Review: Batman: Sins of the Father #1

Now we are finally seeing the shakeout of the post-Convergence world that DC promised us. Creative teams are now getting to pull characters apart and examine not only what makes them work, but why we love them. Well, it is true if the character you want to look at is Batman. We“ve gotten the evil Batmans of the Dark Nights. The crazy Batman of White Knight is beginning to fight his way back. Now we have the guilt-ridden Batman, who is trying to find redemption.

This version of the caped crusader is based on the video games Batman: The Telltale Secrets. (Full disclosure, I“m not a big video game person and have never played these games.) Christos Gage and Raffaele Ienco are looking at a young Batman who is turning the corner on organized crime in Gotham and beginning to gain the appreciation of the police.

However, Bruce Wayne is being handicapped in his war on crime by an unexpected shortage of liquid capital. Recently it was exposed that his father, Thomas Wayne, built the fortunes of Wayne Industries by torturing people with experimental drugs and locking the crazed survivors in Arkham Asylum. Now the families of those who lost their lives and minds are demanding restitution. That may destroy the Wayne corporate empire.

The company board is all for denying everything and shifting the blame to the deceased Thomas Wayne as a tactic to shield it from any responsibility. Bruce wants to find a way to bring the families justice that will allow Wayne Industries to grow and fund the Wayne Foundation to continue their charity work.

The board is giving Bruce enough rope to hang himself. The Zucco and Bertinelli crime families are out to take down Batman before he can stop them from consolidating after the Falcone family take down. And is seems that some of the families harmed by his father have hired Deadshot to take out Wayne.

This is a lot to introduce in one issue, especially, if you haven“t played the games. Gage (Avengers Academy, Ninjak, Amazing Spider-Man) does an amazing job of balancing all of these elements and delivering a number of action pieces. There are times when you are digesting a lot of information, but it doesn“t feel like you are wading through pages of info dumps. He works all the background in naturally to the plot while propelling the story forward.

But the real star of this book is Ienco. Ienco has a lush and vibrant style that I loved in his Mechanism and Symmetry books. I have been waiting to see what he would do with a big name character and he does not disappoint here. His version of the Batman costume relies heavily on the video game, but he twists it to make it his own.

He pays attention to the details and that gives everything such an incredible feel. His clothes look and flow like cloth on real bodies. He mixes his high above panels with reverse direction from below and this gives extra impact when he chooses to switch to close-ups. He keeps even usually boring scenes like corporate boardrooms from being static.

This book is a must buy. If you haven“t added it to your pull lists pick up this first issue and you will be convinced. One of the best things about these limited Batman stories is that even if you haven“t bothered with the character in the past or find the Bat-family drama too confusing, these stories drop all of that away and focus on what is important to the character.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer: Christos Gage
Artist: Raffaele Ienco
Colorist: Guy Major
Letters: Josh Reed

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Andy Hall

Sent from the future by our Robot Ape overlords to preserve the timeline. Reading and writing about comics until the revolution comes. All hail the Orangutan Android Solar King!