[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers!]
Writer: Tom King
Pencils: Lee Weeks and Jorge Fornes
Summary
As a murder is committed on the rooftops of Gotham, Batman is there to witness it! Immediately chasing after the murderer, a chase begins across the rooftops of the city! Can Batman stop this masked man? And once he does– just who is he under the mask?
Positives
It seems that Batman is still trapped in the regions of his own mind in this latest issue of Batman. Being the witness to a murder on the rooftops, Batman descends down from the shadows to catch the murderer. This masked man then jumps off the rooftop, grabbing a power line and proceeds to run across the rooftops. The Batman is in intense pursuit as well, attempting every trick possible to catch the criminal. Throughout the nightly run between the two men, there’s a repeating beeping noise, almost as if a cell phone is going off in the criminal’s pocket. I’m thinking that since this is all in Batman’s mind, that there must be some sort of significance behind it–however I’m not sure.
Negatives
The book itself starts out on a high note, but after a few pages it just falls kind of flat. With everything that Batman has experienced in each one of these dream sequences, I would’ve expected more than just a chase between Batman and a criminal. The unmasking of the criminal wasn’t all that surprising either as I found myself actually happy that the chase was over. I expect that the constant beeping I mentioned earlier coming from the murderer’s pocket is something crucial, and maybe that’s why King made it so prevalent throughout the issue. However, there was no further reference made to it at all, but maybe the next issue will answer that.
Verdict
Honestly I found Batman #67 quite an interesting read, but not in a good way. It builds your hopes up at the start with a promising beginning, however as the issue continues you really just want the chase to be over with. Although we know it’s all in Batman’s mind, I thought King would give us more substance, or at least a little more weirdness in this issue like the previous ones. The encounter with Pyg, the interrogation of Catwoman, and other sequences in previous issues were great, but this issue when compared to those just falls flat.
