The Good
No, she doesn’t actually use that as her catchphrase nor battlecry. Okay! Four stars, let’s move- FINE! I’ll go into more. Team BATERNAL (Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV on story, Ray Fawkes on script, Kyle Higgins and Tim Seeley cruising in as consults) has done a great job organically shrinking the scope of this book to focus almost solely on Stephanie Brown’s confrontation with her father, the up-and-coming, no-I’m-not-the-Riddler villain Cluemaster and his network of saboteurs, one of whom is an old "acquaintance" of Nightwing’s who I’m happy to see crop back up. We even get some brief glimpses into Brown’s childhood and see that her daredevil ways aren’t exactly anything new either to her OR her father. It’s about time we started getting to know one of the most talked-about characters to spring up in the NEW-52, and she is, so far, intriguing and interesting enough to have been worth the wait. Even though almost all the dialog is between Spoiler and Cluemaster (with some supplied by a not-so-mysterious-anymore third party), it’s used to great effect to help define who these people are.
Andy Clarke steps up on linework and is perfectly suited for an issue like this. There’s a lot of visible lines, but they give the proceedings a sense of grime and darkness that suits the tone established by the writers just fine. Though the distance covered by the warring father/daughter pair are a little unclear, the action from one moment to the next never fails to thrill nor have a tremendous sense of force and speed, packione one helluva wallop from one panel to the next. The colors, provided by Blond, reinforce the violent, dark tone the book generally takes. This isn’t the darkest book on the shelf in terms of content, but the color palette it uses reinforces a kind of sharp, jagged edge that means it doesn’t HAVE to be to still be compelling.
The Bad
There’s an interlude of Batman in the middle of this issue that slows the pace to a crawl and does very little beyond establishing that Batwing is M.I.A. and to motivate Batman to visit Arkham. It only takes place across four pages, but rather than creating tension or suspense for the main story, it steals the focus. Batman’s dialog, likewise, is stunted and overly expository.
The scene we get of Stephanie’s childhood is a good start, but it still feels like we don’t have a great deal of background info on her and while her interactions with dear ol’ dad are good, he occasionally reeks of the kind of megalomaniacal “Because I’m EEEEEEEVIIIIIIIL” dialog in his interactions. It's also legitimately hard, especially in an issue whose tone is so dark, to take this guy seriously. His look and his behavior clash with the more grounded, serious tone the issue puts forth and he's not a terribly compelling villain EXCEPT where his daughter is concerned.
The Verdict
It’s nice when this series takes a breather to focus on the general Bat-family, even those who don’t yet realize their membership status. There’s a reason Stephanie Brown has been one of the most demanded characters in the NEW-52 relaunch and we are on a very so-far-so-good course. The book’s weekly release schedule will allow the creators to close any gaps in her characterization, and something tells me she’ll fit right in when the time comes. A slight misstep with Bats himself is no reason to stop following a book with this much continued, consistent momentum.
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