Never Take the Subway
Citizens of Gotham City are being driven to insanity and Bruce Wayne will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of it.
Plus
David Finch continues to showcase his talent with the art for this issue. Everything had great detail and the dark theme of the comic will draw you into the action. The layout was very simple to let the tension reflect to the readers. The pace moved in a perfect speed that allowed everything that was going on to pierce the readers' curiosity. As a standalone issue, it was a wonderful choice to use the Mad Hatter, Tweedledum, and Tweedledee. These are antagonists who we rarely see and their run in against Batman in this issue was a good change of scenery.
Minus
This is a great pick-up for new readers but loyal readers of this title might say otherwise. The previous story arc was astonishing and this one shot wasn't able to hold this series' high level. The story was good and simple but with an incoming tie-in for the Night of Owls story arc, it would've been better if this issue was a preview to that. Also, where is White Rabbit? The creators were able to mist her in clouds and the revelations about her last issue has tapped the readers' interest. Seeing her integrated to the Night of Owls storyline would've been lovely.
Final Score
Joe Harris has reached that middle ground for this issue where he told a great story yet not good enough to keep up with the previous issue. Batman's run in with the Court of Owls is where everyone's eyes are so it didn't make sense to move away from that. This is still a good issue though which is still worth your money if you're a fan of the Caped Crusader. 3/5 stars.
