It’s Batman, that’s really all there is to say.
What They Say:
The Dark Knight struggles against a deadly–yet strangely familiar–foe! As a mysterious figure slinks through the halls of Arkham Asylum, Batman must fight his way through a gauntlet of psychos, and Bruce Wayne faces the unexpected legal ramifications of Batman Incorporated!
The Review:
As the fourth main Batman book in the new 52 one can only expect a little fatigue when it comes to the Caped Crusader. The Dark Knight is a good book but suffers from the overkill factor. There were also four Green Lantern books, but each of those books focused on different Green Lanterns, different aspects of the GL universe. That is what kept them fresh and entertaining. Batman suffers from four different books of…Batman. The same Batman, the same old song and dance. Detective Comics was fantastic and showed Batman 5 years before when he was just starting out and considered an Urban Legend. Batman tells his present day adventures in Gotham City while Batman & Robin tells current adventures with his sidekick. What is different about the Dark Knight? From what I can tell…nothing. The book never tells us where in the timeline the story takes place and is just another Batman story.
The Dark Knight starts off exactly the same as Batman did. Batman moving through the city streets and text blocks of an interior monologue. The monolugue turns out to be a speech that Bruce Wayne is giving at an event. The difference here is Batman isn’t fighting while the monologue initially takes place, he is just getting to the event and changing clothes. This books spends a lot more time at the event than Batman did and gives us some conflict for Bruce in the form of an Internal Affairs agent investigating Bruce’s connection to Gotham City PD and Batman. The story then cuts to Arkham Aslym where a break out of the inmates is currently taking place. This is the same scenario that started off Batman, here it just ends with it and with a twist. The inmates in this book are much more grotesque in appearance and ruthless in their attacks. The books finishes off with a strange turn of events involving Two-face which is interesting and does compell me to keep reading, but the hieghtened violence and action is the only setting this series apart at this point.
The book really is good but it is nothing special. If this was a future story in the Batman series it would be fantastic. But this additional series really doesn’t need to exist. The only addition to the Batman Universe it adds is the potential for more violence and grotesque imagery than the other series. Who really needs that? This book also does a decent job of setting up the story for new readers. It isn’t as strong an introduction as Detective or Batman was but it doesn’t need to be…it’s the fourth series this month!
In Summary:
Batman: The Dark Knight is good solid Batman story with character and action. Any Batman junkie will immensely enjoy this book and continue reading because it is a strong story. That is the Batman junkie though. Anyone else is probably a little burntout on Batman by this point. It is just as good as Batman and definitely better than Batman & Robin but it is unnecessary. This is a story that could’ve been in Batman down the road. But by splitting off into another series that doesn’t add anything special, it is simply limiting the number of quality Batman stories that could have been told in the main series. According to the Comixology synopsis, this series is tied into Batman Inc. But I have never read Batman Inc. and neither would have new readers. That is another ding to this series overall, especially considering there is no evidence of this plot point in the book itself!
Grade: B
