Obvious Identity is Obvious
Sigh. I miss Ben Oliver's covers, especially #4. So let's see. This cover's pretty crowded as many of the recent ones have been. Batwing, facing AWAY, takes up too much of the image. But the crazy lines coming off of Massacre's blade look like the sky is cracking, so that's cool. But a lot of it really pales in comparison to what is ALWAYS my first thought when I see this cover. DAT ASS.
Ugh. Batwing's recap narration says it all. Because he so specifically says that he 'suspects' that Massacre is Kieta... it pretty much proves Massacre ISN'T Kieta. It's a very obvious trope of mysteries like this, and sinks my heart to see the truth. And this isn't a damn spoiler because you should've seen it coming about five freaking issues ago. Massacre is David's 'thought to be dead' brother Issac. F-ING. YAWN. Winick dropped FAR too many hints for this to be any semblance of a surprise. Aha! But he brings up the notion of a puppetmaster! 'The Redeemer!' A new ongoing myste- Oh wait. It's painfully obvious who he is too based on the oozes of context clues from last issue and the same opening narration mentioning the only two members of 'The Kingdom' who haven't been killed.
Once again, Dustin Nguyen is on art duties, and its even harder to complain now that this entire issues takes place in Gotham. Something seems a little different than normal though, the inking is more bulbous and the colors are gentler. Granted, Nguyen is AMAZING at varying his style, but this just seems off for him. But whatever, even on an off day Nguyen outshines most other artists.
The action is cool, the emotions Batwing feels upon the reveal are excellent; but overall this issue is pretty anticlimactic for an eight issue arc. Batwing vs. Massacre was over VERY quickly considering how their other fights either dragged on or ended badly for Batwing, and on the other side of the room, Steelback vs. Nightwing, Robin, AND Batman never really felt like much of a threat. On top of that the reveals were so pathetically obvious that all I could do was sigh as they passed by.
In Conclusion: 3/5
I mean, it's not a 'terrible' conclusion, but its a pretty weak one. This series has been going slowly downhill, but hopefully Night of the Owls will be the spark that it needs. It's still a decent series, but definitely not the impressive work it was when it began.
