I love me some horror movies, and you can be damn sure that I love Batman.  So when it was announced that Steve Niles and Kelley Jones were going to be doing a twelve issue Batman series delving into the supernatural side of the dark knight I put on my happy boots and danced a little jig.  They’re not real boots mind you, just a figure of speech, but it’s safe to say I was really excited. 
    Now in my opinion, Steve Niles has a very spotted success record.  For me the stories he tends to come up with generally have a great concept, but aren’t executed with the subtlest of hands, and Kelley Jones I’m only familiar with due to his charismatic Batman covers from the Knightfall era of the character.  So how did they do, you ask, you intrepid little reader you?  So far the book has been a mixed bag.  There was a good bit to enjoy with the first book, followed by an incredibly lack luster second outing, bringing us to their current issue, which was probably the one I’ve enjoyed most so far. 
    Niles take on the character in this series is probably one that will put some readers off.  He writes Batman as a character who takes himself way too seriously, to an almost darkly comedic effect.  This style is quite well complemented by Kelley Jones art.  Jones’ Batman almost seems to be in constant movement, as his poses change quite drastically from one panel to another.  Forgive me for digressing from this particular issue, but my point is best illustrated by an example from the first issue of the series, in which Batman is talking with Commissioner Gordon in a dark alley.  The conversation takes place in a matter of moments, and yet from one panel to the next Batman is in a completely different place striking a wholly bombastic pose.  To get from one position to the next you can almost see him in between the panels, in constant movement, flailing his arms and jumping about like an elementary school boy in dire need of Ritalin.  This is very characteristic of Kelley Jones art, everything is melodramatic, in design, color and composition, and it very much sums up the overall tone of the book quite well. 
    Personally I have enjoyed that aspect of the book, but you have to be able to roll with the style in order to enjoy it.  Someone who likes his or her Batman stories to be dark, serious and gritty is probably not going to enjoy this very much. 
    There’s a new villain introduced by this series, the mysterious Midnight.  A character obviously influenced by Lon Chaney’s vampire character in the lost film London After Midnight.  You can also see the obvious similarity in the names.  He’s an interesting character and Jones’ renderings of him are quite nice, but little is known about him so far so we’ll have to wait to see how he pans out.  We find out he eats hearts in this issue though, so that’s a plus right? 
    The stand out scene of this particular issue is the first one in the book.  The scene begins with Midnight appearing in the home of a rich gothamite who is being entertained by a high class “lady of the evening.”  Midnight quickly dispatches the man via a particularly nasty looking spike and clawed cane with which he cuts out the man’s heart, for consumption at a later time of course.  Hey, at least he’s eating what he kills, right?  He is shortly joined by Clayface, and the ever persuasive Midnight talks him into “absorbing” the people who “point and laugh” at him.  Midnight thinks that with his power, Clayface “can be a giant!”  Veiled hints at a subplot to come?  Oh no no no.  We don’t do that here.  When Niles says he wants a steak he wants a steak.  Nothing Freudian about it.  So Clayface eats the hooker…and he gets bigger.  He eats more people, and he gets MUCH bigger.  So at the end of the issue Batman shows up in a giant robot to hand Clayface his doughy ass.  Giant robot fight in the next issue?  Sign me the hell up. 
    So in summary, Batman: Gotham After Midnight has a good bit to like, certainly enough for me to keep picking it up.  But the darkly comedic tone and oft-times downright silly take on the character may not be easy for some Bat-fans to swallow.  Let’s call it the “B-Horror movie” of Batman books, and since a quick glance at my DVD collection will reveal a whole heap of schlocky splatter pictures from that glorious time we call the seventies, and a good few from the coke-sprinkled eighties, you can bet I’ll be picking up the next issue.