COMIC BINGE: Batman: The Dark Knight, Vol. 4: Clay & Detective Comics, Vol. 4: The Wrath
PLOT: The shape-shifting Clayface – formerly the disgraced actor Basil Karlo – is on a rampage, and Batman must battle his way through a network of his deadliest enemies to uncover the truth. But how do you stop a killer who can be anywhere – and anyone? And soaring above Gotham is another threat in the form of the Man-Bat, whose unstable serum has made his predatory plans much more deadly!
REVIEW: It feels like it’s all been awhile since the Death of the Family storyline took place in the main run of Batman by Scott Snyder. So in turn, it feels like it’s been awhile since these books have been standing on an even playing field with the front-running title. Batman: The Dark Knight has probably been my second favorite in the New 52 reboot, and it’s just been the better written of the group. What I really like about the fourth volume here is that it finally brings Clayface into the picture. He’s one of those villains that is stupid on paper, but when he is fleshed out in the story (or shall I say molded) he can be one of those powerhouse characters. He has the ability to cash in on an emotional level with readers because of his circumstances and his sometimes unwillingness to be the bad guy. However, in this book he is definitely the villain up against Batman, though he is not the only one.
Also in this book is the Man-Bat, and between these two characters you have just enough to make it through. There was a little bit of Penguin in here but not much, so the book does leave you kind of wanting more after how great the other books have been. But, they do throw in these two potentially great characters and somewhat cash in on the success. The cover artwork in this book is phenomenal, though I can’t say much the art in the book itself as being anything other than normal. Congratulations go to Gregg Hurwitz for keeping pace with the main title and giving it a run for its money, though it comes up nowhere near it as must-read Batman. If you’re looking for just that extra couple of issues of Batman to tide you over until the next volume of Batman hits the shelves, this is the read for you. But don’t go out of your way to pick this one up because of it’s awesome cover.
STORY : ( 7 / 10 )
ARTWORK : ( 6 / 10 )
WRITING : ( 7 / 10 )
COVERS : ( 9 / 10 )
AWESOME : ( 6 / 10 )
FINAL RATING : ( 7 / 10 )
PLOT: A brutal murderer known only as the Wrath has invaded Gotham, declaring an all-out war on the GCPD and mystifying Batman, the city’s caped crusader, at every turn. Between the menace of Man-Bat, the avarice of Emperor Penguin, and the onslaught of this crazed cop-killer, Gotham City and the people who protect it – whether in uniform or in costume – may never be the same…
REVIEW: I have been back and forth on Detective Comics since the beginning. I absolutely loved the first volume and it was a great work with Joker as the villain. The book was written and entirely illustrated and colored by Tony S. Daniel, who single-handedly made one hell of a Batman book. Then the follow up came and he didn’t quite knock it out of the park like he did with the first volume, and thus the book was turned over to John Layman. Following the disappointing Scarecrow story came Layman’s Mad Hatter story, which rightly gives the third volume it’s name, Mad. It redeemed the book in my eyes, and again I was excited that all of the Batman titles were doing great, even as the main event plowed on in Snyder’s Batman. So now I see this book on the way for the last few months, and knowing that I can start getting more invested in the other Batman stories I got really excited.
Sadly, this book is extremely disappointing. There are some pretty great snippets on the back with rave reviews, and the words online aren’t too bad for this book. The villain was promising, and John Layman is a promising writer who brought the book back in this third volume. His other book Chew is a fantastic read, so I was pretty sure that we were locked in with a great writer to give us a good few volumes. This book was a hodge podge of villains from again Man-Bat, The Wrath, Penguin (again), and others. No real clear story and no real direction from any of these issues, as it seems like Layman was given an outline of things that needed to happen and just filled the blank space in with words. It was a really long volume too, clocking in at 256 pages which is about double the size of a typical volume. For the twice the size, I would have at least liked it to have been at least regularly entertaining. Detective Comics’ fourth volume just doesn’t quite cut it, and I’ll be interested to see how much longer this title sticks around as Batman: The Dark Knight has clearly made itself the winner between the two.
STORY : ( 4 / 10 )
ARTWORK : ( 7 / 10 )
WRITING : ( 3 / 10 )
COVERS : ( 5 / 10 )
AWESOME : ( 4 / 10 )
FINAL RATING : ( 5 / 10 )