The inside jacket reads "Killer Croc as a street-hustlin' pimp? The Joker coming to the aid of Batman? You've never seen the streets of Gotham City like this before!"
That is a marketer trying to crap into your head.

It's just your basic dark knight angsting out in the dark night. He wigs out about his childhood, there are some incredible twists (as in not credible) and the ending makes little sense. But at least it isn't Batman in the suburbs.

Maybe we've all been a little spoiled by Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns", but this is all pretty Meh. ( )

A delicious neo-noir Batman story, with essence of Maltese Falcon, in which Batman tries to find the brutal killer of an underworld moll. The trail is complex, with many red herrings, and eventually leads to Killer Croc, Penguin, Scarface and the Joker. There are also a couple of new players in town, with abilities that are not quite made clear, nor how Batman is able to defeat them. And the Joker's connection is not quite clear, either. But the writing and artwork are perfect for the atmosphere here, and there are some bits that delve into Batman's psyche that, amazingly, can still wring some seminal meaning from the horrible event that created him. I look forward to more work from this team, if Azzarello can pay a little more attention to plot in addition to mood. ( )

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