Written by Peter J. TomasiArt by Christian Duce
Published by DC Comics
I’ll just start off by saying that someone needs to hire artist Christian Duce onto this title immediately. I’ve been loving the stories that writer Peter J. Tomasi has been putting out, but the artwork is really something to talk about. Its exciting and vibrant in a way I wasn’t expecting from the very beginning of this arc.
The opening pages has Bruce Wayne traveling through the jungle with Clarence and Hitoshi. They are on the move trying to keep away from a very violent Deadshot.
Suddenly, a shot is fired.
Bruce is already in camouflage. So, the three of them decide to fight back against Deadshot! It’s an electric opening scene and it only gets cooler from there!
Bruce helps free the prisoners from the plane crash.
And then, there is a dark moment. Bruce then chases Deadshot through the woods in a very exciting scene! The adrenaline is high in this sequence. Bruce is in a makeshift Batman costume and it’s quite fun.
The pacing and the storytelling are really fantastic in this scene.
Batman and Deadshot fight and it’s pretty damn brutal! It’s a great fight too and it really does deliver as a climatic moment in the issue. There is a splash page that ends the fight that may be my favorite splash page in any recent comic book. It’s really great.
The rest of the issue does have some talky scenes. It does however lead to a nice ending that relates itself to the Mr. Freeze story that Tomasi seems to be building to. I’m intrigued to see where he takes us from here. For now, this is another satisfying issue in a run by a solid and a bit underrated comic book writer.
RATING: A
