Batman's dark/supernatural book starts down the rabbit hole
As the crowded list of characters on this issue's wiki page suggests, The Dark Knight #2 has its share of cameos. The New 52 initiative was supposed to draw in new readers, but they will miss a lot here. For instance, they'll miss the significance of the (usually nervous) Ventriloquist hurling Robin and Nightwing through a store window, even if it is explained in some expository dialogue towards the end.
New readers won't be completely lost, though. After being introduced to Batman's relationship with fear in #1, they'll quickly get a sense of who Jim Gordon and Alfred are and what they're about. More significantly, for Bat-fans, the status quo of Batman and Gordon's relationship isn't as cosy as it has been in the past -- they're partners, but an Internal Affairs investigation into the GCPD, Wayne Enterprises, and Batman is driving him to cigars and threatening his career.
While scenes are detailed and faces are expressively rendered, David Finch's shading is sometimes distractingly simple -- it can look as if characters have scored their faces with an inked hair-comb. Overall, though, it's shadowy and bloody as it should be.
Villains are being supersized, Batman's perception of reality could be compromised, and any of the characters who cameo here could get involved in later issues. With all that, and this volume's place as the dark/supernatural Bat-book, I'm more intrigued to see where it goes than I am any the Dark Knight's ongoing cases in Batman, Batman and Robin, or Detective Comics.
