What is this book about?

Back of the book description:

Visionary writer/artist Paul Pope presents a futuristic mystery of epic proportions set in a dark, dystopian world devoid of privacy and filled with government conspiracies, psychic police, holographic caller ID and absolutely no room for “secret identities.”

In Gotham City, 2039, a federal agent is murdered and a contingent of Washington’s top agents is hot on the suspect’s trail. The Batman, a forgotten icon from the past, is wanted for the murder. Amid the chaos Gotham City Police Detective Gordon, grandson of the former commissioner, discovers that the man they are chasing shouldn’t exist at all.

Why should you read this book?

I feel obligated to recommend this book to you for it’s writing, however, the art truly justifies the purchase.

Don’t get me wrong, the story is intriguing, no doubt. But, Pope is an artist, I feel, first and forthright.

I recently read a review of this book that basically stated that he felt as though Pope inserted his own Libertarian political views into the story and didn’t display Batman’s desire and drive for the “greater good.” He compares Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, which he says kept the focus on the sacrifices that Bruce Wayne must make to protect the city he loves—letting go of the woman he loves, even taking the blame for a murder he didn’t commit, all for the greater good. He continues to point out that we never actually see him fighting street crime, only Batman taking down the government.

But Batman is taking down the government because it’s corrupt. Libertarian views or not, there are unlawful things happening here that Batman has decided falls directly in line with his views on what fighting for the greater good means.

What’s interesting about this book is that we’re not sure who Batman is. We don’t know if it’s Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, or hell Stephanie Brown with a sex-change! We don’t even know if his “Robin” or “Oracle” in Year 100 is a Robin or Oracle that we all know and love. We just know that this takes place in the future and that there is evil corrupt happenings that the Batman does not want to see come to fruition.

I think the point of this story is to lay claim that there will always be someone with evil intentions and that there will always be someone with good intentions to war against it, such as The Batman.

MY QUESTION however is, what does Paul Pope think came first…good intentions or evil? Was there ever a first? Or were the two “born” together at the same time?

Enough about the story, look at some of this art! (RSS reader’s, go to the actual post)