Chaos in Gotham If ever a Batman crossover was guilty of overextending into too many titles, War Games is it. It is an ironic paradox that the massive length of this storyline is both a strength and a weakness of it. On the positive side, it allows for an in depth presentation of events and characters, thus making them more realistic and relatable. It also convincingly illustrates the extent and duration of the utter chaos and maddening confusion that is occurring, and in the process allows the reader to somewhat experience this themselves. On the negative side, there are excessive extraneous events included that just drag the story out and dilute its' overall quality. The premise and many of its' subtexts are solid, but they needed to focus on the most relevant and compelling ones and, with some effective editing, eliminate the others, especially some of the unnecessary fight scenes that quickly became redundant. In numerous ways, this is Spoiler's story. During its' course, I was introduced to and developed a compassion for her, and was touched by the tragic ending. It also catapulted Black Mask to center stage, where he continued his much warranted rise into the upper echelons of Batvillains. While this series exemplified the impressive results that can be achieved with a Batman crossover, it regrettably also demonstrated many of the inherent flaws that the format does have.
Good for catch up! I was out of comics for a while, and picked this series up in Graphic Novel form, great way to catch up!
Graphic SF Reader This is pretty good. Batman's paranoia is revealed to indirectly cause a large problem. All the usual suspects are running around, except for Robin. A gangland bloodbath of the highest order is happening. The artwork is perhaps a little erratic in style, to be top of the line, however.
Hold on there I was never initially a Batman fan and have always been skeptical of the overall basis of his becoming, but seeing a volume with the entire batfamily gave me the impression that it might actually be a worth reading. Buying this was one of the better decisions I've ever made. It updated me in the recent happenings in the Batman universe and left me wanting for more. Although the relationships between all of them seemed to be awkward and stiff, you can plainly see the emotions expressed by each character as they desperately run around Gotham, trying to reassemble order (most especially Oracle, who is left completely frustrated by her screens). A must-have for any Batman, Robin, Birds of Prey, or Nightwing fans out there.
Disappointing I am really disappointed with this serie of Batman War. You don't have the thrill of the writing of a Jeph Loeb or a Greg Rucka. You see Batman endlessly running from one point of the city to another with a lot of cross over characters. This is confusion not a tale. It seems the authors want to place as much characters as possible in this serie just for commercial reasons. Also it reminds me of the No Man's Land period in worse. These books are to be avoided.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
