The Psychotic Perspective: Arkham Unhinged
Slough of Despond
Arkham Unhinged has been a disappointing book. Granted, video games are not known for spawning great stories when converted to other mediums, but quite frankly, this is a Batman comic; it should not be that hard to do. Though it seems that a Batman book set in the Arkham Asylum universe would be a gimme, it has proven to be a bad book overall with poor characterizations, barren art, and mundane story arcs.
Now, it appears that this all might be on the verge of change. The last two issues have actually been quite good overcoming the series challenges and producing a high quality narrative. I promised in my last review that I would recommend this series if it gave me one more good issue. Does Arkham Unhinged finally deliver, or does the package get lost in the mail?
In this issue, Batman fights police corruption and presses Gordon to investigate the imprisonment of peaceful protesters.
Hopes Dashed
I actually had hope for this arc, but that has pretty much been flushed down the drain. I hoped that this story would give a logical explanation to why innocents were imprisoned in Arkham City, but the issues answers to that question are just as stupid as the original problem and seem to ignore fundamental aspects of the justice system such as, oh, I don’t know, a trial! I will not belabor on the stupidity of this plot hole, but I will say that the writer, Traviss, has dug yet another hole. The politicians of Gotham believe they will solve crime by paying criminals to leave, yet the cops will be the ones moving them to other cities? I do not even understand what this one means.
Not All Is Bad
I do like how Batman and Commissioner Gordon are portrayed in this issue. They have good chemistry, and it is nice to see Batman use some humor which still manages to stay in character for him. Furthermore, I like seeing corrupt cops get what is coming to them.
Conclusion
This issue is not horrible. If you are a big fan of the series, go ahead and pick this issue up, but everybody else should keep their distance. Hopefully, Traviss will focus more on the Bookbinder in upcoming issues since that seems to be the best thing she has working for her.