Downside Up
Well with my investment in Nightwing hanging by a thread, it looks like I may soon be needing to fill my Batman quota elsewhere. So why not go straight to the Dark Knight himself with a series I've heard nothing but good things about. I'll admit, I'm jumping into the middle here but I'm pretty good at that. So we start with commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock keeping the bat signal lit to inspire people or something. It's actually a pretty nice scene that shows how much Batman means to people. We then see Batman trapped in a maze and being hunted by the court of Owls. It's once again an amazing scene with haunting imagery. As Bats ventures further into the maze... wait, what the hell? It seems the next few pages are to be read with the book on its side. That's a bit irritating. So Bruce sees a hallucination of his parents and... huh, it seems the side thing has gotten me all turned around because this page is upside down. No, the book is right side up. So.. they printed the book upside down intentionally. That's really stupid. We end with Talon, the Court's assassin stabbing Batman through the chest.
What Works:
Up until everything got all upside down on me I was really digging the haunting imagery. Also the commissioner Grodon speech at the beginning is great. If it weren't for one glaring flaw this would be a damn near perfect issue.
What Doesn't:
*Sigh* Okay, I understand what they were going for with the whole flipped page thing. They're trying to create a sense of distorted reality, so we start to question reality along with Batman. However, they have failed in this because constantly having to flip the book takes one out of the experience rather than immerse them in it. There's creating atmosphere and then there's just being annoying.
Overall:
3.5/5
Other than the annoying flip thing, this is fairly decent.
