Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Batman #26
DC Comics
Snyder, Capullo & Miki
Another issue of Batman and another fantastic read. Snyder writes a perfect mix of terror, suspense and drama as Bruce Wayne, Lucius and Gordon confront Doctor Death. The comic book is as driven by the visuals as it is by the story as Capullo continues to put forth the redefining vision of Batman on paper. This is a great read and even the new reader can pick this up and get a full read that will entertain and probably pull you in for another issue.
Doctor Death has the upper hand on Wayne and Lucius. What's interesting here is that Doctor Death doesn't know that the second man is Bruce Wayne. Once he figures this out the game changes significantly. While Wayne and company figure a way out of the trap, Doc escapes to fight another day. The ending seems to solidify a bond between Wayne and Gordon, or at least lays a solid foundation. However, all is not how it seems.
From his hospital bed Wayne lets Gordon have it and tells the Lieutenant exactly what his issue is with him. This re-shaping of the early Wayne-Gordon relationship puts an interesting twist and isn't something that radically alters the long history of the characters. The confrontation has a fantastic page of Wayne pulling a gun on Gordon.
Capullo is amazing on this title. The entire portion of the book with Wayne, Lucius and Death has tremendous depth to each panel. He makes use of the layouts to position characters so that the reader can see where some of them are lurking even if the primary focus is on a character that can't see them. It's brilliant storytelling that is capped off with a perfect color palette that makes great use of shades of red for the backgrounds. However, Capullo's sequence where Wayne pulls Gordon's revolver is among his best work in the issue and makes for a stunning cliffhanger to the scene, though not a cliffhanger to the comic book.
I could make a case that the issue would have been potentially better had it ended with Wayne pulling the revolver on Gordon. On the other hand, the nay Sayers could counter with the argument that Wayne would never do that to begin with. In any case the comic ends with an unrelated cliffhanger that really is the result of Snyder pushing this issue's pace. It's all good stuff no matter how you look at in my opinion.
The series is great. This issue is great. Even the most hardened, anti-super-hero comic book reader I feel would enjoy this comic book. This issue reshapes relationships, fleshes out a new villain and provides powerful and boundary breaking visuals. It's a great comic book. Give this a try.
4.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles
