By: Steve Niles (story), Trevor Hairsine (art), Antonio Fabela (colors)
The Story: Batman begins to wonder if the GCPD is even trying anymore.
The Review: I’ve been of several minds with these digital-first comics. On the one hand, I hate to start turning into the old fogey who dismisses them just because of their medium. On the other, I don’t think anyone can deny that at least the ones from DC haven’t been that impressive. At best, they seem like elaborate, well-crafted back-up stories with extra pages: out of continuity, largely unimportant, easily lost among the prodigious output of mainstream titles.
This issue in particular has the feeling of one of Sholly Fisch’s sentimental pieces in the back matter of Action Comics, only it has zero bearing on canon. The premise itself—Batman reading through bags of letters addressed to him a la Santa Claus—is pretty cloying and, frankly, a very simple and limited basis for storytelling. The most anyone can really do with that is vary between epistles of gratitude or resentment, and so it goes here.
Even more unfortunately, Niles falls prey to the most predictable of vignettes, the kind of thing anyone in a college fiction-writing class could come up with. In fact, had Niles written this issue in one of those classes, my first instinct would be to call him a competent writer whose legacy will probably be a select number of highly regarded fan fiction stories and a piece published in a pretentious literary magazine doomed to shutter after its first volume.
Consider Niles’ choice of letter-writers: a daughter thankful for the saving of her mother’s life; a former war veteran effusing his gratitude for the preservation of his small business; and a common thug detailing his path toward reform. Only two of these stories intersect and I bet any of you WCBR readers can guess which of them do and how.
Besides being only modestly affecting, the letters only have a minimal connection to the major conflict of the issue: Batman’s frustration of dealing with an un-jailable Joker.* This point is nothing new; in fact, it forms the basis of many a fanciful ethics discussion in the comic book community. Niles doesn’t actually tackle the point in a novel or thoughtful way, either. Ultimately, Batman merely finds encouragement to continue the futile cycle once more, with no thought of a permanent solution. Not quite the most inspiring lesson to take away from the issue, but perhaps it’s the best Batman can hope for.
Hairsine’s art is loose and in some instances kind of sloppy. His characters appear lanky, with trademark elongated faces. Overall, he tells the story straight, with no memorable moment to speak of, which suits the script fine. Fabela’s colors are similarly forgettable.
Conclusion: I don’t mind telling you that I’m reconsidering the prospects of reviewing this series long-term, and this issue doesn’t help convince me that it’s worth the effort.
Grade: C
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – Incidentally, how lame is Commissioner Gordon’s briefing to Batman as to how Joker escaped? “We’re still piecing it together. Looks like he had some help on the inside.” Translation: it’s not important to the story so let’s just skip having to put any thought into it whatsoever.
– And how the heck did Alfred come into possession of this hand-wrapped package for Batman?
Grade
Conclusion