Rating: 3.5/5 – A fun read, but something we’ve seen before.
by ComicSpectrum reviewer Shawn Hoklas.
Detective Comics number twenty-eight is the second part of the Gothtopia storyline that began in last month’s mega-sized anniversary issue. Gothtopia is a mini event taking place across a range of Bat-titles that includes Batwing, Catwoman and more. The nice part about this “event” is that you don’t have to read the other titles to understand all that’s going on. I haven’t read the other included titles mentioned above, and I was fine with my understanding of what was going on since this part of the story picks up right where issue twenty-seven left off.
The Scarecrow has gassed Gotham City, this time with a chemical that makes everyone content and see what they want to see, including Batman. The set up/premise for this story will take a lot of flexibility in your imagination. Writer John Layman wants you to believe that all of Gotham City can be under the influence of a chemical that not only has everyone believing what they want to believe, but also seeing what they want to see. If Gotham was a small secluded island maybe…but a major city that’s surrounded by the rest of the world, not so much. But, if you can allow yourself to believe it, Layman’s story is actually pretty fun. This issue has Batman trying to escape from Arkham, where he was imprisoned last issue. It’s a literal “patients have taken over the asylum” story.
Aaron Lopresti handles the art as regular artist Jason Fabok most likely leaves to begin his work on the upcoming weekly Batman Eternal series. Lopresti’s art works for the story, but his lines looks much more angled and sharp than they have in the past. He’s got a couple really nice splash pages within, including a nice double-page spread where Batman resembles Hannibal Lecter. Overall this issue is a fun read, but not something we haven’t seen before. There’s been plenty of “Batman locked up in Arkham” stories preceding this one, so it will be interesting to see if the rest of this story arc can provide us with something that’s new and unique.
Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas
(shawn@comicspectrum.com)
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