Look, this is the part where I rant about how badly the delays have been hurting this series, forcing me to look up previous issues multiple times to remember who most of these characters were outside of Batman and Alfred. But at this point, everybody knows about the delays, and most people are probably going to read this series as part of a collection anyway. So, I’ll just deduct a point for the three-month delay and get right to it.

Leonardo Ito’s Colors Do a Lot of Heavy Lifting

If there is one thing about this series that has been constantly worthy of praise, it's the coloring. I’ve been a fan of Leonardo Ito since the start of Batman ‘89, and he has continued to deliver on this title as well. I particularly admire the little touches, like Dr. Quinzel’s face occasionally lit up by the red light of the police siren or Bruce recoiling at the sight of the Batsuit as a residual effect of Crane’s fear toxin.

Also, I have to admit, as a fan of the original Justice League International run, I adore goofy facial expressions. I should also admit that I’m not 100% sure most of the facial expressions in this comic were meant to be seen as goofy. It makes me feel like I’m watching someone put on a theatrical play or a musical. (Now all we need is for Harley to break into song).

Oops, that back-handed compliment might be me stalling about the issues of this issue. Well, no point dancing around it anymore.

This Plot is More Stuffed Than an Overenthusiastic First Attempt at Making Thanksgiving Dinner

Look, I get wanting to tell a story that you had thought of. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it's important to remember that this is a visual medium. If the reader has to stop to read lines of exposition, that’s just as bad as if the script of a movie had a scene where everyone stops what they were doing and stands around while the narrator explains what’s going on.

So yeah, this is my way of saying that having a scene where Crane tries to sell his gas to, well, the ‘bad guys,’ which also doubles down as a page of exposition, wasn’t very fun. Honestly, at this point, I couldn’t bring myself to care about Kashif (and neither did you since you had to look up who that was when his name came up) or what the endgame of the whole story is. I mean, at the end of the day, it is a “Batman stops the Scarecrow from spreading his fear gas plot” with a few additional bells and whistles.

The Harley subplot is better if slightly predictable. A woman trying to make her way through a male-dominated landscape is backstabbed by those men and decides to put on a costume to get revenge — yeah, that’s pretty much in line with the movies. The fact that it is the most relevant piece of social commentary this book has managed to do shows how little the world has changed since Batman Returns in that regard.

However, that’s the only bit of praise I can provide for the plot, as it misuses every opportunity it has to do something interesting. Bruce spends most of his time out of the costume (I wonder if this could be a WB mandate, but that’s just a guess), Barbara could be written out of the plot and we’d lose nothing, Maynard is needlessly opaque while helping Bruce (also you needed to look back to see who that was too), and Alfred seems to be here to be the comic relief. Even Drake is just there, though admittedly, he fares slightly better. 

Finally, let’s talk about the structure of the comic. Namely, it's structured less like a comic and more like a movie or TV show, and it employs jarring cuts from scene to scene. What’s worse is that each page is stuffed with dialogue that doesn’t let you breathe. Then, when you get a few panels where the art is allowed to breathe, we get bizarre sequential storytelling.

So, with all these issues, it shouldn’t come as a shock as to why I’m deducting a point for the constant delays.

Recommended If

• You remembered this thing existed.

Overall

This issue — and this series at this point — reeks of a contractual obligation needing to be fulfilled by both parties. Maybe the whole thing will read better as a trade, but for now, I struggle to recommend it to even die-hard Keaton fans.

Score: 3/10

Disclaimer: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purpose of review.