“The Ghost and the Knight”
Creative Staff:
Story: Che Grayson
Art: Belen Ortega
Colors: Alejandro Sanchez
Letterer: Aditya Bioikar
What They Say:
THE GHOST AND THE KNIGHT! The Ghost Dogs, a new band of thieves, have been stealing from some of Gotham’s most profitable businesses. Batman will track them down and come face-to-face with their leader GHOST, who will show him a side of Gotham City he was woefully uninformed about. From the rising star creative team of Che Grayson and Belén Ortega!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a good range of stories so far, this installment of the ongoing anthology series delivers a standalone issue that I kind of wish would run longer. Or, perhaps, get another visit with later. The book comes from creatives that I’ve not encountered before with Che Grayson on the writing duties. They get a lot of things into a single issue without it feeling cramped and overly dense with dialogue and exposition. It’s clear in its goals and reminds us that sometimes the best Batman stories don’t involve the big sprawling things. On the artwork side, Belen Ortega gives us a great look at Gotham with Sanchez’s color design and the presentation of not just Batman but the cast as a whole really looks great.
The premise for the book has Batman on the lookout for a new group of thieves called the Ghost Dogs. They’re not exactly high-level thieves but they’re racking up some hits and eluding the police, so they’re on his radar. We see them going after a jewelry store at the start here and going for just the small and low-value stuff, avoiding the higher-end things that would be harder to move unless you have connections. When they head out, that’s when Batman starts taking them down, with one of them getting away as they’re quicker and more intense than the others. Not enough to outrun him but it still surprises him on the rooftop when he unmasks them to reveal what looks like a twelve-year-old girl or younger. It’s not the first time he’s seen things like this but each time it happens it just really impacts him hard.
Ghost has plenty to say to Batman and isn’t exactly intimidated by him like others would be because of her life so far. It’s definitely on the hard side, from abuse by classmates and then their apartment building being burned down for the insurance money – which went to opening a new jewelry store of all things. She relates the tale well enough, and you know Batman will pursue that, but she also draws a contrast to how Batman operates and the impression that he doesn’t care about the poor in Gotham, castigating Wayne Enterprises and Batman’s own suggestion that there are better ways to ask for help. She knows the reality, and that reality is living under a bridge with her mother and some other residents because of how everything went down. Batman doesn’t change anything for her – though perhaps he allows her a small win – but we do see him looking at some larger justice here.
In Summary:
As much as I like the 2-3 issue storylines that have a bit of room to breathe, I really enjoy a strong standalone issue. The team here put together a great book that doesn’t try to have all the answers but rather just says, hey, take a minute to think about the situations that you don’t normally imagine and realize they’re far more common than you think and these disadvantages are real and substantial. The story works well with solid dialogue and I really love the artwork throughout as it feels strong and emotive in a great way.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: July 9th, 2021
MSRP: $0.99
