Every job needs the right suit.
Creative Staff:
Story: Christos Gage
Art: Raffaele Ienco
Colors: Guy Major
Letterer: Josh Reed
What They Say:
Batman delves deeper into the history of Floyd Lawton, the man he suspects of being Deadshot. But what he finds leads him to conclude that he’ll confront Lawton not as Batman, but as Bruce Wayne.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Sins of the Father digs deeper into events here and I continue to enjoy how Christos Gage brings out the details of it all. It’s a series that is very much a challenge as an alternate storyline to the mainline side because it forces us to look at Thomas Wayne in a way most of us never have as even more Elseworlds stories and the like tend to play generally favorably toward him. And as time has gone on I’ve also come to quite enjoy Ienco’s artwork as it feels like he’s found a real groove after that first issue which was fairly jarring, particularly in terms of action execution. There’s a better smoothness to the flow of it and the idea of the motion in play with how Batman fights in the physical sense here and each issue simply feels like it lands a whole lot better.
A decent part of this installment focuses on backstory and it’s a pretty grim one, but one that parallels Bruce’s own life as well in many ways. The exploration of how Floyd Lawton is has the reveal of how Thomas Wayne was involved in handling Floyd’s parents when they were put in Arkham on suspicion of child abuse in regards to his brother George. A lot of things changed hands once Thomas got them out with Wayne Tower being one of the big holdings that Lawton’s family’s real estate side was involved in. That puts a stronger connection between the two men as does the way that Floyd’s parents lives ended thanks to a gun not long after his brother George “accidentally” fell down the stairs and died. While Bruce turned toward vengeance on the criminals of the world and bringing them to justice, and avoiding the use of guns and killing, Floyd went the opposite route, making for a solid mirror version of Bruce to have to deal with.
With Floyd having inherited the family estate as well and working a creative path that let him build up a skill set that tracks with what Deadshot does, Bruce works to draw him out through Batman for a good bit, looking to make himself a tempting target. This gives us some good and restrained action on his part and a better look at what Lawton’s crew is like through the company. The narration aspect of the story works well once Bruce puts on the cowl and orchestrates all of this while watching Floyd until he realizes that he’s not going to be tempted into this kind of trap as he has the same kind of strong control of self and willpower as Bruce does. That means he’s going to need that other suit, for the fake personality and persona that is Bruce Wayne…
In Summary:
Batman: Sins of the Father delves into Floyd’s story well here and it works pretty well, though I have that thought in the back of my head that Gage might be trying a fakeout here with who is under the Deadshot hood since this is a standalone series. The journey into the past is pretty good here and it certainly makes it easier, issue after issue, revelation after revelation, to dislike Thomas Wayne more and more. The fear is that even with Bruce trying to do his best to correct things as he can is that the dislike bleeds into him as well simply because of how much it’s dragging him down. That said, it’s a solid entry and one where Ienco gets to do a lot of fun things, including more great rooftop scenes that just feel very right and wonderfully executed.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: April 18th, 2018
MSRP: $0.99