Written by: Tom King
Art by: David Finch & Jordie Bellaire
Publisher: DC Comics
I don’t want to spoil Batman #4 for people. I really don’t. And I’m going to do my best not to – that’s what professionalism entails. And if nothing else, I’m a professional. Unfortunately, a lot of my snarky lines about this issue involve spoiling the major twist that happens here. Oh, and by the way, if you haven’t seen it coming it since the first issue, I don’t know where you’ve been this whole time.
Honestly, I don’t mind that the twist was super obvious. I really don’t – twists that come completely out of nowhere do feel super lazy. That said, I have issues with the way it’s presented. Mainly, the fact that I really haven’t been given a reason to care about the characters involved. Neither Gotham nor Gotham Girl are particularly interesting or sympathetic, and this issue doesn’t change any of that. So the core conflict really isn’t all that great.
That said, there are elements of this issue that are solid. Alfred gets a couple lines that are well written, and I didn’t hate the dialogue between Thomas and Gotham Girl. Surprisingly enough, Batman also gets to take a crack at some levity, and it’s done pretty well. Even then, this series feels like it’s taking itself a bit more seriously than it should be. There are moments where it feels like Tom King is leaning into the inherent goofiness of the book, but he never goes quite far enough.
And for the record, I’m not saying that he shouldn’t be telling a serious story, but it’s possible to do that while incorporating character work that doesn’t feel forced and a little bit more levity.
Fortunately, Finch continues to put in some of his best work for this series. There are some panels that look odd, but for the most part, the art is pretty solid. It’s nothing too out of the ordinary, but it services the story well. It also helps that King knows when to get out of Finch’s way, something that seems to be kind of rare at DC these days. The lack of internal monologue is certainly a blessing.
Batman #4 is the perfect example of the type of book that comes to mind when I think of comics that are just Ok. It’s a decent enough Batman fix, but outside of that, it doesn’t really do much that’s super interesting. It’s a very paint by numbers story with a scattershot cast and solid art. I certainly don’t hate it, but it’s not something I’m ever going to be enthusiastically recommending.
