Batman: The Dark Knight #0 Gregg Hurwitz: writer
Mico Suayan and Juan Jose Ryp: pencils
Vicente Cifuentes: inks pages 11-20
The Solicitation
• Batman takes on the most important case of his career as a detective – who murdered his parents? • Meet Joe Chill and explore the epic conspiracy to wipe out the Wayne family!
Preview
Why I Bought It
I liked Hurwitz's issue with the Court of Owls, and I was intrigued to see how this comic would look after letting it go so long ago.
What I Liked
In a slight departure from other Batman books, this one focused on Bruce and his journey to find his parents' killer and bring reason to what happened to them. It was an interesting story to show, mostly because I didn't know what they would focus on. I remember that writer Geoff Johns had originally brought back Joe Chill as the face of Martha and Thomas Wayne's killer, and that seems to be the same direction they are going with this one.
Just like Detective Comics, this origin story seems like it would fit in with the recent Batman trilogy if they hadn't already covered Joe Chill in the first movie. And by fit in, i mean that it would reside in an alternate universe where Chill wasn't connected to the mob and Bruce had a chance to point a gun at him. Besides that, this would fit right in with that universe.
For not featuring Batman in costume at all this issue, it certainly was beautiful. I was surprised they didn't have Batman appearing on the last panel or anything standing over his grave in a similar fashion as young Bruce was in the beginning of the comic with the empty clothes of his parents laid out besides him. That image was an excellent one to show as it clearly demonstrates the grief that Bruce is feeling from the incident.
What I Didn't Like
I don't know if it was the author's intent or not, but this book was moving along very nicely until it had a picture of the Joker next to Bruce. Well, it wasn't a picture so much as it was melting paint on a wall. That moment sorta pulled you out of the picture of a relatively well written comic. And it wasn't just the Joker image, it was the line of text they had next to it - "At the end of the day, my parents died because a guy wanted a pearl necklace."
If we go with the idea that the Joker image, which came seemingly out of nowhere, was supposed to be way of looking at that line as a sex joke, then it was a bad one.
Seriously, if that wasn't intentional, then it is just sad, sad timing.
Panel to Remember
If we take away the Joker image, then I'm going with the title page where Bruce was sitting next to the empty clothes of his parents. That just hit a mark that was wonderful to see.
Quotable
"I didn't mean to." - Joe Chill after meeting a grown up Bruce Wayne. And if you aren't dead right now, then there are probably a legion of super villains willing to take you out.
Grades
Words: 8/10
Pictures: 8/10
Buy Next Issue: This would have been 9/10 all the way for both, but that last panel really stuck with me, in the wrong way. I would consider getting more books from these guys though.
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