the_poet's Batman: Gotham Adventures #56 - Identity Theft review

    Avatar image for the_poet

    Best Riddler Fight Ever!

    When I started collecting comics I bought a few of them online from eBay (well, maybe not a few) and this was one of them. I had edited this issue, but up till now i have not reviewed it. Until now...

    Who is one leaving the clues?

    I must say this comic is pretty interesting. The 60s Adam West Batman show always had Riddler (played by the great Frank Gorshin) leaving clues for batman to solve, but this animated series stived to do some things differently. He only had 3 major episodes which makes me sad (because John Glover is just awesome), but this comic makes up for it. Instead of Riddler leaving clues, someone else is leaving clues and boy are they weird...

    Best Riddler Fight Ever (unless I say otherwise later...)

    Riddler is not known for his fighting abilities, so we rarely see him fight for more than a page or two before getting defeated. However, this comic has the best fight I've seen Riddler participate in. Riddler fights his mysterious rival cluemaster (no, not THE Cluemaster, A cluemaster) for 7 whole pages. This fight is really interesting highlight to the comic (man is Riddler tough when his trademark is threatened!).

    Cultural References

    This comic is littered with pop culture references. For example, the "cluemaster" (not his real name or what he is refereed to as in the comic, but its more catchy) bases most of his clues (I wouldn't call them riddles, though thats what they are technically) on a "brilliant Japanese director" (their words not mine) by the name of Nagisa Oshima. Never heard of him? Neither have I...The reason I mention this at all is the film "In the Realm of the Senses", which is refered to several times throughout the issue. I won't repeat what Wikipedia says about the film (though what they say happens at the end is...lovely) you can read that yourself. I am sort of weirded out that this movie is referenced in a children's comic (well, a family title). I mean, they don't say that much about the film so that's good, but just a little strange to reread this comic knowing what the movie actually is like. Sure, it gives the villain an "artier" (batman's words not mine) tone, but still strange for me...

    Conclusion

    This is a pretty good issue. It has some fun parts and some...weird parts (when Batman smiles its always weird), but over all good issue. Although you would think I spoiled the whole comic, I didn't ( I didn't mention the interesting clues including the first one...not what I expected...).

    oh, and apparently Riddler is a De Niro fan...
    oh, and apparently Riddler is a De Niro fan...

    0 Comments

    Other reviews for Batman: Gotham Adventures #56 - Identity Theft

    This edit will also create new pages on Comic Vine for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Comic Vine users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.