Batman Gotham Underground
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Gotham Overboard
Gotham Underground is Frank Tieri’s unabashed and slightly misguided attempt at crossing Hush with War Games, and while at it, connecting it with concurrent storylines Salvation Run and possibly even RIP. That’s quite a plate full, but unlike Hush with its star studded ensemble, you can’t always tell the players without a scorecard. Unfortunately herein lies one of the major problems. What starts out as an auspicious adjunct to Salvation Run gets bogged down at its midpoint by a prolonged and prosaic gang war between newcomer Tobias Whale and company versus a motley crew of wannabe rogues hurriedly assembled, armed, and attired by the Penguin, a conflict incidentally that the birdman does not readily want to partake in. Whale has departed the not so friendly confines of Metropolis, due to Intergang’s interference, for the purported greener pastures of Gotham. Many Batvillains are mysteriously missing due to the enigmatic exploits of the Suicide Squad, who are additionally abetted by the duplicitious deeds of the Penguin, therefore creating a void in the Gotham gang landscape. Whale’s exodus ultimately accomplished little since Intergang, fiendishly assisted by Desaad himself, have also infiltrated Gotham for their own ulterior agenda. The frustrating irony is that up until that point, things were just getting interesting, specifically with references of Bane forsaking his role with the Squad and shrewdly scheming his next grand gambit against Batman. Sadly, this direction is not explored further and alas is the last that we see of him. As for Batman, we do not see much of him either, with most of his screen time consumed by a supposed significant yet basically pointless and decompressed fight scene between him and Vigilante, a clash made all the less climactic due to a paucity of any pretext or buildup whatsoever. Some may even wonder who in the world Vigilante is. This type of tale that favors style over substance certainly has its limitations, but if envisioned properly, can be fun and exciting. All of the misplaced prominence on a somewhat silly gang war regrettably resigned the more deserving and dramatic aspects into the background, making one wonder what might have been. If Tieri had reigned in the excess slightly and sensibly streamlined the players down to a select few, the end result may have lived up to its advance expectations. At least the cover concept was cool.
4 Stars Pretty Good
Gotham Underground tells the tale of the struggle between mobsters such as The Penguin and Tobias Whale, trying to beccome the leader of the Underground, taking up the mantle from the Black Mask. Nearly every single person, good and bad, has a part to play in this story, and in my opinion, it manages to pull it off despite having such a full roster of characters. Still, when you’re trying to balance so many people, overcrowding is bound to happen. From reading other reviews and listening to others readers, this seems to be the main problem that people have with the book. Still, the story is solid, and I’m a big enough fan of the individual characters that I really didn’t mind the overcrowding.
1 Star Dumb and Dumber
Written for kids, was expecting more out of it. The story was weak. The Long Halloween and Dark Victory are vastly superior. Wish I hadn’t purchased it. Finished reading it, hoping it would get better. This graphic novel will be quickly forgotten. On a positive note, I did buy it on amazon and saved myself half of the cover price.
Filed under: Comic Book Reviews