Unmasking the bat!
Creative Staff:
Story: Marc Guggenheim
Art: Priscilla Petraites, Inaki Miranda
Colors: Nick Filardi
Letterer: ALW’s Troy Peteri
What They Say:
A case of mistaken identity sends Gotham’s villains on a hunt for the wrong Batman! Can the real Dark Knight protect this innocent bystander—and his own secret identity?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Gotham Nights series continues to have a lot of fun in bringing in different talents to work standalone ideas that may be a little crunched for time but in the end have a lot of fun. Marc Guggenheim has written plenty of comics and knows these kinds of characters well and he plays with a story that is certainly familiar to long-time fans. But it’s the ideal kind of one-off story that works well for anthologies and newer and more casual readers. It also works well as we get the excellent talents of Priscilla Petraites and Inaki Miranda on the art duties. Both are strong talents in their own rights and working together gives us a wonderfully dynamic book with a lot going on and some good action within a tight timeframe. And I really like the way that Filardi brings the color to this as there’s a lot of variety throughout.
The premise for this is that the Riddler has called in a number of the top-named villains of Gotham as he’s worked out a riddle himself. Namely, who is Batman? That has lead him to discover the identity behind it and setting into motion a plan to out and destroy him. Amusingly, Catwoman was in on this and heads off to let Batman know since the two of them have long had a relationship, but you know Batman has prepared for this for some time. While the preparations are lined up, what becomes amusing is that the Riddler is accusing a detective named Brady of being Batman and Harley goes off attacking him at a court hearing that he was called in for. Brady’s no slouch and is able to put up some resistance until Batman arrives but it sets Riddler on the path about how it really is Brady and that someone doubled as Batman for him to prove otherwise.
Again, a familiar story but one with a twist in how this plays out because of the mistaken identity. They’re convinced it’s Brady and work hard to take him down. That, in turn, has Batman employing his original idea in a slightly new way because he doesn’t want to ruin Brady’s life as a detective or force him into hiding forever to hide the secret of who he really is. And, as we largely know at this point, there isn’t much of a Bruce Wayne anymore as that’s become a mask for Batman himself. It covers some fun ground here as the plan is put into motion and all that comes with it so we get some decent action, reactions to what happens, and disbelief as well. I like what Batman has set in place here and it feels so familiar that I think I read the same cover name being used once before as well. But it does what it needs to and shows why he’s able to obscure who he is so well.
In Summary:
Batman: Gotham Nights plays in a familiar story that we’ve seen several times over the years in both comics and animation that always makes me smile. That there are such obvious things at play that gives away his identity always makes me laugh and Guggenheim almost subverts that in a pretty solid way by showing the Riddler essentially overthinking things. The story works well and we see it play out in a pretty engaging way with great artwork from Petraites and Miranda. It works a good cast, some creative moments, and a kind of wink and grin with Catwoman that just delights.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology and Amazon Kindle
Release Date: November 2nd, 2020
MSRP: $0.99
