Batman #10 – Matt Fraction, Writer; Jorge Jimenez, Artist; Tomeu Morey, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: Matt Fraction never quite slows down, with last issue seeing the Bat-family under siege by the full forces of Commissioner Savage and Mayor Ivy. In the end, they managed to preserve their secrets, but not without a major loss – Barbara Gordon was captured and is currently in maximum-security prison. Of course, we know that Barbara planned this all along for a much bigger game she’s working on, but the Bat-family doesn’t know that. Savage thinks he has the Bats on their last legs, and plans a major surge to stamp out vigilantism in the city. That, naturally, allows criminals to make their move. The Minotaur, a powerful new crime lord seeking to centralize control of all crime in the city, makes a big step towards that goal, taking out a prominent Bat-villain seemingly permanently. And it seems like all the work Batman has put into restoring the city is fading away day by day.
Except if you know Batman, that’s usually a bad assumption. The back half of this issue is all about how the Bats fight back, with Batman and some of his oldest allies waging war against the criminal underworld, staying one step ahead of Savage’s goons, and sending a dramatic message to the city. This is all a prelude to an upcoming crossover event that will see Batman and Ivy go to war as her new regime starts to collapse, and I’m not the most excited about that for a number of reasons, but on its own, Fraction has been doing an amazing job getting down to the nitty-gritty about how Batman works. His characterization for Barbara is some of the best we’ve seen in a a while, using her skills as Oracle to their full potential, and the fullness of the Bat-family is really seen in some of the ensemble scenes. This issue is so packed it feels like it has extra pages, even if it’s standard-length.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
