First, the art is crazy. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. Frankly, I'm not sure that it's mine. But, it totally works, because Bertram really captures the kinetic craziness of this issue. For example, Seeley creates a ridiculous fashionista, London Leganza, to appear on a game show that Cluemaster hosted before he became a villain; it's a celebrity edition, to raise funds for the "Zero Year Reclamation Fund." (Clever.) Bruce is on the panel, and Seeley and Bertram work together to make the fashionista as oversized of a character as possible. She comments on Bruce's "long straw" (ba da BING) while dressed like a Botero sculpture come to life. It's a rare moment of the author and the artist being on exactly the same page in creating a character. I actually hope that we see Leganza again, so memorable do they make her appearance.
But, Betram's work is no less amazing than Batgirl's battle with Scorpiana to get to a Brazilian soap-opera star that she identified as on site at the time of the Gotham subway crash. Bertram plays up the ridiculousness of the studio where Batgirl chases the soap-opera star, making you feel like you're running backstage alongside Babs. Seeley's work here is equally great, portraying Guillermo as a total fop whose confession to Barbara has less to do with telling her the truth and more to do with attracting attention to himself. (He owed money to the Club of Villains, so they used a new technology to graft his handsome face onto someone else, the man actually at the station that day. The Club sent Scorpiana to kill him since it viewed him as a liability, probably exactly because Batgirl would come after him.) Again, Seeley and Bertram really collaborate here to make a secondary character memorable.
But, this issue is great not only because of the story in the issue itself, but because Snyder and Tynion actually answer some questions from the larger story. First, we get Stephanie making the brutal realization that Cluemaster created his family life simply as an alibi, convincing Batman to allow him to go free so that he could spend time with them. It's why he's so nonchalant about killing Stephanie, because she's outlived her usefulness to him since she's no longer inadvertently abetting his criminal career; in fact, she's directly threatening it by trying to tell someone the truth behind his plans. I'm not sure if I totally buy it, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one, since they at least made some effort to explain Arthur's behavior.
We also get more insight into Julia's relationship with Alfred. She hates him for leaving behind his role as a field medic (and, presumably, her) to be Bruce Wayne's butler; in her words, he went from "being a man who put broken soldiers back together to a man who put buttons on smoking jackets for a spoiled toff." The nice thing about this conflict is that it won't last long. Julia will eventually realize that Bruce is Batman, and Alfred will be able to interact with the daughter that he had to sacrifice to assist Batman in his crusade. Alfred rarely gets wins, so it would be nice if Snyder and Tynion let him have this one.
Add into the mix Jason Todd and his ability to call Babs on her bullshit -- given how she's mimicking his methods, despite constantly judging him for them -- and I'm actually a happy camper. Go figure.
**** (four of five stars)
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