History YMMV / BatmanNoMansLand

* OneSceneWonder: Plenty of ordinary citizens and non-costumed criminals from the ArchivePanic storyline manage to rival some of the recurring heroes and villains in memorability despite only appearing in a single issue (and not even always in leading roles).
** The three kids (particularly the one who defends his food with a slingshot) who each scavenge some food dropped from a helicopter in the opening scene of the first omnibus provide an interesting look at how the introduction of that food affects the deprived community. The reasonable trader who barters for an apple with one kid and the thieves who try to rob the other two also add a lot to the scene.
** The social worker refugee from the first issue who tries to barter for shelter from a gang by saying that he helps people who don't get along communicate. The gang members agree that this sounds like a skill they can use, but in a grim case of ExactWords, make him a DeadGuyOnDisplay.
** The young trader known only as The Nomad, who faces down a mugger with courage and charm in the second issue while deducing that the man's gun isn't loaded. The mugger counts as well, if only because of how he later makes the mistake of [[MuggingTheMonster accosting Joker.]]
** The man who appears in one ''Azrael'' issue and has a SadisticChoice between feeding his daughter or his father, inspiring both anger and pity from Azrael at different points.
** William "Sarge" Riley, the RetiredBadass protagonist of the standalone issue "Home Sweet Home." He gets some awesome and heartwarming moments as the protector of his neighborhood and manages to get away with defying Joker by impressing the clown with his attitude.
** The engineer who helps a visiting Superman reopen a power plant, only to end up coerced into helping some thugs sell the utilities.
** The young girl who's spying on Billy Petit for Oracle and encounters Superman during his second visit to No Man's Land, due to her LittleMissBadass characterization.
** Sonny Epifani, a fedora-wearing Mafia member who [[IGaveMyWord brings a lot of integrity to his new job of rescuing earthquake victims]] during his brief appearance in ''Cataclysm.''
** Jared Manx, the death row prisoner who serves as the POV character for a story about a tsunami hitting Blackgate Prison after the earthquake, makes a big enough impression that he has a Reddit thread debating whether he is guilty or innocent.
** In the ''Batman Contagion'' arc that helps set the stage for ''No Man's Land,'' Fong (who lets his survival of the eponymous virus inflate his sense of ego) makes the most of his brief page-time. He spends most of his sole issue [[WalkingShirtlessScene showing off his muscular chest]] as he rants about his belief that he has the same powers as Superman, then proceeds to kill himself in a misguided attempt to demonstrate his supposed immortality.
** MotorMouth ActionPolitician Esterbrook Halivan, whose PlotTriggeringDeath ends any hope of avoiding No Man's Land.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Why ''does'' the Joker surrender at the end, even though killing Sarah meant there was nobody stopping him from doing whatever he wanted to the babies? Did Sarah's HeroicSacrifice touch [[EvenEvilHasStandards even his heart?]] Did he figure her dying was enough to push Gordon and Batman over the DespairEventHorizon? [[TakeAThirdOption Maybe he just used up his last bullet on her?]]

** In the ''Batman Contagion'' arc that helps set the stage for ''No Man's Land,'' Fong (who lets his survival of the eponymous virus inflate his sense of ego) makes the most of his brief page-time. His entire appearance is spent [[WalkingShirtlessScene showing off his muscular chest]] as he rants about his belief that he has the same powers as Superman, then proceeds to kill himself in a misguided attempt to demonstrate his supposed immortality.

* MagnificentBastard: Lex Luthor. He sets up the whole No Man's Land policy himself from behind the scenes, sends Bane in to alter the records to show that he owns a bunch of property in Gotham, then shows up, fixes everything (which, remember, only needed fixing ''because of him'' in the first place), and uses the positive publicity to boost a successful campaign for President of the United States. Sure, the real estate scam angle didn't pan out because Batman figured out what he was doing, but otherwise, the whole thing was a roaring success.

* HarsherInHindsight: Try reading this storyline again after Hurricane Katrina or Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
* HilariousInHindsight: [[Film/Joker2019 The Joker threatening somebody with a pair of scissors]].

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Sure, Josh, try to force yourself on the Joker's girlfriend even AFTER he warned you not to try anything! He was lucky that he only got blown up.
** Seriously, Freeze. Trying to take on ''Superman''?

** The engineer who helps a visiting Superman reopen a power plant, only to end up coerced into helping some thugs sell the utilities. ** Sonny Epifani, a fedora-wearing Mafia member who [[IGaveMyWord brings a lot of integrity to his new job of rescuing earthquake victims]] during his brief appearance in ''Cataclysm.''

** Sonny Epifani, a fedora-wearing Mafia member who [[IGaveMyWord brings a lot of integrity to his new job of rescuing earthquake victims]] during his brief appearance in ''Cataclysm.''

* FoeYay: From ComicBook/TheJoker, as usual:
-->''Joker is pointing a pair of scissors at a woman''
-->'''Woman:''' Please please don't...
-->'''Joker:''' Between us, this has nothing to do with you...but I've got to get his attention, and so far nothing has worked.
-->'''Woman:''' ...Oh God don't please don't please I'm begging you.
-->''A shadow looms over Joker and the woman''
-->'''Joker:''' Finally! I was beginning to think you didn't love me...anymore?
-->''Joker turns around, sees ComicBook/{{Bane}}''
-->'''Joker:''' Oh, ThisIsGonnaSuck...

* AssPull: [[SupermanStaysOutOfGotham Superman suddenly deciding that he should stay out of the whole thing because apparently he thinks that there’s nothing he can do.]] Leaving aside that it’s incredibly [[OutOfCharacterMoment out-of-character for Superman to give up on anyone who needs rescuing, let alone leaving A WHOLE FREAKING CITY]] to suffer in ruin and devastation, there’s also the fact that with his powers, he could easily save a lot of people or evacuate a lot of people who want out of Gotham, yet decides to give up and leaves the whole thing to Batman and his allies. Yet somehow, even Batman doesn’t bother stopping him from leaving or telling him what he can do to help, despite the fact as one of the smartest superheroes on earth, Batman could probably think of a dozen ways for Superman to help him save Gotham. The whole thing reeks of DeusExitMachina and feels really contrived because it sounds like the writers were so desperate to keep any Superheroes apart from Batman and his allies out of Gotham that they just decided to have Superman grab the IdiotBall and boot him out of the story with half-assed excuses and flimsy justifications. Granted, [[StoryBreakerPower this is Superman we’re talking about here]], but still...

* AssPull: [[SupermanStaysOutOfGotham Superman suddenly deciding that he should stay out of the whole thing because apparently he thinks that there’s nothing he can do.]] Leaving aside that it’s incredibly [[OutOfCharacterMoment out-of-character for Superman to give up on anyone who needs rescuing, let alone leaving A WHOLE FREAKING CITY]] to suffer in ruin and devastation, there’s also the fact that with his powers, he could easily save a lot of people or evacuate a lot of people who want out of Gotham, yet decides to give up and leaves the whole thing to Batman and his allies. Yet somehow, even Batman doesn’t bother stopping him from leaving or telling him what he can do to help, despite the fact as one of the smartest superheroes on earth, Batman could probably think of a dozen ways for Superman to help him save Gotham. The whole thing reeks of DeusExitMachina because it sounds like the writers were so desperate to keep any Superheroes apart from Batman and his allies out of Gotham that they just decided to have Superman grab the IdiotBall and boot him out of the story with half-assed excuses and flimsy justifications. Granted, [[StoryBreakerPower this is Superman we’re talking about here]], but still...

** Depending on how you view the ending, or if you were waiting for Joker's big move to either happen earlier or be larger in scope and body-count, the ending, chilling though it be, can come off thusly.

* ArchivePanic: Saying the story is big is an understatement. The story comprises every major Batman comic released in 1999, which is already just over one hundred issues. Then you add in the tie in issues in ''Azrael'', ''Catwoman'', ''Nightwing'', and ''Robin'' and a few tie-in one-shots and specials. Then there's the stories the stories directly leading into it, "Cataclysm", "Aftershocks", and "Road to No Man's Land." And lastly there come the arcs before that, "Contagion" and "Legacy", which kickstarted the whole thing. Altogether, that's over 150 comics. The four new edition trade paperbacks DC released through 2011 and 2012, reprinting the main story alone, are over 500 pages each.
* CompleteMonster: ComicBook/TheJoker is determined to destroy what little order the desolated Gotham City has. He abducts several police officers and disguises them as himself, resulting in many being killed by their comrade, mistaking them for the Joker. He then takes an entire hospital ward of newborn infants hostage, planning to [[WouldHurtAChild kill them all]] to destroy the city's spirit. When Commissioner Gordon's second wife, Sarah Essen, tries to stop him, he fatally [[BoomHeadshot shoots her in the head]].

* MagnificentBastard: Lex Luthor. He sets up the whole No Man's Land policy himself from behind the scenes, sends Bane in to alter the records to show that he owns a bunch of property in Gotham, then shows up, fixes everything (which, remember, only needed fixing ''because of him'' in the first place), and uses the positive publicity to boost a successful campaign for President of the United States. Sure, the real estate scam angle didn't pan out because Batman figured out what he was doing, but otherwise the whole thing was a roaring success.

** In the novelisation, Batman's last scene: visiting his parents' grave and the remains of quake-ravaged Wayne Manor: "''I'm home.''"
* TooDumbToLive: Sure, Josh, try to force yourself on the Joker's girlfriend even AFTER he warned you not to try anything! He was lucky that he only got blown up.
* WhatAnIdiot: Seriously, Freeze. Trying to take on ''Superman''?

* HarsherInHindsight: Try reading this storyline again after Hurricane Katrina.

* ArchivePanic: Saying the story is big is an understatement. The story comprises every major Batman comic released in 1999, which is already just over one hundred issues. Then you add in the tie in issues in ''Azrael'', ''Catwoman'', ''Nightwing'', and ''Robin'' and a few tie-in one-shots and specials. Then there's the stories the stories directly leading into it, "Cataclysm", "Aftershocks", and "Road to No Man's Land." And lastly there come the arcs before that, "Contagion" and "Legacy", which kickstarted the whole thing. Altogether, that's over 150 comics. The four new edition tradepaperbacks DC released through 2011 and 2012 reprinting the main story alone are over 500 pages each.

* CompleteMonster: ComicBook/TheJoker is determined to destroy what little order the desolated Gotham City has. He abducts several police officers and disguises them as himself, resulting in many being killed by their comrade, mistaking them for the Joker. He then kidnaps an entire hospital ward of newborn infants hostage, planning to [[WouldHurtAChild kill them all]] to destroy the city's spirit. When Commissioner Gordon's second wife, Sarah Essen, tries to stop him, he fatally [[BoomHeadshot shoots her in the head]].

* CompleteMonster: ComicBook/TheJoker. Destroying whats left of a wrecked and desolated Gotham City being kind of redundant, he decides that for his grand ultimate master plan he'll care less about the scale and just try something that's absolutely fucked up - ''[[InfantImmortality murder all the newborn babies]] to [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans finish off Gotham's fragile spirit]]''. Its one of his most evil and sick schemes to date. He kills Commissioner Gordon's second wife, Sarah Essen, in the process