No Man's Land (comics)

For other uses, see No Man's Land (disambiguation).

"No Man's Land"
Cover of Batman: No Man's Land vol. 1 (1999), trade paperback collected edition.Art by Alex Maleev.
Publisher	DC Comics
Publication date	March – November 1999
Genre	Superhero Crossover
Title(s) Azrael #50-61 Batman #563-574 Batman: Harley Quinn Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #116-126 Batman: No Man's Land #0-1 Batman: No Man's Land Secret Files & Origins #1 Batman: Day of Judgment Batman: Shadow of the Bat #83-94 The Batman Chronicles #16-18 Catwoman #72-77 Detective Comics #730-741 Nightwing #35-39 Robin #67-73 Young Justice In No Man's Land #1
Main character(s)	Batman, Nightwing, Robin, Oracle, Batgirl, Huntress
Creative team
Writer(s)	Jordan B. Gorfinkel Greg Rucka Chuck Dixon Scott Beatty Paul Dini Bob Gale Devin K. Grayson Kelley Puckett Larry Hama Bronwyn Carlton
Penciller(s)	Greg Land Andy Kuhn Yvel Guichet Alex Maleev Dale Eaglesham Frank Teran Phil Winslade Damion Scott Dan Jurgens Mike Deodato Tom Morgan Mat Broome Sergio Cariello
Inker(s)	Drew Geraci Chris Ivy Aaron Sowd Wayne Faucher Sean Parsons Frank Teran Phil Winslade Sal Buscema John Floyd Bill Sienkiewicz Sean Parsons David Roach Mark Pennington Rob Hunter
Collected editions
Volume One	ISBN 1563895641
Volume Two	ISBN 1563895994
Volume Three	ISBN 1563896346
Volume Four	ISBN 1563896982
Volume Five	ISBN 1563897091

"No Man’s Land" is an American comic book crossover storyline that ran for the whole of 1999 through the Batman comic book titles published by DC Comics.

The lead-up story began with the "Cataclysm" story arc, which described a major earthquake hitting Gotham City. This was followed by the storylines "Aftershock" and then "Road to No Man's Land" which resulted in the U.S. government officially evacuating Gotham and then abandoning and isolating those who chose to remain in the city. "No Man’s Land" covered, in detail, a period in the lives of the residents of the city, explaining all events from the time of isolation, until its time of re-opening and the beginning of rebuilding.

Publication history

The main storyline ran through the monthly Batman titles Detective Comics, Batman, Batman: Shadow of the Bat, and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight with other spin-offs serving as tie-ins. In all, "No Man's Land" encompassed 80 regular monthly issues, 4 specials, and the Batman: Harley Quinn graphic novel, which introduced Harley Quinn to the DC Universe.

The storyline is divided into several arcs. A part of the story would continue from one Batman title and then to the next Batman title that would come the following week, much the same format used in the Superman comics for that time. Unlike the Superman comics, where a creative team is maintained for one monthly title, the same creative team is maintained for the duration of the story arc.

The core storyline is collected as trade paperbacks in five volumes. However, because of the large number of issues that were devoted to "No Man's Land", only 40 of them made it into the collections. A novelization of the story line was also written by Greg Rucka and released as hardcover in January 2000.

DC is currently planning to release a collection of No Man's Land that will, for the first time, include issues previously uncollected ^[1][2]

Plot summary

Gotham City had suffered the results of a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in the earlier Cataclysm storyline. In response, the U.S government declared Gotham a "no man's land," destroyed all bridges leading to Gotham and forbade people from entering or exiting.

The city was swiftly carved up by gangs and various supervillains Batman had battled over the years, primarily The Penguin. Jim Gordon and several members of the Gotham police department stayed behind to protect civilians. Oracle and Huntress also ended up on the inside. Bruce Wayne (Batman) left the city to lobby the government to not cut Gotham off, but failed. Gordon and his men waited for his return, but by the time he returned more than three months later, they believed he had abandoned Gotham.

Huntress attempts to keep order, fashioning a Batgirl costume. She soon discovers that criminals fear her more as Batgirl than they do Huntress and succeeds in holding territory of her own. When Batman returns, he allows her to continue to use the costume. However, when she fails to hold off Two-Face and his army of men and loses Batman's territory, she abandons the costume.

Batman and James Gordon's officers work separately to reclaim Gotham, piece by piece, by beating and subduing the gang leaders and then marking the reclaimed territory with graffiti. Various subplots emerge through the battles. Poison Ivy took up residence in Robinson Park and Batman allowed her to remain there as long as she cared for the orphans and distributed food. Superman briefly visited the city to try and help restore some degree of order, but quickly realised that the city's current state required a greater effort than the 'quick-fix' he had been expecting and departed, realising that his type of help was inadequate for Gotham's present condition. A simultaneous story in JLA revealed that the Justice League kept an eye on Gotham during this time by preventing various villains claiming the territory for themselves.

Gordon once allied with Two-Face, but Two-Face betrayed the alliance. Two-Face also hired David Cain to kill Gordon, but Cain is thwarted by his daughter Cassandra. Cassandra later takes up the mantle as the third Batgirl to help clean No Man's Land up. Later, Two-Face kidnapped Gordon and put him on trial for breaking the alliance. Police officer Renee Montoya reaches out to Two-Face's Harvey Dent persona, whose defense leads to Gordon's acquittal, Dent's questioning concluding that Two-Face had essentially blackmailed Gordon into the alliance and hence making any alliance between them void.

The turning point for No Man's Land came when Lex Luthor arrived with his helicopters to rebuild Gotham. However, Luthor's covert plan was to take the deeds and much of the property in Gotham, since the original deeds had been burned after sending Bane to Gotham to destroy the city's records, and many of the owners either had died in the earthquake or incapable of legal battles because of financial ruins. Lucius Fox discovers copies of the original documents and notifies Luthor. Luthor then attempts to kill Fox, but Batman intervenes and reveals that he is the one who anonymously tipped the Wayne Enterprises' CEO, tells Luthor that Gotham is not for sale, and warns him to leave.

The United States government reverses the No Man's Land order and allows Gotham to rejoin the United States. Gordon and his surviving police officers are promoted. In the final scenes of the comic, the Joker attacks Petit's compound. Petit is killed and the Huntress barely survives. The Joker later kidnaps all of Gotham's babies, but thankfully does not kill any of them. When Sarah Essen Gordon discovers the babies, the Joker shoots her in the head while she holds an infant. Batman later convinces a grief-stricken Gordon to not kill The Joker in order to prove that their city can still maintain its morale. When the Joker mockingly asks Gordon if he has a son (asking whether he has anybody else in his life he has not hurt yet), Gordon shoots Joker through one of his kneecaps instead and breaks down as Batman comforts him.

The story ends with the new year ringing in, as Batman prepares to spend another year as the watchful protector of Gotham, and Gordon says his last goodbyes to his wife, wishing her a happy new year.

Issues

The story ran through the following issues:

• Azrael #50-61
• Batman #563-574
• Batman: Harley Quinn (graphic novel)
• The Batman Chronicles #16-18
• Batman: Day of Judgment (also part of Day of Judgment)
• Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #116-126
• Batman: No Man's Land #0-1
• Batman: No Man's Land Secret Files and Origins #1
• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #83-94
• Catwoman #72-77
• Detective Comics #730-741
• Nightwing #35-39
• Robin #67-73
• Young Justice in No Man's Land #1

Other comics took place in Gotham City during "No Man's Land", but were not cover bannered as part of the storyline:

• Hitman #37-46^{[citation needed]}
• JLA #32

New Gotham

Two of the storylines immediately following "No Man's Land" were collected as trade paperbacks with the subtitles New Gotham 1 and New Gotham 2, respectively, playing up the fact that they were set in the rebuilt Gotham City following "No Man's Land". These were "Batman: Evolution" from Detective Comics #743-750 and "Batman: Officer Down", collecting the story from Batman #587, Robin #86, Birds of Prey #27, Catwoman #90, Nightwing #53, Detective Comics #754, and Gotham Knights #13.

Lasting effects

"No Man's Land" introduced the character of Cassandra Cain, who would become the third Batgirl. An ongoing quasi-relationship between Two-Face and Renee Montoya started as a result to this crossover and came to a head in the pages of Gotham Central's "Half a Life" storyline. "No Man's Land" also saw the death of Sarah Essen, the wife of Gordon, who is brutally murdered by The Joker in the arc's finale; an event that precipitated Gordon's temporary retirement from the force. The crisis also gave Luthor enough of a foothold in public opinion to win the candidacy of the President of the United States in 2000. The same arc also introduced Luthor's bodyguard Mercy Graves to the DC Universe, after she first appeared in Superman: The Animated Series. Harley Quinn also made her first appearance in comics during "No Man's Land", in a one-shot titled Batman: Harley Quinn that also set forth the basis of the friendship between her and Poison Ivy. Batman himself actually changed costumes from the all-black Troika suit to a costume similar to the original, Year One Batsuit during the event.

Behind the scenes, "No Man's Land" precipitated the exit of longtime writer and editor Denny O'Neil from the Batman family of books. In an interview, he stated that he retired three years before he was supposed to, due to the strenuous nature of editing. O'Neil was replaced by Bob Shreck.

Collected editions

Of the 80 issues under the No Man's Land banner, 40 were collected into trade paperbacks:

Batman

• Volume One (ISBN 1563895641)
  • Batman: No Man's Land #1
  • Batman #563-564
  • Batman: Shadow of the Bat #83-84
  • Detective Comics #730-731
  • Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #116

• Volume Two (ISBN 1563895994)
  • Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #117, #119
  • Batman: Shadow of the Bat #85-87
  • Batman #565
  • Detective Comics #732-733
  • The Batman Chronicles #16

• Volume Three (ISBN 1563896346)
  • Batman #566-569
  • Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #120-121
  • Batman: Shadow of the Bat #88
  • Detective Comics #734-735

• Volume Four (ISBN 1563896982)
  • Batman #571-572
  • The Batman Chronicles #18
  • Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #125
  • Batman: Shadow of the Bat #92-93
  • Detective Comics #736, #738-739

• Volume Five (ISBN 1563897091)
  • Batman: No Man's Land #0
  • Batman #573-574
  • Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #126
  • Batman: Shadow of the Bat #94
  • Detective Comics #740-741

Supporting cast

• Nightwing: A Darker Shade of Justice (ISBN 978-1563897030)
  • Nightwing #30-39, Nightwing Secret Files & Origins #1

The novel & Audiobook

Cover of the hardcover by Greg Rucka. Art by Joe DeVito.

In 2000, DC Comics published a novelization of "No Man's Land" written by Greg Rucka. The story features many of the same characters as the comic book arc. It also describes other members of the GCPD. The book omits the characters of Azrael and Superman, who were present throughout in the comics.

There is also a shorter junior novel written by Alan Grant.

GraphicAudio is producing an audiobook of the novelization of Batman No Man Land. The audiobook spans two volumes and features a full cast, music and sound effects. The first part will be released in October and the second in November 2011

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ [2]