Batman Road to No Man's Land 1 Paperback – October 13, 2015

This collection covers every story of this arc. This volume actually has volume 1 and 2 of the original collection

This first or two lead up books for NML made a great addition to my collection. Collecting bits of the story from all of the Batman family books of the time this is a pretty good book to read in prep for the NML saga.

So a few short years ago we in Colorado had a flood, and that was bad. But anything that happens in Gotham is worse

Volume One of Road to No Man's Land is a solid, intriguing read that sees Batman mourning the devastation of Gotham that occurs in the Cataclysm story line. This is a direct sequel to Cataclysm and serves as a prequel to No Man's Land; the book focuses on Batman's efforts to locate missing survivors and deal with a crippled city infrastructure. While Volume Two of the prequel series is a more direct prequel to No Man's Land (Batman attempting to convince the nation not to cut off the ruined Gotham, the city being sealed off and abandoned), this one is a great character study to Bruce dealing with a disaster for which there is no culprit. There is no villain to punish, only rebuilding to begin. Overall a great read and a must have for fans of Cataclysm. If you are only looking to start No Man's Land, this volume isn't as much of a must-read since all you really need to know is that there was an earthquake and the city is essentially condemned.

Some writers and artists in this collection are better than others, but it’s great to see Mark Buckingham’s work. You can see elements he also used in Miracleman and Fables. The stories also give you a great sense of how Batman would respond to a giant natural disaster, which is a cool change from the “villain of the year” storylines.

Gotham deals with the aftermath of a cataclysmic earthquake. With each issue, the story seems more and more hopeless. The stories all originally appeared under the Aftershock coverdress.

After suffering a cataclysmic earthquake, the U.S. government has deemed Gotham City as uninhabitable and ordered all citizens to leave. It is now months later and those that have refused to vacate "No Man's Land" live amidst a citywide turf war in which the strongest prey on the weak. As gangs terrorize the ravaged populace, the Scarecrow uses a church relief project as a real life lab to test his experiments in fear. But with the return of the vigilante, Batman, and the appearance of an enigmatic new Batgirl, justice returns to Gotham.

DC is finally living up the hope and promise of seeing all of No Man's Land collected in tpb. It's great to have all of Aftershock here.Vol 2 will be Road to NML proper.