Bore Tactics
Not much to this rambling collection of sub-quality issues, really. The extra star is again for what I assume to be issue #0, since as with all New 52 TPBs, we are not allowed to know what issue we are reading at the time (too much information might clue us in to an awareness nothing important is happening). I'm not sure why this is called "Scare Tactics" - yes, the first issue is called that, but the collection contains longer storylines, though as I said none of them are really impressive. The longest story concerns a nonsensical excuse for drawing yucky melted bodies under the guise of time-travel and villainy, but while there is all the appearance of scientific credibility sprinkled throughout, most of the scientific application is "Batman pushes a button and majickal things happen." It's just a boring mess that ends abruptly without any closure. Following this is a potentially interesting conflict between Black Mask and Mad Hatter, which likewise ends with the "majick plot-stopping button" being pressed and the story just ending. I suppose we should be grateful for that. The #0 issue flashback is the most interesting in the collection, despite its rather obvious ending. The epilogue between Bruce and Alfred is certainly the highlight of this, even if it is yet another version of the Batman mythos (the entire point of the New 52, I know). The ending of this collection is a worthless series of Two-Face vignettes that are so poorly lit you'd think they were sponsored by the color "invisible." It tries to make us interested by dangling a few lines of "the secrets of Two-Face's moral struggles" out there, but nothing comes of it and instead we are given grotesque violence, banal dialogue, and no reason to care about any of it after all. Another disappointing collection of half-baked Batman and Co. ideas.