Batman-4

Wow, I was not expecting that.

Batman #4 by Tom King and David Finch was the darkest issue of the series to date, by a wide margin. It’s as if blood was a supporting character in the issue. Throw in some severed limbs, a decapitation, broken necks and explosions and you get the idea of the carnage contained in these pages. Finch’s pencils shone brightly indeed on these pages.

The issue doesn’t pick up immediately following the events of issue #3, and the readers are thrust into the aforementioned carnage. Batman is surrounded by 27 dead soldiers, killed by someone with “Superman-level powers.” Off to the side is Gotham Girl, sobbing, only able to say how scared she is.

Meanwhile, Gotham is atop a building, trying to convince a man not to commit suicide. Things didn’t go according to Hoyle and the man utters a phrase oft-repeated in this series, “the Monster Men are coming” before pressing a detonator and blowing up everyone on top of the building.

Overcome by grief, Gotham sets out to fix his city, starting with a damaged bridge. Batman tells him that his actions won’t fix things, but instead make them worse. The pair converse, and when Batman mentions the bodies of 27 dead men, Gotham freaks out and flies off. We find out later how important that last man was, and how he added another level of symmetry to their origins.

The violence, which was graphic at times, didn’t detract from the issue at all. In fact, it might just be my favourite issue of the series yet. For an issue so dark in tone and content, there were still a few bright spots. The biggest was easily Batman’s encounter with General Lane in Amanda Waller’s office. For an old-school fan, it was almost as satisfying as Batman’s encounter with Guy Gardner back in Justice League #5 almost 30 years ago.

The final two pages of the issue were perfect, both for shock value and building anticipation for what’s to come. Right now, there’s no series I look more forward to the next issue of than this one. It really is THAT good.

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