Well, it’s very hard to figure out how to have Batman and other characters in two places at the same time. 
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True at least Without Bruce cloning himself…wait he tried that.
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So, Shadows of the Bat has concluded today! What do people think! I have some mixed feelings about the conclusion, particularly the House of Gotham backup story, but one thing I will say unreservedly - I was a bit hesitant on Amancay Nahuelpan’s art after the detail and power of Ivan Reis and the energy and appeal of Max Raynor, but in this issue, Nahuelpan did fantastic work! Really gorgeous stuff!
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Actually, the interesting thing i found about the two stories is Tobias Wear, both the scammer and the Lost ‘Batbro’ had the same name.
I will have to page through them to check out the art as I tend to focus more on the stories it tells.
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The ending of the backup story was a bit abrupt- felt like they just ran out of real estate. I enjoyed a lot of the earlier chapters though - cool seeing those different moments in Bat-lore.
The main story was quite strong. The basic storyline is pretty straightforward but the presentation added to it. The non-linear storytelling was intentionally disorienting and added to the suspense. I dunno how Nakano is still mayor though - dude makes Hamilton Hill look competent.
My favorite Batman story in some time, and it surprisingly didn’t have that much Batman. The action, the team interaction, the art (ooh the art). It almost felt like Die Hard with Gotham characters. Very entertaining all around. Tamaki’s run on Detective has been great. Her stories focus on a specific threat at a time, and are a breeze to read through. I look forward to what’s next, though I hope it doesn’t tie into Shadow War, because I do not intend to dig into that crossover.
The backup was great. I wish it didn’t end the way it did. It was very effective… left me with a lump in my throat (poor kid), but an ending where we got to see him actually try to make a difference would have been equally effective, in a hopeful way. Hope is good.
To me, the ending of House of Gotham, the backup, felt like it should have been a 2-3 part story, not a 12 part story. The last 4-6 parts seem to be totally pointless when it comes to the ending. So I don’t think it was necessarily abrupt so much as not well setup/executed. I am also pretty bummed that it didn’t connect to Shadows of the Bat by being the backstory of one of the players or somehow connected to what was happening in the present.
Main storyline was really, really fun. Really loved seeing the villains and the heros converging until the beginning of act 3, when they all collide. And this final issue was really fun. Some failures artistically in how the actual ending of issue 11 was tied up - they should have spent a bit more time showing how Koyuki actually did whatever it was that she did, and giving Huntress some actual resolution would be nice, given how much they focused on her in the story, but on the whole, really, really enjoyed this whole event.
@moro I thought Batman was used very well - sparingly, but when he arrived, he was awesome and well used.
The next three issues seem to be a Riddler story, so I don’t think they’ll tie into the Deathstroke crossover.
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I think it’s kind of the point though… story ends with “this is not your story; never was” or something along those lines. All that character went through, all the changes and hardship, all that he tried to do… and ends up dead in a sewer. The whole thing strikes me as a meta commentary on Batman/superhero stories in general. Their ability to affect actual change for the people they “protect” is questionable, but the stories never show us that because they focus on… well… what excites us as readers. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but that’s the message that was conveyed to me at least.
Agreed. He made a great entrance, and the art involving him in the last issue was 
.
Thank you. I could tell Riddler was involved from then last page or two, but good to know it’s not crossing over. Need to read up on the solicits!
That kind of ending is really only satisfying in a much, much shorter story. And if the point is that it’s not satisfying…well, I’m not satisfied, and Rosenberg can maybe be proud of that, but I think he should not be.
And if the message is that “superheros don’t save people”, well…who, exactly, is DC trying to sell comics to? If they want to sell comics to people who think Batman sucks (aka your average twitter rando), they should just go pay Ed Brubaker to write non-Batman comics. I think it’s pretty sucky to put that in a Batman comic. It’s not a nuanced message about the difficulties and messiness of life - it’s a shallow message about how life sucks and then you die.
Solicits are my monthly fun thing! Always read em!
Thank you for the chuckle. I think you just articulated why I don’t necessarily agree with the ending much better than I ever would have.
Still feel bad for the dude though.
I normally read the solicits. The “DC Universe is going to forever change” stuff turned off from ‘em a bit, but I always get back to ‘em. DC Connect is actually pretty cool.
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Very true! I don’t like “nothing will ever be the same again” stuff - because 1) it’s not true, and 2) what if I like how things are now?
One exception - if they actually let Batman be married to Catwoman in mainstream contiuity for a good 5-10 years. That would be a change I’d like to see.
But yeah. DC Connect is quite a cool little thing. I miss when DC was trying to do their own Wizard Magazine, though. That was a cool little venture. I collected all of those little guys.
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