Reviews

Rather then do a review of a comic that came out this week I wanted to go back and review a comic from last week. The reason I wanted to review Batman: The Dark Knight #2 is because I enjoyed the first issue so much; I wanted to see if the second issue was as good as the first. Well, I’ll say straight out that this was another quality issue the artwork was great, the story was interesting and there was a lot of action. Most of all I loved the gradual introduction of supernatural elements into what started out as a simple missing persons case.

SPOILER WARNING This issue starts out right where the first issue left off with Batman being caught red handed by the Penguin and his men as he is going through the safe at the Iceberg Lounge. Despite this Batman is able to overcome the Penguin’s men and starts savagely beating answers from the Penguin himself. Only the timely arrival of Killer Croc saves Penguin from even more punishment. While this is all happening the mayor is bringing a surprising amount of pressure down on Commissioner Gordon to solve the disappearance of Dawn Golden. The reason for all this pressure is unknown at the moment but it can’t be good. With the police focused on the Dawn Golden case the disappearance or murder of some of Gotham’s street people has gone largely unnoticed by the media and the public. Again, how these events tie-in with everything else is not clear yet but with Ragman and Etrigan, The Demon entering the picture clearly something supernatural is going on. While we are at it who is the young girl that just stole the Batmobile? END SPOILER WARNING

All in all this issue is well worth reading the only real question is: is this series worth waiting for? The first issue was a month late coming out now this second issue is three months late coming out. Who knows when the next issue will actually hit the shelves? Delays like this are inexcusable in any series but they are especially so in a series that is just getting started. It’s delays like this that are killing the comic book industry. One last thing at the end of the first issue Batman is searching the Boom Room club but at the beginning of this issue he is searching the Iceberg Lounge. I don’t know who is responsible for this screw-up but the long break between issues probably contributed to this mistake.

Keith Forney