zerobot's review
2.0
What an almost unreadable mess. This is exactly the kind of comic book writing that keeps people away from comics. Chock full of unexplained or just inexplicable motives, unless you've been reading everything leading up to this, perhaps. The art is kinetic but has no style (there is, as is typical with lazy artists, only one female body available, apparently).
And are we to believe Batman is almost insanely driven to save a girl just because he knew her when [spoiler alert] his parents were still alive, even though she lost his kite.
And then they throw in some unrelated (story-wise) pages at the end to tie a sloppy bow on this mess of a collection.
And are we to believe Batman is almost insanely driven to save a girl just because he knew her when [spoiler alert] his parents were still alive, even though she lost his kite.
And then they throw in some unrelated (story-wise) pages at the end to tie a sloppy bow on this mess of a collection.
rmgebhardt's review
3.0
This barely grabbed a 3, and it's only because I'm generous to Finch since I like his art style (yeah, I know it's the "kewl dude" style, but whatever) so went easy on him as he was also the writer. The art, as usual, is pretty great. The story, however, is not that great. You don't get a sense that it was thought out beyond, "Ok, I want to draw this villain, so I'll have Batman interact with him/her for some reason... probably to get information or something." This leaves us with a pretty unfulfilling story with Finch's usually great art and depictions of some of Batman's cast of villains.
Bottom line: get this only if you want pretty pictures. Go read The Long Halloween or Year One if you want good storytelling.
Bottom line: get this only if you want pretty pictures. Go read The Long Halloween or Year One if you want good storytelling.
alanbaxter's review
2.0
Finch is a brilliant artist, and this book is no exception, but the story leaves a lot to be desired. It's just a mess of plot holes, unexplained leaps and unresolved threads that seem to appear purely to go nowhere. Very strange and very disappointing.
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