Ray: One of the wildest things about this title is that Hayden Sherman has been doing two top-tier monthly books for the last year, drawing the majority of the phenomenal Absolute Wonder Woman at the same time as this densely plotted Bat-mystery. After eleven issues of a rookie Batman sifting through Gotham’s most bizarre cases, he’s discovered that one of his few allies has actually been the architect of his possible demise – the reporter Nicky Harris, who played a key role in pointing Batman towards many of his clues. But Harris has been there since the start, digging through Gotham’s darkest moments – and he’s decided that the city needs to be wiped clean. Having captured the mysterious Dr. Sereika, he’s kicked off the next great Gotham fire – complete with firebombs scattered around the city to ensure things truly get wiped clean just like in the great fires of history.

As such, this is a more fast-paced finale than any other arc of this series, with the villain unmasked and Batman racing against time to save his ally, capture the villain, and put out the fire before all of Gotham is consumed. Any lag in the momentum of the story now that everything is out in the open is more than made up for by how haunting the art is – no one draws fire and destruction like Hayden Sherman. There are some really interesting bits in this issue that hint towards there being something otherworldly involved here, with multiple eyewitnesses reporting Batman doing something impossible that even he doesn’t believe. The villain’s ultimate fate is sudden and surprisingly karmic, and while this story is just one small chapter in Batman’s complex career in Gotham, this feels like a story that’s going to be something DC needs more of – an evergreen title that will be a mainstay on bookstore shelves for years.

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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes

Source: geekdad.com