Substituting for Quality Writing, Clever Plotting, and Sensible Characterization...
As with the previous TPB, most of these 2 stars are for the atypical issue, the annual. At least, I assume it is the annual at the close of the volume, since we are still not allowed to know what issue is which throughout the TPB, given instead an exciting repetition of cover issues two pages in a row (sadly, it's not nearly as thrilling as I've just made it out to be). Hurwitz's relaunching of the relaunch continues, with the second new version of the Mad Hatter in this storyline. Again Hurwitz tries to make Batman seem more of a "bad guy" than the supervillains are, since the new backstory of the Mad Hatter places all of his evil on experimental medication and societal rejection - he was a sweet, wonderful guy, really, so none of his badness is his fault. Bruce Wayne, however, choose to go to the darkness when his parents were killed. Pretty shoddy writing, overall. Making it even more infuriating, Hurwitz takes the low road for pathos. Now we know why Hurwitz ignored the new characters from the previous writer - well, actually, no, we still have no idea why Hurwitz wants us to pretend none of those things happened (other than perhaps he realizes how fatuous most of them were) - but at least we know why he invented a new girlfriend for Bruce. Cheap. (Hurwitz's writing, not the girl.) The Mad Hatter story has plenty of holes (Gordon and Batman had identified the criminal organization before they instigated their plan - surely they would have announced that before the terror began). Hurwitz even rips off himself: the story opens with more kidnappings, just like the Scarecrow story did. And even though we have new artists, the violence and gore are far more graphic and "onstage" than they should be: less is more, people - implied violence is stronger than going through four red markers each issue (or whatever they are using to paint the blood on every panel these days). Three easily forgettable TPBs so far. The only interesting story, as mentioned above, is the annual story: seeing three villains outsmart themselves with a clever and humorous payoff. This is much closer to a good Batman story. It really shouldn't be this difficult to write well for Batman.
