A cycle of violence with a little fear in the mix.
Children are being kidnapped in Gotham City, then later returning to the streets traumatized and refusing to speak of their ordeal. Batman and Commissioner Gordon figure out the Scarecrow is behind it. But how can they catch him when his young victims are in no condition to speak? -summary
It's almost funny how quick DC jumped into the mix, and removed Peter Jenkins and David Finch from writing duties after that direction-less fiasco Batman - The Dark Knight Volume One: Knight Terrors. It took them 9 issues to see things had to change and fast; this change came in the form of Gregg Hurwitz, and even though he doesn't hit this one out of the park. His writing feels a lot more focused and grounded, to include he continues with DC's re-imagining of Batman's rogues gallery as he turns the Scarecrow into more of a horror like character. He joins the Joker as one of Batman's most terrifying looking foes. This volume collects Batman - The Dark Knight Volume Two: Cycle of Violence issues 10 - 15, and #0.
There are plenty of things I like about this story and there are things I don't like. My negatives mainly come from various changes DC went with to follow up on their New 52 reboot. I mentioned once before DC appears to be rebooting things as they see fit. Batman's world has remained the same, yet they're just making these alterations as they go along. I'll get to that stuff later.
The story follows Batman as he eventually locates Scarecrow's hideout and is captured. He learns that the Scarecrow has been kidnapping children to work his experiments for a new, super fear toxin that he wants to unleash. I won't say this is Scarecrow like never before, because in past continuity he has done some horrible things so something like this should be expected of him, but harming kids will always be the lowest a psychopathic villain can go.
There is quite a bit of action, however Hurwitz no doubt borrows from Scott Snyder's Batman: Court of the Owls formula to deliver a more cerebral experience. Batman has fallen victim to the Scarecrow's fear toxin's before, but I can't recall him at the moment being mind-raped this bad. The Scarecrow definitely plants his flag as a premier villain for him, and I like how Hurwitz draws a strong connection between Batman and Scarecrow. Other writers have linked Batman in some way to the villains he faces in the past, yet still this is a form of character exploration I never get tired of. The confrontation between these two is by far the best thing going on with this book.
The biggest mistake made in volume one was Peter Jenkins not really having anything to tell. He resorted to pulling a Knightfall; for those who need an explanation on that, he introduced one villain after the other for Batman to face and it became repetitive and dull very quick. It was also leagues below the story it copied. Hurwitz indeed has a story to tell as he focuses on this one villain and he develops Scarecrow very well. This story begins and ends the Scarecrows conflict; the ending was pretty good and Hurwitz borrows from the 1989 Batman movie.
Now addressing DC just doing things as they go along; not all changes are good, and I don't care much at all for Scarecrow's updated origin. It explains perfectly why he chose children as a target, but it seems as if Hurwitz wants sympathy for this character. I'm sick and tired of the bad and abusive childhoods. Why can't evil people just do things? If DC wanted to provide a reason for Scarecrow aka Jonathan Crane's actions, then they should've stuck to his original origin of being bullied and wanting revenge. This way it blurs the line of vengeance and insanity. When writers try to turn some villains into tragic figures it cheapens the character to me. I also didn't like the point Hurwitz tried to make in the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents as if it was some type of random robbery. This bumps heads with the strong possibility that the Court of Owls were behind it, or perhaps they still were in a different way. I see no reason for these origin updates, and to me DC did it just to do it. The few annoying changes are far from all of this books flaws. Hurwitz delivers some weak writing at times with Batman operating kind of clumsy, and the development of Bruce Wayne's love interest. We already know his relationship isn't going to last long, so something this meaningless really didn't need the face time it got.
David Finch's pencils are on fire as usual with these incredible character designs and backgrounds. Scarecrow has never looked so frightening before. He's definitely sick and twisted; his lips are stitched with thread in the same way a real scarecrow would be, with blood running down his mouth and bubbly eyes as if he never sleeps. I can imagine someone like this scaring grown ups out of their minds, so you can only imagine the effect he had on his young prisoners. The backgrounds are dark, creepy, and horror like. Scarecrow's lair and the dungeon he sat in during his origin feel like a place the next SAW movie could be filmed in. This type of art style is right up Finch's alley, but I have seen much better from him with Marvel's Moon Knight coming to mind.
This volume of issues was a vast improvement over the last, and since this is a fresh stand alone tale then readers can start here; with it's awesome artwork, dark setting, interesting villain and hero. Cycle of Violence is a good read and those whom are new to Batman comics may enjoy this more. I still highly recommend Scott Snyder's Batman run over this.
Pros: Very nice artwork by Finch, improvement over last volume
Cons: Some weak moments, don't care for some changes
