BATMAN #692
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Size: pages
Price: 2.99
During his recent Battle For The Cowl run, I felt like I was watching Tony Daniel get better from issue to issue. While I was never a huge fanboy of his art, I often enjoyed his pencils, particularly in his bat-books. As for his writing, when I say “it grew on me”, I don’t mean “I eventually came around to liking it”, I mean “he keeps getting better and better.”
I generally don’t trash talk Winick. Apart from his Exiles launch, I’ve always found him to be non-threatening, and mediocre. I never recoiled at his books, but I never looked forward to them, either. But his recent Batman run started out as a top tier Batman story. But somehow, he took all his story ingredients and turned DC’s really cool Battle For The Cowl marketing ploy (Two-Face as Batman) and turned into a two page hallucination. And then the story sort of fizzled for me.
And now, that story doesn’t really matter. Daniel is starting a new arc that doesn’t even mention the Winick run, but DOES rely heavily on The Long Halloween. I loved The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, and Haunted Knight. The Loeb/Sale Batman stories are what got me back into reading about The Caped Crusader, and this issue gives a one page primer that fills you in on all the basics.
We also have more plot development with The Black Mask, Black Glove, and a few people with Dr. in their name. Basically, a series of characters I often confuse are being melded into one story (which has been happening steadily in the Batverse since Morrison took over), and throwing them all together is actually making it easier for me to tell them apart.
There’s also some wonderful Catwoman/Grayson interaction. And nary a Damian siting in the book.
Having mentioned how much Daniel is growing as a writer, I feel I should point out that this title does not show him growing much as an artist. And, I’m ok with that. His pencils have always been his strength, and this is a solid Batman book with art that’s safe and familiar.
Art: 4 - Very Good
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
That’s terrific news. I’ve been a steady Batman reader for a while now, but haven’t been to impressed of late. Really looking forward to reading this now. BTW, you’re an excellent reviewer bro. 95% of the time your assessment is tits on!
Thanks, vadamowens. I often wonder what most people think of my reviews. Customers in my store tend to agree with my opinions, but I feel that any store is influenced by the person who orders/sells the books. On this site, those people are Josh, Ron, and Conor. They’ve definitely expanded my comic reading universe, and colored, positively or negatively my view of certain creators.
Ok, I must be tired, I’m overly expanding my thoughts. What I mean is, thank you.
Ah man, I always appreciate what you do with early reviews. Checking for them is part of my early morning Wednesday routine. Keep doing what you’re doing.
A "5" on writing for this, though? I’m not a Daniel hater, but I can’t imagine that this should get a perfect score for writing. I plan on picking this up later, and even though I’ll probably disagree with that score, you giving the writing a 5 lets me know that the story-side of things isn’t going to be awful. So, again, thanks for the review.
@flapjaxx: It’s true that the book isn’t exactly The Nightly News (which I probably would have given a 6/5 or Maus (which, I believe gets an 11/5), but it was really good comic fare. And, admittedly, he probably got a point boost simply for his constant, steady improvement. PLus, you know, he alludes to a storyline that they haven’t touched in years, and does it well.
@akamuu: The Long Halloween was pretty cool but Dark Victory just couldn’t grab my attention nearly the same way. You think I should bother with Haunted Knight?
@robbydzownar: Probably not. Personally, I’m a continuity nerd, so even if I hadn’t enjoyed Dark Victory, I probably would have read Haunted Knight anyway, just to get the story. But while I did like both Haunted Knight and Dark Victory, for me, neither quite ascended to the level of The Long Halloween.
Really good review, however I have to disagree. I love Long Halloween and Dark Victory so the idea of incorporating those in someway into the ongoing Batman is exciting but at the same time it feels kind of cheap. Let’s bring back the one Falcone still alive and have him take over his father’s rackets and at the same time have Catwoman stealing from them. We have seen ALL of this before. This needs to get original quickly. And the Black Mask story hasn’t really gone ANYWHERE since the first issue of Winick’s run and this just made that plot thread even more convoluted. I felt this issue was a mess. A total mess. I love Batman and it will take a lot to make me drop this book but this issue took a step in that direction.
@USPUNX: While I did enjoy this issue, and in no way thought it was a mess, I do agree that it does need to get original quickly.
I also agree that, while the first issue of Winick’s run was great, it’s been treading water ever since. The whole Black Glove Mask Hand Yadda Yadda Anything With The Color Black In Front Of It Must Be Mwahahahaha Evil has made absolutely no sense since Morrison introduced them. They’re all "mysterious presences" who have yet to gain enough rational traction going to be anything more than plot devices. Maybe Daniel will give them some back story, or even front story.
@akamuu: Agreed about the Black blah blah blah’s, they all kind of blend together and fall short of actually being creepy or really even interesting due to lack of background. Maybe Daniel is the breath of fresh air this book needs. Even though I didn’t love this issue I’ll be sticking around for several more before I make a decision about dropping it.