Batman - Four of a Kind

Gotham continues it's downward spiral into madness with four of Batman's rogues gallery making their first appearances here. Now, I mentioned last time that the greatest villains are a reflection of something in the heroes they face. This is something that three of these four stories touch on, and the reason why I didn't enjoy one of them as much as the others. I also didn't enjoy a couple of references which are out of synch with the 'timeline' - namely a reference and brief appearance by Two Face, who doesn't appear until Harvey Dent is attacked with acid in The Long Hallowe'en. Anyway, I'll split this into four sections to make it easier to give my opinions and thoughts in a more coherent manner.

Poison Ivy

I've never been a big fan of Poison Ivy - perhaps it's Uma Thurman's fault - and this story won't do anything to change my mind. It ignored the more successful interpretation of Ivy as an Eco-warrior, to instead portray her as a petty criminal who uses her expertise in poisons to attack the wealthy elite of Gotham and steal their jewellery. 

My main problem was that, unlike the other three storylines, this didn't really attempt to create any sort of motive for the villain, and it only briefly touched on her origins. She simply appeared on the scene, fully in control of her powers, with her supervillain alter ego fully formed. Perhaps it might have been more interesting to see her getting her powers and learning to control them? 

Another complaint was the fact that Batman only happened upon the cure to her toxin by chance. There was no thought to it, no need for him to use his training or some expertise in chemicals. He just kissed Ivy as Batman, which cancelled out the poison from when Wayne kissed her earlier in the evening. I thought this was quite lazy...

There was nothing here that linked Ivy with Batman, and no aspect of her character made her an interesting villain for him to face.

The Riddler.

This was an odd one, in that it seemed to be telling the origins of The Riddler from later on in his career, but it was interesting to see his rise to infamy. For me, Riddler has always been a great villain who is often misused or seen as a bit of a joke. I'm not entirely sure this storyline did much to change that, as it does always seem a bit odd when he is portrayed as this genius who gives the police really simple clues to find him.

This is flipped on its head when both the police and Batman go to the wrong crime scene at first. Perhaps I'm being too picky, as I'm used to The Riddler in Scott Snyder's current run on Batman, as well as the version from the Arkham games.

We leave Riddler strapped up in Arkham asylum, having screamed and thrown a chair through a two way mirror. It was interesting to see Riddler explain his motives as being a desire for attention - but is this his true motivation, or is it a smokescreen he is adopting to pull the wool over his doctors eyes?

The Riddler is always the villain who can 'outthink' the Batman, and he can be interesting when he is allowed to show off this aspect of his character. I think that all too often though he is shown as a gimmick character.

Scarecrow.

For me, this was the strongest of the four tales. It gave us a full origin for Scarecrow, which were all elements I had read or seen before, but I still enjoyed reading them. I grimaced a little when the intro mentioned Two Face, but this is more my own personal issue as I had been getting into the idea of these stories as a timeline. Everything had seemed to fit so perfectly until this point!

We see that Jonathan Crane had a miserable childhood, bullied and ridiculed by his peers. He resolves to defeat fear and use it for his own purposes. Sound familiar?

Scarecrow is another of those villains that is the perfect counterpoint to Batman, in that his methods are the same but the outcomes he is striving for are what differ. Crane uses fear to seek revenge on those who have ridiculed him, or who strip his livelihood away from him. He even researches his victims in order to discover their fears before he strikes. 

Manbat.

I was pleasantly surprised by this storyline. I can honestly say I don't think I have ever read a Manbat story, and I enjoyed the tragic tale of Kirk Langstrom. 

Not really a true villain, more a victim of his circumstances, Langstrom is trying to discover a way to cure his hearing problem. When he is denied funding by the board of directors, he tests his serum on himself, setting off a transformation into a bat/man hybrid. These boards of directors have a lot to answer for!

My favourite sequence in this storyline, and indeed the whole book, was the narration by Langstrom describing the traits which he felt made bats superior animals to others. These are intertwined with images of Batman going about his patrols, fighting a group of criminals who are stealing from Gotham's wealthy elite (you'd think they would move...) This was an excellent sequence which reinforced the reasons that Batman chose the perfect animal as his 'totem'.

I also enjoyed the fight between Batman and Manbat, which was not really a fight as Batman realised that this creature wasn't malicious. Instead he held back and used a tranquilliser to get Langstrom back to his wife. Manbat breaks free again, but not for long as it is his wife's love that gives him pause for long enough so she can inject him with the cure for his serum.

So all in all, an enjoyable collection, but one which made me feel somewhat disconnected from the ongoing storyline which had begun to build over the last few story arcs. I'm hoping that this will level out over the next few volumes. But this will always be an issue with reading a timeline consisting of storylines written in different times, by different creative teams.

Next up - Batman - Venom