Rating:  -
Beware. If you ever receive an envelope from Ra's al Ghul, do not open it. Unfortunately for Batman, it is already too late. Ra's once again uses his private knowledge of Batman's residence to open up a virtual Pandora's Box of mayhem for him, all with the goal of enticing him to provide the means for his return. He can certainly write an intriguing and especially foreboding letter, and from the grave no less. From its' contents, Batman has learned that eliminating all of the Lazarus Pits has created far more serious problems than he had previously. Through an imbalance in the earth due to the absence of the pits, their life giving benefits will now be bestowed on every living creature on earth. No one will die, with resurrections of the dead also occurring. The frustrating and bitter irony for Batman is that this apparent miracle is in reality far from it, and the only way to return things back to their natural order is to find or create another pit. Talk about a horror movie. On the surface the plot seems a bit far fetched and fantastical for a Batman tale, although this direction has been explored often in Elseworlds books. Of course, any story with Ra's will have those unreal elements in them anyways. Devin Grayson's entertaining story ends with a neat little twist that illustrates why Batman, even when confronted with a new and distinct dilemma, is rarely outsmarted and is always determined to prevail. Bats, the next time you receive a letter from Ra's, return to sender.
Rating: -
I was out of comics for a while, and picked this Graphic Novel, great way to catch up! Batman finally gets some answers following the WAR GAMES saga
Rating:  -
This tale of the aftermath of Rha's al Ghul's death is great for fans of the character. It provides some excellent insights into his motivations and origins. I don't think it will be spoiling things to tell you he was always nuts! The tale is told between flashbacks to the past and scenes in modern Gotham, where people have become mysteriously unable to die. Besides an overly brisk pace, my problem with this book is the art. The artist does not have a good understanding of the human body, resulting in many panels where people have oversized heads. Look for it and you'll see it. Also, despite the "Year One" in the title, there was no direct connection with Batman Year One, a disappointment. Anyway, still a good read if those quibbles don't bother you.
Rating: -
WAR GAMES -- a year-plus serialized event in the history of Batman -- was a terrifically compelling yarn. Everything that could've gone wrong WENT wrong: alliances were forged and fell apart, enemies were made that shouldn't have been made, and people died. That's rare in the comic book universe, but it's one of the traits that strongly separates the Batman and his stories from most other DC "superhero" tales ... Batman is human, and, as a result, he's bound to make mistakes, just like any other character within the Bat-universe.
WAR CRIMES -- at the most basic level -- is about just that: mistakes. Gotham City is well on the road to recover now that the games have ended, and yet the Batman finds himself looking back in order to try to continue piecing together much of what still doesn't quite add up. In doing so, he uncovers a startling secret that sheds light on the disappearance of one of his oldest confidantes, and this discovery shakes him to his foundation.
Compared against the entirety of the WAR arcs, CRIMES fits nicely but perhaps the shock that such discovery should've sent through the Batman wasn't significant enough for my tastes. While I've always appreciated any tale of the Bats largely because of the human factor, there's still a larger-than-life presence to some of his villains (such as the Black Mask) that borders on immortality. CRIMES has a terrific, almost cinematic feel to most of it, and some of that payoff is sacrificed in the conclusion involving the Joker and the Black Mask taking on one another and then involving Batman because the Black Mask has been impersonating the Dark Knight. In cases such as this, I'd rather Batman pull up his sleeves a bit more and rough'n'tumble these two blokes instead of arbitrarily turning them over to the police: sometimes, that solution just grows a bit too safe for my tastes, and it feels out of touch here especially given all that's happened in the past year with these two villains.
Still, it's a solid reliable effort all around.
Rating:  -
I'm not sure why the two previous reviewers thought they were reviewing War Games. This book actually collects the War Crimes arc from the regular Batman and Detective comics series. It's like an aftermath to War Games, but it doesn't measure up to the books that precede it.
In this book, we learn that one of Batman's most devoted allies...someone who had been elevated in recent years to be at the same level as Alfred in terms of mentoring Batman/Bruce Wayne...allowed a key character from the War Games books to die. (This is lifted from Batman#644 in the regular comics.)
It was, without a doubt, one of of the stupidest comic book endings I've read in a long time. I'm all for surprise endings, but not at the expense of a character we know would never do a thing like this based on years and years of back story. In the end, the character is exiled to Africa or somewhere and warned by Batman never to return.
Is DC really this hard up for creativity? No, they aren't, because many of their other products are very satisfying in terms of plotting and characters. They just dropped the ball on this one.
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