This issue is the final part of a three-part fill-in story before the new creative team starts next month. I’m not going to waste any time or beat around the bush this story was horrible. My expectations for any fill-in story are never too high but this one does not even get off the ground.
SPOILER WARNING I know what I’m about to tell you about the plot of this storyline is going to sound ridiculous but this really is the plot. In this storyline we meet Una Nemo, one of Bruce’s former girlfriends, (that may be overstating their relationship) who is on a yacht on the Gotham river when a group of crooks show up to rob the wealthy passengers. When she stands up to the thieves she is shot in the head and falls overboard. Incredibly, Una survives and is able to live with a hole blown right through her skull. When she attends her own funeral and discovers that people did not miss her as much as she thought they should the shock is too much and she becomes the villain The Absence. With revenge on what is left of her mind the story continues from there. END SPOILER WARNING
Writer Paul Cornell may be a first class comic book writer but you could never tell from this storyline. The only thing good about this storyline is that it is mercifully over. I do hope the villain, The Absence, shows up in some storyline in the near future so that someone can kill her once and for all. Once that is done I never want to see or hear about The Absence ever again. Everyone needs to do him or herself a favor and skip this three-part storyline.
Keith Forney