OK, I thought the story about "Lieutenant" Gordon being inspired by the look of hope in young Bruce's eyes to investigate the dry cleaner that gave him and his partner the trench coats was a brilliant device to show how deep the corruption in Gotham ran. (I loved Gordon saying that he wore the coat as a reminder to those cops that he remembers the way things were and a reminder to himself of his shame for essentially not doing anything about the corruption earlier.) I also thought that Alfred's description of Bruce forcing everyone to watch him save Gotham as punishment for them failing to save him from Gotham as a child was innovative, an observation that I don't ever remember being made before but one that feels intuitively true. Moreover, it seems to set up the later part of this arc, since Bruce will likely transition from this position to a more mature one that actually lets the people that he's punishing -- Alfred and Gordon -- help him. But, OMG, show not tell, Snyder. This issue just had way too much narration as Snyder tried to fit in both stories, rather than just one. By the time that we got to the end of the issue, I was barely paying attention. Moreover, the narration doesn't leave Snyder room to address fully the revelations made here. For example, I don't think that it's clear at all what Heffern's connection to Riddler was. How did they meet? Why did Riddler chose him? Does he know that he's just distracting Batman from Riddler's agenda? Couldn't someone other than Heffern have distracted Batman? Less tell, more show.
*** (three of five stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment