In Case You Forgot, Paul Dano Wrote a Great Riddler Comic (Maybe Quentin Tarantino Should Read It)

Actor Paul Dano has been in the news lately, but not because of a current film role or anything like that. Instead, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino appeared on The Bret Easton Ellis podcast, sharing thoughts on his personal top 20 movies of the 21st century. Those thoughts included some less than complimentary thoughts about Dano as an actor. Now, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and pretty quickly, a number of folks in Hollywood countered with their opinion that Dano is, contrary to Tarantino’s comments, a very good actor — including filmmaker Matt Reeves, who directed Dano in The Batman.

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And Reeves, who called Dano “an incredible actor and an incredible person”, would know what he’s talking about. Dano brought The Batman’s version of The Riddler to chilling, villainous life in the film. But what many people may have forgotten is that Dano didn’t just bring Edward Nashton/The Riddler to life on the big screen. The actor got to craft an origin story for the villain as well, going even deeper into The Riddler with his own, comic book that is surprisingly good — and if you haven’t read it, you should.

The Riddler: Year One Digs Deep Into The Riddler (And Serves as a Cautionary Tale)

Published as a six-issue limited series on DC’s Black Label between October 2022 and August 2023, The Riddler: Year One is a psychological thriller series that serves as a tie-in prequel to The Batman movie, specifically focusing on the life of Dano’s character Edward Nashton. The series gives readers a look at the path that takes Edward down the path of becoming the villain leading up to the events of the movie, starting with being left on the steps of an orphanage and growing up brilliant, but in harsh conditions due to lack of funding at the orphanage as well as severe bullying. We also see how he grows to be jealous of and resent Bruce Wayne due to all the attention the wealthy young man gets after his parents are murdered while his own conditions continue to deteriorate. As an adult and while working as a forensic accountant, Edward discovers an accounting anomaly that leads him to uncover crime and corruption and, when told to drop it, eventually ends up fully disillusioned and on the path to becoming The Riddler.

It’s a thorough and well-considered origin that, in many ways, echoes Bruce Wayne’s own path to becoming Batman. Edward is also, in a very real and measurable way, a victim of the darkness and crime in Gotham, but in another way and without any of the privilege and resources that Bruce grew up with. The biggest difference is how the two men end up using their trauma, and that is something that Dano actively explored when creating Edward’s story — the plot of the comic came from his own creation of a character backstory while working on the film. For Dano, The Riddler’s story is that of a cautionary tale and “an emotional horror story about trauma,” something he outlined to ComicBook back in 2022.

“I think that one thing that first conversation Matt Reeves and I ever had were about the two sides of trauma, and Bruce Wayne and how he uses his trauma,” Dano said. “And then Edward, unfortunately, uses his trauma in another way. So, I’ve always seen this comic as an emotional horror story about trauma. And there’s both nature and nurture at work. I mean, I don’t think you necessarily get to the point that Edward gets to without your nature having some disposition that might, but it doesn’t happen necessarily without nurture as well.”

The Riddler: Year One Is An Excellent Comic — and Not Just A Movie Tie-In

What makes The Riddler: Year One is that while it is technically a movie tie-in, it’s also just a very well-done comic. You don’t actually have to have seen The Batman to appreciate the story or understand it, which is a huge plus, but it also tells a complete and well-crafted story beyond that. The story — across all six issues and not just any particular one — also avoids the pitfalls many books with celebrity writers have. The story doesn’t seek to simply illuminate The Riddler as a character or merely capitalize on the film. Instead, the story actually builds something new. The Riddler: Year One expands the Batman mythos, to an extent, by fleshing out this particular world’s canon a bit more in a way that is grounded and real.

The book also does a fantastic job of leading the reader to its natural conclusion — in this case, The Batman movie itself — but it does so without putting the reader in a position where they have to go straight into the movie. Dano’s writing creates a story that can exist entirely as its own thing but also can enhance the movie it was born out of it in equal measure. What Dano really ended up doing is redefining a classic character and creating a classic that every Batman fan should read. And maybe it’s something Tarantino should pick up, too, and reconsider his opinion of Dano as a creative as well. Just a thought.

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