Sometimes, your bag of popcorn gets some burnt kernels.
We are still brand new into this run on BATMAN, and I’ve enjoyed the previous two issues. This one…meh, with a splash of “alright”.
Writer Matt Fraction has thus far lived up to his word on the “superhero” aspect of Batman, delivering a little brighter, bigger, and funner (technical term) Caped Crusader rather than a Dark Knight.
More popcorn entertainment.
And that’s OK. I’ve compared it to getting BATMAN FOREVER instead of THE DARK KNIGHT. Different styles, but still Batman.
In BATMAN #3, we remain connected to a major incident from the first two issues. And I dig that. There’s also some crooked cops, a bad police commissioner, a Batsignal (with a twist), and a Batmobile. These are definitely the strengths of this issue, and brought out the best in Fraction.
While I can get behind that, the writer did some things in this issue that had me eye-rolling, scratching my head, and literally saying out loud, “What?”
My biggest complaint, and what took me out of this issue often, seemed to be a few varying subplots that were meandering and disjointed. Bruce’s visit with Tim felt too mushy. Damian’s last blow while training with Bruce felt like it was fishing for a laugh from teenagers. The TV appearance with this new doctor and her device was complicated for the sake of complication, and was just clunky. And while I’m always excited seeing a certain member of the Rogues Gallery, I thought his scene was written poorly, not to mention Batman’s suit was hideous.
I’m not usually one to throw criticisms towards artist Jorge Jiménez, and that won’t change here (aside from the aforementioned suit). His settings are fun, his characters are defined, and there’s action in his panels. He’s starting to have instantly-identifiable art, and I say that with a positive tone. I’m digging Jiménez on this book.
Overall, it’s just one issue. While there are good things here, I can’t shake that it has equally as much clunkiness to it, creating a disjointed, mixed bag of popcorn. However, there’s still enough buttery pieces to get me back for another bag next month. – Ryan Lower