Batman #624

February 23, 2004

Quick Rating: Below Average
Title: Broken City Part Five

Batman finally finds Angel Lupo… but will it do any good?

Writer: Brian Azzarello
Art: Eduardo Risso
Colors: Patricia Mulvihill
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Will Dennis & Bob Schreck
Cover Art: Dave Johnson
Publisher: DC Comics

With only one issue remaining in the “Broken City” story arc, try as I might, I just can’t find it in me to care about the overriding mystery. I don’t care about Angel Lupo and Margo seems just another stereotypical femme fatale. To tell a good mystery, you’ve got to have the audience engrossed, wondering, yearning to know the outcome. I’m just yearning for the next story arc to begin.

Batman has a little chat with the Penguin that leads to another confrontation with Fatman and Little Boy, who turn out to be far more brutal and effective in this issue than we’ve been given any reason to expect. The fight scene seems to exist solely to pad the issue.

Even the artwork, which has thus far been the high point of the “Broken City” arc, suffers in this issue. Eduardo Risso wants to be Frank Miller so badly it hurts, and any style of his own gets lost in this issue. Whether you’re a fan of Miller’s style or not, I’d still prefer to see Risso develop and evolve on his own rather than just ape someone who did his best Batman work almost 20 years ago.

There’s only one issue left for this title to wrap things up in a satisfying fashion. It seems less and less likely that will actually happen, but if you’ve been disappointed in this storyline, you can at least take heart in the fact that it’s almost over.

Rating: 4/10