Here's another piece of early CV history, another story by NightHunter, the same guy that wrote the Superman story I reviewed earlier this month. This is a Batman story called Batman: Gotham Spirits

I have a few notes, but lets cover the story itself first. The story is basically A Christmas Carol, but with Batman in the place of Scrooge. While chasing the Scarecrow over some roof tops Batman gets dosed with a new Fear toxin, which induces a hallucination state for Batman. This is an inventive explanation for Batman experiencing the supernatural plots of the story. Except characters in the story claim its really happening, which kills the realism vibe it was going for.

The story is pretty by the numbers. The Ghost of Christmas Past is Bruce's mom, showing him times he had experienced happy Christmas's, one scene in particular is of young Dick Grayson giving Batman a scrapbook of thank you notes from various people to Batman collected over the years.

Then he meets Superman who is the Ghost of Christ Present, showing the Gordon's and even the inmates of Arkham celebrating Christmas. The message of course being that Batman is working too hard, you know, fighting crime and saving people and stuff.I swear, the analogy with Scrooge is seamless.

And the final spirit is the Joker, which makes no sense if this is real or just in Batman's head. He show's Alfred's grave to Batman, but never explains what his death has to do with Batman. I mean, yeah, people die. And Alfred is a old timer. Batman getting home in time for Christmas isn't going to stop that. And only two people come to his funeral. Because the Justice League are all super touchy and Batman didn't keep up on Facebook

There does exist a Christmas Carol/Batman story, and I don't know if that inspired NightHunter or not, but it also had Superman as the second ghost, and Joker as the third. If you haven't experienced that comic, then this might seem fresh to you, but for me it just felt rehashed.

Next, its not absolutely clear if this is really a supernatural vision or just in Batman's mind or something else. And why would Batman be presented with these visions anyway? His crusade isn't selfish. He's trying to eliminate crime and save people. On top of that, in his first vision his gift was a book of letters, remember? So is the universe/his mind saying he should find joy in his job, or that doing his hero job will result in misery? Or that he needs to be a jollier Batman?

And finally there are several typos, and some serious alien syntax going on here. Far, far from the worst thing I have reviewed this month, but in a lot of ways the most disappointing.

3 coal/ 2 presents.

Tomorrow, we finish the Santa Hamster saga. Will we finally get his promised origin? Probably not.