Gotham by Midnight #1

Writer – Ray Fawkes
Artist – Ben Templesmith

Gotham by Midnight is a moody and atmospheric little book that probably takes place after Batman Eternal at some point and finds Jim Corrigan, The Spectre, and a select team of cops investigating cases of the supernatural, kind of like the X-Files.  Things are running along smoothly for them until an investigator from Internal Affairs shows up to find out just what it is they are exactly doing aside from wasting taxpayer’s money.  So to prove what they do is legit, Corrigan takes the investigator on a case which might be more than the man ever bargained for.  Fawkes does a great job on the script for this new Batman title, and Batman does make an appearance, but it is Ben Templesmith who really makes this book come alive with his appropriately haunting pencils.  Fresh off his book The Squidder, Templesmith lends his talent to this new launch and if there was an artist born to horror, it is he.  It is great to see Jim Corrigan in a book of his own, so to speak, as he has been without a title for quite a long time.  While it would have been nice to have a book simply titled The Spectre, DC’s motivations for naming it what they did (more than likely being purely financial) are understandable as Batman sells more than almost anything else.  Also smart is Ray Fawkes, who opens the book with a case about creepy children.  In all of horror, there is hardly anything more scary than creepy children.  Except maybe dolls, clowns and old people.  A great first issue from DC’s ever-expanding Bat-family.

4 out of 5

Batman Eternal #34

Writer – Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Kyle Higgins, Ray Fawkes, Tim Seeley
Artist – Alvaro Martinez
Colours – Brad Anderson

Finally, it is Hush versus Batman in possibly the final round.  Before that happens though, Hush has to set off one more explosion to make sure his plan succeeds and if blowing up Julia Pennyworth is part of that equation, so be it.   One thing that this series has been proving so far is that Hush is playing for keeps.  He wants to ruin Bruce Wayne in every way possible and come the end of this issue; the man has taken a giant step towards accomplishing that goal.  It is great to see Batman so on the ropes, unable to prevent anything that is happening as Hush has been planning this stuff for so long and is continually three steps ahead of Bruce at all times.  Also nice to see is Julia in action, though Hush does get the better of her, and it would have made more sense if Batman had called everyone in to avert this crisis.  The cliff-hanger the book was left on was a good one and something that was completely unexpected.  Even with everything that has happened over the course of the series, it would have been hard to predict this.  The best thing about this book though is the way it keeps the pace up, keeps the action going and continues to further the story with each and every issue.  Other books in DC’s line could take a cue from this title.

4 out of 5