A drag out fight with some tough opponents.
Creative Staff:
Story: Christos Gage
Art: Raffaele Ienco
Colors: Guy Major
Letterer: Josh Reed
What They Say:
With Batman unable to bring Deadshot to justice, Bruce Wayne decides to confront Deadshot’s alter ego, Floyd Lawton. It’s a high-stakes chess game between two men who are dark mirror images of each other: rich, orphans, men who’ve built themselves to the peak of their skills, but in drastically opposite ways. Can Bruce outwit—and if necessary, outfight—Lawton, or has he walked into his enemy’s killing ground?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While I’m still adjusting to the style and design of this series, Batman: Sins of the Father is slowly finding its groove for me. Christos Gage is definitely having fun putting an overall inexperienced Batman up against some foes that are giving him a challenge and that’s something that’s enjoyable to see when you spend most of your other Bat-books with him as one of the most gifted of the gifted. I’m also getting more and more adjusted to Raffaele Ienco’s artwork with its distinctive look that I really like but am still not quite sure it’s right for Batman. Some of that comes from my lack of familiarity from the game that I assume it’s more in line with. That said, it continues to work really well for this more rough and tumble version of the character.
The reveal that Black Spider was working for Deadshot, who is likely working for someone else, made for a fun (if expected) twist that put Batman in a tough spot as he got taken down hard. Of course, he’s able to roll back from that and boast a bit along the way as he pushes back against Black Spider. I love the look of it because it just reminds of what kind of materials and physicality that this Batman has as we get Ienco’s close-up of it at the start here. The back and forth fight is strong (even if Batman sometimes looks a little too lanky from some angles) as the three of them fight until they figure out a good way of ending things with a distraction that Batman can’t resist since he has to help others. Deadshot’s reputation may not be fully set just yet but you know Batman is the type that’s always going to skew his record. The dynamic between him and Black Spider makes for a good fight sequence overall though.
The non-fight side of the book gives us a look at another of the Arkham folks that have been killed and puts Batman on the path to figuring out who Deadshot might be. I’m curious to see if there really is a connection or if he’s just the hired gun I think he is, but it does give us a look at the detective side for Batman as he works the files, hits the asylum itself, and just deals with the scope of the problem of what his father created. Ienco puts some great pages here with it, particularly the cemetery page with how it looks and Guy Major’s color design for it. A lot of what we get here is just the slow and steady slog of actual detective work, albeit with some quick cuts to make it exciting, that’s part of what I like Batman when you get down to it. I’m less a fan of his galaxy-hopping adventure side and more of the closed in and moody noir style stuff, so Gage definitely hits on some very good moments of this that work well for me.
In Summary:
While I’m not fully on board with this series as I’m still adjusting to it without the background of the game, I am enjoying it so far. Christos Gage is handling the digital-first format pretty well here with ensuring that each issue has a good mix of story and action that helps to move everything forward while Raffaele Ienco is getting more and more comfortable with each issue in the layouts and the flow of the action with how it’s presented. The story here doesn’t get too deep as it’s big on action and then working the detective side with hints of what’s to come but it’s a solid entry in the arc so far.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: March 21st, 2018
MSRP: $0.99
