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james_desantis 's review for:
Batman Vol. 1: Their Dark Designs
by James Tynion IV
I'll be honest I was unsure about this run. A couple of reasons.
1) It came right off Tom King's run, which is either loved or hated by many (I loved 75-80% of it). And King was SUPPOSED to have 100 issues but they cut him short at 85.
2) James Tynion IV is a very solid writer but he's also big into the indie scene now and worried he would get stretched to thin here.
3) James Was only supposed to be on till Issue 100. of course things changed, and the wildly successful Joker's War and Punchline character made DC decide to let Tynion continue his run. But that wasn't always the case and was worried this would be filler.
But soon after I finished around issue 2 or 3 I was sucked into Tynion twisty twisty detective feel storyline. This is a lot of twist and turns, a lot of backstabbing, a lot of setting up a old villain who might be a new villain, while also setting up Joker War, while feeling like this is the part 1 of that and yet still feeling self contained. Tynion is not new to juggling A LOT on his plate, but what he's getting better and better at is pacing and dialogue. Luckily, he strikes mostly gold here.
Batman starts off taking out Deathstroke and the rest of these Mercs. However, soon into doing this he realizes something is wrong. Someone is playing them all. The Designer? No not the singer. This is a villain who is trying to strike Batman behind his back while also taking care of Harley and Catwoman. Can Bruce juggle this all, while losing his dad-like figure (Alfred) just recently?
James does a ton of great work with Harley here. I for one am NOT a fan of her in comics for the most part. Maybe besides when Tom Taylor writes her. But Tynion does a great job of pushing her redemption arc along while giving her real character growth. I love Bruce struggle to prove he can save the people of this city while also mourning. The feel for Catwoman as she has to lie to the man she loves is great. All of this works well.
Also the art...fan-fucking-tastic. The fights are fast, brutal, and wonderful to view. I love everyone's design, the style it has it going, just makes everything look and run smooth. The way they design batman getting bruised and beaten up is so cool. I loved seeing that and felt his desperation.
I honestly REALLY enjoyed this arc. Sure the payoff is to be expected of who it is. I mean the next arc is incoming. And the first issue was just decent. But when it got going, I was 100% into it. I loved learning more about the mercs at the end of the volume too.
I highly recommend this for Batman fans who want a little something different from King's run. This is more traditional detective batman saving the day, but I had a blast reading it. A 4.5 out of 5.
1) It came right off Tom King's run, which is either loved or hated by many (I loved 75-80% of it). And King was SUPPOSED to have 100 issues but they cut him short at 85.
2) James Tynion IV is a very solid writer but he's also big into the indie scene now and worried he would get stretched to thin here.
3) James Was only supposed to be on till Issue 100. of course things changed, and the wildly successful Joker's War and Punchline character made DC decide to let Tynion continue his run. But that wasn't always the case and was worried this would be filler.
But soon after I finished around issue 2 or 3 I was sucked into Tynion twisty twisty detective feel storyline. This is a lot of twist and turns, a lot of backstabbing, a lot of setting up a old villain who might be a new villain, while also setting up Joker War, while feeling like this is the part 1 of that and yet still feeling self contained. Tynion is not new to juggling A LOT on his plate, but what he's getting better and better at is pacing and dialogue. Luckily, he strikes mostly gold here.
Batman starts off taking out Deathstroke and the rest of these Mercs. However, soon into doing this he realizes something is wrong. Someone is playing them all. The Designer? No not the singer. This is a villain who is trying to strike Batman behind his back while also taking care of Harley and Catwoman. Can Bruce juggle this all, while losing his dad-like figure (Alfred) just recently?
James does a ton of great work with Harley here. I for one am NOT a fan of her in comics for the most part. Maybe besides when Tom Taylor writes her. But Tynion does a great job of pushing her redemption arc along while giving her real character growth. I love Bruce struggle to prove he can save the people of this city while also mourning. The feel for Catwoman as she has to lie to the man she loves is great. All of this works well.
Also the art...fan-fucking-tastic. The fights are fast, brutal, and wonderful to view. I love everyone's design, the style it has it going, just makes everything look and run smooth. The way they design batman getting bruised and beaten up is so cool. I loved seeing that and felt his desperation.
I honestly REALLY enjoyed this arc. Sure the payoff is to be expected of who it is. I mean the next arc is incoming. And the first issue was just decent. But when it got going, I was 100% into it. I loved learning more about the mercs at the end of the volume too.
I highly recommend this for Batman fans who want a little something different from King's run. This is more traditional detective batman saving the day, but I had a blast reading it. A 4.5 out of 5.