Reviews

Batman, Volume 6: Graveyard Shift by Gerry Duggan, Scott Snyder, Marguerite Bennett, James Tynion IV

miagw962's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

"We have to let the heroes of tomorrow know that they aren't alone."

Not much to say because I just love these volumes so much. A great mix of action and emotion, funny moments and very tense ones. Can't wait to get to the next one and then read them all again on a rainy day.

roseblight's review

4.0

The first half of this is mostly Backups from the Zero Year story arc. These are okay. Nothing to write home about.

The second half on the other hand takes a sudden turn into really top tier Detective stories. There's a fantastic Clayface story called "Nowhere Man" done by Snyder and Capullo. Then a story called "Ghost Lights by James Tynion IV. This one features Superman and has a Lovecraftian premise. Loved this one as well. The final standout was "The Meek" plotted by Snyder and written by Gerry Duggan. This one was a straight-forward Detective story with a new killer. His motive was refreshingly tame but still downright evil. Beautiful artwork and story.

Only other thing I want to mention is the reveal of Bluebird in the final story "Gotham Eternal", a tie-in to the Batman Eternal comic series. Bluebird has been teased by Snyder since the beginning of his run and it's great to see her finally come into play. Love her design, excited to see more of her character alongside the rest of the Bat-Family.

standardman's review

4.0

Odds and ends that don't fit into the bigger stories of the other volumes. The quality of the art is variable and a bit too much knowledge of other books is required but it is nice to have smaller stories and some breathing room.

sodope's review

4.0

This is the compilation of some issues, it isn't an atc at all, this "anthology" contains stories previous to Zero year, some others are from the present, some of 'em are quite good, some others are mehh, but it is still a good read though.

rhganci's review against another edition

2.0

This was the first collection of the New 52 Batman that I found to be a poor series of stories. It's basically the collection of the "stand-alone" issues and other collected matters of the issues that dropped kind of randomly between the Zero Year chapters. I found it rather difficult to follow, and I found the stories to be less than compelling.

Aside from the patchwork nature of the stories themselves, what really sort of bothered me about this collection was that the one-shot, stand-alone stories weren't actually that way at all. They really read more like disparate chapters from earlier stories that got buried under Snyder's seemingly exclusive focus on the Joker as Batman's inverse. That really took me out of the whole collection, and of the stories themselves. They seem to be happening in the cracks between Batman's seemingly endless slog against the Joker. It just really didn't make much of a statement about heroics, justice, and seemed nihilistic to a Millerian extent: Gotham is lost despite its hero's best efforts--and if it's not, it's going from bad to worse.

I really shouldn't be asking "what's the point" while reading a superhero story.

iainkelly_writing's review against another edition

3.0

Jumping back into the Snyder run, this collects some of the one-shot stories and ties in to other DC storylines. As always with these collections, rather than one story, it results in an uneven mix of different art and tone, but there are some good episodes included to make it worth reading.

19lindsey89's review

3.0

This volume jumped around a lot and made it hard to keep track of everything. I feel like if they are going to collect issues into volumes, they should do it by story arc and not series.

I like generally what is happening here, I just need them put in the right order.

P.S. I think Batman and Superman have an interesting friendship, but it only manifests when it it just the two of them. They are hardly ever like that in the Justice League.

cmoore14's review

3.0

This is one of my favorite comic series and I was thrilled to win vol.6 through a giveaway. The story arc seems to drag in some spots but the point of comics is to entertain its readers, so I understand that the story has to continue. The violence and fighting scenes are as detailed as always, so I have to give credit to the artist. I look forward to the next issue.

matterofmichael's review

3.0

+the early years
-fast swapping between characters in the next issue is a bit rough
+sort of paid off for the final pages
-more being a dick, more so than I’m used to, now in Batman form. Still slightly rubs me the wrong way
-Not totally feeling this Harper/Batman relationship, I like the subject matter it just doesn’t seem to be clicking for me
-Obvious that there is something off...
+++Batman had such a wide array of baddies
+That costume looks mighty familiar
+Ending to that issue was superb
-supernatural and Superman
+besties
++I’m not ready
+hell of a friend you are
+Fun trial type issue
-not a fan of this characters origin. It’s a bit hokey and well it doesn’t make much sense what exactly blew up??
-Hates cages but they put themself in one, even if it’s the worst weapon,odd choice and a really odd confrontation in general, feels off
++fantastic page art inside the cage
-let down ending
+Batman jokes, I like it
++I do, she doesn’t
+bluebird
-/+I struggle with vignette stories in general, but this overall had enough distinctions between their stories that I found the variations (especially towards the latter issues) welcoming.

elektra_eris's review

2.0

This volume was weird because there wasn't an arc to follow. It was just a mish mash of issues from other arcs.