Hiding Behind A False Mask
The Story:
Batman has led a double life for some time now as both Bruce Wayne and Batman. Now he also uses the identity, Matches Malone. The "false faces" are beginning to catch up with him and repercussions have presented themselves in harsh ways. Batman must find a way to keep it together as he faces old adversaries as well as the false faces he's putting on himself.
My Thoughts:
This story is written by Brian K. Vaughan who is one of my personal favorite writers. I was looking forward to reading this simply for the fact that he wrote it. Unfortunately this wasn't what I was hoping it would be. I do like his idea, I just don't think it was executed as well as it could have been.
The main theme is hiding behind a "false face" or in other words, to live a double life. Vaughan focuses on the repercussions that could lead to and how hard it is to recover from.
The Wonder Woman issues were also a let down. I don't quite understand why there were two issues centering around her in a Batman book. Neverthless, not even those issues could save this book. It continued down the same streak of disappointment the rest of the book has thus far.
The art is by Scott McDaniel and Rick Burchett. I didn't like the style and didn't find it suitable for this story, let alone any Batman comic. It doesn't work for the darker, more gritty type of stories generally associated with Batman. The art style is more cartoonish and seems more suitable for younger children.
I was disappointed with this, but being the collector that I am, I had to have it in my collection. I couldn't honestly say I would recommend this. It could be skipped as it's not essential to understand the Batman continuity.
Rating: 2.5/5