A solid end to a fun little series.
Creative Staff:
Story: Christos Gage
Art: Raffaele Ienco
Colors: Guy Major
Letterer: Josh Reed
What They Say:
In this final chapter to the series, Batman’s standoff with Deadshot comes to a surprising conclusion and the ultimate fate of the deadly assassin is revealed.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I struggled out of the gate with Batman: Sins of the Father since it looked different than a lot of Batman books, it moved different, and came from an area I wasn’t familiar with through the game that provided its own backstory for the Wayne family. I like the alternate stories that can rework the characters in new ways and I had faith in Christos Gage based on past writing so I enjoyed it as it progressed and really found its footing. With Raffaele Ienco coming into his own on it even more as it progressed, particularly with Batman feeling like he was more ground and physical, and that lead to a number of really good looking scenes – several of which are in this installment as well. Suffice to say, I’m looking forward to seeing where Ienco lands next.
As a finale, Sins of the Father works through some of the more predictable material but it does it well. Batman’s defeat of Lawton is handled fairly quickly, and powerfully, as he protects Alfred and the rest. Lawton’s hubris is what really gets him here as he’s convinced based on Batman’s background that he’s researched that he won’t fire a gun – something many readers often believe as well. He won’t kill with it but he’s studied weaponry of all sorts in order to confront and understand it and that includes a level of mastery simply due to his personality and obsessiveness. So when he’s able to shoot the gun out of Lawton’s hand, that’s shock for Lawton and it allows Batman to move through the motions to save the day and put Lawton into the criminal justice system – and a future in a place that will be far worse.
The wrap-up portion of the storyline is what I enjoy the most and kind of want it to be explored more. It’s here that we see how Bruce has followed through on taking care of the families that suffered under his father, though that ensured that the board and their salaries are unaffected. But there’s a way to fix it, as expected, as he and Lucius have some fun new toys to bring to market that will make a lot of money. Lucius has some good stuff about the company side here similar to how Alfred has good things for Bruce regarding the family name and his own path in life compared to Lawton’s. I’ve always enjoyed the bond that Bruce and Alfred have shared and the way it’s been grown and tweaked over the decades and Gage delivers what it needs at this period in Bruce’s life in this timeline.
In Summary:
As a twelve-issue digital run and a six-issue print run, Batman: Sins of the Father works well. I suspect that the print readers will enjoy it a touch more as it wasn’t quite as long (even though it’s the same length) as getting the double dose of pages in one sitting flows better. Gage and Ienco put together a fun book in this game timeline that I’m unfamiliar with and dug into some interesting re-imagined parallels between Bruce and Floyd that have existed elsewhere in different forms. I’m hopeful that all the creative here will find their way back to another digital-first book at some point because this was just a lot of fun.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: July 18th, 2018
MSRP: $0.99
