the_mighty_monarch's Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1000000 - A Never-Ending Story review

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    Batman Forever

    The Good: Compared to the previous 1,000,000 issue, Action Comics, this one contrasts in several layers of ways. The simplest comparisons go to the dark cover versus the light cover and Action Comics focusing on Present Superman in Future Metropolis with this featuring Future Batman in Present Gotham. On a deeper level Action Comics focused on the Legacy of the One Original Superman while this focused on the legacy of the Batman Lineage.
    The narration is incredibly unique and interesting. While Future Batman fights his way through Gotham, defending any and all citizens he can as he seeks out the Batcave, it's set to a narration that takes place after the events of the issue, but discuss event of his origins. It's a fun and different way to set a 'Shadow of the Bat' 'legacy' kind of tone, as well as providing up with the story of the main character.
    Batman, as always, is a very pragmatic figure. Seeking out the Batcave is basically a pilgrimage for Future Batman. He is finding the hallowed walking ground of his progenitor. Not his birthplace, Crime Alley, but still. But he never has a moment to linger in the joy of that notion. He is driven and focused, never letting the pilgrimage defer him from his mission, yet never letting an innocent in danger within his sight escape his retribution. He proves how much he deserves that cape and cowl.
    Like Solaris in Action Comics, we get to see that the Hourman Virus is sewing paranoia and dissent more than blatant murder and mayhem. Solaris is forcing humanity to create its own chaos, and when built upon foundations of itself, the chaos will be sturdier and more difficult to disappate.
    I love talking about this, but we see how Pluto had become Hell, leaving Gotham behind. But without a Batman to command it, it grew out of control and a Joker created itself as a catalyst to make a Batman to become King. All of this is sewn in some fantastic subtext.
    Future Batman tells Xauron the blatant truth, solidifying him as a 'true' Batman. He promises at the start to tell him his true identity, and he does. Batman is his true identity, any other life is a disposable commodity. His true self is Vengeance, Retribution, the memory of Fifteen Thousand children given form. Alan Grant gives such a poetic description of what it means to be a Batman.
    It advances the overall DC One Million story and functions as a one-shot story equally.
     
    The Bad: The artwork isn't as impressive as it could be, any depiction of a mob is kind of formless and full of blank gray faces instead of a menagerie of unique designs.
     
    In Conclusion: 5/5
    The Shadow of the Bat stretches through all time, always taking the form of a man who steps into the shadows to become something more than himself. "The screams that can never be exorcised, the fear struck into the hearts of victims turned against the opressors, the dark nemesis who brings it all home. Batman Forever, until the end of days.

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