BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT #29 by Gregg Hurwitz and Jorge Lucas
Batman: The Dark Knight pretty much started as a way for David Finch to draw Batman and his many iconic villains. Over time, it morphed into a book that examined the origins and psyches of various rogues. Upon Finch's exit, several superstar artists filled the void such as Ethan Van Sciver and Alex Maleev. This week I shall examine the final issue of this title.
This installment closes out a two issue Man-Bat arc that saw Ethan Van Sciver reprise artistic duties last month. You will likely be disappointed to learn that Van Sciver provided only the cover art and the first five pages of interiors. The rest is done by Jorge Lucas. Some of his pages look rather good, while some feature some rather jagged looking images. I'm not entirely crazy about the way he draws faces. Lucas does, however, know how to craft a thick atmosphere that is required of a story set in Gotham City.
Hurwitz has been a rather inconsistent writer, in my opinion. He wrote one of the best stories in the recent
Detective Comics #27, but here much of the dialogue spoken by Batman and Gordon seems out of character. I do like it when Batman outsmarts a villain to win the day, but letting Man-Bat sink his teeth into your chest because you've injected yourself with the antidote to his condition is a tad reckless, to say the least. Even if this wasn't the most consistently good title, I'm always somewhat saddened to see a Batman book get cancelled. I guess we need to make room for
Batman Eternal, which I'm very much looking forward to.
Score: 6/10.