A review by vanessakm
Batman: Arkham City by Paul Dini
3.0
Eh, this was alright. It was competently drawn and there are a fun cavalcade of Batman villains here (all of the usual suspects + Hugo Strange.) The story involves the Mayor of Gotham, in the aftermath of the new City Hall being blown up at its dedication ceremony, creating a walled-off city within the city to house its criminals. This doesn't just include supervillains like The Joker, but petty crooks of all sorts as well.
The city is, naturally, called Arkham City.
That would be a cool concept to explore from a story perspective, as there are genuinely haunting moments as small-time criminals beg to not be thrown into this Escape From New York hellscape. But this graphic novel pretty much exists as backstory for the crazy popular video game of the same name and I'm not a gamer. My favorite parts were, of course, the Harley Quinn and Catwoman bits and the (originally published as digital) comics in the coda, particularly the Nightwing-ish one about Robin (again, of course.)
Ok, but inessential. If you are a player of the Arkham City game, YMMV.
The city is, naturally, called Arkham City.
That would be a cool concept to explore from a story perspective, as there are genuinely haunting moments as small-time criminals beg to not be thrown into this Escape From New York hellscape. But this graphic novel pretty much exists as backstory for the crazy popular video game of the same name and I'm not a gamer. My favorite parts were, of course, the Harley Quinn and Catwoman bits and the (originally published as digital) comics in the coda, particularly the Nightwing-ish one about Robin (again, of course.)
Ok, but inessential. If you are a player of the Arkham City game, YMMV.