| $@%&! level: Low “Bedroom” level: Low Violence level: Medium-High Back Cover: “There's a host of deadly new weapons in Batman's glittering, sinister city—and they're in the hands of a psychotic mastermind called White Eyes. With his murderous arsenal in place, the fiendish leader of Gotham's racist Bavarian Brotherhood can move beyond dealing drugs and hot guns to pursue his real passion: the white supremacist takeover of America. The homegrown terrorists' first strike—at the heart of our nation's capital—is only weeks away. But first they'll test out their killer toy on Batman, who is hot on the trial of White Eyes and his brutal militia. Ounce for ounce, muscle for muscle, Batman's no match for the cunning villain and his wicked new firepower. At least, that's how White Eyes sees it. Batman has other ideas....” |
So, this is Batman versus a homegrown anti-government militia group, led of course by a charismatic psychopath. White Eyes isn’t Batman’s usual type of villain, though. He may be bent on terrorist action, but he’s far less flamboyant about the whole thing than the various inmates of Arkham, doesn’t appear to have any superhuman powers, and isn’t even particularly deformed, although the steroids might have something to say there. I find it kind of nice to every once in a while have Batman up against something that could actually happen in the real world. Oh, I doubt any group like this would get access to weapons like in the book, but this kind of thing makes me wonder how Batman actually would have handled a real life militia compound.
But I’m jumping ahead. I seem to be reviewing this book backwards, in fact. Before we even get to the final confrontation, Batman has to find the bad guys first. There’s some good detective work (including scaring the pants off some low-level thugs), a decent love interest, and because this is set early in his career there’s some moments of deep self-doubt as well. So that gives a bit of a character journey as well as the exciting adventure. All of the build up lasts, I admit, longer than I would like, but I suspect that’s more a failing on my part than that of the book. I’m always impatient to see Batman being boss awesome. And he does deliver that in plenty when the time comes, because some muscle-bound idiot gave a mad scientist-type doctor a killing playground and some hostages to toy with.
After all that, the attack on the White House is almost an anti-climax.