You'd think for an issue that saw the collapse of Arkham Asylum, I'd have more to say.
First, the Deacon Blackfire plot ends fairly anti-climatically. In the fist few pages, Blackfire is ascendant, but provokes the appearance of the Spectre, who absorbs all the spirits that Blackfire is...draining? Maybe? I'm not really sure who all those spirits are, other than the fact that they're swarming Blackfire and he seems to draw energy from them. Did they cross into our world through the portal to Hell that Blackfire seemed to open? No idea. The Spectre just eats them. This series' slowest burning and most poorly developed sub-plot suddenly finds itself resolved. Presumably, at some point, we'll learn if Hush had anything to do with it or if it was just an unfortunate coincidence for Bats (as Julia has suggested). Maybe we'll also learn who's giving Joker's Daughter weapons. But, I'm not optimistic, to be honest.
In terms of the larger story, the problem that Bats now has to confront is that Blackfire's magic was the only thing holding up the tunnels; they collapse, taking out Arkham with them. To be honest, I just don't understand where we're going with this whole set of stories. I'm getting tired of whining about the fact that we've made zero progress in any of the main sub-plots, but spending several issues on the least developed sub-plot doesn't help, particularly when it's still unclear what connection (if any) it has to the main story.
** (two of five stars)
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