In a messed up world.
Sorry this is late a few things went wrong with me mainly to do with work.
This is definitely one of the best villains issues and possibly the best out of the final week, but I haven’t read all of them yet, this one just left a bit of an impression on me afterwards. Let me just get one of my gripes out now with this book the title is wrong 2 out of 3 characters on the cover only appear for one page and it doesn’t explore the workings of the Secret Society instead it’s about Earth-3, but I think they couldn’t spoil before the announcement of the crime syndicate as that would be too much of a giveaway.
I do love the idea of exploring Earth 3 however and this issue does give a really good exploration of that world and especially Gotham city. This issue provides an interesting exploration to Gotham City and Owlman’s world. One of the best parts in this issue is the Earth 3 Joker and how he possibly is the good guy in this whole story, but he’s still mad, but Johns and Gates do very well to convince us that he’s a good guy with his actions and how he is saddened by all the death in Gotham. It’s a really interesting take on this character and I enjoyed how the Batman of this world is different, so is the Joker it’s quite a clever idea. I also liked the opening scene and how messed up it was compared to regular Gotham.
I also liked the little details about the Dick Grayson of Earth 3 Talon and it hints at a few things about him and also more of Owlman’s world, but I did enjoy the little hints that were dropped about what happened to him, however I wish he actually appeared as he’s only referenced, but what does happen to him is very shocking and a good twist to the story. I also enjoyed the little hints dropped about Earth 3, like Barbara Gordon, Owlman and Superwoman and also what happened to Earth 3 in the end and while all these questions aren’t answered it makes the book much more interesting and adds a level of mystery to the book.
I did like how this book was taken from the Outsider’s point of view and it added a bit more intrigue to the story with all the details about past experiences and it helped clear a few things up like why his skin his white and why he laughs so much (yes it involves Joker). I did enjoy the end with how it led up to Forever evil and the forming of the Secret Society and the ending will leave you with quite a few questions as to what will happen next.
I didn’t really like Symon Kudranski’s art in the Scarecrow issue, as it wasn’t the best and the art didn’t flow very at points, but it looks much, much better in this issue than in the Scarecrow one and while it isn’t without its faults I could appreciate it a bit more in this one. Kudranski fits this incredibly dark world very well and his version of Owlman is very impressive especially with a few splash pages and his rendition of Joker is pretty good as well. I do however think he’s photo shopped quite a lot of this especially back grounds and one part with some presents just looks like he’d copied the image of somewhere and occasionally some of the backgrounds are just pure black even when there should be something behind.
I loved this issue it’s one of the best of villain’s month and I did not expect to enjoy this issue so much and it’s probably the best surprise of villain’s month. This issue answered a lot of questions, but also put more in than you’d expect, but this was a very well written and exciting issue and I think in terms of plot Gates and Johns managed to write it exactly right.
4 stars
