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The Absolute Mess that is Batman: The Dark Knight #1
This issue was all over the place. I hoped it was going to be great. It was not. The story was campy and the art was inconsistent. There were times when I had to re-read panels thinking that I must have missed something. I'm actually still wondering now if I even understood it at all.Tuxedo in a Bag
Batman ejects himself from the Batwing and soars through the sky clutching a duffle bag. He lands and jumps from roof to roof. When he arrives at his destination, he carefully considers his surroundings and then changes into the tuxedo that was stored in the duffle bag. As Bruce Wayne, he utilizes his grapple gun to zip line to his final destination. He hops over the balcony ledge, stows the grapple gun, and proceeds over to the podium where he gives a speech to Gotham's who's who.
Wait, what? Batman changes in public? Ok, fine. He then zip lines over as Gotham's Most Eligible Bachelor Bruce Wayne. No one should notice right? As Carmine Falcone once said "You'd have to travel a 1000 miles to find someone who didn't know your name." This is sloppy.
Side note: Has David Finch or Paul Jenkins ever worn a tux? How about a suit? Any shirt with buttons? That tux, the one in the duffle bag, would have been wrinkled as hell. Bruce is a billionaire. He's not showing up for a party in a wrinkled tux that he just pulled out of a bag. Come on. Poor writing.
What Does Bruce Wayne Even Look Like?
Panel to panel, Bruce goes from looking young and attractive to old and in major need of ReNuYu. It was as if DC wasn't clear to Finch on how old Bruce was, or he was staring out of the window when they told him, so he just decided to make him both young and old for good measure.
Harvey's Your Man
There is a mass breakout at Arkham. When Batman arrives, he asks one of the officers where Two-Face is. Batman assumes this break out is a distraction for Two-Face to escape. That's right. Two-Face is using a mass breakout as a distraction for him to break out. Amazing stuff here.
I can't even write it off as him being “The World's Greatest Detective." He doesn't see Two-Face when he gets to Arkham, so Two-Face MUST be up to something. After a guard confirms his assumption, he knows he has to go inside and find him. Is Arkham like one room and a front door? I don't get how he would know that Two-Face was still inside and hadn't run out earlier or ran the other way.
Two-Face No More
When Batman enters Arkham to pursue Two-Face, we are given a couple of gems, one on the final page of the issue.
Quote
Whoever you are...this is Batman. Come out with your hands raised where we can see them.
What? Would he say that? His inner monologue was just about Batman being fear and shadows and all that. Suddenly, he's giving away his position demanding that someone show themselves to him.
He finally finds Harvey and Harvey is juiced up on something. He quickly lets Batman know he is no longer Two-Face.
Quote
Two-face no longer, Batty Boy. YOU CAN CALL ME ONE-FACE NOW.
One-Face. One. Face. Is that what they called him before the accident? I just don't get it. He still has two sides. Maybe he's all bad now. Even though he's always been all bad as Two-Face. So maybe he's "badder" now. Or doesn't need his coin. I don't know.
Solid review. I like (and by like, I mean "WOW, that's horrible writing!") how Batman says "Whoever you are," but then immediately goes to "Two-Face." If he knew it was Two-Face already, why say "whoever you are"? That's right up there with the Catwoman " He knows where I live, when I'm not in costume, well enough that hearing a radio broadcast of a fire at my address he said to himself: `Hey. That's where Catwoman lives.' He must not know who I am." thing. Did DC decide to get rid of editors, or something?
Also, "Come out with your hands where we can see them???" Batman's worked a lot with the cops, sure, but now he not only acts like one of them, but their leader?
Also, "Come out with your hands where we can see them???" Batman's worked a lot with the cops, sure, but now he not only acts like one of them, but their leader?
Why did Bruce even go to Arkham? I didn't see any indication of something happening.
Well, Mythbusters proved the old James Bond stunt of wearing/swimming in a wet-suit then taking it off to reveal a perfect tuxedo underneath. It wasn't as wrinkled as you'd think it would be and it could pass muster at a party. But I see what you mean about the duffel bag though. Why not just change at the balcony he landed on via the zip line?
Two-Face, my favorite Bat villain.....looks as if he's been spending quality time with Bane. This is rubbish.
Two-Face, my favorite Bat villain.....looks as if he's been spending quality time with Bane. This is rubbish.
He's Bruce Wayne. He's not wearing even a semi wrinkled tux!
He's Bruce Wayne. He's patented a new technique of dry cleaning, guaranteed to keep your suits wrinkle-free in the largest of duffel bags and up to 7 stories high in flight. 
To be fair, a vacuum sealed suit bag would probably solve this issue. Also, Bruce Wayne's a playboy. Perhaps the slighest wrinkle to his suits is supposed to denote his bad boy side.
But whatever, awful writing in this comic. I'm not seriously going to defend it.
But whatever, awful writing in this comic. I'm not seriously going to defend it.
Yeah who cares about a wrinkled tuxedo when we got
One thing at a time Aaron
Well it's a good thing he's One-Face now so we can cover it twice as fast.
With a paper bag.
With a paper bag.
Ugh, #2 was just as bad.
I decided to pick it up to give them another shot. I don't like jumping the gun. Boy this story really does stink though.
I decided to pick it up to give them another shot. I don't like jumping the gun. Boy this story really does stink though.
I was done after that first issue. It sort of bothers me that the New 52 was considered a success. Most of the comics have been garbage. But the first issues sold well, so it's only a matter of time before there's some new version of this.
yea I think a lot of idiots like me bought all of them to see what was good.
Your entire review could've just been a picture of that and it would've been enough.