After a great second issue, I hate to say that issue #3 took a bit of a dip story-wise. We get a bit of a quieter tale, with Silver St. Cloud and Bruce Wayne literally getting an island to themselves during the day. Bruce takes off every night to do what he needs to do. These moments were good in that they showed Bruce's unwavering commitment to his mission, even in the face of the fairy tale Miss Cloud is giving him. We also finally learn the name of the goat-headed crime fighter that's saved Batman a couple of times over the course of this series: Baphomet. Batman enforces some of his rules, but seems content to allow this newcomer to operate. Through internal monologues, it seems that Batman is also impressed by him, which definitely doesn't hurt an upstart crimefighter's career. But why all this focus on a new character? Something tells me (and I'm sure most of you) that "Baphomet" isn't all that he seems.
Walt Flanagan's pencils have improved yet again. He's taken some simple liberties with Robin and Aquaman (yes, Aquaman), making their hair longer. Robin also looks a little older than we're used to, and Aquaman a little younger. But the dynamics with both of them are great. Robin looking pissed and ready to pounce on an enemy in the opening pages of the book is particularly well rendered, and the revelation of Aquaman showing up is a pretty cool moment. We also get to see a fair share of Bruce Wayne in a bathing suit, and I both love and hate this version of it. I love it because while Bruce's face is the well kept playboy-esque one we all know, the rest of his body is scarred to hell. I also hate it for this reason too, because the scarring is so distracting. That may be the point of it, but it seems like the lines on them could be a little softer at distances. The scars seem much finer when up close, but because most of them are represented by lines, they get a lot bigger at distances which tends to be strange.
The imagery isn't lost on me, though! I like the thought behind it. Batman would take great care of the face he needs to do the work of Bruce Wayne, and wouldn't care about maintaining the scars below his neckline. It's pretty cool, when you think about it. Overall, I was hoping this would be a little harder edged going into the halfway point, but I'm sure Mr. Smith has something up his sleeve. After all, not only is his sense of humor relatively dark, but his serious storytelling tends to lean that way as well.
We'll see how it goes.
