Tuesday, October 12, 2021

I Am Batman #2 Review




Anarky On The Streets...... Literally


Written By: John Ridley
Art By: Stephen Segovia, Rex Lokus, Troy Peteri
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 12, 2021


What's going on with the next Batman now that we saw that Anarky went and got himself all shot to hell at the end of the last issue? Well, probably the same thing he's been doing since The Next Batman: Second Son, where he was trying to take down a sleazeball named Arkadine, who was tied in with a conspiracy to get civilian protestors shot, not to mention a person over the internet known as The Seer, who is spreading false information and raising an army through fear and paranoia. Let's jump into this issue and see what Jace Fox is up to now that he's got his Batman costume and has that legacy on his side. Let's check it out.


In this issue of I Am Batman we see that things are ramping up on the streets of Gotham when we discover the person who killed Anarky is a part of a group inspired by "The Seer" to take back the streets for themselves and to be their own hero, The Moral Authority, which preys on people with the idea that they're special in some way....... and while this is a compelling concept, it feels kind of out of nowhere, especially when we discover that there's a bunch of different groups like this inspired by The Seer. Things just seem to be way more out of control in Gotham here than in any other book that's still dealing with the Magistrate and while that's still going on in the background of this book..... You know, since it is Gotham, that aspect is pushed aside so that Jace alone can deal with The Seer while the Bat-Family can deal with Scarecrow and Simon Saint.  




Beyond our Batman action and the problems Jace is facing, we do have some really cool behind the scenes ideas being presented by our supporting cast with Detective Chubb and Whitaker and also a really interesting complex perspective on what role Tanya Fox is playing with the anti-mask agenda that I look forward to exploring further. By the end, though we get Jace Fox showing the idea of fear and how it's used but our new hero might have just pulled a rookie move and gotten way in over his head.




All in all, I enjoyed the art in this issue and am really interested in the take of this Batman and how he plans on being different than our usual Caped Crusader, I just wish that this series would have taken some time to really make this Gotham feel like what's going on with the rest of the Bat-Books right now because while The Seer may be different than the fake Oracle going on in Fear State, it feels too similar and if they are the same I don't understand why we would have a disconnect with this or why Jace seems to be disconnected from the Magistrate problem. That being said though, I do appreciate this having its own identity........ I guess I have mixed feelings about it overall but I like where it's heading.


Bits and Pieces:


I Am Batman continues to explore the beginning of Jace Fox's career and how he plans to be a different kind of Batman and in this issue, we see that his approach might just put a target on his back and while I like the rookie moves that Jace is making, the real bits I enjoy are exploring the behind the scenes people who are dealing with the anti-mask campaign and their perspectives on the situation. This book looks great and I dig where we're going I just wish things didn't feel so disconnected at times from the rest of the Bat-Books and that this series had more time to establish what's going on.


7.9/10

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