Batman #28 Review and *SPOILERS*

This Is What I Said, I Said

Written By: Tom King

Art By: Mikel Janin, June Chung, Clayton Cowles

Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: August 2, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Let's move back into the War of Jokes and Riddles.......... where we'll hopefully see some of that awesome sounding war, instead of Joker sitting and watching the news about what's going on with the war.  Yeah, I'm a bit frustrated with this arc so far because we really haven't gotten anything from it besides for the concept and after last issue, the origin of Kite-Man.......... So yeah, not much.  Let's jump into this issue and see if the war starts getting interesting or if it's shown through another single spread page and that's it.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Immediately, I'm frustrated when I open this issue because we start out with Batman telling Selena the story of the Jokes and Riddles, like we've had through the majority of this arc so far, but the way the story is told is annoying as shit because Batman talks about seeing Jim Gordon and goes about explaining that meeting by saying, "he said, then I said and then he said"........ and thankfully, it doesn't continue like that throughout the issue because I would have pulled by damn hair out.  Anyway, the point of this issue is that Joker has taken the west side of the city and Riddler has taken the east and most of the conflict goes on in a park, which is in the middle of the two territories and every couple of days the fighting stops so that the cops can take out the dead bodies of the innocent bystanders........ because since this story takes place in the past, you know that none of the villains involved died so there's really no impact with that.  

During one of these body removals, Gordon leaves a note asking for a meeting with the Joker and the Riddler and after that takes place, it seems that the only solution in ending the war is handing Batman over to one or the other.  So yeah, that's not going to work so Gordon figures he'll call in the Feds, which should have happened well before now for the body count involved and for the fact that most of the city seems to be held hostage by the violence, but I guess better late than never.  With it seeming like Gordon isn't about to turn Batman over, Riddler sends Deathstroke to kill our hero by setting up a sniper's perch across from the GCPD, but the Joker has a similar idea and sends Deadshot to do the same at a building across the way, which leads the two to start trying to kill each other.......... which goes on for five days before Batman is able to stop them, chalking up a hundred and eight casualties, not to mention the two units of Special Forces that went in during this time to stop the Joker and Riddler, who never made it back.  So yeah, there's a shit load of dead bodies here and somehow this war started because both Joker and Riddler wanted to kill Batman because he was too good........ Yeah, not really seeing that here.

In the end, but really, before the Deadshot and Deathstroke bit went on, Kite-Man tried to recruit Catwoman to Joker's side and was thrown out a window for his troubles and that's where we see Batman and Catwoman interact, which really pisses me off because now Batman is relaying information to a person who was in Gotham during all of this nonsense and would know the majority of it.

That's it for this issue of Batman and while I continue to love the art in this book, the story is just really going nowhere.  Yeah, we finally get to see a bit of a battle of two villains on the different sides of the war, but mostly we just hear that a shit load of people died from it and realize that Batman is terrible at being Batman.  The narration is extremely annoying as the book starts out and after that we get back to the repeating dialog, which seems to be a trope of King's that's just really getting old fast.  I really hope that there's some redeeming quality to this arc because as of right now, it just makes me think that Batman isn't the hero that I thought he was and after the casualties suffered from this war so far, I don't know how anyone in Gotham ever trusted him as their hero ever.  

Bits and Pieces:

The War rages on, but like usual, we don't get to see most of it and are told what's going on through narration and since this arc is taking place in the past, all tension that somebody important might die is completely lost.  All in all, Batman comes off terrible at being a superhero in this issue and while I still love the art, the War of Jokes and Riddles is just really wearing on me. 

5.5/10