It Started With Pirates, and Will End Like Pirates
This cover's definitely got a better balance than the previous one, but not as good as the one before that. I like the way Long is depicted, the way he fades into the mist creates the illusion of him more as a traditional eastern dragon. Nightwing's face is a little off though. Also, Banner = dumb. Especially on the Batman titles. Advertising is fine, but when it interrupts a specific image it becomes annoying.
Despite the intruding presence of Nightwing, and to a lesser extent Batman, the opening fight with Long highlights Batwing's abilities and combat style REALLY well. It's very iconic stuff for him, leaving Nightwing as a diversion. This little detour is also a nice little chunk in this nicely varied arc. We've gone from African pirates to magical Chinese gangsters to death worshipping mercenaries to The Penguin, and now back to Africa for a walled city and a savage warlord? And yet none of it feels too scattershot, everything's actually really tightly plotted.
I'm still annoyed that Batwing's title can't seem to function without a constant stream of guest stars, but I'm actually super excited about the JLI showing up in the next issue. Why? Because of Lord Battle's honor guard, Blood Storm. OH MY GOD I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING. It might just be me, but Lord Battle bears a SERIOUS resemblance to Holocaust, same build and hairstyle, and similar attitude. And his group of super varied subordinates are called BLOOD Storm, like BLOOD Syndicate? Anyways, Blood Storm has an INSANE level of variety, and it reminds me of One Piece, where a TON of thought has clearly been put into the design of the opposing group, with lots of one-on-one fights to follow. The JLI is Batwing's 'crew' for this battle.
In Conclusion: 4/5
I'm still a little bothered by the thicker lines than usual in Marcus To's art here, but overall I had very few problems with this issue. There's a forthcoming twist that I think is pretty obvious, but even obvious, if it is that, it helps keep this arc smoothly written as I've noticed this issue. It sets up quite a lot of epic stuff for the next issue, and I can't wait to see what comes next.
