9 Comics You Should Be Reading This Week (18th Oct)
2. All Star Batman #3
DC, Snyder/Romita Jr./Shalvey/Miki/White/Bellaire
Worth Reading For: The Two-Sided Coin of Mania and Beauty.
“All Star Batman” is, first and foremost, a story of villains. Batman is on the run from every villain in the ‘Bat-canon’ (and a couple from the fringes) after Harvey Dent offered a cash reward for his capture … if the villains don’t take the cash reward, however, he’ll expose all their secrets. Lose Lose, you might say. Meanwhile Batman is tied to Dent - in more ways than one - as he tries to find a ‘cure’ for his … well, ‘madness’.
#3 makes good on Snyder’s promise to ‘amplify’ rather than change any origin stories, and we see Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent as two sides of the same coin - Boys 2A and 2B. The narrative of “My Own Worst Enemy” works brilliantly as a ‘Road Novel,’ punching the beats of the story with “Mile Markers” throughout.
Whereas the second half of the book follows “The Cursed Wheel” arc, drawn masterfully by Declan Shalvey (“Injection”). The best thing about Shalvey’s clean lines here is that the violence, when it hits you, hits you hard. It works as a beautiful, unsettlingly calm side of the coin to Romita Jnr.’s maniacal other and it’ll work every time you re-read it.