After two very good issues (despite the godawful Dan Didio story that opened #2), Batman: Black and White #3 is the first issue that doesn't live up to expectations by serving up some really great looking comics with some very forgettable stories. The opening story, Rule Number One, written and drawn by the brilliant Lee Bermejo is a head-scratcher if only in terms of figuring out the principal character (not Batman). We see a young man on a classic motorcycle as he drives into the bad part of Gotham (isn't it all pretty much bad?) to score drugs. We know he's working with Batman and that this is part of his plan but who is the young man? Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake or someone completely new? The problem is that all three Robins kinda look alike and because they've been drawn by hundreds of artists over the years, there's no single definitive look. Besides trying to figure out the character's identity, it's just an ok story: Batman beats up some drug dealers nothing we haven't seen before who knows how many times. Bermejo riffs on superhero rules of honour but to base an entire story around it is a bit flimsy. However, Batman always looks amazing drawn by Bermejo who is simply an extraordinary artist (and if you haven't read his book, Batman: Noel, check it out it's nearly Christmas-time anyway!) and this story is no exception. The amount of detail he gives to the classic motorcycle too is incredible. From there the issue follows the same pattern: great art, boring story. Artist Damion Scott lends his unique design sensibilities of melding graffiti, superheroes and hip hop to a dreary metaphorical tale of Batman stuck in a hall of mirrors being pursued by his rogues gallery. The single page layouts are amazing like the Scarecrow one where he hallucinates his childhood in an instant - but the story itself is lacking. It's a series of great images without a strong narrative tying them together.
Rian Hughes' contribution features his wonderful art and resurrects Tal-Dar, a Silver Age alien character, in a bafflingly abstract story where retro defeats post-modernism(!?) I can't even begin to get into this story but it's like literary theory brought to life with Batman somehow thrown into the mix. Again, great art, this time with a 60s flavour to it, but what a boring story! Comics legend Marv Wolfman writes An Innocent Man, a story of complicated morality between Batman and the Joker which didn't really say all that much about their heavily-documented relationship that fans haven't read before, which is disappointing given Wolfman's reputation. Paul Dini writes the best story in the issue with Role Models, drawn by Stephane Roux. A young girl is abducted by a kidnapper and escapes, looking for help from Batman but instead finding Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy who're about to rob a bank. The kidnapper shows up and completely underestimates the femmes fatales he runs into with Batman showing up just in time to, oddly, rescue the kidnapper. In a better collection, Role Models wouldn't stand out much as it's just an ok strip, but given the mediocrity of the other contributions in this issue, it does stand out as the most interesting. Dini remains a stalwart Batman writer. Batman: Black and White is a great series that, as previous issues have shown, can entertain enormously with brief stories that take different tacks to familiar characters and scenarios to create something original, fresh and clever, but unfortunately, despite containing some really excellent artwork, Batman: Black and White #3 fails to do this.
Published by DC, Batman: Black and White #3 by various artists is out now