BATMAN STREETS OF GOTHAM #15
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Art by RAMON BACHS and JOHN LUCAS
Cover by DUSTIN NGUYEN
Size: 40 pages
Price: 3.99
Seven months ago, someone at DC made a mistake on the solicits for Streets of Gotham. It was during the Zsaz arc by Paul Dini, and the solicit promised the exciting conclusion. And the conclusion would have made since, it was time for part…four(?) of a four(?) part storyline. Instead of the Dini conclusion, readers were “treated” to a horrendous two-part cliche-ridden crime story by Mark Benson. When Dini returned to finish up the Zsaz storyline, the DC solicits promised you a Garth Ennis story about Damien being raped by Clayface (ok, I don’t remember the false story, but my review of that issue started with “Once again, don’t believe the solicit for this issue.”).
I can’t really speculate on why DC has fucked up every solicit dating back to late 2009. Ok, I could speculate, and maybe some of you would agree with me because I “work in the comic book industry”, but being the guy who sells you comic books at the store is to “working in the comic book industry” what being the guy who pours butter on your popcorn at the matinee is to “working in Hollywood”. So I’m not going to speculate. I’m just going to say: They’re still lying to you.
But, whereas the Mike Benson story was a huge letdown compared to what I was expecting, this month’s issue by Ivan Brandon is fantastic. This entire issue picks up from the end of last issue’s back-up story about Two-Face. It’s a well told crime story that has your favorite coin-flipping psychopath on the run from the GCPD. This isn’t your two-sided suit, multi-colored hair mwahahaing Tommy Lee Jones Two Face, either. This is a guy with a half-scarred face, wearing a hoodie who has a real disassociation with reality. A sociopath who’s much more frightening than a supervillain.
Ramon Bach’s artwork is solid. I enjoyed it, in that it looked good, but never distracted from the story. It was much better than the poorly colored Andy Clarke pin-up on the final page. Unless Alfred is supposed to have some sort of facial leprosy, and Damien’s left arm is broken.
Art: 4 - Very Good
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So it’s all of the Two-Face story? I’m sure it’s good, but…I wanna read the Dini/Nguyen story. 🙁
So there’s no Hush story in here?! WTF!!
This is a Hush-free issue. It’s all Two-Face, all the time. It’s very good, but, lo, it is not what we were promised.
Also, if you read closely, you can see the beats where the chapters were supposed to end. (I read it under the assumption that it was intended to be multiple chapters of the backup story.) This is not at all a complaint. I just found it realy interesting.
Well, that sucks. At least it explains the solicit for #17, which stated that it would be the second part of a five-part Hush story, down from the originally announced six-parter. I guess #14 was just a prologue and #16 will actually be part 1. Or something.
Actually, since it was a solicit for STREETS OF GOTHAM, I should just assume that it’ll be a rushed fill-in issue by someone I’ve never heard of.
Seriously?? Again?? There is a lot about the industry that I tolerate and accept based on the fact that I am essentially waiting for monthly pieces of art, as there is not enough cash in the industry for me to rely on it as a business, but this is complete crap. It is just wrong for DC to treat their retailers in this way. Dini is an actual name in the industry, and as good as Brandon’s story might be, I am sure that there is more money to be made off of Dini’s name, and orders were based on that.
Yeah, I canceled my subscription to this book at my store and refused to purchase this issue from them as it was completely not what was solicited. Sad. I didn’t care for the back up last issue so I knew enough to avoid it.