One month away from the big anniversary issue and we finish out this short two-issue arc to make way for Grant Morrison's return. While I rather enjoyed the first issue of this story, it petered out by the time this issue came along. It had a very promising start, though. The scene between Batman and Firefly in Arkham was well written, and was nearly a pretty big tist on the visits Batman's paid to Arkham Asylum in the past. Batman busting out Firefly? That's pretty wild.
Unfortunately though, it wasn't delivered or really followed up on in the next few pages. We're given some decent exposition by Firefly on some of the crimes that went down last issue, but with little to no follow-through, I was a bit disappointed.
It's also difficult to tell exactly what Daniel's doing with The Riddler here. It seems that Batman deduces that The Riddler is the sole villain responsible for the bad things that go down in this story, but that "deduction" seems contradicted by the following couple of pages. Is this The Riddler coming back as the grand villain he was? If it is, it's not very good. If he has to come back as a villain at all, it's a shame that Dini's work on him is getting thrown out, but make his return to villainy grander than this. The character deserves more (again, if that is indeed the case).
Guillem March's work in this issue was good. Sometimes his finishes seem a little too bright for this Gotham City, but he still does a good job of giving clear renderings of the world and the characters, and his emotive ability is impressive. He also draws one hell of a creepy Joker-Toxin infection.
Overall, this issue isn't as good as the last one, so I'd say that this story is about even with Daniel's first outing in "Life After Death." Maybe he wasn't given enough breathing room with only two issues, but seeing his artwork return to the title along with Grant Morrison's return to the writing will be a welcome reunion for issues #700-702. And hopefully after that, Daniel can write and pencil a story where he has full breathing room to play in when he returns to both duties.
