"What? Never seen a magical cat boi before?"

No Kyle, and I kinda wish I didn't.

This started off fairly strong as a Gothic horror story, with Batman investigating a series of child kidnappings and near an old Court of Owls labyrinth haunted with half-melted Talon zombies (pretty fitting for a book called Neo-Gothic). But then the book pivots to being all about new character, "Kyle Selinas the Cat Boy." On his own, Kyle's an interesting addition to the Batman Beyond cast. He starts out as one of Batman's new informants, and it's fun to see him and Terry bond over their troubled pasts as kids in juvie. But Kyle's origin as John Constantine's betrayed protege adds more complexity than the character needed.

It also feels very out of character for John Constantine. John's always been a jerk, but never to those who didn't deserve it. I'm not opposed to a heel turn like this, but I needed to see more about how Constatine developed a villainous streak for it to feel genuine and not just a twist to raise the stakes of the story. What sucks is that there actually *was* room to do this, but the author decided half way through the story to throw every crazy idea he's ever had into the book, destroying the pacing and any hope of giving a personal betrayal like this the depth it deserved. I don't blame anyone for taking such big swings like this, but this book is a mess, and I have no intention of reading it ever again.