easy answers or clear-cut heroism here.

Set in 2039, the story presents a Gotham where government surveillance monitors every citizen through implanted identification chips. Privacy has become a criminal act punishable by harsh law. Into this tightly controlled environment emerges a new Batman, whose very existence represents strong rebellion against total observation.

The government treats his appearance as a terrorist threat requiring immediate elimination. What makes this premise work is Pope's refusal to explain everything upfront. We never learn the new Batman's real identity or his connection to the original Dark Knight legacy.

This mystery forces readers to focus on what the symbol represents rather than who wears the costume. The Batman becomes a dangerous idea that threatens authoritarian control simply by existing outside of their surveillance system.

The supporting cast reflects this world's paranoid atmosphere perfectly. Federal agents pursue Batman with religious fervor, viewing him as an existential threat to social order. Citizens live in perpetual fear of stepping outside behavioral norms.

When Batman appears, their reactions range from terror to desperate hope, showing how thoroughly the surveillance state has conditioned them to fear any disruption of the established social order and governmental control.

Pope explores how resistance movements adapt to total monitoring. The few people helping Batman develop elaborate detection-avoidance methods. Their careful protocols and coded communications feel authentic to a world where every conversation might be recorded, grounding fantastic elements in believable behavior.

The story's central conflict revolves around information control rather than physical violence. Batman's greatest weapon isn't his fighting skills but his ability to move unseen through a dystopian society designed to eliminate privacy.

Every appearance represents a crack in the government's perfect system, proving that absolute control remains impossible to achieve. However, the narrative sometimes gets lost in its own elaborate world-building and complex surveillance mechanics.

Pope spends so much time establishing the surveillance state's mechanics that character development suffers. The new Batman remains deliberately mysterious but other characters needed more depth to make their struggles feel personal rather than purely symbolic.

Paul Pope's artwork defines the series' strengths and weaknesses in equal measure. His character designs capture the dystopian atmosphere perfectly, creating faces that look weathered by constant stress and paranoia.

The new Batman costume feels appropriately intimidating while maintaining visual connections to the classic design. Pope understands how to make familiar iconography still feel fresh and relevant through clever design modifications.

The urban landscapes showcase Pope's architectural imagination at its best. His Gotham City of 2039 feels like a living city shaped by decades of authoritarian control. Buildings loom with oppressive weight, while surveillance technology seamlessly integrates into everyday structures and thus, supporting the story's darker themes.

Unfortunately, Pope's figure work often undermines the impressive world-building. Character proportions shift inconsistently between panels, breaking the immersion during crucial scenes. Action sequences become difficult to follow when basic anatomy changes mid-fight.

These technical problems feel particularly jarring given the story's serious tone and ambitious concepts. The coloring choices compound these issues. Pope uses a limited palette that suits the dystopian mood but makes important story elements harder to distinguish.

Pope's writing demonstrates stronger control over pacing and atmosphere than character development. His dialogue captures the paranoid mindset of surveillance state citizens without becoming too preachy about citizen's privacy rights.

The story builds tension through accumulated details rather than obvious plot mechanics, creating genuine unease about this fictional future. Pope's approach feels more sophisticated than typical comic-book storytelling methods and techniques.

The script's weakness lies in its reluctance to develop personal stakes for individual characters. While the thematic concerns remain compelling, readers need emotional anchors to care about abstract concepts like privacy and freedom. Pope provides interesting ideas but insufficient human connection to make those ideas feel urgent.

Batman: Year 100 succeeds as speculative fiction about surveillance culture while struggling as a Batman story. Pope created a genuinely unsettling vision of technological authoritarianism that feels more relevant today than when it was published.

The world-building demonstrates impressive imagination and attention to detail that elevates the material above typical superhero fare. However, the execution problems prevent this from becoming essential reading for most comic fans.

The inconsistent artwork distracts from Pope's strongest ideas, while the deliberately mysterious approach to character development creates emotional distance rather than intrigue. Readers looking for traditional Batman elements will find little to satisfy them here.

The series works best when viewed as Pope's personal interpretation of what Batman represents rather than established continuity. His focus on surveillance and privacy concerns feels prescient given current technology trends and security debates.

Is it successful as entertainment? That depends entirely on your tolerance for experimental storytelling and flawed execution. The ideas justify the reading experience but the presentation issues make this more interesting than enjoyable. Batman: Year 100 deserves recognition for its ambition even when its reach exceeds its grasp.

Set in the year 2039, Batman: Year 100 was originally published as a 4-issue mini-series in 2006, it's now collected in a trade paperback and deluxe hardcover edition. You can also read it digitally on Comixology and DC Universe Infinite.