I was on the fence when it came to this book and its original solicitation in Previews. The premise sounded intriguing, but it's certainly a pricey volume. Ultimately, Joe Casey's savvy and Hamner's sharp style won me over, and I decided to order the book. I'm pleased that I did. The premise is creepy and clever, but what really caught my attention here was Casey's take on a young Bruce Wayne and what seem to be the initial mistakes he made in his life when initially embarking upon his mission of vengeance.
Bruce Wayne has returned to Gotham, and he's behaving with a man obsessed... with the bottom line, that is. He assumed control of Wayne Enterprises, and he's put his board of directors to work trimming the corporation's fat. One of those sacrificed to Wayne's aggressive corporate approach is a little man named Ted, and losing his job isn't even his biggest problem. Ted's been seeing things... horrible visions of the future, visions that are coming true. A local hood catches wind of Ted's unusual ability, and decides to put it to good use.
Hamner's artwork walks a fine line between some twisted, even goofy imagery -- the dweeby quality of Ted, and the smarminess of the reporter hounding Wayne -- and the darker, edgier appeal of the Dark Knight. Dexter Vines brightly a slightly lighter tone to Hamner's pencils -- just compare the artwork here to Hamner's solo linework efforts on this week's Red #2 -- but it never goes too far, never ventures into a tone that's too cartoony for the subject matter. Loughridge brings an eerie quality to the art with the colors, reinforces the unsettling tone that Ted and his visions bring to the tale.
By the end of the issue, Casey transforms Ted from a pathetic, pitiable figure into a creepy, chilling. By the end of the book, Ted's insanity is clear, and the bloody image and action used to convey it are disturbing.
There's one aspect of this book that puzzles me, and it has nothing to do with the storytelling. Rather, it's the format. I'm curious why DC didn't release the entirety of this story as an original graphic novel. It's proven it's not afraid to explore the format, and this material seems like it might have made a good fit. I'm sure the publisher has some numbers to justify it's move, but this two-parter seems like it would have worked well as one volume.
The most fascinating aspect of this script for me was Bruce Wayne's apparently kneejerk manipulations of his corporate interests. They don't paint in him in a positive light at all, and they speak to a young man's shortsightedness and overconfidence. Wayne's not just playing with the economy of his own company, but the economy of an entire city and maybe further. It's this plotline that requires the story to be told early on in the Batman's crimefighting career, and it brings a much different kind of flaw to a character that's often defined by his flaws.
