Written by Scott Peterson
Illustrated by Kelley Jones
Published by DC Comics
This whole series feels like it was put together because Kelley Jones wanted to draw a Batman title.
And maybe it was!
I used to love the work of Kelley Jones. Then I discovered Bernie Wrightson and I wasn’t as hot on it. It was still good, but it felt like a magician revealed his tricks to me and I couldn’t go back.
That being said, this series isn’t half bad.
The art is better than most of his work in the past 20 or so years. And to be perfectly honest, the writing is very good. Scott Peterson is very talented and his writing grounds the art well.
It starts off with a scene of the Joker being nuts and then Batman comes in to stop him. And he does. In a cool twist, Batman throws the Joker into the back seat of the Batmobile.
The two go on a nightmare fueled ride to Arkham Asylum. Jones does a decent enough job here gathering tension for the reader. It is very suspenseful.
We get to the Asylum and something crazy happens.
The Scarecrow has organized the inmates of Arkham to stage a riot while Batman is there. It’s turns not just into a physical challenge for Bruce but a psychological one as well.
It’s all very fast paced and it definitely kept my interest.
The script by Peterson is especially good. I’ll be reading it to see where it goes. The ending was just nuts enough to make me smile.
RATING: B
