I Am Batman #6 – John Ridley, Writer; Ken Lashley, Artist; Rex Lokus, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: The two are basically synonymous by now—Batman and Gotham. But for the first time, a Batman will be setting up shop in New York as the entire Fox family decamps for a new city—and Jace takes his secret identity with him, with his father in on the secret for the first time. It’s a completely new dynamic that offers this book the opportunity to distinguish its Batman from the main one under the mask, but does it work? Based on this first issue, there’s some promise here. The opening shot, of a mysterious killer torturing a man to death, sets things off on a dark note and some of the storytelling is a little disjointed, but this issue is asking some very interesting questions about what happens when Gotham’s crazy way of doing things starts spilling out to other cities—and what different ways the political scene can respond to the coming of the mask wars.
Jace has brought his Batman to Gotham, and unlike Bruce, he’s being very public about his tactics. While Jace and the Fox family do have some page time together, most of the attention this issue falls on the Mayor’s office. While the Mayor wants to essentially strong-arm Jace into working with the police and deputize him, his ruthless police commissioner wants to put a bulls-eye on Batman’s back. Chubs and Whitaker, the cops who saw their career fall apart back in Gotham, get roped back in to work on the task force, and Jace is naturally rather hesitant himself. So no one’s particularly happy—and that’s before the killing starts. New York doesn’t have Gotham’s supervillains—or any supervillains, really. It has a darker, quieter sort of threat, and it gets a Batman who seems determined to solve the problems rather than just delay them. It’s not a totally smooth start to a new era, but it’s definitely got me intrigued.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
