Inspired by Charles Dickens' immortal classic A Christmas Carol, BATMAN: NOEL features different interpretations of The Dark Knight, along with his...
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Jan 27, 2012
Kathleen
rated it: 
While this is a very good retelling of A Christmas Carol with Batman as Scrooge and a street level hood as Bob Cratchit, I now want a dozen versions of this story. I want Tim or Steph or Cass or Babs or Dick or Damien to be Cratchit. I want the one where the Red Hood actually shows up instead of a flash vision of Jason-as-the-Robin that was. Because he's naturally the partner that is dead and gone, but he isn't really dead and gone. It could be fun. I want the one where Doctor Fate or Zatan
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Dec 24, 2011
Sam
rated it: 
After so many Batman books how can one man, the brilliant Lee Bermejo, rejuvenate the character for another book? Take the ultimate Christmas story ever written, Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and cast the Dark Knight as Scrooge, of course! Robin, Catwoman, Superman, and Joker all put in appearances in the role of the other characters in the Carol, showing how well that story fits the DC Universe like a glove.
The story focuses on how Batman has changed over the years, from the More...
The story focuses on how Batman has changed over the years, from the More...
Dec 22, 2011
James
rated it:
OK, you want me to tell you a story?
Batman: Noel is quite a graphic novel. It takes a tip from Charles Dickens and creates its own version of "A Christmas Carol," minus the ghosts. It is a commentary on the Dark Knight, a vigilante who tends to cross the line that others would fear to cross (Gordon said that).
It's a narrative piece, where someone (we find out who at the end) is telling his kid a story, about Scrooge (Batman) and how he meets three people w More...
Batman: Noel is quite a graphic novel. It takes a tip from Charles Dickens and creates its own version of "A Christmas Carol," minus the ghosts. It is a commentary on the Dark Knight, a vigilante who tends to cross the line that others would fear to cross (Gordon said that).
It's a narrative piece, where someone (we find out who at the end) is telling his kid a story, about Scrooge (Batman) and how he meets three people w More...
Nov 01, 2011
Stephanie
rated it: 
Lee Bermejo, who has illustrated such fascinating character tellings as Joker and Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, sets down his brush long enough to try his hand at writing. His storytelling is, incredulously, as amazing and dedicated as his artwork. In Batman: Noel, he cleverly infuses Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol with the superhero icon Batman and his city of Gotham, assigning Barbara Ciardo the role of colorist. Bermejo still provides visuals that will take your breath away, but this time he
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Dec 28, 2011
Tim
rated it:
This is a reworking of Dickens' 'Christmas Carol' for the Dark Knight Batman mythos.
Apart from a clumsy confusion at the beginning as to who precisely is Bob Cratchit's 'boss' (either an egregious failure of continuity or a too-clever-by-half attempt to give the now somewhat cliched message of the Joker and Batman as two sides of the same coin), this works well.
But the book is not best read for the script which is fairly predictable (though well drafted and, as we will s More...
Apart from a clumsy confusion at the beginning as to who precisely is Bob Cratchit's 'boss' (either an egregious failure of continuity or a too-clever-by-half attempt to give the now somewhat cliched message of the Joker and Batman as two sides of the same coin), this works well.
But the book is not best read for the script which is fairly predictable (though well drafted and, as we will s More...
Dec 27, 2011
Dave
rated it:
Batman:Noel is a one-shot graphic novel making its debut for this Holiday season. Essentially, the novel is a re-imagining of Dicken's A Christmas Carol, casting Batman/Bruce Wayne as Scrooge, justifying his willingness to use a man named Bob, a man who is stuck in a dead-end job and chooses to carry packages for the Joker in order to handle the expenses of the medical bills for his son, Tim (see the parallels?). Batman weaves a plan to exploit Bob and use him as bait to bring the Joker out of h
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Dec 26, 2011
Shara (Calico Reaction)
rated it:
The premise: ganked from BN.com: Inspired by Charles Dickens' immortal classic A Christmas Carol, BATMAN: NOEL features different interpretations of The Dark Knight, along with his enemies and allies, in different eras.
Along the way, Batman must come to terms with his past, present and future as he battles villains from the campy 1960s to dark and brooding menaces of today, while exploring what it means to be the hero that he is. Members of Batman's supporting cast enact roles analogou More...
Along the way, Batman must come to terms with his past, present and future as he battles villains from the campy 1960s to dark and brooding menaces of today, while exploring what it means to be the hero that he is. Members of Batman's supporting cast enact roles analogou More...
Dec 03, 2011
Slayermel
rated it:
This is the Charles Dickens “Christmas Carol” set into the world of Batman, featuring Batman as Scrooge. I really enjoyed this tale and loved how they made it more realistic to fit into this world by leaving out the ghosts and instead making them three visitors who have a great impact on how Batman’s day went. Trying to help him regain his focus on the bigger picture as somewhere along the line of being the hard character that he is and the amount of loss he has seen, he drifted from the path.
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Dec 02, 2011
Ron
rated it:
It's Christmas Eve in Gotham, and a ailing Batman is relentlessly pursuing the Joker. As he hallucinates (did Robin come to visit him in the form of a ghost?), Batman encounters three visitors -- Catwoman (the past), Superman (the present), and, ultimately, the Joker (Death, the future, perhaps both). The whole thing is framed as a story told by a narrator to his son. The form of the story mirrors a holiday classic. The spectacular aspect of this original graphic novel is Lee Bermejo's breat
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Jan 17, 2012
Andrew
rated it:
Wow, very rarely do I borrow something from my library and think " I must own this." this book did that to me. First off I'm a huge fan of Charles Dickens " A Christmas Carol" and while this isn't an actual adaption of that it does come close to being one. the story in here is great and the way they pay homage to the source material without having Batman actually deal with ghosts and spirits is awesome. the story part of the book is probably a 4 star by itself but even if the
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Dec 25, 2011
Derek
rated it:
Nothing heavy, but okay. I look at this as a nice piece of confection for the holidays. But reading back over that last sentence, I feel that tone is one of condescension. That couldn't be further from the truth. Perhaps a better way of putting it is that this is a nicely executed Christmas story, a variation on Dickens, as it was intended to be. Henry James said that we should "grant the artist his subject, his idea"...in other words, his donnée, And for that, Bermejo success spe
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Dec 07, 2011
Robert
rated it:
I have been a big fan of Lee Bermejo since he and writer Brian Azzarello published Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, a story focusing on Superman’s nemesis. Bermejo has a very distinctive and striking art style. It is gorgeous. I’m also a sucker for Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, so the merger of the two is definitely a product I pre-ordered on Amazon.
As everyone knows, A Christmas Carol is about a man that has lost his humanity until he is visited by a series of ghosts on Christmas eve. The More...
As everyone knows, A Christmas Carol is about a man that has lost his humanity until he is visited by a series of ghosts on Christmas eve. The More...
Nov 03, 2011
Bookstorequeer
rated it: 
I picked this up on the behest of one of the guys at Paradise Comics (who hadn't read it yet), because he wanted to know what I thought. First impressions: The art is amazing, of course, but the idea is terribly cliched. This is a Christmas Carol with Batman in it. And, unfortunately, that's all that the story is.
There were a few pages where I got lost in terms of what panel to read next, because they seemed to be full page spreads but weren't, or they seemed like single pages but th More...
There were a few pages where I got lost in terms of what panel to read next, because they seemed to be full page spreads but weren't, or they seemed like single pages but th More...
Jan 04, 2012
David
rated it:
Well drawn and interestingly written. It's a Dark Knightlian version of Dickens' Christmas Carol. The narrator tells old Scrooge's story, for the most part, while Batman runs around Gotham doing things that mostly line up with the three spirits of Christmas that Scrooge deals with. It's well done, if forced, and a good read for the season or just as an alternative to the same tired story you've been reading about or watching for the last decade(s). The art style is very clean and realistic, th
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Dec 04, 2011
Aubrey
rated it:
A graphic novel has it tougher sometimes, when it comes to pleasing the reader, for the art must be appropriate for the story and the story must be a rich one. Then they must meet to work in unison.
Batman: Noel is an example of a graphic novel that does really well on one end but suffers on the other. Let me begin with the good, the art. Lee Bermejo is a phenomenal artist! I was completely memorized by the artwork in this book. Normally you only see such artwork on the cover and if you More...
Batman: Noel is an example of a graphic novel that does really well on one end but suffers on the other. Let me begin with the good, the art. Lee Bermejo is a phenomenal artist! I was completely memorized by the artwork in this book. Normally you only see such artwork on the cover and if you More...
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Dec 13, 2011
Artur
rated it:
Outra graphic novel. Com Batman no papel principal. Verdadeiramente raro, digo eu com um tom de ironia. O que não falta por aí são livros destes a explorar o lado tenebroso da personagem mais problemática da DC Comics. E o que nos trás de novo este Noel? Uma mistura do conto clássico de Natal de Dickens com as constantes introspecções do herói corroído pela obsessão. No lugar dos fantasmas das eras temos um Robin, um Super-homem e um Joker a interferir física e moralmente numa caça ao homem em q
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Nov 21, 2011
Nick
rated it:
The basic conceit of this graphic novel is that it's a re-telling of A Christmas Carol, but set in Gotham City, with the Batman in the role of Scrooge. This works most of the time, but feels rather forced in a few places.
Where the story shines is the Bob Cratchit-equivalent, a low-level criminal with a crippled son [the Tiny Tim of the story]. It is much easier to identify with the desperation of a man willing to work for the Joker in order to put food on the table for his son than it is t More...
Where the story shines is the Bob Cratchit-equivalent, a low-level criminal with a crippled son [the Tiny Tim of the story]. It is much easier to identify with the desperation of a man willing to work for the Joker in order to put food on the table for his son than it is t More...
Dec 16, 2011
Denise
rated it:
Graphics are very popular in my middle school library. I loved the story line in this book, but was very disappointed that it contained a few cussing words, which has prevented this book from becoming a popular read for this age group. If the author had just left these few words out this book it could of had a much wider audience base.
Graphics have a very strong audience base. These children check them out daily because they are such a fast and absorbing read. I have to really admire these More...
Graphics have a very strong audience base. These children check them out daily because they are such a fast and absorbing read. I have to really admire these More...
Dec 23, 2011
Tyler
rated it:
This is a pretty solid adaptation of A Christmas Carol. I'm not in love with the source material, as I feel it's been absolutely overdone in every conceivable way. However, this is certainly a nice twist on the classic story. It's certainly very creative, with interesting choices for the three spirits and "Marley." it also has an extra moral to it aside from the Scrooge aspect, which I certainly appreciated as a change from the norm.
I'm not always a fan of the realistic comic art More...
I'm not always a fan of the realistic comic art More...
Jan 04, 2012
Emmett
rated it:
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. To that end, one understands why the sparse script requires so little dialogue and narrative to tell this compelling story - Lee Bermejo's artwork in this volume is arguably the best of his career.
Loosely adopting the structure and basic plot of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol", this original Graphic Novel (not weighted by any continuity, so casual readers can pick this up without any prior knowledge required) treats Batman More...
Loosely adopting the structure and basic plot of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol", this original Graphic Novel (not weighted by any continuity, so casual readers can pick this up without any prior knowledge required) treats Batman More...
Dec 21, 2011
Aaron
rated it:
I really liked the idea of a Batman Christmas Carol, but this doesn't work. Instead of taking the Christmas Carol structure we all know backwards and forwards and applying it to the Batman world, Bermejo has a narrator tell the actual Dickens Christmas Carol over scenes of Batman just doing normal Batman stuff. It creates a pretty lousy illusion of a Batman Christmas Carol, and except for the "Ghost of Christmas Present" sequence, none of it really fits.
There are only minor c More...
There are only minor c More...
Dec 16, 2011
Mary Beth
rated it:
I am still somewhat new to the graphic novel format. I've been reading The Stand and the Oz series in graphic novel format and have enjoyed them but I'm not sure my level appreciation is mature yet. However, this book was amazing. Batman has always been my favorite of the superheros (being a fan of the original campy 60s show before we knew it was campy!) Batman's darker and troubled side makes him a perfect stand-in for an important character in A Christmas Carol.
This book was so More...
This book was so More...
Dec 25, 2011
Michael
rated it:
If you think "beautiful Batman story" might be an oxymoron, Bermejo's "Noel" will change your mind! Christmas offers the Dark Knight a chance at redemption and renewal, with the help of some very surprising "ghosts" of Yuletides past, present and future! Please see my full review at http://thescifichristian.com/2011/12/pul... but this is definitely one of the strongest Batman stories I've ever read - and re-read; and it just gets better with each time -- and I think
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Feb 19, 2012
Jen
rated it:
Lee Bermejo's work on "Joker" was incredible, so I was expecting brilliant artwork with Noel too. As for the writing, well, let's just say I appreciate that it's from the poor father's perspective telling his young naive son a morality story at Christmas. Ultimately the weakness is in trying to parallel Dickens' original with the Batman mythos, which is the very premise of the story. The quintessential Dickensian absurdity is lost in translation. I'd've preferred it if there was no ref
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Jan 09, 2012
Caroline
rated it:
A retelling of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, but with Scrooge cast as Batman. An interesting enough idea, but in ways just didn't click for me. Batman's ruthless, sure, but in that he gives plenty back to society, and the parallel between him and Scrooge just isn't enough for me. What they're getting at in here is trying to make him more generous to the semi-bad guys, but it felt like stretching.
The art itself was solid, but the story didn't hold up as much as I'd have liked.
The art itself was solid, but the story didn't hold up as much as I'd have liked.
Jan 05, 2012
Rose
rated it:
I wasn't sure how a mash-up of "Batman" and "A Christmas Carol" would work out -- happily, the answer proved to be "really awesomely." Batman as Scrooge made for some beautiful Bruce Wayne character development that nicely dovetailed with what's been happening to Wayne in the comics these days (thanks to Grant Morrison's run on writing the character); watching who the other "character substitutions" would turn out to be was part of the charm and the fun. (
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Jan 01, 2012
Shadow
rated it:
A great story and made me feel like I could make a difference or change in myself. This story takes cues from A Christmas Carol and works well within the Batman universe. Although it felt short and didn't have much going on there was still a sense of vitality in the words used to describe what was happening. I enjoyed the drawings and well return to this novel whenever I feel the need for resuscitation from life and its troubled obstacles.
Nov 27, 2011
Jin
rated it:
"This is my first book and my very first encounter of Lee Bermejo's work. All I can say is that this one is splendid! Great! Lee can really (outstandingly) draw as well as he can write. He captured the cold and dark character of the Batman, his lines, his expressions and reactions. A unique reinvention of a Charles Dickens classic. I am looking forward to more Batman project for him (Lee). An awesome book, a six-out-of-six stars."
Nov 13, 2011
Naty
rated it:
The stars are for the art alone, and the only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is because some of those gorgeous pages could've benefited from some panel gutters. The story only gets two stars from me because it was an okay Christmas Carol with Batman littered with confusing and disjointed text placement. Lee Bermejo is very talented but someone should remind him why comic book artists started drawing their stories inside panels.
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Nov 28, 2011
Troy
rated it:
The rating is for the artwork, which it excellent. The story itself is just a Gotham City twist on a classic Christmas story, and as much as the author tries to breathe new life into the tale, it's still just a "re-make". I received this as one of the Goodreads Giveaways. I very much doubt I would have considered buying the book myself. I will however pass it on to someone I know that will appreciate it more.
