By Paul Dini, Peter Milligan, Dustin Nguyen & Derek Fridolfs (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-213-4
Award-winning animator and director Paul Dini once more proves that he’s the best Batman writer of the 21st century in another collection of his pure, modernistically refined and retro scripts, gathered from Detective Comics # 840-645 and DC Infinite Halloween Special #1. A consummate storyteller, Dini is also quite obviously a lover of the character in all aspects over nigh-on eight decades of stalking the scum of the Earth.
This volume, superbly illustrated by Dustin Nguyen & Derek Fridolfs, begins with an astounding resumption of the Caped Crusader’s mission after the cataclysmic events of Batman: The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul. As the Dark Knight hunts a new foe he seizes the chance to finally end the threat of the Demon’s Head forever, in the uncompromising chiller ‘The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul: Epilogue.’
‘The Wonderland Gang!’ sees a collection of Batman’s oldest foes unite as the most obvious team ever when Mad Hatter, Tweedledum & Tweedledee combine forces with the Lion, the Unicorn, the Walrus and the Carpenter to wreak excessive havoc for untold profit in the wealthy palaces of Gotham. Naturally, all is not as it seems…
Peter Milligan wrote ‘The Suit of Sorrows’ as the haunted armour Batman wore in the aforementioned Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul begins to exert a malicious influence over his actions. The struggle against the suit and the cult that crafted is a powerful parable of willpower over desire and acts as a prelude to the return of Azrael to the DC Universe – but not in this book…
Dini and some of his favourite heroes and villains return for ‘Opening Night’ as the Penguin, new Ventriloquist and malignant dummy Scarface cross swords with the Gotham Guardian and Zatanna; a complex and beguiling tale that ends in blood-soaked ‘Curtains’ for more than one player in the drama.
Catwoman and reformed consulting detective Edward Nigma go looking for answers as a mutilating murderer haunts the city’s mean streets and not even Batman’s newest weapon “the Heirs of Lupin†(an online community of DC sleuths including Detective Chimp and Oracle) can divine the true secret of ‘The Riddle Unanswered’.
This stellar confabulation ends with a vignette starring Zatanna in solo inaction taken from DC Infinite Halloween Special. ‘Kcirt Ro Taert’ is a spookily shocking shaggy dog story that ends this classy compendium on an unbeatable high note.
Howsoever short-term sales-stunts bend and twist the Batman mythos, the core elements of the character remain unimpeachable and Paul Dini always find a way to satisfactorily blend the contemporary with the classical. His tales of a renewed, determined and darkly benevolent crime-fighter look well set to finally overturn the Grim Sociopath image that has dogged Batman for too long…
These fresh, thrilling and compelling adventures will astonish long-time fans and casual browsers equally. This is the still best Batman in years. By the way if you’re thinking of settling for the softcover edition of this fine collection, be advised that the hardcover has secondary, different front and back covers under the regular and spectacular dust jacket reproduced above. I know how funny we Bat-fans can get if we think we’ve missed something…
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