Art by: Jorge Lucas and Ethan Van Sciver
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: March 26, 2014
Insane in the Membrane
Batman say Ouch and Abraham Langstrom wants to have homeless people for dinner. Kirk Langstrom and Batman come up with a plan, if you can call it that. When Man Bat gets a drink, he snaps out of it, but is temporally insane. Batman doesn't do his job again, but still acts like he did.
This is the last issue of Gregg Hurwitz's Dark Knight and it is perfect. Perfect because it really shows what I liked and hated about this series as a whole. I feel like I should be more positive so I will start with what I liked first. Plus, that will be a lot quicker than what I hated.
The Dark Knight lives somewhere a little outside the New 52 proper. This Gotham is a little more gritty, Batman is more of a hard ass and Hurwitz is allowed to feature b-list villains and let them hang around a little more than usual. I'll admit that I've had it up to my eyeballs with Man-Bat, but Hurwitz gave us a little twist with Abraham Langstrom being the biggest, baddest Man-Bat in the land. The thrill seeking, money hungry son hating Abraham made a better Man-Bat and a decent enough villain.
Here comes the bad. The Dark Knight is a horrible Batman. He is a horrible detective, he's never prepared and is always getting hurt. In this issue, his big plan gets him hurt bad. I'm actually surprised he didn't bleed out. The worst part is that the book ends with Abraham Langstrom going free. He has to pay a fine, but even he laughs about it. Maybe Karma and a guilty conscience will get him in the end, but for now he's laughing all the way home. While this is happening, Batman is looking at the City spitting out ridiculous Batman dialogue that would be better served in a parody. "I wait. And I watch. And the City? It watches me right back" What does the City see, Batman? You not getting the job done. I wanted to reach into the book and slap him.
Ethan Van Sciver does the first five pages of art and it's awesome. Then Jorge Lucas shows up and the book goes into the toilet. I'm not sure what he was going for here, but if it was an attempt at horrible art, mission accomplished. Seriously, it is some of the worst art I've seen in a long time. I have actually praised him on his recent work on Talon, but this just makes me look like a fool.
Bits and Pieces:
Batman: The Dark Knight has been the weakest link in the Batman books and thankfully this is the last issue. Batman comes off as a out-of-touch oaf and the art is downright horrible. It's a shame this book ended up like this, but as it has I can only say goodbye and good riddance.
2.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment