Review: Batman The Knight #5

by Carl Bryan
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Review: Batman The Knight #5

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writer: Chip Zdarsky

Artist: Carmine Di Giandomenico

Colors:   Ivan Plascencia

Letters: Pat Brosseau

Reviewed by: Carl Bryan

Summary

“Well young man…I think you are ready for the masks.”Avery Oblonsky to Bruce Wayne

Batman The Knight #5 -Young Bruce Wayne’s global journey to become the Dark Knight continues as he finds himself deep in the heart of Moscow searching for Avery Oblonsky, the world’s foremost expert in disguise and espionage!
Finding this phantom will prove more difficult than expected, but is Bruce willing to die trying?
Superstar writer Chip Zdarsky (Daredevil) and acclaimed artist Carmine Di Giandomenico (The Flash) will take Bruce Wayne on a fraught journey, making allies and enemies, on his training to become Batman in this definitive new series!

Positives

Chip Zdarksky continues where writers like Tom Taylor provided us a glimpse of Bruce’s past in Batman: The Detective as Bruce did not become Batman overnight.  Issue #5 has Bruce competing with a rival Anton in order to gain more training on the art of deception, masks, and imitation from Avery Oblonsky, the world’s foremost expert in disguise and espionage!

From torture in a jail cell to an elaborate cocktail party heist, Bruce stumbles and fumbles his way in learning the ways of deception.  It is refreshing how Zdarksky provides the resume builders for Batman’s eventual skill set.  This road of knowing where he acquired what in his tool belt allows the reading of say, Batman: Killing Time, to be even better as The Help provides a bit of history there as well.

You have to admire all the current Batman authors in having a page or two or thirty devoted to how Bruce became Batman!  It was more than Crime Alley!

Carmine Di Giandomenico paints an interesting picture again with Bruce being tortured, but also in Anton’s all-or-nothing competition to one-up Bruce.  Steel sharpens steel so to speak, and it even provides a glimpse of how far Bruce may go to best an opponent.  This issue provides a glimpse into how far Bruce may go to explore sexuality as a weapon no matter the gender.

Negatives  

Chip Zdarksky really has this book firing on all pistons.  I cannot argue with Bruce’s fumbling and his feeble attempts at times to rush solving a case.  While we never can question Bruce’s moral thermometer,  he seems to really tests himself in this issue!

Verdict

I like seeing an unconfident Bruce.  I like seeing the mistakes, the apprehension, and the “unsureness” as this book accentuates his journey.  Somehow we now see Bruce through a crotchety lense where he is incapable of indicating he is wrong or even making the slightest mistake.  It’s refreshing to see how Bruce gets to become The World’s Greatest Detective!


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