Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee have yet to hook me as the new creative team on this title. Mind you, I suppose it shouldn't come as a complete surprise, as the intended new focus here was to turn this title into a more conventional super-hero book. And conventional super-heroics is definitely what we get. But I turn to Loeb for unconventional storytelling. To be fair, though, the creators seem to be still doing a lot of setup at this point; the plot hasn't really gotten under way yet.
The Batman lies in Crime Alley, broken and on the brink of death. The black sheep of the Bat family comes to his rescue, though, but his real salvation lies in the hands of a friend whom Bruce Wayne hasn't seen in years. Meanwhile, Poison Ivy completes a transaction with a mysterious, bandaged figure... someone who seems to have a great deal of hatred for a certainly billionaire playboy.
Now, if I was a woman vigilante and wanted to strike terror into the hearts of the most vile criminal element the city had to offer, I too would wear an outfit that exposed my midriff. In other words, Lee's apparent new design for the Huntress is a disappointing one. He also extends the "ears" on her mask to give her more of a Batman look, but the script reinforces the notion that she doesn't fit in with Gotham's other heroes, nor does she want to.
Mind you, there is one sequence that Lee does incredibly well, and that's the flashback to Bruce's childhood. The credits on this issue give special thanks to Mark Chiarello, and I suspect he had a hand in that scene as well. Just as Lee's work on the previous issue put one in mind of Frank Miller's interpretation of the title character, this flashback reminded me of the style of another noted Batman artist: Tim (The Long Halloween) Sale. It's a ghostly scene, and the whites and greys establish an appropriately foreboding atmosphere.
There are moments in this story when Loeb includes a new bat-gadget that stretches credibility too far (gas vents to prevent the exposure of the Dark Knight's true identity?!?), but there are also other moments that carry a fun "coooooolll" factor. Overall, this is an OK story, but nothing particularly special yet either.
The all-too convenient appearance of a long, lost friend in Bruce's life points to one of the inherent problems of trying to incorporate new elements in the "life" of a long-standing character. Sometimes, it just doesn't ring true. I'll admit, though, that Loeb has piqued my curiosity with the new villain (whom I assume is named Hush, given the title of the story arc and the fact that the character speaks only in whispers).
