This was an enjoyable series. I found myself liking the character of The Reaper even if he is a bit one-dimensional (vendetta religious crusader type) and even if his character has been somewhat done before Shadow, and even if its a somewhat silly bridge from Shadow to Batman as crusaders who tried to save Gotham, I still liked the stories, the character, and the parallels they had it draw between him and Batman - especially in the closing FULL CIRCLE arc with Robin and Joe Chill's (grand)kid. ( )

Batman: Year Two – Fear the Reaper collects Batman nos. 575-578 and Batman: Full Circle written by Mike W. Barr with pencils by Alan Davis and Todd McFarlane and inks by Paul Neary, Mark Farmer, Alfredo Alcala, and Pablo Marcos. In his introduction, Barr writes, “My desire, when writing Batman, was to create stories in the tradition of [Bill] Finger, [Gardner] Fox, and Alvin Schwartz. Stories full of action and inescapable deathtraps, a dollop of detection, Batman and Robin’s relationship, and colorful villains – using established foes when they worked, but hopefully also adding something new to the mix. You can’t just cut the lumber; you have to reforest as well” (pg. 7). Where Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One stripped Batman to his gritty roots, Barr sought to return some of the color and make him a superhero while still telling a fairly grounded story. Further, this was meant to help bridge the chasm between Year One and The Dark Knight Returns, which references some of the more colorful events of Batman’s past.

The plot focuses on the tenuous partnership between the newly-promoted Commissioner Gordon and Batman as a villain from Gotham’s past resurfaces and begins anew his brutal war on crime. Bruce Wayne tries to balance his goals to inspire the city with his need to defeat the Reaper. After failing to beat the Reaper using nonlethal methods, Batman takes up the gun that killed his parents and forms a truce with the mob, even partnering with Joe Chill, the man who killed Thomas and Martha Wayne. Bruce also tries to have a personal life, though he does not realize that Rachel Caspian – who suffered a loss similar to Bruce – is the daughter of the Reaper. Over the course of the four chapters, Batman alienates his friends and allies in order to defeat the Reaper, even considering killing Joe Chill in revenge. The fifth chapter reprints Full Circle, which takes place shortly after Batman took Robin under his wing. In the follow-up, Joe Chill’s son adopts the mantle of the Reaper in order to kill the Batman, who he blames for his father’s death. Barr’s writing continues to be quick, with good dramatic moments and even a classic Bat-villain death trap, while Davis’s pencils neatly capture a blend between Dick Sprang’s and Neal Adam’s work, much like Tim Sale would later.

Unlike Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One, the art in Year Two is somewhat inconsistent. The first chapter, with Alan Davis’s pencils and Paul Neary’s inks, closely resembles the classic aesthetic of Neal Adams. Todd McFarlane provided the pencils for the other three chapters of Year Two with inks by Alfredo Alcala on chapters two and three to help keep the art looking crisp. McFarlane did his own inking on chapter four, leading to a style that resembles the unpolished work of Frank Miller on The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Alan Davis returned to do pencil work on Full Circle with Mark Farmer as inker, using a style that better matches that of the first three chapters.

Sadly, Zero Hour: Crisis in Time erased Year Two from continuity, but fans of Batman will find plenty to enjoy here. The Reaper and certain elements of the story were later incorporated into Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Though DC published a Batman: Year Three in Batman nos. 436-439, they’ve never collected them into a single trade paperback. After the New 52 reboot, Scott Snyder and James Tynion’s Batman: Zero Year became the official origin. ( )

The first of many overt attempts to "cash in" on Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One, this would be followed by Batman: Year Three, JLA: Year One, Batgirl: Year One, Robin: Year One, Nightwing: Year One, Huntress: Year One, and even Metamorpho: Year One and the (tragically uncollected, I'm sure) Guy Gardner: Year One. There's nothing to really distinguish Year Two from the slew of tales of Batman's early years that followed it in publication order, many of which I've already read. Basically Batman discovers that the Reaper, a vigilante who operated in Gotham after the Alan Scott Green Lantern and before himself is back, and things get weird as he decides this is the time he'll use a gun... and not just any gun, but literally the same gun that killed his parents. And, get this, thanks to contrivance, he has to team up with the guy who killed his parents to do it. Even for superhero comics, this is a bit goofy/implausible, but I think that in principle it could be made to work. Well, unfortunately Mike Barr and a cohort of artists don't succeed, but man, Alan Davis draws nice pictures.

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This is an excellent Batman book that I'm surprised I've missed over the years. The Reaper returns to Gotham and reminds Batman that there is more than one way to run vigilante justice. When The Reaper proves to be a problem for the Bat, he is then through a series of events partnered up with Joe Chill, the murderer of his parents, to hunt The Reaper. Also, the one shot collected at the end of this volume is another great story all its own that develops straight from the pages of Fear the Reaper. Highly, highly recommended Batman reading. ( )

This is an excellent Batman book that I'm surprised I've missed over the years. The Reaper returns to Gotham and reminds Batman that there is more than one way to run vigilante justice. When The Reaper proves to be a problem for the Bat, he is then through a series of events partnered up with Joe Chill, the murderer of his parents, to hunt The Reaper. Also, the one shot collected at the end of this volume is another great story all its own that develops straight from the pages of Fear the Reaper. Highly, highly recommended Batman reading. ( )