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BATMAN GATES OF GOTHAM #2 (OF 5)

Murder, mayhem and the building of an empire! Issue #2 throttles up the action as Batman tries to find the source of the attacks before the killer can strike again. But with the reveal of the fourth family of Gotham City and an old case from the early days of the city, is Batman playing right into the villain’s hands?

Written by SCOTT SNYDER and KYLE HIGGINS
Art and cover by TREVOR MCCARTHY
Variant cover by DUSTIN NGUYEN

Price: $2.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 5.4%
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Avg Rating: 4.4
 
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Comments

  1. Avatar photo TheNextChampion says:
    June 20, 2011 at 2:43 pm

    The first issue grew on me as I kept turning the pages. I hope this second issue hits the ground running and doesn’t stop.

  2. Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
    June 20, 2011 at 2:45 pm

    I want to read this story, but it seems like the perfect thing to trade-wait (high quality creative team, self-contained story, operates outside of the main titles). But it’s also a light week for me, and I know my LCS still has some copies of #1, so I’m on the fence.

    Sway me, please! 

  3. Avatar photo PostMan87 says:
    June 20, 2011 at 3:17 pm

    This and last week have both been light, light, light…..so I might see what’s going on here. Issue #1 should not be a problem to find for myself, either.

  4. Avatar photo HailScott says:
    June 20, 2011 at 3:22 pm

    Somehow, this is my only book this week. . . better be great!

  5. Avatar photo martinNL says:
    June 20, 2011 at 6:27 pm

    A light week indeed. Only two books for me, but very much looking forward to both.

  6. Avatar photo mikeandzod21 says:
    June 20, 2011 at 6:42 pm

    I loved the first issue of this. Can’t wait for this

  7. Avatar photo TexasZombie99 says:
    June 20, 2011 at 7:37 pm

    @KenOchalek  Just read it now if you think you’d like it…I find it hard to trade wait DC’s books when they’re SO slow about releasing them.

  8. Avatar photo CaseyJustice says:
    June 20, 2011 at 8:43 pm

    First issue did not wow me like I’d hoped. I shall, however, try again, looking for a good detective story.

  9. Avatar photo robbydzwonar says:
    June 20, 2011 at 10:15 pm

    I wasn’t exactly blown away by #1, but hopefully this will brighten things up for me somewhat!!

  10. Avatar photo Franktiger says:
    June 20, 2011 at 11:11 pm

    Despite my never having a light week it seems, am def on board with this.

  11. Avatar photo Reform says:
    June 22, 2011 at 1:08 pm

    I am waiting,  I waited for Knight&Squire and (yea) it is out next week.   If you are having a light week then go to the library.

  12. Avatar photo TheNextChampion says:
    June 22, 2011 at 3:38 pm

    This is, so far, a very strong story by Snyder and Higgins. I’m intrigued by the history of Gotham’s architecture and the present day mystery is great as well. Shame the art is a bit too wonky and uneven for my liking. Still a very good issue.

    4/5 (POTW) 

  13. Avatar photo MikePositive says:
    June 22, 2011 at 7:29 pm

    My shop sold out of this issue and it wasn’t on my initial pull list. *DEEP SIGH*

  14. Avatar photo Funcrusher says:
    June 23, 2011 at 12:33 am

    It’s wierd, I feel almost like the history of Gotham is being retconned or something even though it isn’t. That said, I still find it very interesting. Apart from the faces on the heroes (with their masks off) and Gordon I really dig the art. POTW for me.

  15. Avatar photo TexasZombie99 says:
    June 23, 2011 at 12:56 pm

    I dig all of the art, I think it’s a fresh take, it all looked good.

  16. Avatar photo Kamilo says:
    June 23, 2011 at 2:32 pm

    This issue broke my heart because it was when I really realized that Dick being Batman is now truly just a small blip on the radar.  5 years down the line, how am I ever going to be able to pass off this series to anyone without an extensive knowledge of the Bat-family’s history?  It will just be impossible without also handing off the whole RIP-ROBW saga or explaining the complex history wherein I’ll probably just end up looking like a crazy person.
    Ugh looks like Ill be dropping everything DC that isn’t Flashpoint until the not-reboot… 

  17. Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
    June 23, 2011 at 5:53 pm

    @Kamilo  Uhh…you just say “Hey this is really good. But hey, Bruce Wayne was being Batman around the world at the time, so his former sidekick is Batman in this. But he’s cool too, and this is more about the history of Gotham anyway, so no big deal.”

    I mean, having to explain Tim, Damien and Cassie seems like the taller order if you ask me.

    As much as I’m enjoying Gates of Gotham, there are much better entry-point storylines for people who want to read about Batman.

    But if your reaction to the mere idea of possibly someday having to explain some fictional relationships to someone else prompts you to stop buying a bunch comics (many of them truly excellent), then I’m sorry, but you already are a crazy person. 🙂

  18. Avatar photo martinNL says:
    June 23, 2011 at 6:40 pm

    This was an awesome book. Art is great, but not sure about the cartoony style of all the characters faces. Also it seems as if many of them have been battling it out with Voldemort, since they have this Harry Potter scar on their heads 🙂

  19. Avatar photo Kamilo says:
    June 24, 2011 at 1:32 am

    Here’s my problem: as we go forward it looks like Bruce is going to be the one and only Batman for a while.  Dick will not be back in the cowl at least for another few years, likely a decade or more (frankly probably never).  Dick as Batman is now basically a storyline akin to No Man’s Land where in the end its basically like it never happened and therein lies the problem.  As time goes on and the memory of Dick as Batman becomes more and more distant, the stand-alone nature of this story will be almost completely moot.  Its a stand-alone that is almost lying down on the past two and a half years of storylines.  In that sense, this now feels more like a tie-in to the longest comic event in history: the Morrison RIP-INC. saga.

  20. Avatar photo kennyg says:
    June 24, 2011 at 1:00 pm

    This issue was better than the first, and I loved it. 5/5 from me, even though I agree with other comments about the art. The architecture and industrial design is great, the masked characters look great, there’s good action, but the human faces are a little too cartoony. Penguin reminds me of Disney’s animated Mad Hatter. It doesn’t detract from the book, but it’s the only weakness. The writing is great, I liked Damian’s dialogue (what a little snot), and the scope of the story is epic.

    @Kamilo  I’m gonna miss Dick as Batman too, but I’m not gonna miss out on what is, thus far, a great story because of what will happen in two months.

  21. Avatar photo KenOchalek says:
    June 24, 2011 at 4:20 pm

    @Kamilo I get what you’re saying and I think you could be right that Gates of Gotham will not mean as much to whatever the currect stories are in 5 years because of it’s ties to other parts of the Batman Inc. status quo.

    But like you mention with No Man’s Land, I think this is par for the course when it comes to Batman (and a lot of long-running comics). Even though it’d be annoying if he did, how often does Bruce mention having his back broken? Or choosing Jean-Paul to be the first replacement Batman instead of Dick? How long was Jason Todd completely out of the picture? How many years did everyone completely forget that James Gordon Jr was out there? Some elements just fade away.

    As I read Gates of Gotham, I’ve been wondering if there’s a benign conspiracy at work.

    Here’s my theory: I think Gates of Gotham was originally designed to be Snyder’s next arc Detective (i.e. Gates of Gotham #1 might have been Detective #882). Since he already had the arc outlined and approved by editorial, when DC made him privy to their relaunch plans, they simply scheduled it as a mini-series and got Kyle Higgins to script from Snyder’s plot (since Snyder was presumably busy with Detective, two American Vampire cycles, Severed for Image, as well as Batman and Swamp Thing).

    I don’t mean to cast ANY aspersions on Snyder, Higgins or DC, because I’ve been enjoying the hell out of the Bat-Books for a while now, and I’m really looking forward to the relaunch (Batman and Nightwing in particular), but even when Gates of Gotham was announced I wondered “Why is this a mini-series?”

  22. Avatar photo shiveringking8 says:
    June 24, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    Anyone else confused by the blank part in a speech bubble early on?  It was with the two architects and they met Alan Wayne and they were like, “I believe you are                , am I correct?” or something to that effect.  I thought it was a Kill Bill-esque we’re-keeping-this-hidden-from-you-for-now, but then the guy (Alan Wayne) totally says his name.  Am I just missing something obvious here?

  23. Avatar photo AmirCat says:
    June 24, 2011 at 6:35 pm

    @shiveringking8  – It’s probably a lettering error.

  24. Avatar photo TheNextChampion says:
    June 25, 2011 at 12:35 am

    @KenOchalek I think this mini is more of a test for Kyle Higgins as a writer then anything else. He did the recent Batman/Detective Comics annuals but here it’s like DC (and Snyder too) gave Higgins a shot at writing Dick Grayson. Considering Higgins is going to be writing on his own in the new Nightwing title I think that makes the most sense.

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