As a writer, Tony Daniel’s an ok artist.  No, this wasn’t Rob Liefield bad, but can’t we have higher standards, particularly when following an era-defining, challenging two year run by one of the most visionary and talented writers in the medium?

The art here was fine, I suppose, but the story, the characterization, and the plot were so telegraphed and clunky that I might well have been reading an issue of Brigade from 1993.  Yes, this was that bad.

For an “event” book which portends major changes to the status quo of treasured characters, you’d think DC would take a bit more care to craft a decent book.  This felt rushed, slapdash, and utterly pointless.  The real story, how you know who assumes the mantle of you know what happens mostly off-panel, this issue is mostly jaw-clenched fight scenes drawn with a dubious sense of perspective.  The dialogue raises so many red flags (would Manhunter really say that?  Is it a good thing that Daniel has inherited the Loeb/Winick habit of making Jason Todd sound like the mawkish villain in a Shakespeare comedy?  (Think John the Bastard in Much Ado About Nothing, which could have been an alternate title for this miniseries.  Ugh.)