Batman. A sect is a comic book that hits religious fanatics - those seen in the pages of history and those who called graphic novels Satan's tool. Now Polish readers have the opportunity to see it.
The Sect's greatest strength lies in the way Starlin consistently blends the conventions of psychological drama and horror. The constant clash of these two keys leads to a deliberate blurring of the ideas, doctrines, and worldviews circulating in Gotham; even if they are painfully expressive, in the course of reading the reader will systematically lose the comfort of easily separating "bad" and "good". After all, both seem as justifiable as seductive - the border between them is extremely thin, almost imperceptible. There is no coincidence that in the course of time we will begin to wonder whether the deacon's crusade is a natural consequence of the call for historical justice; after all, in such a non-obvious reality, even Batman, torn by doubts, is not sure whether he is on the right side of the dispute. Starlin cares about this cognitive dissonance as much as it does about changing the perspective of the Dark Knight. This is not the same Masked Crusader you know from the pages of many other comics; his human weakness is visible in the sect, accentuated by the humiliation that falls on him. The screenwriter's intention is to take the viewer to a world bordering on reality and dream, where the delirium of the mind goes hand in hand with real pain, and hope has to face fears again and again. Looking through this prism, the work of Starlin and Wrightson definitely goes beyond the framework of the superhero genre, turning into a psychological vivisection and demystification of the hero's myth at the same time.
The writer's story key was perfectly understood by the cartoonist. In the convention of horror, Wrightson feels like a fish in the water, which is proved by the boards created in a characteristic style, full of disturbing shapes and understatements. The world created by him perfectly imitates the landscape known from nightmares, and this procedure is paradoxically enhanced by prints in extremely realistic tones. Among the latter, the division of frames according to the "television" narrative stands out, which is a clear tribute to the achievements of Frank Miller in The Return of the Dark Knight. It is also worth noting the skillful choice of colors by Bill Wray, who is responsible for this part of the illustration; his work contributes greatly to the aura of fear in Gotham, which is featured in this volume.
Batman. Sect is a comic, or at least forgotten among many superhero fans. This was mainly due to the fact that he made his debut on the market as a potential successor to those stories about heroes from the mid-1980s that achieved enormous artistic and commercial success - expectations in this field were enormous. Starlin and Wrightson's story, however, divided the audience; which is extremely perverse, it seems that the assessment of its quality grows with the years since its premiere. If we look at the reality of the year 2021, in which religious fanatics treat their faith as a weapon, seeking to manipulate crowds and achieve particular goals based on selfish motives, we will relatively quickly understand that the Sect may be even more relevant today than it was more than 3 decades ago. In the United States, it came as a hammer to religious fanaticism and tinkering with the Comic Book Code. Probably no one expected that after many years its causative power would still be so huge.