Though I liked Bane when he was first used, continuing use in some of the worst event-oriented stories DC had to offer have dulled my interest in the character, and so Beatty was on shaky ground with this story in the first place. Some overly cutesy dialogue, a groaner of a cliffhanger and a pair of artists who couldn't be more mismatched only exacerbated the problems. On the upside, the globe-trotting adventure style is quite a bit of fun, and Beatty keeps the story accessible even for those who haven't read all the crossovers leading up to it, and the backup black and white story from Cooke and Wray is entertaining.
Beatty opens the story on something of a light note, and while I appreciate any attempts to get Batman away from the overly grim persona he has adopted in recent years, I thought Beatty went a bit too far with the banter between the characters in the opening scenes. It's nothing glaring, but the way Robin talks and certain expressions ("big brother?") make him sound more like Dick Grayson than Tim Drake, and Batman comes off as a little too laid back.
On the other hand, the tension between Bane and the extended Bat family was pretty solid. I had a little trouble at first figuring out why this team would let someone who almost killed their boss hang out so easily, until I realized that they didn't have a choice, and that he was too dangerous to fight simply for revenge. Beatty conveys this feeling, as well as the tension resulting when the characters want to confront Bane but defer to Batman's (impaired?) judgment instead. I was less than happy with the cliffhanger, which strikes me as either a horrendously bad idea or a cheesy fakeout.
Beatty also is not well-served by his artists, as Mike Collins and Bill Sienkiewicz, while fine individually, are not so good together. It's clear that Collins left plenty of details to be embellished (even defined) by the inker, and Sienkiewicz's more loose and scratchy style leaves plenty of things in the dark instead. The style is long on gritty atmosphere, but short on storytelling, and there are actually some story points that aren't clear as a result.
More impressive is the backup story, a fun little black and white tale written by Darwyn Cooke with art by Bill Wray. Wray's goofy cartoon style is perfect for the tone that Cooke establishes, and Wray seems to be channeling Frank Miller and Bruce Timm at the same time, an appropriate combination of influences for the work. Cooke's story has a great idea behind it, and a funny conclusion, and it works perfectly in the space allotted, and probably would have seemed stretched out in a different format.
