I was looking forward to this issue, but not because it marked Jim Lee's debut in the DC Universe and return to regular pencilling chores. No, it was Jeph Loeb's name that caught my eye. I enjoyed his work on Batman: The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, but it was his work with a different character -- the Man of Steel -- that really had me chomping at the bit to see what he had up his sleeve for the Dark Knight.
In his debut on Superman in the fall of 1999, Loeb breathed new life into the character's world and grabbed my attention with a sharp, grounded script. I was hoping for a similar kind of renewed energy and fresh perspective in Batman, but I was disappointed to find some fairly typical super-hero fare.
The son of one of Gotham's well-to-do is kidnapped, and while the government agents worry about delivering the ransom, the Batman sets out to rescue the boy. Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to carry this kidnapping out, hiring some expensive muscle to do the job, including Killer Croc. While the Batman contends with a very different kind of Killer Croc, someone else is keeping tabs on the ransom money... though perhaps not for selfless reasons.
Lee is clearly inspired by Frank Miller in his take on the Dark Knight here, but I think the homage goes so far as to bury Lee's usually lithe, fluid style in the bulk of the Miller approach. The action is exciting and the detail is meticulous, but there are other visual elements that don't work well at all. The kidnap victim looks rather odd. Lee's depiction of the character reminds me of the work of one of many Jim Lee clones from a few years ago who just didn't get things right; I feel like I'm looking at J. Scott Campbell's rougher work on the original Gen13 limited series at times here. I don't care the new non-design of Croc. He is portrayed inconsistently, to say the least.
I kept waiting for the creators to show me something new. That's essentially what's been promised with this new creative team. While they do offer up a decent, traditional super-hero story, the innovation these creators are capable of isn't apparent in their first issue. I hope to find it in the next one.
