If only every issue were as good as this one!
Batman: Arkham Unhinged #10 is a great stand alone story that has great art, wonderful surprises, solid references to the video game it’s based on, and it does a fine job of explaining Deadshot’s origin as well and that’s a story that needed to be retold for a new generation of comic readers.
Bruno Redondo did a fantastic job capturing the essence of the video game. Penguin, Batman, and Deadshot look exactly like their Xbox and Playstation incarnations, as does the city.You’ll even see a few Suicide Squad characters make their Arkhamverse cameo. The dark, cold colors by Gabe Eltaeb give each scene the right look and feel of the game as well. The art’s only shortcoming is with the Joker. While the art team did a fine job capturing a particular version of the Joker from the games, he doesn’t look like the ill Joker who wears a darker suit and has lost more of hair. This Joker simply has a few bruise marks and some squiggle marks on his cheeks as if Joker’s ailment was an afterthought.
I was immensely impressed with the structure of the story. We begin with the Penguin, go into a flashback that features Batman, then we go into flashbacks that go even farther into the past to show us Deadshot’s origin, and finally we come to the Joker and surprisingly none of this felt rushed or unnecessary in the slightest. Reading it was a joy and I can honestly say it’s an issue that I would gladly read again. I thought that the Killer Croc origin issue was alright, but this one totally blows it out of the water all while staying rather true to Deadshot’s origin in the comics.
If you don’t know much about Deadshot, you should definitely go pick this up, especially if you’re a fan of the video games. However, if you haven’t beaten Arkham City but plan to play it sometime soon you might want to stay away as there are some pretty major spoilers for the game on the comic’s final pages. But who am I kidding, you’re a Batman fan reading a review for a comic based on the game in question, you’ve probably beaten it on New Game Plus, haven’t you?
SCORE: 8/10
