Customer Reviews

Batman: Gotham Underground (Batman (DC Comics Paperback))

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

 

 

This book takes place shortly after the death of Black Mask while coinciding with Salvation Run. After Black Mask is killed by Catwoman, a power vacuum is created once more and both Batman and his allies and the various mob bosses try to prevent the events from "War Games" happen once more. With most of the planet's villains are transported to another planet in "Salvation Run", the remaining players are mostly Penguin and Great White Whale which results in a "masked freaks" vs "regular crime bosses" mob war. Lot of Batman villains in this one(Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, Scarecrow, Bane, Riddler, Sugar and Ventriloquist, Great White Shark, Zsaz, Deadshot, and many more) and Batman masquerades as Matches Malones for most of this book. It's a great book where the villains are the stars.

If you're wondering why DC would put out a nine-issue collection for under twenty bucks, the answer is simple: As a whole, "Gotham Underground" is far less than the sum of its parts.

Dozens of masked villains and traditional mobsters battle for control of Gotham's underworld. There are simply too many characters here, and the casual reader will certainly be lost without a scorecard. The story feels like a shadow of previous Batman books. There's little here that hasn't been seen and done before, and done much better.

The writing falls far short of the standards set by the likes of Batman scribes Greg Rucka and Jeph Loeb. When Bruce Wayne ends up in prison under his Matches Malone guise, Robin launches a futile search for Bruce on the streets of Gotham. Really? The fact that Batman's alter ego Matches Malone was arrested and booked would go unnoticed by Robin or Oracle? There are many other instances where logic is tossed aside for the sake of moving the plot forward.

I agree with the other reviewer who pointed out that at least the inter-locking cover concept is cool.

A great book for Batman fans who love the villians. The story follows various criminal factions and Arkham inmates as they battle for control of the criminal underworld after Black Mask died. The only complaint I have is that it felt overdone on the gore for certain scenes. The storyline can get a little confusing since it jumps around between various factions and past and present timelines, but this book is still a good read for Batman fans who prefer the villians over the heroes.

Gotham Underground is Frank Tieri's unabashed and slightly misguided attempt at crossing Hush with War Games, and while at it, connecting it with concurrent storylines Salvation Run and possibly even RIP. That's quite a plate full, but unlike Hush with its star studded ensemble, you can't always tell the players without a scorecard. Unfortunately herein lies one of the major problems. What starts out as an auspicious adjunct to Salvation Run gets bogged down at its midpoint by a prolonged and prosaic gang war between newcomer Tobias Whale and company versus a motley crew of wannabe rogues hurriedly assembled, armed, and attired by the Penguin, a conflict incidentally that the birdman does not readily want to partake in. Whale has departed the not so friendly confines of Metropolis, due to Intergang's interference, for the purported greener pastures of Gotham. Many Batvillains are mysteriously missing due to the enigmatic exploits of the Suicide Squad, who are additionally abetted by the duplicitious deeds of the Penguin, therefore creating a void in the Gotham gang landscape. Whale's exodus ultimately accomplished little since Intergang, fiendishly assisted by Desaad himself, have also infiltrated Gotham for their own ulterior agenda. The frustrating irony is that up until that point, things were just getting interesting, specifically with references of Bane forsaking his role with the Squad and shrewdly scheming his next grand gambit against Batman. Sadly, this direction is not explored further and alas is the last we see of him. As for Batman, we do not see much of him either, with most of his screen time consumed by a supposed significant yet basically pointless and decompressed fight scene between him and Vigilante, a clash made all the less climactic due to a paucity of any pretext or buildup whatsoever. Some may even wonder who in the world Vigilante is. This type of tale that favors style over substance certainly has its limitations, but if envisioned properly, can be fun and exciting. All of the misplaced prominence on a silly gang war regrettably resigned the more deserving and dramatic aspects into the background, making one wonder what might have been. If Tieri had reigned in the excess slightly and sensibly streamlined the players down to a select few, the end result may have lived up to its advance expectations. At least the cover concept was cool.

Frank Tieri, who has always been hit or miss with me, missed here. The idea of a gang war in Gotham is decent while not at all original. In this collection it seems that either editorial or the writer himself was challenged to include as many Bat-centric characters as possible. That was not a good idea. Almost no characters got enough page time to flesh them out because there were so many then you add in new or newer characters and they seem like they were directly ripped off from bigger better Marvel characters. The art by Jim Calafiore was good when characters were in costume but when he has to draw faces everyone looks the same and have a weird smirk on their faces. Overall, this was more like a jam page of Who's Who pages rather than a complete story.

I found this to be a real page turner. Batman as Matches Malone, lots of Robin, and ton of Penguin, and a great Joker appearance. I found myself rooting for the Riddler and Penguin against an invading criminal conglomerate. Beautiful artwork by the very talented C. Calafiore and a great story by Frank Tieri. A good length at 224 pages. I didn't want to put it down. What's not to like?