I wasn’t originally going to buy this comic. I had read the early run of Tony Daniel’s Batman and hadn’t enjoyed it. There was no reason to pick this up at all except my store had a buy 5, get 1 free offer on all New 52 books. I have no idea what drove me to pick this up… Maybe it was the fact that I realised I didn’t have a single bat book that I’d be reading monthly. Maybe it was the fact that I’d really enjoyed Scott Snyder’s previous run and therefore felt a certain loyalty to the title. It doesn’t really matter why, I picked it up. It was one of the better decisions I’ve made.

Tony Daniel is summoning his inner Frank Miller both visually and narratively with this book. Visually Batman is a big and bulky behemoth and Tony Daniel is at home with drawing the fight scenes. The art is crisp and clean and although it’s not groundbreaking in any way, it’s clear and easy to follow with a strong sense of pacing.

As for the writing itself, it reads very much like the classic dark detective stories we know and love. Batman acts like Batman. Joker acts like Joker and Alfred acts like Alfred. The story itself is a very traditional tale of Batman chasing the Joker while dealing with the arrival of a new villain. There’s even a obligatory scene where Gordon and Batman chat for a bit and the sneaky and impolite Batman leaves before Gordon’s finished speaking. The story beats are so familiar that it’s almost like we are on the adventure with Batman. Nothing feels shocking or unexpected but there is a sense of comfort with the familiarity…

…Until the last page that is…

I won’t spoil it but up until the last page the book had been a solid 4 star book. The last page was so unexpected, so gruesome and shocking and yet so well drawn and interesting that it pushed it to a 5 star book. It created such a contrast compared to the other 20 pages of the story and left a feeling that in fact we readers don’t know what is going to happen, but we are excited to find out. It was shock value at its worst and at its best, yet I know when issue 2 roles around I’m not going to have forgotten what happened this issue.