Ray: Phillip Kennedy Johnson has shifted gears for his second arc on this title, after doing a year-long thriller about the supernatural Memento killer. He’s also managed to redefine Batman and Robin’s relationship, as Bruce is committing to being a better father to Damian in their civilian guises as well. That included taking the night off to see a movie. There’s just one problem – once they were safely inside the theater, off-duty, the Iceberg Lounge was assaulted by a mysterious gunman, devastating the place and destroying much of Oswald Cobblepot’s financial holdings. The Penguin is now out for revenge – and that means a gang war is just about to break out in Gotham. And even scarier, it wasn’t a supervillain who did it. It was an ordinary man, nicknamed The Quiet Man for his soft-spoken nature and his incredibly brutal assaults on his targets.

The best way I can describe this guy is that he feels like a Coen Brothers character stuck in a John Wick movie, and he’s not happy. We know all we need to know about him right now – he’s a ruthless hitman who just got out of prison after a long stay, and he has only one thing on his mind – revenge. His son died at some point, and he’s still grieving – and wants nothing more than to send everyone responsible to their grave with him. That includes Penguin and Two-Face, both of which are on the alert, but neither are his target. The identity of the man he’s after is unexpected, and it seems like they’re not only not on the lookout – but potentially reformed. That’s a great wrinkle to a story about revenge. Overall, this issue wasn’t quite as electric as the last one which introduced the character, but when you have a villain this good, it goes a long way towards making every story extremely compelling.

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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes

Source: geekdad.com