Manalatto launches its second arc in this issue by picking up a loose thread from issue #34, the apparently involvement of Anarky in the explosion of the Waterfront. The good news is that this issue gives me a lot of hope that we're going to have an easier time understanding the story that they're telling here than we did with "Icarus."
First, this issue is beautiful. Manalatto really manage to pull you into the story with the art. You feel like you're freezing standing on that hill outside Wayne Manor with the snow falling on you or treading water with the Mad Hatter off the East End Waterfront. The pièce de la résistance is the unexpected appearance of Batman in the broken window at Wayne Tower. You flip the page and, BAM, Batman in all his mysterious glory. You get a sense why Harvey is so rattled by his sudden appearance, because you're equally surprised. This whole issue is just an example of two artists at the top of their game.
The good news is that the story is just as strong. They've learned from their mistakes with "Icarus," because it seems unlikely that we're going to spend the entire arc just wondering who the players are, as we did then. We clearly know that Anarky is responsible for the attack on Wayne Enterprises that we see here, even if we don't have a motive yet. Is it just that one of its employees was involved in human trafficking? Is it the more obvious motive of wanting to take out the city's most powerful corporation? Or, is it something more complicated? Bullock seems convinced that Anarky was responsible for the Waterfront, though I'm going to have to re-read issue #34, since I was pretty sure that it was the fight with the gang smuggling Icarus that caused it to blow. But, it's a lot easier to have the mystery focused on Anarky's motives and attacks than it is a confusing web of characters whose connections, let alone motives, are unclear (as it was in Icarus). One question that I have, as usual in the DCnU, is if Anarky is a known entity. Have the GCPD and Batman encountered him previously? I guess we'll see.
The script is remarkably good. You could see it just in the excellent cold opening with the Mad Hatter. In just a few pages, Manalatto deliver a quintessential Mad Hatter story, with him insanely bouncing through a homeless camp searching for Alice. Again, the art is partly responsible for making this sequence so notable, capturing Tetch's kinetic hysteria. But, Manalatto really get down his voice; I could hear him in my head saying his dialogue. It's true of all the characters throughout this issue, a good sign that the pair is really putting in the time to get the script right.
Anyway, I have high hopes for this arc. A Christmas-time story involving a lonely Harvey Bullock, a not incompetent Batman (unlike the "Batman Eternal" one), and a mysterious new-ish villain sounds like the perfect Batman story to me.
***** (five of five stars)
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