An early Batman adventure begins.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tom King
Art: David Marquez
Colors: Alejandro Sanchez
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
Three villains, one Dark Knight, and a deadly heist gone wrong. Catwoman, the Riddler, and the Penguin join forces to pull off the greatest robbery in the history of Gotham City. And their prize? A mysterious and priceless artifact in the secret possession of Bruce Wayne! But, as the events unfold, what fun is a heist without a bloody double-cross or two? The blockbuster team of Tom King and David Marquez bring an epic, white-knuckled, action-packed tale of a young Batman desperate to recover his most prized possession from a host of violent rogues before the clock strikes the Killing Time…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Having not followed Tom King’s work on the ongoing Batman series a few years ago, this is my first main experience seeing him write the character. I’ve liked a lot of what King does in general but I do prefer when he works with lesser-known characters like Omega Men, Mister Miracle, and Adam Strange. Batman does have plenty of room to be reinvented as we’ve seen over the decades but if you’re doing a story from the early part of his career, it’s going to be only so much of a reinvention and exploration of the character. I do hold hope for things becoming more intriguing as it goes on, though what we get here is definitely very solid and the kind of detective-action material I prefer for the character in general. Especially with David Marquez’s artwork as we tackle the early days of these villains, which is where I think the more interesting material will come from overall.
The book works the angle I dislike – though it does it very well – in telling multiple stories at the same time that converge together at the end but doing so with flashbacks – including one 2,400 years ago that will be important in future issues. The main premise is that a bank heist is going on and it’s a cover for a very different kind of bank heist. The focus on Killer Croc going after a lot of money in order to get help to fix his condition so that his lover will be able to be with him again is a good driving factor for Croc, someone that has had great stories in the past several years. The back and forth works well enough and he’s the one that gets to go head to head with Batman since that’s what causes the alarm bells to go off at GCPD. Gordon, for his part, is aware of the other heist going on but the damage and threat to others is what drives Batman to what Croc is up to.
While all of that is unfolding, we see how Penguin orchestrated things so that Croc would be the perfect distraction through a security guard. And that’s so Penguin can orchestrate the heist at a different bank miles away with a secret vault and a mystery item. That has the Riddler doing the hands-on going in and manipulating the bank president to do his bidding, which is in concert with Catwoman pretending to be the bank president’s wife’s tennis coach in order to get close to her and use her as a hostage. It all plays out well with each of them revealing themselves in the back and forth and having it so that even Penguin is betrayed along the way in violent fashion as well. I’m not surprised it goes there considering King’s other work but it’s something that just felt unnecessary to be that graphic, even for a 13+ book. But it does set the tone here and it shows the larger game that Riddler and Catwoman are playing and how Catwoman is unnerved by how dark Riddler has gotten so early.
In Summary:
There’s plenty to like here and it’s all laid out well in an engaging way. I tend to like early-career Batman stories more than later when he’s the ultimate badass that he’s become as the mistakes are more interesting and there are different avenues to explore in relation to the villains, especially if it’s more of an actual detective story. Tom King sets things well here but it feels pretty familiar and standard overall so far. David Marquez delivers some great artwork throughout which helps it to feel more engaging and dynamic, especially the action sequences. I like his take on Catwoman and am curious to see how far things will go with the violence and Riddler in this. With it being six issues it’s an easy enough thing to get into without feeling like you’re committing to something much bigger like a lot of King’s standalone works are.
Grade:
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics
Release Date: March 1st, 2022
MSRP: $4.99
