Reviewer: Andy Logan
Story Title: City of Crime, Part 3: The Horror Show
Writer & Layouts: David Lapham
Penciled by: Ramon Bachs
Inked by: Nathan Massengill
Lettered by Jared K. Fletcher
Colored by: Jason Wright
Editor: Bob Schrek
Publisher: DC Comics
It’s been a slow, steady and intriguing start to this story arc so far – appropriately so, considering that it’s a 12-issue story. Can’t rush the pace with so many issues to fill, oh no.
Regular readers of my reviews (hi, Ma!) will be aware of my prediliction for stories that take their own sweet time to build up and come to the boil; and of my love for plots that tease, twist and turn in myriad directions along their merry way.
I’ve been told that David Lapham is a “hot” name in the writing world; now it could be my usual naivety regarding my peers identities – or just a case of plain old ignorance – but this is the first time I’ve come across any of his work anywhere. (Sorry David!)
Suffice to say…I’m impressed. So far, Lapham (he only…you know the rest) is demonstrating that he’s got a canny hand for the skill of drawing the most from a serial story – teasing us with a small revelation that suddenly makes certain things make sense, only to suddenly further complicate OTHER things by having that revelation lead to even more, even bigger, unanswered questions.
That’s the beauty of comics – when they’re done right. At the end of every issue, you get a cliffhanger that leaves you eager to get your hands on the next issue and see it resolved; only when it’s resolved, you find that there are more answers to be found, and another cliffhanger confronts you at the end of THAT issue, dragging you ever further down the path of the story.
The idea behind this is that you can’t wait to find out what happens next, you just HAVE to see how things turn out, so there’s absolutely no doubt that you won’t buy the next issue. The true skill, however, is giving enough information away in the next issue so that you feel the story is advancing, but not so much that all your questions are answered and there’s no reason to carry on reading. Oh, and the answers you get should always lead you into asking more questions, so that there’s no chance you’ll get bored with the on-going story.
Chris Claremont used to be the absolute master at this – although he sometimes had a nasty habit of throwing plot points and teasers in the air then either forgetting about them, or ignoring them completely, and it’s only been in later years that subsequent writers have had to try and tie things together…not always with pleasing results, it has to be said.
(We waited sooooo long to find out Nightcrawler’s real origins and who his real parents were…and we got The Draco. Shudder.)
In the modern day, witness Brian K. Vaughan in the excellent Y: The Last Man, he’s a genius at this slow drip feed of storytelling, also giving enough away to keep us satisfied and keep the story unfolding, whilst always creating enough new mysteries to keep us coming back for more.
David Lapham, ably assisted by mean, moody and very atmospheric grubby pencils from Ramon Bachs, is deftly making expert use of that skill within this story arc. I have to be honest, it’s not the greatest story I’ve ever read, but it’s just gripping and intriguing enough to make it fun and interesting, and that’s why I’ll keep coming back to it.
Batman is still on the hunt for a missing woman – Cassie Wells – who, it’s looking increasingly likely, has been the victim of the Penguin’s illegal “body farming” set-up. As he hunts down the clues and follows his leads, his frustrating mounting somewhat at the laborious process, the trail begins to lead ever closer to The Penguin.
It’s a sensitive subject, the idea of taking pregnant women and harvesting their babies for money, and, to be fair, Lapham isn’t shying away from the seamy side of it all, portraying those involved on all sides as either desperate, down on their luck, pathetic, or just plain evil – there is no attempt to generate any sympathy, and nor should there be.
Mr Freeze is portrayed well – his natural psychotic tendancies all too apparent by his actions – and it’s one of the most chilling (ahem!) renditions of the character I’ve come across in a while, without him even saying a single word. Indeed, the fate of one of the Penguin’s henchmen, a slow, (I’m guessing painful) death as he thaws out right before Batman’s eyes, is a little bit of a gruesome read.
The Penguin himself is, as always, an unbalanced, whiny, avaricious and unpredictable little gimp, his desire to attain material wealth and exert power and control over others to make up for his physical shortcomings all too obvious.
Another player appears to be part of the process too, and there is an assasination attempt that may or may not have succeeded to close off the issue’s events. You see what I mean about the cliffhanger? You just GOTS to know what happens in issue #804! Well, I do, anyway…
Things are unfolding nicely, at a satisfying pace, and Lapham is showing that just because you open a door to reveal what’s inside, it doesn’t mean you can’t suddenly point out to us a whole new set of doors that we haven’t been through yet and didn’t even know were there in the first place.
It’s well worth a look if you’re after a satisfying, intriguing story with plenty of detective work, a slice of the seedier side of life, and more twists and turns than a Formula One racetrack.
