Friday, June 5, 2020

Batman #626-630: As the Crow Flies

Reading this 2004 Batman story after all these years was an interesting experience. In many ways, it acts as the prelude to Judd Winick's landmark Batman run, but there are definitely insights to be gained from looking at it alone.

For a start, this is a Batman story and a good one at that. It showcases the strengths of the character by building on what so many previous creators have turned his adventures into, in the process posing some interesting questions. 

By utilizing his famous villains and a generic status quo, it almost seems like a more adult interpretation of the famous Batman: The Animated Series.

Interestingly, the character himself is largely relegated to the role of a detective opposing Penguin and Scarecrow, who receive most of the character development here. Penguin is by and large playing the role of a mob boss, in line with the modern interpretation of the character, while the Scarecrow is depicted as his subordinate, desperate to please him. The story introduces another character as his assistant, but she is mostly kept to the sidelines in order to further the mystery. 

As for the central premise, it deals with the men allied with the Penguin being terrorised by fear and eventually hounded by a horrible Scarebeast. The principal antagonists are astonished that their plan to better control the mobsters has somehow turned awry, but the Batman will be the one to truly put a stop to the carnage and get to the bottom of things. And while an attentive reader will be able to piece together the identity of the mystery villain, that only serves as a testament to the story logic at work.


Winick is very self-assured when writing this story, featuring a lot of action and pacing it to build upon and maintain the momentum. He is at every point aided by the art team of Dustin Nguyen and Richard Friend, who provide a very brash and impactful version of Gotham city.

It may seem that an over the top detective story will be par for the course for the Batman titles, but not many of them have this level of craft attached to them. While a longtime reader has seen this type of story many times before, rarely has it been as engaging. We have seen Batman face hideous monsters before, we have seen him dealing with the power struggles in Gotham's underworld, these are all standard Batman tropes, but they are rarely this propulsive and entertaining. 



As for the foreshadowings of Winick's Under the Hood mega-arc, they are subtle but effective. In a way, the whole of "As the crow flies" feels like a creator getting used to the character while preparing to tell a more daring storyline. And while acting as a forerunner to a more acclaimed story might appear to diminish the creators' efforts here, this isn't done in any way to the detriment of the readers.

Without making any grand statements to the character like the famous "Batman: Hush" storyline that preceded it and in many ways set the stage for the idea of returning Jason Todd to the Batman titles, this story took Winick and a fresh off the Wildcats 3.0 Dustin Nguyen to the task of crafting a solid superhero story. They have certainly achieved this and turned "As the Crow Flies" into a story that will help new fans fall in love with the character and his mileu, and remind older readers of what "Batman" is like when it works.

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