Batman the Dark Knight #21

Batman the Dark Knight #21 is finally the end of the way to long Mad Hatter storyline.  Batman’s girlfriend died in the previous issue.   So for some reason Batman wants vengeance for her death and believes that Mad Hatter had something to do with the death.  So we see Batman “go crazy” he hunts down and beats up the Mad Hatter. Unfortunately this is not Frank Miller’s Dark Knight.  I have to say that nothing in this story needed to be covered over so many issues of the comic.  Not only was the story not original but it ended up as not mattering since the comic re-set in the last pane of the comic.  Anyway I hope no one else wasted their money on this comic the last few issues.

Batman the Dark Knight Annual #1

Batman the Dark Knight Annual #1 – I have seen that often annuals are afterthought comics with stories squeezed into the schedule of a regular comic production schedule.  Sometimes this results in really crappy and painful to read comic books.  Other times an annual is an epic story full of comic world shaking events that change the comic book universe as we know it.  Then there is this comic and it is neither as it is a good story.  The Mad Hatter, the Penguin and the Scarecrow are invited to a home with the promise of an intriguing business proposal.  The usual suspects show up at the location and find out that they were invited into a trap; it also turns out the location chosen was the Arkham youth facility now long closed down.  Oh and it is Halloween Night – the night of trick and treating.  We then get to watch the three villains minds go wild with fears of the Batman gone crazy again and out to get them.  This leads to all sorts of interesting actions.  But in the end it turns out that the Batman just wanted one night that did not require him to run around in costume.  I was amused and entertained.

Batman the Dark Knight #20!!

Batman the Dark Knight #20 ugh that was terrible.  The artwork was bleak and stark it would have been kind of cool and stylish but instead it just looked like a lazy artist not able to make one person look different from the other.  Then we are still dealing with the Mad Hatter unable to deal with the fact he had a bad high school.  The police and Batman are still unable to figure out where all the dead people floating in the river (or ocean or sewers) came from.  This despite Batman is able to have Alfred hack into top secret government files in just a few hours yet for some reason he can’t figure out where all the people died.  It is just so lame.  Frankly the big finally is lame I mean seriously lame and well frankly the bleak artwork foreshadowed the event that I was more disappointed that the creative team stretched out the torture and abuse of a woman so long.  The people who wrote and approved this story and artwork are just sick women hating fucks if they think this is somehow being creative or good.  They should be ashamed of themselves and I hope their parents never see this horrible evil work.  There is also the problem that there was such a long story block set up for the Mad Hatter and obviously there was not enough creative people on the team to stretch the story out this many issues and we are still not done.  Just Ick.

Batman the Dark Knight #19!

Batman the Dark Knight #19 was interesting but this Mad Hatter storyline is getting old.  The Mad Hatter is trying to reproduce some part of his life before he became a villain.  In fact after all this time no one has been able to figure out how the Mad Hatter has been taking his victims even though hundreds of people walk off at the same time to the same meeting place.  I realize that lots of people die in Gotham every day but if hundreds of people drown themselves in one go as we see in this issue it seems maybe someone would notice.  But in the end it just feels like sloppy writing and editing.

Batman the Dark Knight #18!!!

Batman the Dark Knight #18 was rather disappointing.  The story has been developing rather well with the Mad Hatter even if the story was disjointed at times.  But it turns out all this setup was so the Mad Hatter could have a do over with his High School Prom.  Considering the number of bystanders being killed in this story growing very large and is starting to match the number of people killed in the Death of the Family story you would think more interest from the police and other Heroes would have happened by now.  Instead all we get is Catwoman looking for a quickie after hitting Batman with a hubcap.  I’m seriously disappointed in how this story is turning out.

Batman the Dark Knight!! #17

Batman the Dark Knight #17 was really a disappointing comic.  The writer and editors seemed to have forgotten what happened in the previous issue and the plot spent a lot of time recapping what had gone before.  I am disappointed that the recap story ended up as such a bad use of the Mad Hatter.

The Dark Knight!

Batman the Dark Knight number sixteen – was kind of long and a bit boring.  This was the introductory issue of a story that will cover more than this single issue.  I’m all for adding the Mad Hatter to the current new52 world.  But what I did not need was the Spider-Man like dating drama from the life of Bruce Wayne – besides which did the Piano Lady not dump him already before the Death of the Family story?  Oh well – DC sure is convinced continuity is not a top concern of the Batman readers.