| Comic Review | Dana Place |
Batman
and the Monster Men
#5 (of 6)
Story and Art: Matt Wagner
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letters: Rob Leigh
Plot: In issue 5 of Batman and the Monster Men, Lieutenant
Gordon is under investigation by his superiors who feel he
is hampering the investigation into a new vigilante bat type
man that has been fighting crime in Gotham. Batman has his
first run in with Hugo Strange, a geneticist who is creating
monsters to do his evil bidding. All while dealing with
Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend’s debt ridden father.
Review: I have been a fan of Matt Wagner since I picked up
my first issue of Grendel; so throw him into a Batman comic
and you have my complete attention. Basing this series in
the first years of Batman’s existence, Matt Wagner manages
to mix all of the familiar issues that have come up in
Batman’s first years with a fun story about his first
encounter with a fairly regular villain, all while mixing it
up a little with an animated art style that you normally
don’t see in mainstream comics with a marquee hero. It seems
Matt Wagner is taking an age old comic book hero and
bringing a less “by the numbers” type of storytelling and
art that is normally only allowed in lesser tier comics and
writers with more credentials (like Frank Miller). I think
DC’s decision to bring on Matt Wagner to put together a
Batman comic was inspired. You need to check it out.
Special thanks go out to Jeremy Shorr, owner of
Titan Comics for allowing us to use his advance
preview books for review purposes.
