Contrary to what the cover would suggest this comic is not set in Egypt.

I’m not sure how I feel about that.

This is a weird comic. Expectations can play tricks like that sometimes. It will obviously have a Bat theme but Africa? Really? Why Africa? And why is this guy named after a bat-vehicle? And why Africa?

And the art really adds to the disconcerting vibe. The hyper-realistic portrayal of characters minimises the setting to an almost theatre-style have-to-use-your-imagination level while increasing the impact events have on the characters. And there’s some pretty full on events in this one.

One question- would they allow that many decapitations in the real Batman’s books? I know that some pretty terrible things have happened across the continent in recent memory but there does seem to be a ‘this is Africa and this happens here’ vibe to the story. Bad guy is called Massacre but still…

The framing of the story was also a bit disconcerting. I’m not sure starting at the end really served any purpose. There wasn’t any suspense built up over the issue as you’re too busy trying to work out what’s going on and what the status quo in this narrative universe is. Seemed to be overwritten a little bit. The extra pages could have been used for establishing shots or something. Cause they would have been pretty.

Don’t know if I’ll keep reading this one. It certainly has impact but it might be a little full on for my tastes. Maybe one more week…