We are used to comicbook adaptations in the cinema, which are now a regular part of each year’s quota of blockbuster, popcorn releases. Comics are an extremely visual method of storytelling so easily lend themselves to the movies, after all they are already storyboarded. Creating a radio play based on a comic is about as diametrically opposed as you can get and when it is one of the medium’s most iconic characters it seems even poor foolish, but producer Dirk Maggs has the talent to pull it off. Maggs went on to produce the last instalments of HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY for radio.
Originally aired on BBC Radio 1 back in April 1994 BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL was broadcast in three-minute episodes. Maggs had just finished producing a similar project with Batman’s DC stable mate Superman called DOOMSDAY AND BEYOND, so he jumped at the chance to try something similar with the Dark Knight.
The version on this 3 CD set has been restored and re-edited with new sound effects and an original orchestral score.
Batman has been crippled by his fiercest foe ever, Bane: a villain of superhuman strength, cunning and evil. With Bruce Wayne confined to a wheelchair, who will protect the innocent from the dangerous inmates of Arkham Asylum, whom Bane has released?
It’s all very loud with lots of sound effects, swirling music and earnest voices delivering the sort of dialogue you’d expect from a Batman comic. The trouble is huge amounts of back story is explained in tracts of dialogue as one villain tells his cohorts a condensed biography of Bane, as if they would actually talk like that. There are examples of this throughout, from both sides of the good/bad divide, and while the medium may require it, to a certain extent it does sometimes lessen the impact.
For fans of the Dark Knight, all the usual characters and rogues are there, and it is yet another way to engage with their favourite hero, but for me it has always been about the artwork more than the story, especially in volumes like 1840235934Batman: Black and White.
BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL is out now on 3 CDs from BBC Audiobooks and is available from the BBC Shop and Amazon.