STORY BY:Â Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens, ART BY:Â Andy McDonald
COVER BY:Â Ryan Sook
PUBLISHER:Â DC Comics
COVER PRICE:$2.99
RELEASE DATE:Â Mar 25th, 2015
What would DC do without Batman?
Seriously, I am not asking a rhetorical question. The universe abhors a vacuum and having a Batman die last issue, means that had to be rectified. I mean who else was going to save the whole universe and reset time?
That’s right…. Batman!
From the start, this has been a Batman story. He was there at the start, sending back McGinnis to stop Wayne and Mr Terrific from switching on Brother Eye. That he failed, caused the sort of character crossover that any major summer event would be proud of.
This penultimate chapter has long term partners in crime, Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire, Dan Jurgens and Keith Giffen. Â These writers carry a lot of experience from different books and era’s. Â I for one still love Griffin’s work on Justice League with J.M. DeMatteis. Jurgen’s run, whilst maybe not hitting the high point of the earlier isses, went a long way to solidify DC’s team book. Azzarello and Lemire could be seen as architects of the nu52 with their work on Wonder Woman and Green Arrow respectively. With four writers on board, it’s hard to “feel” any of their individual elements or styles. That said it’s to their credit that this series has moved along at a consistent pace.
The same can’t be said about the art.  This issue is clearly a book of differing styles across Andy MacDonald, Alberto Ponticelli and Allan Goldman. The first half is  less detailed, with figures not wholly defined, this kinda merges into Dustin Nguyen before moving into a more sculpted look. I personally prefer the art towards the back of the book, not saying the preceding pages are bad, it’s just the jump from one to the other is jarring.
This book leads into next weeks, finale and therefore, you would assume, into the Batman Beyond book slated for publication after Convergence, along with a new creative team and new direction. It seems that DC feel there is still life in the Beyond series, as it moves away from it’s DCAU origins and ties.
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Author Profile
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I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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