Don't really feel like writing a large review for this one so I'm going to keep it brief. It feels like a movie sequel and that's a good thing and a bad thing. The art team from the previous volume continues to be flat out awesome (don't you dare tell me Batman choke-holding a lion isn't awesome). The story itself though is where this volume falls flat (hence the comparison to movie sequels). Snyder's young snarky Batman is still a joy to read. The new origin for the Gordon/Batman dynamic has potential (I like that Bruce thinks Gordon is just another corrupt cop), but the way these two start to trust each other is contrived and rushed. In fact, that pretty much sums up my feelings about this book. The character relationships and symbolism feel rushed and the way characters escape death/execute plans feels super contrived and logic defying, even by the book's standards.

Random tangent: I also think that while Dr. Death *looks* cool, he's not a very interesting antagonist and I didn't miss him when his character exited the plot. Riddler is *miles* better, and while his masterplan is pretty contrived as well, Snyder's overly long monologues fit the character perfectly. This is hands down my favorite Riddler story.

So yeah, it's a like a movie sequel. If you liked the previous one then there's at least some stuff here for you to like, but the sequel bit off way more than it could handle and ended up being an inferior product.