Addiction.
This is a quick review done in a different style as I want to talk about this issue, but don’t really have the time to review it properly.
This isn’t as good as I hoped it would be while not bad though the plot just is very thin and it also focuses on one thing which you knew wasn’t eventually going to happen anyway, also this took me two minutes to read. There isn’t a lot of stuff going on in this issue and in the end I felt like I didn’t get my money’s worth and this wasn’t a 3D cover.
This is a direct continuation of what Layman was doing in Detective and Tieri picks it up almost where it left off and shows what Kirk has done to take down his wife Francine. This is one of the best parts of the issue especially how it is told with a good setting the scene moment in a park and then we get into the main part of the issue, but this is the best part of the issue with some interesting Bat on Bat action, plus some interesting moments go on here and you find out the one big twist that drives the whole story. I do however think that after the fight Spoiler Francine is chucked away a little too easily and I felt like a waste of a good villain, although I don’t think this the end of her.
The main part of the issue would see Kirk trying to be the hero saving Gotham, but well it all goes wrong of course and he eventually becomes the villain. I think this happened way to quickly and the descent in to madness could have been stretched over a longer period and maybe could have profited from an extra backup story, but I think it was well handled what happened in this issue and the monologue was very well done as well. I also like how he attempts to fight crime even though he is particularly violent. Some of the dialogue however was pretty bad in this issue like “You’re going Vegetarian tonight” and “what the hell is this? Batman’s gone…. So he left us his pet?” I think overall it was good, but a few moments were just groan worthy. The endings sort of mirroring of the first few pages was particularly affective.
Scott Eaton does a good job on this issue and he fits quite well with Fabok even though Fabok’s style appeals to me more in, but I think that is also helped by Jeremy Cox on colours as well. Man-bat looks good as well as She-bat (only name I can think of) and he draws the whole issue very well with a high level of detail and also draws action and emotion very well as well, but it’s not as good as some Detective Comics artwork it’s a good effort.
This was a quick read and for Man-bat fans some maybe disappointed like me and it felt a little quick and some of the developments should maybe have been spread over a longer period as it just felt a little too condensed down in this issue although I do think the story has been leading to this. It’s not an awful issue, but I think it had quite a few flaws and I think it would have been better if Layman had written this story.
3 stars
