Thursday, February 14, 2013

Batman #17

As I confessed when this "Death of the Family" series started, I didn't buy all the stories featuring the other members of the Batman family.

The only Bat-book I buy is this one, and while that's been sufficient to follow the story thread, by this final issue I do feel like I've missed out on some key events.

This doesn't bother me enough to make me track down the issues I missed - but it does take away from the effectiveness of the story.

Even at that, the conflict with the Joker has been well choreographed, with a proper mixture of action, adventure and horror (with a slice of humor here and there).

Getting past a few of the "when did that happen" moments, we get the final conflict, along with some clever revelations about both the Joker and how he sees Batman and Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl and the others.

It's always a bit of a trick, building moments that fit in between existing lore. The Court of the Owls story managed it with great success. This one seems to require a bit more suspension of disbelief than I can quite manage.

But it's still a solid story by Scott Snyder with excellent art by Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion - certainly a cut above the "New 52" average.

Grade: A-

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