Gotham Adventures

Gotham Adventures 1-3,7,10-12

The reboot really gave the animated Batman comics a much needed jolt of energy.  There’s an amazing zip to Burchett’s art that makes every panel fun to read. The stories by Ty Templeton are also more inspired.  There’s a level of complexity that raises it a level above Batman and Robin Adventures.

Issue 1: The father of a Joker victim puts a 50 million dollar hit on the Clown Prince.  Batman and his team spend the issue keeping the Joker alive. Batman defuses the situation by plopping the Joker in front of the father, who can’t bring himself to pull the trigger.  Not the first time that ploy’s been used, but it’s well executed.

I’m generally not as much a fan of the reboot’s art style, but I do like what they did with the Riddler.  The bald head and dapper bowler is a great look on him.

This Joker is way less intimidating than the Batman Adventures version, but he’s pretty terrifying on this page:

Issue 2: A nice bit with Two-Face and his father, but the highlights are the action scenes.  The Batgirl re-design is really sweet, and Burchett draws the hell out of her in action. Her color scheme is also superior to the old one.  

That's an odd way to hold binoculars.  Great colors by Lee Loughridge.

Love that profile of Batgirl.

Issue 7: The initial Dagger story in Batman and Robin Adventure 14 was snooze-worthy, but this one adds a dimension I hadn’t seen before.  Tim Drake’s father’s reformed criminal partner discovers Robin’s secret identity.  Financial woes lead him to blackmail Tim, even though he’s genuinely concerned about Tim’s well-being.  When the Penguin gets involved, Dagger does the right thing and keeps the secret to himself. It’s a nice character study of Dagger, I liked the issue.  

Issue 11: An original take on the Riddler.  Realizing that he likes it when Batman solves his riddles, he starts using them to lead his nemesis to other criminals.  He views it as a win win win - Batman gets the bad guys, Riddler gets to practice his craft, and he avoids capture. Unfortunately for Mr Nygma, Batman still manages to locate him, leading to this new insight:

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good