Reviewer: Tim Sheridan
Story Title: “City of Crime” Part 1
Written by David Lapham
Layouts: David Lapham
Penciller: Ramon Bachs
Inker: Nathan Massengill
Letters: Jared K Fletcher
Colors: Jason Wright
Assoc Editor: Nachie Castro
Editor: Bob Shreck
Published by: DC Comics
I have been looking forward to this story for a long time. Since I heard David Lapham was going to be on a Batman book, I have been anticipating it. It just sounded like such a cool idea to me. I thought Lapham would have had a great take on the Dark Knight. I was quite disappointed when his take was so…generic.
I was a bit dismayed last month when his unofficial prelude to this story did nothing for me. But I thought “oh, it’s only 8 pages, he can do better”. So when I finished this first full issue of his Batman arc, I was really bummed.
It’s not bad. It’s just the same as thousands of other Batman stories we’ve all read before. I was non-plussed to find out this was a “pre War Games” story too. Not that I was all that impressed with War Games, but it’s always nice to have a continuing story. This is not that. This is not Batman picking up the pieces of his city. Honestly, I don’t know where this takes place. Detective comics always seemed to be the unofficial “Batman and Robin” book, with the two of them solving crimes together. And while Robin does show up and make a really lame comment at the end of the book, this “City of Crime” seemed like more of the type of story found over in Legends of the Dark Knight.
This first part of City of Crime was very much a mood piece. We see glimpses of peoples’ lives in Gotham, and then flashes of how Batman and/or Bruce Wayne comes in contact with those lives. Perhaps I need to read it again to pick up some of the more subtle attributes to the story, but it just didn’t do anything for me.
City of Crime is a 12-part story that will run throughout Detective for the next year, and it’s setting itself up to be one of those epic stories. So when I read it all at once, perhaps it will hold up better. It’s a densely written story with a lot to take in. I don’t want to say that it’s overwritten, but it’s not always the most fun.
I have faith in David Lapham. Some people have called him the next Bendis, because he has been working on his indie comics for so long, and is finally making it with the big publishers. I don’t know if that’s true yet. Lapham is quite talented, so I hope he does well. But something just bothers me about this story. Perhaps I expected too much? I don’t know.
I did enjoy Ramon Bachs art. He did some work for War Games, so it is nice to have him back. His work is clear, but moody, and it works very well with the story.
