**You can see this full review and more at Book Briefs: https://bookbriefs.net**Batman is the second book in the DC Icons series. Each of the books in the DC Icons series is written by a different author, and it features the origin story of some of the biggest superheroes (and villains) in the DC universe. I am such a huge fan of all things DC and Marvel and I love origin stories, so this series was made for me. I still need to read the first book, Wonder Woman. Now that I have read and enjoyed Batman so much, I know that Wonder Woman will be coming up on my TBR pile shortly. Batman was everything I wanted it to be. It was fun and it was really cool to see a younger, and super nice Bruce Wayne.

I have a bit of a confession to make. Batman is my first Marie Lu book. Yes, I know! Please don't throw tomatoes or rocks. I have a bunch of her books, but I haven't read any of them. But fear not! That will all be changing soon because Marie Lu pulled me right into Gotham and held my attention until the very last page. I love Bruce Wayne. He is such a good guy. And you all know how much I love a good guy. It takes a lot for a bad boy to win me over (unless they have marshmallow for their insides) but Bruce is good through and through. He just has this internal urge to save people, which you can tell right from his first scene. I have never read the Batman comics, but I have seen the movies and tv shows centering around this icon so I do know enough about his world to have some expectations going in. And Marie Lu did not disappoint. I loved the exploration of all the Wayne Industries safety tech, and I loved that we got to see some familiar faces to the batman world. Of course we got to see Alfred, and we also got to see Harvey Dent as one of Bruce's best friends. 

But other than Bruce himself, my favorite character in the book was Madeleine. She intrigued me right from the very start. The first scene of the book is actually from her point of view, and she is one interesting girl. Bruce meets her at Arkham Asylum, where he is doing community service. Let me tell you, Madeleine is brilliantly creepy. That girl is always thinking. I loved her, as long as I am not on her bad side. She made the story extra interesting for me. 

Overall, Batman delivered everything I wanted. I got to learn more about Bruce Wayne. I loved Marie Lu's depiction of him, and I loved her rendering of Gotham. This was a book that I easily lost myself in. It had great characters and was an overall great time. Fans of superheroes books and of origin stories do not want to miss this one. Check out the DC Icons series if you have not already. Two books have already been released (Wonderwoman and Batman) and up next is Catwoman: Soul stealer by Sarah J. Maas!

This review was originally posted on Book Briefs