4 out of 5

In my brief forays into the worlds of Marvel and DC, I’m generally there for a particular writer, and generally one I’ve followed from non-Marvel / -DC projects. Tom Taylor is one of the exceptions: I think I picked up Tom’s Wolvie book on a whim, and was impressed by how he navigated the waters of the Big Two, in which even the most distinctive of writers can get sucked into house styles of quippdom or Event exhaustion. Tom writes a lot of books, and moneys had me making some choices to not follow him around, but whispers of a quality Batman run had me curious – long-running, good gigs on Supes or Batman are rare nowadays (especially if you’re not particularly a Scott Snyder fan), and I wanted to see what was up. I’m still sitting on some trades to catch up, but a standalone annual? Seems like a great way to see how things are going.

…Pretty well!! In fact, if not for the backup in the annual, this would’ve been a five across the board: not only does Tom have a distinct voice for Bruce / Batman, he manages to do two magical things – tread through some common Bats concepts of regretting the life he can never have; and referencing a particularly everyone-knows-this-reference classic issue – in the former instance, he finds a valuable, fun way to reframe that common concept; and in the latter instance, it’s such a fun twist on the reference that it doth not offend – it, in fact, pays true tribute while not hanging on it for nostalgia.

Nicola Scott just gets better and better, man. Her style has evolved to have some character notes and layout sensibilities from Cameron Stewart and Chris Burnham, but the timing, acting, and overall expressiveness are all hers. Colorist Annette Kwok proves critical here as well, moving us across gloomy and glowing takes on Gotham and outer space realms – this is a team-up with Lobo after all. Both artists prop up Taylor’s script, which does the magic tricks mentioned above as Lobo shows up with a contract for Bats for having killed an alien big-wig, said contract halted by Bats hiring Lobo in turn to help him find the actual killer. This is, already, a perfect crossover pitch that gets both characters out of their comfort zones to an extent, and Taylor gives each character so much room to shine it really does underline how much you can accomplish in one issue without it feeling like a rush.

Dave Wielgosz’s / Fran Mariscal’s backup is an interesting idea that kind of unwinds in execution. Marsical’s painted work seems like it’s not always cued to Wielgosz’s script – timing + what’s being depicted versus the narration is slightly off; some beats just don’t get sold very well. I think this could’ve worked really well with a better fit on art (I quite like Fran’s look – it fits thematically, and their scenes of the villain are appropriately creepy – but the creatives just weren’t syncing), though I think Dave falls back on some trite dialogue when trying to stuff his story (and commentary) into only the pages allotted by a backup. Again, though, cool idea: an artist’s collective in Gotham serves as a safe haven for some talented folks, until a particular patron moves in – one with an interest in Batman – and starts making trouble.