First off I’d like to introduce myself, my name is Michael Bordo and I am one of the newer reviewers to this great site. So enough of that lets get to the reason your reading this the review of Batwing issue 31!
SYONPSIS:
Batwing #31 “Into the Dark” starts off right where issue 30 left us, with our hero fighting in what can only be described as the 7 rings of hell that is the Gotham Underground . Batwing aka Luke Fox is battling Russel Tavoroff (a bullied kid Luke tried to help during Zero Year), the one responsible for turning his sister Tayna into a vegetable and kidnapping his youngest sister Tamara. We see  Batwing and Russel battling it out all through the Underground with Batwing even getting the upper hand once or twice. While all this is happening, in another part of the Underground we see that Tamara is fine but coming up with a plan to escape her captivity.
Russel’s lackey is none other than The Rat Catcher and he is the one guarding Tamara. The little girl being a daughter of Lucius Fox she’s bright so calling in The Rat Catcher and telling him she has to go pee where instead planning her escape weather she does or not has yet to be seen. In the other part of the Underground the battle is coming to a close with Batwing getting the drop on Russel and kicking him into the water pit to be devoured by a giant mutant fish, only to be shown in the final panel as being alive!
POSITIVES:
- For me personally I like this book as a series, I like the fact that the hero is Lucius Fox’s son using his dad’s tech to be apart of Batman Inc. But that being said, there really wasn’t anything positive about this issue so I’m just going to jump right into the negatives.
NEGATIVES:
- First off lets talk about the villain Russel, he’s a mix between Bane and Frankenstein but much, much bigger! In some panels he is drawn so huge that he looks like he could give Superman a run for his money. So for a newbie like Luke it’s almost impossible for him to take down Russel by himself. Which brings me to my next point.
- Where’s Batman? This is Lucius Fox’s family, the guy that makes all of the cool Batman toys and he is no where to be seen. Lucius’ wife even makes the comment “Where is Bruce Wayne, Where is Batman?” It just seems stupid to me not having Batman involved at all, not speaking to Luke telling him what to do nothing!
- My next problem is with the dialogue, all of a sudden both Luke and Lucius are praying to God for help. Now I have nothing against that but never before have I read any Bat Family character pray to God except for Azreal. Why isn’t Lucius on the phone with Bruce demanding him to help find his family? I just do not understand it.
VERDICT:
- It really pains me to say this but skip this issue, unless you’re like me who is already involved in this story arc just skip it. But I do want to stress that I like this series a lot and will continue to buy and read it, because I have faith that Justin Gary will put Batwing where he belongs and that’s fighting “B” maybe even “A” class villains. He did hold his own against Lady Shiva. So my verdict is to don’t buy this issue maybe read it at the comic store and hopefully my next review of Batwing won’t be so harsh.
Rating:
