Batman: The Dark Knight #6

Well, David Finch has finally demonstrated the he doesn't understand a single damn thing about any of the characters or world that he's writing about. The issue begins with Batman in his own head, contemplating about how he never felt fear as his parents were shot dead in Crime Alley all those years ago. BULL. CRAP. Young Bruce Wayne was terrified that night. He vowed never to be afraid AGAIN after that. Most times we see that scene, he's scared about walking through the dark alleyway, NO WAY that same kid would be unafraid as a thug comes up and guns down his parents before his very eyes. Why else does his vision of his parents tell him not to be afraid ON THAT VERY SAME PAGE?

Then, taking a detour from failing to understand any character, we get a failure to make any sense whatsoever. So bear with me here. Adrenaline, which is caused by the Fear Gas, builds up and causes you to be poisoned. But if you build up MORE adrenaline then that, you burn it out and you're fine. This is explained to us VERY poorly, it seemed contradictory to me the first time I read it. So then Batman tells Superman to go warn The Flash about this, despite the fact that The Flash was assumed to be REGULAR POISONED by a completely unrelated toxin from Ivy's vines. You're telling me Ivy's vines were carrying a toxin like the bulking-up Fear Gas, but without the bulking up part of the Fear Gas part? And so Flash, who was building up adrenaline to work it out of his system now has to run more to burn it out of his system for real. Explain to me how that makes any sense. "Ok Flash, you know how you're running it out of your system? Well turns out you actually have to run it out of your system more." "And this helps me how? I was already running it out of my system dude." ".... Shut up. I'm the goddamn Batman, bro."

And now we get back to Finch not understand the DC Universe. Commissioner Gordon is under fire for supporting Batman? Because it's totally a secret that the GCPD building has the BAT SIGNAL ON THE FREAKING ROOF. Seriously, what is this, year two of Batman's career? He's on the federally approved JUSTICE LEAGUE. He's the head of an internationally supported vigilante CORPORATION. Why the hell is Gordon under fire for this? And if he's so unconcerned about it, why is it important in any way?

The truest statement in the issue is "The White Rabbit is a guide into a story about nonsense." Because that's what THIS COMIC is. A story about nonsense. White Rabbit continues to bring absolutely nothing to the plot aside from sexploitation.

So then Bane shows up, returning to, and completing, the 'taking a **** on Knightfall' theme to this story arc. David Finch does not understand a damn thing about Bane other than 'he broke Batman's back' and 'he uses Venom to make himself stronger.' What he doesn't seem to get is that Bane is a tactical genius. Contrary to popular belief, Bane is one of Batman's smartest villains. The dude figured out Batman identity within a MONTH of being in Gotham. And yet he's using the same weird fear-releasing tunnel-vision-inducing Venom on himself, minus the poison. Or something. Because Batman was wrong about making the Flash run more. Or something. Who the hell knows with that. But then it gets worse. Bane reveals that because.... he's awesome or something, it makes him SMARTER instead of dumber. Why the hell does it make him smarter when it makes everyone else dumber.... or just MIGHT make their brain shut down. Is it because he's been exposed to regular Venom all these years? An explanation would be nice. But then, why does Bane NEED to be smarter? Finch clearly doesn't understand that Bane is already a genius foe, he's not a brute who needs extra intelligence to be a threat. But the worst of it is, he claims to be smarter, but doesn't do a single thing to demonstrate this. If anything he seems just as dumb as the rest of the guys on this stuff, which is FAR dumber than his average level of intelligence. His fighting strategy is just wildly lashing out. He's not thinking tactically or fighting smarter, he's smashing like a brute.

In Conclusion: .5/5

This was a complete and utter train wreck of an issue. I've been hard on this series as it is, but apparently Finch must've held back on the crap last issue so he could dump it ALL in here. The ONLY saving grace is his artwork, which is DAMN nice, but doesn't even come CLOSE to outweighing even HALF the complete and utter mess of crap that permeates every OUNCE of the story in this issue. It was at least not terribly written in terms of dialogue, so it read decently, but the plot was some of the worst I've ever seen in my life. Why the hell this series ever gets any positive feedback or sells out is BEYOND me. Old fans shouldn't even give this series the dignity of wiping their asses with it, and the only people who could get anything out of this is completely new fans, because they don't understand just how badly Finch has screwed up these characters. And don't even DARE try and tell me "oh, it's the New 52, these characters are different." BULL. CRAP. This Batman is NOTHING like the Batman in ANY other current appearance, ditto goes for everyone else. Batman was left the most untouched by the relaunch, and Bane's allusions to his past escapades shows that he's supposed to be the same character. And with the shameful walking exploitation known as The White Rabbit, even new fans should disregard this piss-poor waste of paper and ink.