The Bat-Man: First Knight #3 – Dan Jurgens, Writer; Mike Perkins, Artist; Mike Spicer, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: The conclusion of one of the most unique stories Dan Jurgens has ever told delivers, as Gotham finds itself under fire in the year 1939. The mysterious terrorist known as The Voice is spreading hate across Gotham, attempting to throw it into chaos so the city will turn to a ruthless fascist leader. He’s backed up by an army of Monster Men, created from the bodies of death row inmates, and the opposition is only a few men—the harried Commissioner Gordon, and the haunted Bruce Wayne, in the earliest days of his life as the Bat-man. This Bruce feels much more vulnerable than the usual portrayal, and it’s a very interesting twist that his love interest, Julie Madison, finds out his secret identity early and is ready to stick around. But there’s little time for romance, because Bruce is in his lab cooking up a secret weapon to neutralize the monster men and wrestling with the question of whether to pick up a gun.
There are so many great little details in this issue, as Gotham spirals out of control and The Voice’s minions seek to set fires that will drive the city further into chaos. The characters of Rabbi Cohen and Maxie Zeus, the two sides of Gotham’s Jewish community, are fascinating as they work together to save the synagogue and keep Kristallnacht from coming to Gotham. There are a lot of painful reminders of what’s going on in the world in this issue, and this series might actually wind up being educational for some. The reveal of the villain is well done, and while this issue has a lot to pack into only about 50 pages, it does a great job and winds up not only bringing everything to a satisfactory close, but also sets up a fascinating new version of the Golden Age Batman. Jurgens rarely works with Batman and even more rarely does anything this dark, but this is one of the best works of his career.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
