This is not your comic book Gotham, nor is this your comic book Batman. Batman: The Ultimate Evil is a book about child sex tourism and its victims taken through the lens of “What Would the Dark Knight Do About It?”
The last time I read a Batman comic about a serious issue, Seduction of the Gun, it came across at the end like it was not trying to present a full argument about the issue (that is, both sides as the advertisement had claimed). The Ultimate Evil is like that, though here I don’t truly care about hearing the other side. Child sex tourism is a chilling topic, and I’m glad that DC had the willingness to address this with the Batman character (even if it doesn’t read like a Batman book).
Seriousness of the issue aside, how does The Ultimate Evil rate as a Batman story? Not well, I’m afraid. I believe that Vachss put too much of his personal crusade into the book to fully capture the Batman that we (comic book fans) want to read about. As a story with a well-equipped, cape-wearing vigilante it’s a solid read. Again, it’s not our Batman.
Turning to the Batman character, Vachss goes as far as adding to the Batman mythos. By having Bruce’s mother being a child activist that got too close to discovering a child sex ring so the villains in the ring put an order out to kill her changes the way we can view Batman and his origin. Instead of Gotham’s random violence taking the Wayne family, we see that there’s always been a dark fate looming for young Bruce Wayne.
Vachss has the descriptions and equipment that makes for a solid Batman tale, just not the want to keep Batman fighting crime in Gotham as Batman investigates child sex tourism (and its creepy characters) in Udon Khai (fictionalized country based on real world Thailand). The books ends by stepping out of a Batman narrative with an article about child sex tourism and some numbers and addresses to contribute to fighting it.
Overall, The Ultimate Evil confronts a serious issue with the character of Batman. The book is well written and enjoyable in places where the creepiness of the issue doesn’t slap you in the face. I cheered for Batman as he threatened child-abusing fathers and broke the ring, but that doesn’t mean that this novel is a Batman tale that I’d want to revisit often.
