Sunday, May 17, 2015

Convergence: Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Honestly, I almost can't do these reviews any more.  But, I'll give it a go.

Azrael and Batman both try to infiltrate the same gang run by someone named Whale, because he's trying to hijack the food-supply trucks that keep Metropolis fed.  (Yes, I have no idea really why we're in Metropolis and not Gotham.)  Bruce has decided to do it the hard way so that he can make sure that Whale is caught in the act and brought to justice.  However, we're never given the reason why Jean-Paul doesn't just kill Whale.  He just announces that he "thought an inside job was the way to go."  It honestly doesn't seem like his style.

Then, blah blah blah, Whale orders them to get someone to give them the secret route that the trucks take, blah blah blah.  (To be fair, the best moment in this issue is when Bruce sympathetically watches the daughter of the city councilman that gave them the route cry on the news, since Whale had him killed once he divulged the secret.  Of course, he gave up the information because Jean-Paul recognized him as a Ponzi schemer from Gotham and threatened to expose him, so you shouldn't feel bad for him.  Just his daughter.)  Whale and his gang take out the drivers of the trucks so that they can nab them with tow trucks, and Azrael and Bruce try to stop them.  Fighting ensues.

Then, everything gets weird.  We're once again given Telos' speech, but Wetworks appears just before then, revealing that they're there to check out the competition.  But, how do they know that Azrael and Bruce are the competition?  Again, we've got really differing ways that champions are chosen and informed.  After all, how do they know that they're their city's champions and Azrael and Bruce are Metropolis' champions before Telos makes his announcement?  (For that matter, where's Superman?)  Then, Bruce somehow magically senses a "time-slip," but we learn that it's not Wetworks doing it.  

Honestly, I just have no idea what happened here at the end.  The first part of the issue was one of the better explorations of how a group of heroes was making it work under the dome, but we just lose the plot here at the end, literally.

** (two of five stars)

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