Batman vs. Bigby: A Wolf in Gotham #1 – Bill Willingham, Writer; Brian Level, Penciller; Jay Leisten, Inker; Lee Loughridge, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: Bill Willingham was one of the masterminds behind one of Vertigo’s longest-running and most successful books, Fables—but he was also one of the most controversial writers at DC proper, being behind the loathed War Games and War Crimes books in the Bat-line. Put those things together, and him writing a Batman/Fables crossover is one of the most unexpected things to come out of DC in a long time. It’s a very odd project, and you can tell that Willingham isn’t a regular DC writer. This takes place in a strange version of the Bat-verse that takes some time to parse. For one thing, it’s hard to tell who’s the Robin Batman is addressing at the start—but that soon becomes clear with the appearance of more of them.
It’s still not clear where this story takes place or what exactly brings Bigby Wolf to Gotham, but he and Batman are on the trail of the same thing—a mysterious serial killer who has been leaving a trail of corpses across Gotham in a series of bloody scenes that look a lot like wolf killings. Bigby is the natural suspect, of course—being a wolf—but he’s keeping to the shadows. At the same time, we’re introduced to a whole host of new characters including a new Police Lieutenant brought in from Detroit to clean up the city’s corruption, and a mysterious villain running a cult of high-powered criminals all given the code-names of famous authors. Could this be a new version of the obscure Batman ‘66 villain Bookbinder?
I commented with Rorschach that it’s odd to read a book where you have no idea where it’s going, but this book isn’t as smooth as that just-concluded masterpiece. The pacing on this issue is a little odd, ending after a particularly bloody battle with a scene that isn’t all that surprising. Batman seems a little more brutal than normal, but the intrigue of seeing these characters interact is great. What I find the most surprising is the ongoing mystery of just which of these new characters is actually a Fable? Right now it seems like a straight-forward Bat-story with a Fable guest-star, but I don’t think Willingham signed on for something that conventional. There are a lot of intriguing mysteries to be unraveled here.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
