By: Tony Daniel (writer and penciller), Tony Daniel, Sandu Florea and Ryan Winn (inkers), Ian Hannin (colors)
The Story: Batman and I-Ching race against time to get to the Mask of the Beholder before Sensei gets there. Too late!
What’s Good: I enjoy Tony Daniel’s Gotham art. He draws a powerful Batman (check him fighting on the pier sans cape), dynamic action (like Sensei’s kick in the archives), and general weirdness (look at the spiritual madness coming out of Sensei when he gets his mitts on the beholder). The inks team made Gotham dark and brooding, from the bottom of a dirty river, to the hidden hideaway of the Riddler’s new employer. And Hannin’s colors were awesome in the cloudy effects of battle and the mystical forces coming out of the beholder. And speaking of the Riddler (and his twisted daughter Enigma), they look awesome. Riddler is genuinely ugly, with greasy, dirty hair, a textured, wrinkled face and some whacked out facial expressions. I also enjoyed the Chinese-motifs in the masks of Sensei henchmen. Très cool.
What’s Not So Good: I’ve really enjoyed the last few issues. Where the wheels came off of this wagon was on the writing. From the first line of dialogue (“To the archives library of Gotham!”), I cringed at some of the cliché’d ridiculousness. Batman’s monlogue text boxes weren’t bad, but what about some of his exclamations? “Gaahd!” and “Gahh!” said Batman. I like some of what Morrison did for Batman and Robin in terms of non-vocal sounds, and I notice more and more writers copying where he led, but I’m not feeling what Daniel is putting into his script. It doesn’t feel real. On the plotting side, I felt that the concluding issue of this interesting arc was phoned in. Case in point: evil villains have Batman and his three allies at their mercy. What do they do? Tie them up and throw them in the water. Seen it before? So, of course Batman comes jumping out of the water and fights off the ninja henchmen. Their reaction is also classic dial-in script: “Batman!” they exclaim in astonishment. They’re surprised?? WTF? Didn’t they just throw him into the water not ten seconds earlier? Who did they think would burst out? Godzilla? Also, I felt that this issue failed as the piece to tie up the story arc. We don’t have a good sense of how Lucius is involved in all this, nor do we get to enjoy any of his reaction or Tam’s to this whole disaster. Missed opportunity means that these characters were just props. Disappointing.
Conclusion: This issue is not worth buying. I enjoy Daniel’s stuff and I will be around for issue #708, but can’t, with a clear conscience, recommend that you buy this.
Grade: C-
-DS Arsenault
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Filed under: DC Comics Tagged: Batman, Batman #707, Batman #707 review, Comic Book Reviews, comic reviews, DC Comics, Dick Grayson, DS Arsenault, Enigma, Gotham, I-Ching, Ian Hannin, Peacock, review, Reviews, Riddler, Ryan Winn, Sandu Florea, Sensei, Tony Daniel, Weekly Comic Book Review
