Customer Reviews

Batman: As the Crow Flies

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Even though the title is "As the Crow Flies," and Scarecrow is on the cover of the book, the Penguin is the real puller of strings here. If you were in hopes of an intriguing Scarecrow vs. Batman storyline, this book will partially disappoint you.

Batman confronts two maddened thugs who become superhumanly strong after coming in contact with fear toxin. Soon after, a scarecrow monster of Goliath proportions begins threatening organized crime. All the while, Penguin is sitting back, sharpening his beak.

What is the mysterious new "Scarebeast?" That is the new mystery Batman must solve. The answer to the mystery is a bit surprising. To earn that answer, Batman must subdue a seemingly unstoppable monster.

This is a fairly good storyline. However, I offer the warning that this is not, in the main, a Scarecrow story. It is a plot that highlights the Penguin as shooting for a criminal takeover of Gotham after "No Mans Land."

Current Batman scribe Judd Winick's first storyline for the regular Batman title comes off as average at best. Taking place after the events of the massive hit "Hush" storyline from Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, and the disappointing "Broken City" storyline from 100 Bullets creators Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso, Batman finds himself haunted by the memory of the late Jason Todd-Robin. Soon enough, he learns that various underbosses of the Penguin are being killed, and the mystery involves a partnership between the Penguin and the Scarecrow, and the emergence of a deadly new foe. Winick tells a good story, but it's not as interesting as it thinks it is. Dustin Nguyen's pencils are solid, giving the book a great look, which saves As the Crow Flies from being comic fodder. All in all, As the Crow Flies is worth a look for Batman fans, but if you're looking for a truly great Batman story, look elsewhere.

The graphic novel I bought was in great shape and got here fast. I buy from them again. I recommend buying from them.

The worst thing I can say about "As the Crow Flies" is that I wanted it to be longer. But then, all good books are like that.

This book collects Batman 626-630. A fun look at Gotham's mafia element. It's a great short story and at a cover price of $12.95 and being available lots of places for much less it's a steal.

Perhaps the most notable part of this effort was that it was Dustin Nguyen's debut in the world of Batman. Mr. Nguyen goes on to be an asset to Detective comics and in this reviewer's opinion he's a gift to the dark knight. He goes all out, for his part, and many of the pages are breathtaking.

All in all a great read and worth any Batman fan's time and money.

Something mysterious and deadly is happening to Gotham City wiseguys, all in the employ of the Penguin. Is this an outside attack on his operations, or is he possibly behind the dirty deeds himself? And how is the Scarecrow, who is begrudgingly also in the current employ of the Penguin, involved with this and to the recent appearance of the monstrous creature Scarebeast? These are some of the questions that Batman must resolve in this graphic novel. Judd Winick's debut on Batman contains some witty dialogue plus an enjoyably gritty characterization of that tough old bird himself, although his portrayal of Scarecrow as once again a weak punching bag for someone to use and abuse is getting a bit tiresome. A drugged out hallucinatory sequence involving Batman and a few phantom rogues, most notably the Joker and Jason Todd, is the highlight here and, in regards to Todd, a prelude of things to come. On the artistic side, Dustin Nguyen's work is somewhat awkward on the senses upon first viewing, with it being slightly reminiscent of Jack Kirby on steroids, although it does become much more enjoyable upon further viewings. Winick delivered two solid stories during his tenure on Batman, and while his brief run on the title and his work in general has its' critics, I am not among them, and had wished his stay on the book had been longer.

In As The Crow Flies, Batman must discover who has unleashed a vicious, man-eating monster called the Scarebeast on Gotham City. All the while, the Penguin has started making moves with crime families to take over Gotham City.

The storyline, while decent, doesn't grab my attention like Hush or Under The Hood Vol. 1 and 2, did. Judd Winick is a great writer but here it doesn't feel the same as it did in his later work. The story tries to grab your attention, but just can't seem to hold it (for a long amount of time, that is).

I liked it but I took off one star for the story, becuase it was average, and one star for the artwork, which was unfortunately, average.

The Penguin is interesting, but it seemed to be a story that was more centered around him than Scarecrow or Batman, despite the title of the book.

Now there are some really good scenes in here, particularly, when Batman is dosed with the Scarebeast's fear gas and begins to hillucinate about the Joker, Two-Face, and Jason Todd. That's where the spectacular dialgue is, other than that, the rest of the dialogue is blah, except for a line that made me laugh when Tim Drake is dressed like a girl to go get tissue samples from the dead body of one of the mobsters. That dialogue made me laugh.

Summing it up, the story's okay, not too fantastic, but not so dull you'll fall asleep while reading. This is mainly for fans of Judd Winick and Penguin.

Standard Batman fare with a pretty cool Scarecrow-derived beastie, though. The monster that is created to fight the Bat family in this arc is cool in the Where The Wild Things Are sense, as well, which is hopefully what the artist was trying to get at. Even though it is supposed to be crazy and nasty, it is something like a kid might come up with.

Judd Winnick scripts this storyline, which was pencilled by Dustin Nguyen and inked by Richard Friend. The five-part storyline was serialized in BATMAN #626-630. It followed "Broken City" (by Azzarello and Risso), which itself followed the very successful "Hush" storyline (by Loeb and Lee). "Hush" proved a disappointment to many, as did the ambiguous "Broken City" -- but at least they were interesting. The same can't really be said for "As the Crow Flies."

The story focuses on The Penguin, whose underbosses are being killed off. Penguin has the Scarecrow working for him, and a new foe -- called Scarebeast -- appears. Scarebeast ends up killing lots of The Penguin's people, but Crane (the Scarecrow's alter ego) doesn't seem responsible. Ultimately, Crane really was responsible -- and that character is changed "permanently," while a rather uninteresting new character is launched. But it hardly matters, as the rather conventional story fails to grab our attention: we don't get under the skin of any single character here.

This is true even despite an appearance of the evil Jason Todd from "Hush" -- who seems to simply be a hallucination here as well as in that storyline. Except that, at the end, Alfred finds Jason's mask -- a suggestion that Todd might really return, though he certainly doesn't here and he clearly WASN'T in the scenes wherein he supposedly might've left his mask. If that strikes you as weak, I wouldn't blame you.

The failure of this storyline is unfortunate, particularly because Winnick, Nguyen, and Friend have all proved themselves capable elsewhere.

"As the Crow Flies" was the last storyline in BATMAN prior to the "War Games" crossover, which itself is being collected in trade paperback.

-- Julian Darius, Sequart.com (for the sophisticated study of comic books and graphic novels)