BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Winick opens this story with a slap in the face to the awesomeness of the last issue.  An image so great, they threw it into the Battle For The Cowl ads to throw people off comes to fruition, and then Winick pulls it out from under the reader.  Very eyerolly, but not as eyerolly as his Watchmen reference “I’m not trapped in here with you, you’re trapped in here with me!”  Did anyone tell Winick that they made that into a movie earlier this year.  And while not everyone loved it, everyone I know who saw it quoted that one scene.  Cheap, Judd.  Not Revealing A Major Character Has AIDS cheap, but cheap, nonetheless.

Apart from those two annoyances, this was a servicable issue.  It’s a forced into outrospection issue.  Instead of sitting around and brooding about if he’s living up to Bruce’s standards, a villain confronts him as an impostor and he has to prove to the villain AND himself that he really is Batman.  Ehhh.  It could have been worse.

Likewise, Bagley’s art was definitely there.  I could see it.  I could follow everything that was going on.  The anatomy was correct.  The panels were in the right place.  But there was nothing fantastic about it.