Books : Batman: Gothic

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Rating:

- Graphic SF Reader
A collection from early on in the Legends of the Dark Knight series.

A bunch of mob bosses realise someone is murdering them one by one. The person who is doing it is someone they killed 20 years before. Calling Batman for help, he basically says sit on it and rotate, until he realises who the killer is, and it gets personal.

It also gets a bit horror movie.

3.5 out of 5

Rating:

- worst ever
no question, the worst batman ever. He throws one punch and one kick. the former misses the latter is blocked. He falls off a roof in an absurdly stupid misstep. The story itself is simply far beyond any believability, the villian has no depth and the ending is predictable from page 5.

Rating:

- Gotham goes to hell
Comic visionary Grant Morrison (The Filth, JLA, New X-Men; c'mon already, you know the list) came up with this Batman tale, taking place in Bruce Wayne's early part of his career as Batman. Gothic follows Batman investigating just who is picking off mobsters in Gotham City, one of which claims that it's a man who won't stay dead. What this spells for Batman is locked in his own past, as he has nightmares about his father with his lips sewn shut, trying to warn him of something purely evil. While not nearly as visionary or defining as many of Morrison's other superhero tales, Gothic is an often gripping and even shocking tale of the Dark Knight that doesn't fail to impress. Frequent Frank Miller and John Romita Jr. partner Klaus Janson provides the artwork, which leaves a little something to be desired, but it serves its purpose regardless. All in all, Gothic is a more than worthwhile Batman tale, and definitely worth checking out for fans of both Batman and Morrison alike.

Rating:

- I expected something... more
I've been reading a lot of the Legends of the Dark Knight collected trades as it's cool to read about Batman pre-sidekicks. This was the second story from that series. A lot of Batman books have reputations and you sort of know what you're getting into it before you crack it open but I didn't know anything about Gothic before going into it which is usually how I prefer it. Well, like I said, this is an early tale, so no familiar villain here. It starts out reminding me of Year 2/MOTP as mobster bosses are being killed off one after another and Batman is trying to track the killer. As it turns out, Bruce had a history with the killer as a kid and eventually uncovers his secret.

It's not one of my favorite Bat stories. I think the villain's origin is interesting, but his motivation is not. I enjoyed the scenes in the cave between Bruce and Alfred. His quips and sarcasm were very much in character. However most of it was not very memorable for me. There are a few good lines here and there but otherwise, there were only a few good moments of development. I can't say any of it was overy ground breaking or has had any lasting impact on the characters and mythology. It wasn't long, but he should have been able to pack more story into 5 issues.

For completist's like me, I don't mind adding it to my collection, but I would not reccomend this to anyone who is not a Batman fan. And even if you are, there are so many better choices.

Rating:

- Long live Klaus Janson!!!
And long live Grant Morrisson....Although this is not his best- there's something old fashioned about this story , a detective story which takes the hero to an exotic location...Nice and old school

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