2 pages. The Penguin vs. Batman showdown advertised on every cover of this series for the past 3 issues lasted 2 pages.
This is a book that wants to be priced a dollar higher next month.
No. No, I don’t think so.
Look, I’d love to buy a comic featuring the caped crusader drawn by Tony Daniel. I’d love it. That art along with quality writing would be worth $3.99. But even if I was in my most optimistic mood, issue #7 would be mediocre at best. Batman’s not even in half of this book and once again Daniel has made a villain character a relative. Now Charlotte and her eye-patch-wearing evil twin are related to Mayor Hady. There has been no clue to this in any of the issue. It’s just thrown out there. It’s a detective comic, but there’s never any mystery. Never any clues. No moments where you flip back to a previous page or even a previous issue because there was something YOU missed that Batman didn’t. That’s what makes a good detective comic– a puzzle built into the narrative that the reader could solve if they pay extra close attention and use some critical thinking. This isn’t a detective story and I didn’t even find it to be a very entertaining action story.
Nothing was ever at stake and I never had a reason to care about Charlotte’s sister and she is without a doubt the main focus of this issue.
This is a series that continues to be one of the most well drawn, but the writing has been terribly weak and shows no signs of improvement. It’s going to be really hard to justify paying a buck more if things don’t change.
At least the last issue had that awful “blood bath” line that made me laugh.
SCORE: 3/10
