They claim Batman can beat anyone. What if it's any-THING
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Like I said in the title of the review this book is quite a slow-starter as far as storytelling goes. You'll find yourself already through one third of the book (about 120 pages) with everything collapsing and causing trauma before the story actually starts to take shape and begins to develop. From there on it keeps getting better and better when it turns out the quake did not only wreck the city itself but hit Blackgate Prison as well (which holds some of Gothams most dangerous criminals), when the people of Gotham start having to decide to go live on instinct or to stick to their common sense, and when suddenly a mysterious figure who calls himself "Quake-master" claims to be responsible for the quake and starts making demands. It's also interesting to see how Batman reacts now that he has to 'fight' something that is more than just another villain but a big-scale disaster instead. Something that requires the man behind the mask to realize where his priorities lie, without turning it into another attempt to a 'dark & gritty' tale which already has been overdone by now. Another thing I definately want to mention is the excellent climaxing in this book. Where in most books you find out who or what is responsible for everything that is going on halfway through the book (if not earlier), and then spend 50 pages with the good guy chasing the bad guy into an obvious end, that's not the case here. It keeps you wondering what exactly is going on untill even the last 10 pages where everything finally falls into place (and where you finally find out who "The Quake-master" is. And it's not who you think it is either !). In the end I have two little points of criticism. One of them being the fact that there are so many different artists who worked on the story. Off course that's logical since it's a collected cross-over which ran through several titles, but some of the art (like Scott McDaniels work) isn't really appropriate for a story with this kind of theme, where some other art (like Bill Sienkiewics' and Klaus Jansons work) really IS. The other little point is the presence of some editorial slips. This varies from spelling errors ("two" instead of "too") to a character referring to something that couldn't have possibly just happened. But apart from those minor points it's a very nice read and a good prequel to "No Man's Land" which follows it.
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Confusing and somtimes goary
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If you havn't read any other batman book and only remember when batman was hero and saved the day in the nick of time, well this may be a shock to the system as he dozen't always get his way and a few times he gets knocked out so he isn't all your sort of old cool guy.and also he does some evil stuff but its all in a good cause
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A villain who was never alive?
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Batman is forced to face off against an earthquake when Gotham City is annihalated by a 7.6 on the richter scale. This is mostly about the various Bat-related heroes helping out the injured and trapped victims. Until the Quakemaster appears, claiming responsibility for the destruction. Some of the stories seem out of order, as Robin finds his dad, only to claim he hasn't seen him yet a few pages later. However it's all good stuff. There is a great haunting story where someone is trapped far beneath some rubble, and no-one can hear him. Then a superhero up above says he hears someone and goes and rescues a young child, unknowingly leaving the trapped man to die. Top stuff!
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