Victor and Nora Shows the Heart of Gotham's Most Tragic Romance
- WRITER
- Lauren Myracle
- Artist
- Isaac Goodhart
- Letterer
- Steve Wands
- Cover Artist
- Cris Peter, Isaac Goodhart
- Publisher
- DC Comics
- Price
- 12.99
- Release Date
- 2020-11-03
- Colorist
- Cris Peter
DC's line of original graphic novels reimagining its iconic characters for young adult audiences continues with Victor and Nora: A Gotham Love Story, putting the focus on the doomed romance between Victor Fries and Nora Faria, long before Victor's supervillain transformation into Mr. Freeze. Reuniting Lauren Myracle and Isaac Goodhart after the creative team similarly reinvented Catwoman in last year's Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale, the new graphic novel is unafraid to venture into darker, more mature subject matter while being an all-around improvement over their previous collaboration.
Victor Fries and Nora Faria both have lost family to tragedy, haunting them and informing the respective courses of their lives. And while Victor dedicates his life to science and the study of cryogenics, Nora has her own terminally secret illness that pushes her to live life to the fullest with the time that she has left as the two teenagers are set to eventually cross paths. As the young couple navigates their burgeoning romance, they bond over their mutual sense of pain and familial loss and explore what it means to be alive in the face of tragedy, single-minded obsession and ominously foreboding fate.
Whereas Under the Moon had been uneven at times, fueled by its teenage melodrama, Myracle imagines Victor and Nora's doomed romance with a singular focus that makes for a much tighter, even-keeled read here. Love and tragedy propel this particular narrative forward -- despite their classic association there is no sign of Batman to be found and that that works to the story's overall benefit. Instead, Gotham City is merely a backdrop for the world that Myracle and Goodhart have created. Myracle more confidently puts the spotlights on the raw emotion of her protagonists, unafraid to venture into darker, more macabre material given the couple's background and outlook on life and the omnipresence of death.
Goodhart is able to really showcase his artistic chops here, joined by colorist Cris Peter, and not only continue his usual style employed in previous graphic novels but push into completely different visual directions. Goodhart's approach certainly fits for the young adult crowd but there are moments throughout the story that has him channel vastly different art styles, from Edward Gorey to classic pulp, Silver Age comics and more, that really show his range as a storyteller. Under the Moon, while still heavy on drama, had its own action flourishes. Here, the story and visuals are centered squarely on emotion -- Victor Fries doesn't roam the rooftops of Gotham at night so much as work feverishly in his laboratory -- so that means Goodhart has to convey that anguish and adulation in some of the most effective artwork of his career.
If readers had no idea that Victor Fries and Nora Faria were based on Batman villains, this original graphic novel would work just well, perhaps even more so. Victor and Nora is a raw, emotional look at a romance that was defined by tragedy and the constant specter of mortality while finding the silver lining in that through love and a symbiotic relationship.
Lauren Myracle and Isaac Goodhart deliver a much more confident, naturalistic collaboration and serve as one of the finest tales that DC has published as part of its growing line of young adult-oriented original graphic novels that could sit just as well on its own or as part of this wider world.